Stagnation,

her life is stale.

Foul from not moving.  

She’s killed her desire,

named it an irrational appetite.

Marked by dull uniformity

her days are full of

wearisome constancy.

She exists in a world

she us not aware of.

Her volatile spirit

is covered with a thick

blanket of ordinary

and she no longer strives

to kick free of the covers.

She’s reached the end of

the road without realizing.

Or without caring.

And it only takes

one more step.

Forward or back.

sometimes i write
for no purpose
but to write
and the night runs long
when i dont sleep

sometimes i write
claustrophobic
thoughts out of my head
so that i can give
calm a chance

sometimes i write
but sometimes
the writing writes me
or, the fingers
detach from

the restless brain.

sometimes i night-write
the dense dark
shaping letters
into words

hints of black night
on a page that is white

sometimes i write

Today i became aware
 of just how awful it is
 to shower alone after sex.
 The ticking of the clock
 pulled me out of bed,
 where our body heat and friction
 had warmed the sheets
 to the perfect nesting temperature.
 I stood naked, contently unclean
 in front of the mirror
 with nothing to do
 but wait for the water to warm.
 Then a thought of you back in bed,
 where the cat has taken my place
 laying in the curve between your
stomach and your knees;
 two balls of warmth
 breathing that slow, thick sleep breath.
 Slipping into the shower
 was the quickest, cruelest way
 for my body to forget
 how yours felt.

Audience Interaction

On the stage is a table with a brightly colored box on it. On the floor in front of the table is a shape on the floor with a blanket draped over it, covering whatever is underneath. Enter ROUND RONNY a very large, brooding man dressed up in some sort of sparkly, colorful costume, reminicent of RAINBOW RANDY from DEATH TO SMOOCHY. RONNY walks to the center of the stage as the opening tune of a children's show plays.

RONNY: Hello boys and girls! Welcome back to Fun Land, I hope your all ready to have a golly good darn time today!!!!!

(5-8 actors should be placed within the audience to acts as the audience motivators.)

MOTIVATORS: Yeah! Round Ronny we love you! Lets have a good time! Yay! Yeah! Yay!

RONNY: Hey kids, we're going to play a game! You like games don't ya kids?

MOTIVATORS: Ya! GAMES! Ya! Yes! Sweet a game! Yay!

RONNY: But like with all games, this game has a rule... This game's rule is that every time I ask you a question I want you to answer with YES! In Fun Land we ALWAYS answer YES because no one gets told NO in Fun Land!!!! And there is something else children...

MOTIVTORS: Shh! Shhh! He said there's something else. Quiet! Listen! You listen! Shhhh!

RONNY: This game has.... A PRIZE!!!! (RONNY pulls a handful of candy out of his pocket.) CANDY!!!!! (RONNY throws some candy into the crowd.)

MOTIVATORS: Sweet! Candy! Aww I want some! I love candy!

RONNY: Let's practise ok kids?

MOTIVATORS: YES!

RONNY: hahaha catching on already! Very good kids! Very good! (Ronny reaches into the brightly colored box on the table and pulls three apples.) Now kids... would you like to see me try and juggle theses apples?

MOTIVATORS: YES!

RONNY: Very good, very good. (He throws handfuls of candy to the audience.) Now for the juggling... (He attempts to juggle but fails and the apples fall. The motivators in the audience laugh wildly like children would.) Aw are you guys laughing at me?

MOTIVATOTS: YESS! Hahahaha! Aha ha ha! Heheha ha ha ha!

RONNY: Did you think that was funny?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!! (RONNY throws handful after handful of candy into the audience. RONNY reaches into the box again and pulls out a skateboard.)

RONNY: Would you like to see me try and ride this kids?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!!!

RONNY: GOOD! (He throws candy into the audience and then tries to get on the board. He falls and the motivators break into hysterical laughter again.) Did you think that was funny kids?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!!

RONNY: Hahaha! Good! (He throws more candy.) Would you like to see what is underneath this blanket kids?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!! YESS!!!! (Hopefully by now members of the actual audience have joined into the “game.” Ronny lifts up the blanket in one quick snatch and revealed to be laying underneath is a young woman. Badly beaten and tied and gagged.)

RONNY: Do you know what a “bad girl” is children?

MOTIVATORS: Yes. Ya. Yes.

RONNY: Well, this woman is a “bad girl” a very, “naughty girl.” And she deserves to be punished doesn't she children? (RONNY is different. He paces around the girl in a circle, he looks down at her with a frightening snarl on his face, like a pitbull ready to cause damage.)

MOTIVATORS: YES! (RONNY picks up the woman roughly by one arm. She is weak and cannot stand on her own. She is dirty and beaten and wearing harldy nothing. RONNY holds her up for one moment and then lets her fall roughly to the ground. The motivators laugh like they did when RONNY dropped the apples.)

RONNY: Haha did you find that funny kids?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!!

RONNY: Very good, very good! (He throws candy from his pockets garder and harder) Would you like to see something even funnier kids?

MOTIVATORS: YESS! (The answers from the motivators should become more and more agitated, more and more savage. Think group mentality and mob attitude. Ronny pics up the woman and goes to let her sit in a chair and then at the last moment takes the chair out from under her, letting her fall to the floor. Once again the motivators roar with laughter.)

RONNY: Yes, yes thats so funny isn't it children?

MOTIVATORS: YES!!! Hahahah! YES!!!

RONNY: Yes it's so very funny! Hahahaha! How about this? Is this funny? (RONNY kicks the woman as hard as he can while she's on the floor.)

MOTIVATORS: YES!!! Hahahaha! (The responses from the motivators should be bordering on savage)

RONNY: YA? And what about this kids? Isn't this so very funny? (RONNY climbs ontop of the woman and rips her top open. He hits her several times in the face.)

MOTIVATORS: YES!!! Haaa! YESS! (Ronny pulls candy out of his pockets and thows it into the air and at the audience.) Yess! Yes! Yesss!

RONNY: YESS!!! YES! YES! This is so funny isn't it? (He wraps his hands around her throat and begins to choke the life out of her. She struggles and he keeps strangling) I should keep going shouldn't I children?

MOTIVATORS: Yes!

RONNY: She deserves this right kids?

MOTIVATORS: Yes!

RONNY: YES! YES

MOTIVATORS: YES! YES!

The motivators and RONNY continue to scream YES lound and savagly until the woman stops struggling. Clearly dead.

RONNY: Well kids, thats the end of our show for today, but remember I LOVE YOU!

RONNY walks off stage as the children's show closing tune plays. Blackout and the motivators leave the audience humming the tune.

BITTER

Enter YOUNG HELENA and MAN closely followed by OLD HELENA. MAN dressed in slacks and dress shirt storms across the stage. YOUNG HELENA is dresses in a flowered robe, OLD HELENA is dressed in the same. She carries a scotch on the rocks and a cigarette. Nither YOUNG HELENE nor MAN seem to see OLD HELENA. MAN and YOUNG HELENA perform a type of styalized dance like sequence of movement while OLD HELENA delivers the following.

OLD HELENA:
Isn't it funny? This releationship began with you blocking his advances... and now it's ending with you blocking his retriete. He swore it was love at first sight. Swore that you were the one. He loved you for you. But you.... Oh, you... you loved him for what he PROMISED to be. You loved him fro what you thought you culd shape him into. You loved him for the man that you thought he would eventually be... and when he turned out differently than you thought he would. What did you do then? What did you do Helena? You turned your back on him.
(OLD HELENA continues to drink from her drink and gets all the more bitter and excited.)
You thought the little text raps he sent you were pathetic. You thought the emotions he shared with you late at night when both your heads were on the pillow... you thought the emotions made him weak. You turned your back on him and now your surprised that he's turning his back on you. Well I've got news for you Helena, husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended.
(At this point YOUNG HELENA is at MAN'S feet.)
YOU DID THIS HELENA! YOU were too selfish to see anything but all the ways he had let you down. He doesn't love you anymore Helena! LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO!
(YOUNG HELENE has ahold of MAN'S ankles like a small child would hold on to the ankles of an adult while they try to walk. As MAN walks off the stage YOUNG HELENA moves her body along the floor, holding on to his ankles the entire exit.)
Figures.
(OLD HELENA exits)

CLICHE

THE FOLLOWING IS A SCENE ABOUT LOVE. YOUNG LOVE. INNOCENT LOVE. PURE LOVE. NON-EXISTANT LOVE?

Lights up on MAN sitting downstage right on the floor with his legs out in front of him, and WOMAN sitting a few feet to his left in the same sitting position. They both look at their lap. Almost like limp dolls.She wears pink, he blue. They gice off an aura of love and innocence. The lighting should be sunny but soft.

As he says these words man looks up and then over at woman. Very in love.

MAN: “He is half of a blessed man left to be finished by such as she;

In this one look he communicates all of his affection for her with a child like bravery.

As she says these words woman looks up at him. Very in love as well.

WOMAN: and she a fair divided excellence, whose fullness of perfection lies in him.”

MAN: Shakespeare said that ya know.

WOMAN: Really?

MAN: Ya.

They stare at eachother for a moment and then giggle and look down. Bashful smiles, red cheeks, the works. Give them their moment before the lights fade to black.

MASH UP

THE FOLLOWING IS A MASH UP OF THE PLAYS CRAVE, AND ATTEPMTS ON HER LIFE. I ALSO ADDED IN A FEW LINES FROM ONE OF MY FAVORITE POEMS. THE WHOLE IDEA IS TO TAKE THE TWO PLAYS AND CUT THEM UP AND MIX THEM AROUND AND ADD IN FOUND MATERIALS UNTIL A TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY IS TOLD.... LET ME KNOW HOW IT COMMUNICATES:

Three girls enter. They stand side by side, very close, in a straight row. First is the red head. She is strong, and serious. In the center is the blonde. She has bandages on her wrists and mascara under her eyes. Last is the brunnette. She holds her stomach and cannot sit still. The blonde takes one step forward, seperating herself from the other two.The lines should be delivered as a conversation between the two girls not in the center with sporadic interuptions by the “victim” who is the girl in the center.

B: It's a happy smile, it's a genuine enough smile.

C: I was not waving but drowing.

S: She enjoys hosting these holidays because she enjoy's meeting people.

B: She will introduce you to your fellow guests and ensure that everyone has a memerable time.

C: I feel like a screen. I have a black side I know, I have a side so green you'll never know.

S:She gives lots of big hugs to the holiday makers at the train station when it is time to go home.

C: I was way too far out and not waving but drowning. She offers up her bandaged wrists.

The blonde steps back and the redhead steps forward center and screams loudly.

C: She screams.

B: She breaks down and scratches her cheeks like something from an ancient tragedy.

S: You mother-fucking shit-faced murderers, she says. You pig-fucking cock-sucking bastards. You sister-fucking blaspheming child-murderering mindless fuck-faced killers. I spit on your graves and on the graves of your mother.

B: She's angry.

C: She's very angry.

B: She doesn't seem to care, she has no conscious.

S: I do not recognize your authority.

C: What does she mean by that?

B: Who does she think she is?

S: I feel nothing, nothing. I feel nothing.

The redhead steps back and the brunette steps forward center.

C: Form Follows funtions, this whole tragedy of love,

S: this whole tragedy of ideology and love.

C: She stubbs out the cigarrete.

B: I keep telling people I'm pregnant. They say how did you do it? What are you taking?

S: She begins to shout.

C: She beats him with her fists, she begins to bite him with her teeth.

B: I tell them I fucked a stranger.

S: She begins to kick him with her bare, white feet.

C: She beats and beats and beats...

B: They ask me how I did it.

S: And now devistation, the harmony of generations has been destroyed.

C: Brother has raped sister.

S: Brother has raped- yes- sister.

B: I tell them I fucked a stranger.

C: And now the dogs are picking over the remins.

Brunnette steps back and once again all three girls stand side by side.

S:This is why we sympathize.

C:Of course we sympathize.

B:And not just sympathize, we empathize.

S:Empathize because...

B:because...

C:It's a universal thing in which we recognize,

S:we starngly recognize ourselves.

B:Our own world,

C: our own pain.

S: Our own anger.

B:A universal thing which...

S:what...

C:what?

B:Which strangely restores...

C:which strangely restores,

S:I think it does,

C: yes,

B: which strangely restores

ALL: our faith in ourselves.