ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR By Bill Savage [email protected] © 2015 ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR Synopsis ACT I In Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1939, Walter Dudek, a young coal truck driver from the poor immigrant town of South Patch, south of the city, enters a lunchroom to persuade his friend Charlie Kollar to accompany him, his girlfriend, and two of his sisters to the World’s Fair in New York. Later that day, Walter talks to his sister Emma and her alcoholic boyfriend, Harry Konopki. Unbeknownst to Walter, Emma and Harry are not going to the fair; they plan to elope to Niagara Falls to escape the poverty of South Patch. After Walter leaves, Emma tells Harry about the guilt she has felt over the years as a result of a promise she made to her mother, a promise she now has to break to get out. Later, Sophie and Dottie Dudek, Emma’s two sisters, are joined by Emma, who informs Sophie she won’t be going to the fair, and asks Sophie why she seems to want to be the family’s black sheep. Emma tells Dottie about her plans to elope. ACT II At the train station in Scranton, Harry and Emma inform everybody of their plans, and then head for the train to Niagara Falls. On the train to New York, once the dust settles, Dottie and Charlie meet and she tells him about her dreams and her life in South Patch. After an Entr’acte signifying their day at the fair, the group of four (including Walter’s girlfriend, Martha) talk about the fair. The men retreat to the club car to express their fears about the gloomy world situation. Dottie, in a dream sequence, talks with Emma about what the future holds for the family, and how Dottie will fulfill Emma’s promise. ACT III In 1964, a crippled Walter Dudek lives in a VA hospital, having lost his legs on D-Day. Emma, now a widow, visits him and tells him about what drove her to leave in 1939, and about her promise. Later, Dottie visits Sophie, now herself virtually a cripple and living alone in a small South Patch apartment. She finally gets Sophie to disclose the reason why she has been such a nasty woman all her life, and comes to understand that Sophie too was a victim of the previous generation’s actions. After an Entr’acte signifying the 1964 World’s Fair, Emma and Dottie end a day at the fair, where each discloses to the other the secret she knows about the family – Emma’s promise, and Sophie’s revelation to Dottie. They talk about visiting the next World’s Fair in New York 25 years later. An off-screen coda states there never was another fair in New York in the 20th century. ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR CHARACTER DESCRIPTION LIST Walter Dudek male spoken 24/49 lead Charlie Kollar male spoken 23 supporting Emma Dudek female spoken 30/55 lead Dottie Dudek female spoken 21/46 supporting Sophie Dudek female spoken 28/53 lead Harry Konopki male spoken 30 supporting Martha Urbanski female spoken 24 supporting A nurse female spoken 25 supporting A conductor male walk-on 30 supporting ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR SETTINGS ACT 1 Scene 1: A lunchroom in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a Wednesday summer morning, 1939. Scene 2: The back porch of the Dudek home in South Patch, a poor town south of Scranton. That afternoon. Scene 3: The same porch. That evening. ACT II Scene 1: The railroad station in Scranton, that Saturday morning. Scene 2: A passenger car en route to New York, moments later. Scene 3: A passenger car leaving New York, that evening. Scene 4: The club car of the same train. Scene 5: The passenger car. ACT III Scene 1: A VA Hospital in Scranton, a Wednesday summer morning, 1964. Scene 2: Sophie Dudek's apartment, South Patch, that evening. Scene 3: Outside the 1964 New York World's Fair, that Saturday evening I-1 Page 1 ACT I Scene 1: A lunchroom, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1939. (Lights up, late on a Wednesday morning in the summer of 1939. Charlie Kollar, the counter man, is cleaning up from a previous customer when Walter Dudek, an athletic-looking coal truck driver and a friend of his, enters.) CHARLIE (Looking up) Well, well, if it ain’t my old pal Dudek. Long time no see, there, bud! WALTER (Sitting down at the counter) Aww, c'mon … it ain’t been that long, Charlie! CHARLIE I guess it ain’t … so anyway, what brings you into town, big fella? (They both laugh. Charlie pours him a coffee.) WALTER Aww … ya know. Couple different things. They had me out in the boonies make deliveries there for a while, but now they got me back in the city, so I figured I'd stop by and see my old pal Charlie! CHARLIE Must be nice to get back into town again. WALTER You shred it, wheat! (They both laugh) CHARLIE So how's the family, Walter? WALTER (Waves his hand dismissively) The folks? Aww, they never get outta South Patch. Hell, the old lady barely ever leaves her room. And the old man, well, he’s always gripin’ about something or other … mine owners, unions, all that crap. Can’t blame him, though. I mean, I think if my insides was all busted up like his, I’d be grouchy, too. CHARLIE Yeah, he's one of them fellas that got busted up in the mines, ain’t he? WALTER Yeah, he’s all ruptured and can’t barely walk. Been that way a couple a years now. Went to work one day, got himself hurt and … well, they pulled up with a horse and wagon, dumped him on the porch, and said they needed me to go to the mine the next morning to take his place. ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR I-1 Page 2 CHARLIE And that's how you got on the coal truck? WALTER Well, I was in the mines for a while when it turned out one of the fellas I played ball with in South Patch had an uncle who was drivin’ a coal truck at the time, and he heard I wanted to get outta the mines, so he went and told the supervisor he needed a helper. Thank God for that. CHARLIE Yeah, that mine work is rough, ain't it. But anyways, did you come in here to tell me your life story, or are you gonna order something? (Walter fakes taking a swing at him and laughs.) WALTER A real wisenheimer, you are, Kollar … All right, let’s see. How about a grilled cheese … little tomato inside … slip a little bacon in there, too? CHARLIE Okay. WALTER And tell ya what … how about you burn the edges a little? CHARLIE Sure thing, boss. (Charlie turns to yell the order.) Hey Chet, gimme a GC, tomato and bacon, burn the edges! (He turns back toward Walter.) Let’s hope he gets it right. You know Chet, dontcha? WALTER Yeah … I know Chet. CHARLIE Yeah, so you know how Chet is … you gotta tell him things a couple of times before he gets it right! (They both laugh.) CHARLIE So anyway, Walter, what else brings you in? Besides Chet’s cookin’, that is. WALTER Well, ya know what, Charlie, it's funny, 'cause I was meanin' to ask you somethin'. CHARLIE Oh yeah? WALTER Yeah! Ya know, Charlie, I got this gal named Martha – ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR I-1 Page 3 CHARLIE (Chuckles and nods) Oh yeah, I know about Martha. WALTER What’s that supposed to mean? CHARLIE Well, jeepers, Walter, everybody who’s been to a dance at the Town Hall has seen Martha. She’s only the best-lookin’ doll for about twenty miles around! WALTER Well, yeah, she is … and youse all better remember whose gal she is, too! CHARLIE Yeah, I know – WALTER Anyways … Martha, bein' a city girl here, she's … well, she’s a little restless, ya know? She thinks she’s gonna be a big movie star some day and the other day, she pulls out a copy of Life magazine, and she shows me some pictures of that World’s Fair they got goin’ in New York City … you been hearin' about that, Charlie? CHARLIE Well, sure, who ain’t heard about the World’s Fair? WALTER Yeah, well, Martha sure has! And she got it into her head that she wants to go see it. CHARLIE Uh-oh! That’s gonna cost somebody some cabbage! WALTER Yeah, that’s what I thought at first. But it really ain’t that bad, actually. I been able to sock some cabbage away after I hand some of it over to the folks, and I got more than enough to take the train to New York for the fair. CHARLIE That’s cause you ain’t a lunchroom counter man! WALTER Yeah, and I ain’t plannin’ on becomin’ one, either. But gettin’ back to what I was sayin’, Martha has been buggin’ me to go to the World’s Fair for a couple of weeks now. But there’s been kind of a bug in the ointment with that. CHARLIE What’s that? (Charlie puts the sandwich on the counter. Walter looks at it, looks around Charlie toward the back, and doesn’t eat it just yet.) ON OUR WAY TO THE FAIR I-1 Page 4 WALTER Well, ya gotta understand my point of view here, Charlie.