The October People’s Choice Award goes to…
The people have spoken… The October People’s Choice Award goes to Blaire Battle, for her play, PRIVATE, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround-LA on October 12 live at The Broadwater and simulcast via Vimeo Livestream. Congratulations, Blaire!
Courtesy of Blaire, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!
Private
By Blaire Battle
CAST:
CHELSEA: (20s-30s, white, trans female) A woman forced to conceal and compartmentalize every part of herself. Still wants to believe in this country, but running out of reasons to believe it will ever free her.
NOTE: Character is pre-transition and early 20s at the time referenced in the piece, but does not need to be cast or presented in this way. The character in the play is Chelsea Manning as she wishes to be portrayed, not necessarily as she was at the time of her incarceration.
Chelsea falls onstage, as if thrown by a guard offstage.
Looks around, frightened. Then:
CHELSEA
Please, I just want to sleep.
Beat. Waits for a response. None coming.
They don’t—the other guards don’t let me sleep. Just make me sit. Or stand. Whichever I’m not doing. And when I do get to sleep, they make me…I have to do it naked. Or in boxers sometimes, if I’m lucky.
Beat.
CHELSEA
But could I just sleep in my clothes? In my body?
Beat.
CHELSEA
No, of course not.
She looks down at her hands, her arms.
CHELSEA
Do you know who I am? How much did they tell you? Was it on the news? What are they saying I’m in here for? Leaking state secrets? Whistleblowing? Terrorism? One of the men called me Private Manning before they bagged me. Called me some other names too, of course, but that one has stuck. when they say private like that it makes it sound like I was some low ranking grunt. But I was demoted. I was a specialist, an intelligence analyst. I saved lives.
She paces around her cell for a bit.
CHELSEA
I was in a little box of a room not too different from this one. And I’d sit at my desk and just listen to hours and hours and hours of audio from all over. Trying to find threats to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I did. I was really good at my job. I found a lot. And a lot else.
She looks to see if there’s even still a guard there.
Speaks up, to see if she can catch their attention:
CHELSEA
It wasn’t hidden, you know! A couple files I had to do some digging for but most of it was just there. Any Army Analyst could tell you, if they bothered to watch. I’m not some foreign asset that snuck in. I’m an American! I mean, I lived with my mom in England for a few years in High School, but England is kind of America’s mom so…
Beat.
CHELSEA
I signed up for the same reason that any young person signs up for the army. I wanted to serve my country. Or…I wanted to be able to afford college. Or maybe…I was stuck going nowhere fast and angry with the world and my life and sick of everyone being able to tell that I wasn’t a man and I wanted to prove them wrong. Maybe I wanted to be the kind of son my dad could be proud of. Or any kind of son at all. And maybe it’s easy to put yourself through boot camp if you already don’t care about the torture they put your body through.
She looks out
CHELSEA
Is that why you signed up? Did you imagine you’d be detaining other soldiers? Or in your mind was it all jihadis, getting back at “them” for 9/11. “We’ll shove a boot in your ass, it’s the American Way”, and all that. Lot of them are younger than us, you’ve seen that, right? They’ve hidden a lot of information but I’m sure you’ve seen that. I don’t know if I’m a patriot but, I’m not a traitor. I just thought—everyone needed to see it, right? Like, we deserve the truth.
Beat.
Will you talk to me? Please? You can yell, tell me to quiet down just…I’m always surrounded by information. I can’t handle the silence. I don’t think anyone can.
Beat. No response.
She goes back to pacing, checks the wall.
CHELSEA
15 days. No, that’s not how long I’ve been in here, that’s how long it takes. Before you start hallucinating. I don’t know how long I’ve been here but it’s definitely more than 15. Kuwait was 59 days solitary, in a slightly smaller box. Then they bagged me and took me here, to what I’ve been told is America. That was…I don’t know. More than 15. Which is why you won’t speak to me but you also won’t come in and beat me or any of the other things they normally do to me. Because you’re not really there. Or I’m not maybe, judging by my body.
(to be continued)
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