- for a whole year!
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If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
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Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site
Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site
------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 185 by Janet S. Tiger Ella's Side revised Aug.16, 2014
Note- This is a different monologue from Day # 184 - expanded, actually almost doubled. Am trying to decide which version is most effective- the shorter one from yesterday, or today's with more details? Please leave a comment if you have a preference. Thank you!
Ella's Side (revised)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(Ella comes front and center. All eyes are on her as she looks at T and
rubs her hands together. She stands straight, then swallows hard and
opens her mouth. Nothing comes out. She takes another deep breath,
and yes, she, too, has a Southern accent.)
I don't mind writin these stories
down. And I don't mind T sharin these stories. But the only person
on this earth who has ever heard me tell this story is...T. And I still
don't like havin to tell it...but it's time. Maybe cause we waited so
long it's like (searches for the words)....like an egg boiled too long..... but
I'll do my best......
(She
sighs heavily)
You
heard about ……the fingers. Well, it started when I made a mistake.
(She takes a deep breath)
Funny
after all these years how hard it is to admit that. But it’s true.
A mistake that is still affectin us all these years later……
My
daughter, Lena, went to help out at Fitzhugh’s place startin when she was
eleven. We needed the money for Lena’s brother’s operation. He
wouldn't have been able to ever walk again without that doctor from up North
fixin his feet after he broke his thigh bone jumpin into that dry river bed
like a damn fool.....We heard the rumors, but ....he woulda been a
cripple. So..... I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have.
But
I ended up payin in the end.
And
Lena paid more. And we are still payin for my mistake.
You
see, Lena was a good girl, and she liked Mr. Fitzhugh, who gave her not only
money, but candy, which Lena loved dearly. It's amazin she has any teeth
left at all......And she liked....all the attention she never got from her own
Daddy, who left when she was nine.
When
I found out what was goin on……well, the rest you know about, except for the
part about....Lena. She was young and didn’t know what was gonna happen
but when she didn’t have her time of the month, I knew. And I sent her
away up north, to Detroit, to stay with my sister. Nowadays it’s
different. Movie stars and people in the hair place all have babies that
have no daddies, and there is no shame anymore. But that’s what people
did in those days, they went away, so no one would know what happened.
So
I put Lena on the bus for Detroit.....so if I was asked, I could say Lena was
not even in town, and it would be the truth, because, even with all of this,
the truth is important to me.......
(Remembering, holding a knife and
touching the edge...it's sharp)
And
I went over to Mr. Fitzhugh and told him what happened, and he was drunk.
And he didn’t care. And I took that knife and chopped off his
fingers. You might wonder why I didn't kill him. I wondered, too,
but even though I hated him …….I just couldn't take the life of a man ...(very
hard to say)....that was the father of my first grandbaby. And somehow I
knew, by takin his fingers, it would point a finger at what he’d been doin.
Because
people already knew. And no one tried to stop him, ‘cept me and my knife.
(She puts down the knife and wipes her eyes)
So
Lena, my 14-year-old baby, had a baby. Mr. Fitzhugh’s baby. A
lovely baby boy. And it was a lovely color, like caramel in milk.
And my sister knew a woman who couldn’t have babies, and that woman raised this
beautiful little boy....(proud) .my grandson....... and he grew up into a very
handsome young man…..a young man who went to college and became a
teacher. And not just any old teacher….but (very proud)…a college
professor! (Deep breath) And, in one of his classes, he had a
beautiful student ...that he married…..and that student …….
(She puts her hand on T’s arm.)
…….was
T’s granddaughter,……your daughter, Vivien. There was no way she could
know when they met – he was adopted by people named Turner…..he never knew he
was related to his Auntie Lena, she was just a family friend………
(She wipes her eyes again)
T
and I talked about tryin to stop this happenin, but we couldn’t without tellin
the whole story. So we have been quiet until this day.
And
so, because of the fact that we needed money and I ….(still hard to say)…I
wasn’t payin attention….and that ….and that my Lena liked her candy……we are all
related by blood.
Your
daughter is carrying T’s and my blood, and that is the future of this family.
(She turns to sit down, looks back, sighs deeply, maybe there is even a hint of
a smile)
Maybe,
just maybe, I didn’t make such a bad mistake……
(She sits heavily, lights down on this scene)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Last note - for those interested, there was a very first version that I never showed, but will now -
very short!
Starts the same-
----------------------------------------------------
(Ella comes front and center. All eyes are on her as she looks at T and rubs her hands together. She stands straight, then swallows hard and opens her mouth. Nothing comes out. She takes another deep breath, and yes, she, too, has a Southern accent.)
I don't mind writin these stories
down. And I don't mind T sharin these stories. But the only person
on this earth who has ever heard me tell this story is...T.
----------------------------------------------------
(Ella comes front and center. All eyes are on her as she looks at T and rubs her hands together. She stands straight, then swallows hard and opens her mouth. Nothing comes out. She takes another deep breath, and yes, she, too, has a Southern accent.)
And that's the way it's gonna stay.
(She starts to walk off, looks back.)
But T knows the story, and you now have my permission to share it.
(She sits and the light shifts to T. End of scene)
-------------------------------------------------------------
The purpose of this was a bit a (hopefully) comic relief. (When you give an expectation, then something else happens, that's the goal!) But also, I figure the actress who does Ella may not want to have a big, long monologue - but a memorable moment that is very effective. Actors - what do you think?
Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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