The November People’s Choice goes to…..

The people  have spoken… The November People’s Choice Award goes to Amanda L. Andrei for her short play, The Experts, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround on November 12 at the Broadwater Main Stage.  Congratulations, Amanda!

Courtesy of Ms. Andrei, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

THE EXPERTS
(adapted from a Sufi folktale)
By Amanda L. Andrei

CAST OF CHARACTERS
MAN
FUNERAL DIRECTOR
WIFE
DOCTOR
PRIEST
LAWYER

NOTES
The Funeral Director can be double cast with the Doctor and Priest. The Wife can be double cast with the Lawyer.

Place
A funeral home

Time
Now

(A closed casket rests onstage. Other signs of a funeral service: flowers, a portrait, etc. – but no personal names on any of the objects. A faint thumping from inside the coffin.)

MAN

(inside the casket) Hello? Hello?

(Silence.)

MAN

(singing)  Country roads / take me home / to the place / I belong…

(Pause. The Man starts banging on the casket.)

MAN (CONT’D)

Help! Help! Not a lucid dream! Not a lucid dream!

(The Man gets the casket lid open. The Funeral Director enters.)

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

Sir!

MAN

Thank goodness! There’s been some sort of mistake!

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

I’ll say! You’re supposed to be dead!

MAN

Am I dead?

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

Yes.

MAN

How do you know?

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

The doctor signed the certificate. The priest said the blessings. Your lawyer executed your will.

MAN

What?

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

By all accounts, you are dead.

MAN

No! Where’s my wife?

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

You mean widow.

MAN

Sweetheart! Angel! I’m not dead!

FUNERAL DIRECTOR

Sir, don’t you think the polite thing to do would be to get back in the casket?

MAN

Help! Help!

————

Join us for the Next  Monday Night PlayGround of the season on Monday, December  10, at the Broadwater Main Stage and choose your own favorite. Click here for more info.