ALL THINGS BROADWAY Conflict Duet Scene
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ALL THINGS BROADWAY Conflict Duet Scene Book by Celeste Chan Wolfe Music by Orlando Byron Lyrics by Jackie Brenneman [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ii CAST: BOBBY (30s, female) -- Jackie Brenneman ANDY (30s, male) -- Orlando Byron TIME: Current Day PLACE: Somewhere in America iii DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS Who are the main characters? Bobby and Andy. What do they want? For the things, moments, and their relationship to have meaning. To have everything about their life mean something. What stops them from getting it? The way in which they interpret what gives them meaning. For Gabby, she wants the memories the keepsakes bring back to her. For Peter, he doesn't want the sadness that comes with losing the things, so he'd rather just have the moments over the things. But in the end, Gabby brings Peter around to getting another thing, because Peter sees how a keepsake brings back memories. He sees how this creates another moment for them, thus bringing further meaning into their lives. I-1-1. ACT ONE Scene One BOBBY (30s, female) is on the computer, shopping. ANDY (30s, male) is watching a TV show, GAME OF THRONES on HBO. BOBBY Hey babe, look at this. ANDY I'm right at the scene where Jon Snow is getting stabbed by the Night's Watch. Can you just tell me what it is? BOBBY What's on my screen is going to make you more happy than what's on yours. ANDY Um-hm. BOBBY It's the First Edition of Sondheim's "Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics." I think I'm going to order it. ANDY Remember when we heard "We Do Not Belong Together," how we cried? We have too much stuff. BOBBY It's twenty percent off and signed by Sondheim! ANDY Bobby, that's not fair. BOBBY You have to at least look at it. Sondheim drew a clef of music! ANDY We don't need it. Let's not forget what happened to the signed playbill from the original cast of "Gypsy" that Stephen Mear, the choreographer, gave us backstage at the final London revival performance in 2008. Remember the fire? BOBBY Where it was cataclysmically destroyed. It wasn't my fault I forgot to turn the burner off. ANDY What about that Wedgewood "Hello Dolly" Edition Teapot with Cups and Plates? I-1-2. BOBBY You can't blame me for earthquakes in California. How was I supposed to know I could have used museum putty to save them? I don't regret having those things even though they were destroyed. Could you imagine if we'd never had the "Gypsy" Playbill or the "Hello Dolly" Teapot Set at all? We'd be hollow, empty, lack adventure, and end up two vacant shells in a world of cosmic emptiness. ANDY That is precisely the difference between you and I. I don't need the playbill or the teapot. I just want the moments, like the joy on your face when you found that "Hello Dolly" Teapot and brought the set out for our guests. How happy that made you. And the time when we figured out how to make the acrylic display box with the "Gypsy" playbill hang correctly on the wall. You were so proud. The world is built on all these small moments. Material stuff is temporal and fragile. The only thing that matters is how these things made us feel and the experience that came with them. BOBBY Yeah, but having the things bring back the experience, right? ANDY If I can make your face happy without the First Edition of "Finishing The Hat," signed by Sondheim with a clef of music, then I can spare us both the inevitable sadness that will come with the inevitability of its destruction. BOBBY Did you just say you'll get me "Finishing the Hat"? We hear on TV: JON SNOW (V.O) Ollie. OLLI (V.O) For the watch. ANDY Ooh, that was brutal. (then to Bobby) I don't need fragile things to remind me of the cosmic joke that everything ends in death, decay, and disappearance. In the end, I just want it all to mean something. For all of this -- us -- to mean something. BOBBY You mean everything to me. ANDY All right, go ahead and order "Finishing the Hat." I-1-3. BOBBY I already did. Andy goes back to watching TV. BOBBY Hey, they also have Elaine Stritch's Red Hat from Sondheim's 75th Birthday Concert. ANDY I remember that hat. And Krusty the Clown warbling that screwy version of Send In The Clowns. That was worth remembering. What a fun night. BOBBY It was the night you said you finally believed in something greater about humans with their interminable self-centeredness, destroying the earth with indifference to others and our world. That night you said that concert made people care. Andy looks at Bobby and her desire for the Red Hat. He walks over to her and her computer. Andy looks at the screen. Bobby takes his hand, pulling her close to him. An affectionate side hug. ANDY How much is it?.