Play I Wrote For English Class, page 1

I had to write the first act of a short play for my English class, and I found mine to be pretty interesting.

ACT 1: Heather’s House

SCENE 1

NARRATOR: On our world, scripture and legends speak of the coming of the Banished Ones, our ancestors who were wrongfully banished from their world and sent to live in the chaos of Pylernius, the one in infinity world that existed in hyperspace, where matter, time, and forces don’t cooperate enough to have anything make sense. Their banished did not know where they would be sent. They arrived on our world, and set up their own tribes, three in all. Within less than a century, these tribes became one developed nation, creating technology based on the old texts they brought with them on the Great Crossing. They had volumes of science, math, literature, history, fine arts, architecture, and scripture. Using the old scripture and their own knowledge and beliefs, they formed a new religion, with one God, enlightenment, reincarnations, and a messiah, all based on their old beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and others. They built political buildings, libraries, schools, markets, and temples. They entered a time of enlightenment, when the Great Prophets expanded their old scripture exponentially. The old scripture told of the End Times on the Homeworld, but didn’t cover ours, and that’s where the prophets filled in. They told of how we were chosen by God to live here, the creation of our world, and that God’s judgment will end the world when we stop believing in him. Of these prophets, the greatest of all was Heather of Cynoria, a prophet born in the year 103 AC, one hundred and three years after the Crossing. By age thirteen, she realized the strange things she saw and heard ever since she was a child were visions from God, and ran away from her home to live alone in the desert province of Cynoria. In the Cynorian village of Betgarn she lived near, she had already been referred to as “the Seer,” and was given what she needed by her disciples there. It was Heather who made the greatest lost prophecy of all…

[The backdrop is a dull gray color with a short mountain range on the right. On center stage is a low brown brick house with a short tile roof. The side of the house facing the crowd only has a wooden door, the left and right sides have one window each, and the back should be open. The house should be able to rotate around with a motor to show actions on the inside. To the left of the house is a leafless tree with an unusually large pocket watch melted over it. On the inside of the house is one room containing a bed, desk, potbelly stove, washbasin, cupboard, and phone on the wall. The floor is a brown hardwood, and the walls are a cream colored plaster. Outside leaned against the building is a bicycle. There can be rocks scattered around the outside of the house, and the ground should be green sand.]

SCENE 2

[Lights brighten.]

[Heather is standing on the wall to the right of the door on the inside. Her long brown hair falls towards the opposite wall. She is wearing baggy green cargo pants, a black long sleeve shirt, and a gray trench coat, which should all fall towards the ground. She has an attractive face and a slim figure. She is about fourteen years old. She stands there thinking for about twenty seconds.]

HEATHER: [Alarmed] Not agai –

[Heather drops into her bed below her and begins shaking and convulsing violently, only to stop about a minute later.]

[Lights dim.]

SCENE 3

[Lights brighten.]

[Heather is lying in her bed under her blanket, and her caretaker Joan is kneeling beside the bed holding a damp cloth on Heather’s forehead. Joan is a twenty-eight nun who is wearing a black robe. She has dark tan skin and shoulder-length curly black hair. She has a thin face and an average figure.]

[Heather wakes up.]

JOAN: Miss, I am sorry that I wasn’t here when your visions began, please forgive me, I was at the market getting food.

HEATHER: It’s fine, you had good reason to not be here. I was out of food, so it was natural that you needed to get some. [Sits up.]

JOAN: Miss, I implore you to stay in bed and regain your strength. You have a bruise on your elbow from bumping the wall during the vision. I called and told Father George to come out and interpret your vision tonight.

HEATHER: [Jumps out of bed.] Tonight? I feel great! In fact, I feel good enough to ride into town and tell him right now. Tell him I’m on my way! [Runs out the door, mounts bike, and rides offstage.]

JOAN: [Chasing after Heather, stops at the doorway.] Come back! Come – never mind. Just be careful! [Waves to Heather, then walks back in and picks up phone.] Hello…may I speak to Father George…thank you, I’ll wait…hello Father George, its Sister Joan, how are you…I’m fine, but I’m calling about Heather…no, she’s fine…she’s eager for you to interpret the vision, so she’s riding her bike to the temple now…you’re no busy, that’s good…yes thank you…goodbye.

[Lights dim.]