Play: “Wile Away Hogwash”
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Plays
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): Unknown (Before 2008)
A short play
named
Wile Away Hogwash
Written by
Scott Jacobsen
(+)=up in modulation,(-)=down modulation, [ ]=actions,{ }=scene setting,
___=strong projection,<>=stronger projection.
Props: Park Bench, Kitchen table.
(Scene 1)
[{Enter with music (Urban spaceman) in Park setting at SL}
-Young Woman sits on far right of bench writing script as music enters in.
-Old Man with book/or briefcase enters SL in Mid-intro music.
-End music at 37 seconds in.
-Young Woman scribbles out what she wrote and Old Man looks over.
-Young Woman begins writing again only to scribble the words out in Frustration
-Old Man looks over and startles the Young Woman]
Young Woman: “[surprised] What do you want?”
Old Man: “Just viewing the jyst of your, not so jovial jumble”
Young Woman: “ You really interested in my ranting”
Old Man: “I would not wonder if I ignored asking what”
[Young Woman smirks]
Young Woman: “Attempting to write a script(+,gradually) but troubles with starting(-)”
Old Man: “What did you write?”
[Woman looks upon paper then to Old Man, and sighs]
Young Woman: “Quality ideas quit me indefinitely”
Old Man: “You know(+), I could suggest a story, to set your art at a start”
Young Woman: “Tell the tale(+)”
[Fade off SL light]
(Scene 2)
[{Fade light on SR, into a setting of a Kitchen with a Father and Son}
-Father and Son eating.
Father pauses and looks at son distraughtly, as son continues eating}]
Father: “ I feel as irate as you,
Over our lives getting thrown askew,
[short pause]
But we may still get through(-).”
Son: “You act as though| you did not know(-)| what you wrought(-),
Leaving her, when her worry would not(-), money became what you sought,
For her life to get better(-), now the table turns, as it becomes for naught.
[quieter] Please peer into my eyes and sway my thoughts another way,
So I may| keep them from their everyday disarray(-,gradually).”
Father: “I tried| to subside| my pride(-),
For you two I could then provide(+),
Yet not foreseeing| the coming tide(-),
Slowly our ways did slide, and divide,
Our love then knew not where to reside(-).
[Father pauses, sighs and sits by son]
Could you care to see things by my side?”
Son: “Dad don’t dare deal on her downfall,
Upon us both for blame to spread.
You never came for her call.
And your heartless nature I place my dread,
Which seems to me to lead her to the dead.”
Father: “While we wear evermore over who,
Our emphasis ought employ over why.
If we trifle over such things we tend to have no clue.
Then you and I [point, son then you]| seem blind as to why| she chose to <die>.”
[Son pauses, looks father in the eyes and leaves.
-Fade off SR light]
(Scene 3)
[Fade on SL light, Old Young Woman same setting and position]
Young Woman: “Wait, why so sad a start(-)?”
Old Man: “ The best part usually begins at the end
Personally(+), appears as a sort of trend(-, gradually).”
Young Woman: “So you promise a happy part(+)?”
Old Man: “[Jokingly]Depends upon how many times
You tell me to stop telling my tale of rhymes”
Young Woman: “[Friendly laugh] Alright, alright(+)
But how do you continue(+,gradually)from a fight?”
[Old Man pauses]
Old Man: “Lust for that fable seems lost,
Cause, I let| you get| my rhythm tossed.
So setting the story in another time(+)
I will keep those already told
And from the old| renew the mold
Maybe ending in something sublime(+).”
Young Woman: “[Frantic]
Don’t dictate discord in my hectic(+),
[lean more towards pleading]
Do deliver a decisive dialectic.”
Old Man: “[kindly] Okay, okay
Only because you begged on a good day.
[closes his book or briefcase]
Between these brash two
The son left the father to start anew.
The father did not know what to do.
The years went by,
The son began asking why,
He never let that anger die.
The fathers fitness faded(-,gradually),
As he justly felt jaded.
His wounds| he wished| were mended.
Which frequented through and through,
He heralded thoughts long due(+),
Of restoring the life their family knew.
In months to follow the father received a call his way(-).
Speaking to his son(+), who sought sanctuary someday,
Beseeching Betwixt a bounding bond of begat and boy,
Beyond bitter jabs and joining in joy(+).”
[Young Woman finishes writing what he said.]
Young Woman: “[write through, make mark on ‘go‘]…good geared for another go…”
[Old man flicks arm up to reveal watch, for himself to look at]
Old Man: “Ma’am… I must vacate shortly…
[Old Man pauses mid getting up, Young woman touches his arm, begins sitting again]
…yet, If you rely| on my supply| of courtly allegory.
Then the saga can close(-,gradually),
With some carefully calculated prose(-,gradually).”
[Black out for 5 seconds]
(Scene 4)
[{Fade lights on SL at bench}
-Father at same bench
-Father paces back and forth at bench.
-Looks at his watch, tries to calm himself and sits on far right of bench.
-Father tries to find the proper sitting position, yet can’t.
-Finds perfect position(same as Old Man at intro).
-Son enters from SL slowly, they pause and gaze at one another.]
-Father presents SL side of bench with his left hand, son takes time sitting.
-Father and son look straight ahead, son can’t find a comfortable seating position.
-Son looks at and gets into same position as father.
-Father and son look straight ahead]
Father: “ahem”
[Father almost begins talking but son cuts into first sentence]
Son: “So no sound still endures our plight,
Although coming here expecting it might(-,gradually).”
[Pause]
Father: “[astonished] Five years… five years
[sad] Since you first shed tears
Over your mother…[looks away ashamed] my dear(-).”
Son: “To talk of such a tentative time,
Does not constitute any crime,
Shall we then not act like mimes.”
[pause]
Father: “Well… you sure wriggle to the worry…”
[pause]
Son: “Yes… yet, we need not make our memorial a waste,
The plane leaves this place soon, so let us talk with haste.”
Father: “Then may I ask upon my shame(-),
Why you rooted blame(-)| solely on my name?”
Son: “In youth,
I tried for truth.
But impulsive ignorance implied my naïve nature,
Gathering ideas to settle your guilt for me feeling so sure.
Guesses of obscurity| got grasped through my period of immaturity(-,gradually).
You were the intent| for wrath and torment,
I do resent| the descent| and sit here [present seat] on behalf of a need to repent.
We may seem uncouth| but I won’t endure| any more lament| till we reach purity.”
Father: “In our pain, out of frustration,
I apologize| for exercise| of unwise| instruction,
When the main concentration(-)| required manifestation| of consolation(+).
Alas, our last conversation| ended in a realization of trepidation(-,gradually).
Son: “Do you ever often wonder where it instigated?”
[Pause]
Father: “Son(-)… our spark slowed sourly(-),
Even prior to perpetual enmity.”
Son: “Why would you then wait(+) and allow it to get worse?(-,gradually).”
Father: “I lost love and lust for your mother,
As our lives let little of either in.
I went to work out of town to see if I would miss her,
[Son doesn’t look convinced]
[Explaining] To see| if we still had passion enough to miss each other,
But the relationship took a spin| where none of us could win(-,gradually),
Ever after that moment we could not come to concur(-,gradually).”
[Son looks at father with sorrow]
Son: “Both of you misplaced your aims of affection…”
Father: “…and that transferred beyond resurrection.
Where she had sensed tenderness(+,gradually), soon felt anguish(-,gradually)…”
Son: “…To rid herself of the worry(-), she made a wish(-),
To end her life in one swish.
Mother had nothing more to show or bestow…”
Father: “…and now we can know,
on her own, she chose to wobble away her woe by swinging to fro(-,gradually)…”
[Father and Son get up]
Son: “…Yet, my mother…[son smiles] your dear, expected past this, we could grow(+).”
[Father and Son hug]
[Black out for 5 seconds]
(Scene 5)
[{Fade SL light on, same bench Old Man and Young Woman}
-Old Man closes book or briefcase.]
Old Man: “Now no need for the nuisance of forming a fable,
Unless you use untapped potential.”
[Young Woman finishes writing]
Young Woman: “So that settles the seriousness.
I do appreciate your dose of authenticity,
Especially in my distress,
You demonstrated such fine finesse,
Without even a moment of digress.
I did expect a story of simplicity,
But I now possess a success(+)[Young Woman lifts and shows binder].”
Old Man: “Before I Depart, as to| why I helped you|, let me construe.
A Young Woman like yourself seemed like a sweet reminder of someone I knew.”
[Old Man and Young Woman get one last look in each other’s eyes and man walks away.
-As Old Man walks off Young Woman speaks]
Young woman: “Hail to your father for me a Hello(+)”
[-Begin ending 52 seconds of Urban Spaceman
-Young Woman still writes and looks up at audience at the last line of song
-’Here comes the twist, I don’t exist‘
-On ‘Exist’ Black out]
{[End]}
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