31 Plays in 31 Days: #23 - "Lie Down and Die"

This piece attaches to the very first one I wrote for my 31 Plays 31 Days challenge, which comes from an idea for a play about a model who must cope with rebuilding her life and identity after being horrendously disfigured in an assault. This section has a psychiatrist tell her she still has a life ahead of her and insist that she get busy living, or get busy dying.

Incidentally, I submitted piece #1, Pretty is Power, for a "one page play" call. You may be amused to know that the theme was "Heroine." That section alone is a bit horrific out of context, and perhaps even a bit disgusting when you think of it as relating to theme of "Heroine," but I kind of like the awful turnabout of it. I think deep down I am a creep.

Day #23 - "Lie Down and Die"

(Former supermodel CHRISTINA MORAY lies around on a chaise in a bathrobe. Her face is completely covered by bandages and a mask.)

(A professional middle-aged woman, DR. MAUREEN BELL, enters at a respectful distance.)

DR. BELL: Miss Moray?

(CHRISTINA sits up and spins to face away from her.)

CHRISTINA: Who’s there?

DR. BELL: Dr. Maureen Bell. Your assistant let me in.

CHRISTINA: Who the hell are you?

DR. BELL: I’m the psychiatrist your primary care providers referred you to. You were supposed to call me, but you never did.

(CHRISTINA stands and moves off.)

CHRISTINA: So you just barge in here?

DR. BELL: Dr. Gorman was concerned about your mental state, so when I didn’t hear from you I thought it might be prudent to check in in person.

CHRISTINA: Ah, because I’ve become a crazy shut-in.

DR. BELL: It is a fairly significant behavioral change.

CHRISTINA: Oh, yeah, huge red flag!

DR. BELL: Of course, it’s understandable. You have suffered an enormous trauma.

CHRISTINA: Ha!

DR. BELL: That’s the sort of thing a person needs help to deal with.

CHRISTINA: Help? You’re going to help me do what?

DR. BELL: Process what happened to you, and move forward from it.

CHRISTINA: Move forward? You’re going to help me move forward?

DR. BELL: That’s my hope.

(CHRISTINA turns around to stare her down.)

CHRISTINA: Didn’t anybody tell you what happened to me, doc?

DR. BELL: Yes. You were horrifically assaulted.

CHRISTINA: Assaulted? Nobody stole my goddamn purse! Nobody jumped out of the bushes and raped me! Let me make it perfectly clear to you— some freak threw hydrochloric acid at me and melted my entire face off! How the hell do you move forward from that?

DR. BELL: You have to do something to take care of yourself, or you’ll be destroyed.

CHRISTINA: Are you kidding me? I’m already destroyed! I was the most beautiful woman most people would ever see, and now I have to consider myself lucky that I can even still talk! Forget my fucking career! I don’t even look like a person anymore!

DR. BELL: But you are. You’re still a person.

CHRISTINA: No, I’m not!

DR. BELL: You can still have a life.

CHRISTINA: What life? My life is over! I’m not who I was! Everything over! There’s nothing left! I don’t want to move forward, I want to fucking kill myself!

DR. BELL: Then why haven’t you?

(CHRISTINA freezes, looks at her, then collapses on the chaise.)

DR. BELL: Yes, your old life is over. So you’ve got to make a new one. Unless you really do want to lie down and die.

(She turns and starts to exit.)

DR. BELL: I’ll see you tomorrow at two o’clock. We’ll get started then.

31 Plays in 31 Days: #1 - "Pretty is Power"

Today when I was helping Plesser, , , and Prentice move into their new house, Caitlin mentioned to me this challenge she found on the Internet and wanted to do. It's called 31 Plays in 31 Days, and it's a challenge to playwrights to write a play of at least one page in length every day for the month of August. I thought that was intriguing, so I looked it up and decided to give it a try myself. So hopefully every day this month I will post a little one-page play. They will likely mostly be crap, but writing is a habit one must get into, and I think this might be good for me. Also, I'm excited to see what Caitlin generates. She studied playwriting too when she was at her theater intensive this past semester, and even wrote a musical that saw a staged reading.

While as I said I don't expect many of these to be any good... I actually kind of like the one I just wrote. This first play for August 1st is based on a vague idea I've had for a play that I've never really developed, about a fashion model who has a terrible accident that forces her has to reevaluate her values. So I wrote a little bit I imagined for that. Here is that little bit, completely unedited. I think I'm off to a decent start.



Day #1 - "Pretty is Power"

(Lights up on CHRISTINA MORAY center stage, cast in a spotlight. She is a model, an astonishingly beautiful woman.)

CHRISTINA: Pretty is power.

(A gang of photographers swarm around her in a flurry of flashes and clicks. CHRISTINA mugs for the cameras. After a bit the photographers all step back. CHRISTINA looks to the audience.)

CHRISTINA: Instant status. Universal value. The one currency that everyone understands.

ALL: Miss Moray! Miss Moray, over here!

(They surge forward, taking more pictures and proffering autograph books. CHRISTINA smiles at them, dazzling and untouchable, condescending to sign their pads and brush them with her fingertips. A young man, KEVIN, steps forward trying to get her attention. He has a small jar tucked in one hand.)

KEVIN: Miss Moray?

(CHRISTINA ignores him and continues talking through the fourth wall.)

CHRISTINA: Nobody can ignore it. It’s enough to make anyone instantly look to you. You get the first glance, the first shot, the first choice. They can’t wait to give it to you.

(She swans past KEVIN without looking at him, going to stand at the center edge of the stage.)

CHRISTINA: Because no matter what anyone says… everyone wants pretty. Wants to have it, wants to be it. You could be surrounded by people who are smarter than you, more successful, more talented than you… but because you’re pretty, they still won’t be able to look you in the eye… and they still won’t be able to look away.

KEVIN: Miss Moray, do you have a minute?

(Hearing him, CHRISTINA laughs and shakes her head without looking back.)

CHRISTINA: The things people will do, just to get a taste of it. Pretty can get you anything you want.

(KEVIN pushes through the crowd and grabs a hold of CHRISTINA’s shoulder.)

KEVIN: Miss Moray!

(CHRISTINA turns to him in disgusted exasperation to see what he wants. KEVIN pops open the jar and splashes the contents across her face. CHRISTINA collapses and, agonized, clutches her face in her hands. BLACKOUT as she starts hysterically screaming.)