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Originally posted-March 3, 2014, Day # 19-bringing it back because everybody needs a little hope.....
Hope Street
by Janet S. Tiger (c) 2014
all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(A woman is seen walking onstage - she is pushing a shopping cart filled with her life. If a cart isn't possible, she will carry big bags. How old is she? Not young, but very hard to tell, as she is also tired. Ideally she will come to a bus bench to sit on - but a chair will do. She wipes her face - she is sweaty, too, but undefeated and talks to the person on the bench - is it you? The audience? Does it matter?)
Excuse me, do you mind if I have a seat here for a minute?
(Not waiting for an answer, she sits heavily) -
I'm not awaitin on the bus, cause I got no place better to go like you do. Do you know why I like hangin around down here? I betchya don't. Well, whoever first put this neighborhood together pictured it as a place of wonder, so all the street names are ....beautiful. Not like (scornfully) First or..... Broadway and Main - those are dull. And certainly not like those fancy streets.... Broad Lawn Way and La De Da Boulevard and 'I have a Lot of Money' Avenue.......
No, these streets have good names - round the corner is 'Dream Street' and that leads you to Wonder Place.... and that one dead ends into Happy Times Road. But this here street I am sittin on now, this is my favorite, this is (says it with reverence).....Hope Street - and this is where I live.
My address....well, my address is the whole street, because I don't have no roof no more. But I don't care, because if Hope is all you have left, that's a good thing.
Oh, don' worry, I ain't gonna tell the story of my whole life, and how I ended up here....know why? All the same story. We all got the same story - we born, we live, we die. Same story, different face.
(Listens)
Nah, I just like to talk to people who are waitin for the bus. We all waitin for the bus, only some of us is more aware than others.
You goin to work?
(Listens)
I didn't think so.
You look like you goin on a bad trip......How can I tell? Experience. I been on a lotta bad trips, and lemme tell ya, where you goin is like a perfume - if you goin someplace good - someplace you like, your face is happy, even if you ain't smilin.
But if you going to a bad place, it's like the smell of approachin garbage, and it sticks to you like a sour gum on your shoe.
Sticks to you like a sour gum on your shoe - I like that. Maybe I'll give that to some poet one day.
Now you, you look like you not comin back to Hope Street, am I right? Uh, huh, I could tell.
(Listens, laughs) Maybe the suitcase was a tiny clue! But you don't wanna be leavin Hope Street forever, that's not good. You gotta have hope.....even if it's the last thing you got.
Hope, Faith and Charity......the three sisters who liked to make things up. That's what my Daddy used to say. If you gonna make something up, make sure it is pretty, because pretty never dies. That’s what he used to say. He used to make up songs, and we would sing em and I have fond memories of days when we were a family, all together. Hope is something you get from your memories, my new friend, and it is something you never wanna be without…..
Now, I see that bus is comin soon, so I want you to have somethin.....
(She reaches into one of her bags and pulls out ......another bag. And inside that is yet another bag, until she finds a small plastic bag, which she holds up with great affection.)
See this a here bag? I make these myself - they are special bags of special soil - that I take right here, on this street, and I call them, my…. bags of hope.
(She hands it to ....the person? You?)
I am giving this to because everyone's gotta have some hope left......and when things get very tough, you can open this bag and sprinkle some of the earth from this a here street, and you will be amazed- your hope will return!
(She smiles and nods.)
You are very welcome.
(She steps back, shakes her head and waves her hands.)
Oh, no, there is no charge for hope, ever!
(Reaches out her hand, smiling.)
Well, if you insist. I will consider it a donation towards future plastic bags - which will help me to continue to spread hope throughout this world that needs it so much.
(She gathers her bags.)
I'm gonna get goin now, I see your bus a comin, so I will say goodbye and wish you luck on all your journeys. May they be safe and ......may you always have hope.
(She starts to walk off. Turns back)
And if you ever start to run out of the magic hope in that bag, you come on back for a refill, you hear? Cause you never want to be.....(she's said this many times, but it always makes her laugh) ...you never wanna be...at the end of your hope!
(She exits, laughing. The end....not of hope, just of this monologue, today.)
first year - Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 12, 2015 second year - Feb. 13, 2015 - Feb. 12, 2016 third year - Feb. 13, 2016 - today! *********
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com.
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com.
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Monologue Mania Day #908 Hope Street (revised) by Janet S. Tiger (c) Aug. 8, 2016
Originally posted-March 3, 2014, Day # 19-bringing it back because everybody needs a little hope.....
Hope Street
by Janet S. Tiger (c) 2014
all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(A woman is seen walking onstage - she is pushing a shopping cart filled with her life. If a cart isn't possible, she will carry big bags. How old is she? Not young, but very hard to tell, as she is also tired. Ideally she will come to a bus bench to sit on - but a chair will do. She wipes her face - she is sweaty, too, but undefeated and talks to the person on the bench - is it you? The audience? Does it matter?)
Excuse me, do you mind if I have a seat here for a minute?
(Not waiting for an answer, she sits heavily) -
I'm not awaitin on the bus, cause I got no place better to go like you do. Do you know why I like hangin around down here? I betchya don't. Well, whoever first put this neighborhood together pictured it as a place of wonder, so all the street names are ....beautiful. Not like (scornfully) First or..... Broadway and Main - those are dull. And certainly not like those fancy streets.... Broad Lawn Way and La De Da Boulevard and 'I have a Lot of Money' Avenue.......
No, these streets have good names - round the corner is 'Dream Street' and that leads you to Wonder Place.... and that one dead ends into Happy Times Road. But this here street I am sittin on now, this is my favorite, this is (says it with reverence).....Hope Street - and this is where I live.
My address....well, my address is the whole street, because I don't have no roof no more. But I don't care, because if Hope is all you have left, that's a good thing.
Oh, don' worry, I ain't gonna tell the story of my whole life, and how I ended up here....know why? All the same story. We all got the same story - we born, we live, we die. Same story, different face.
(Listens)
Nah, I just like to talk to people who are waitin for the bus. We all waitin for the bus, only some of us is more aware than others.
You goin to work?
(Listens)
I didn't think so.
You look like you goin on a bad trip......How can I tell? Experience. I been on a lotta bad trips, and lemme tell ya, where you goin is like a perfume - if you goin someplace good - someplace you like, your face is happy, even if you ain't smilin.
But if you going to a bad place, it's like the smell of approachin garbage, and it sticks to you like a sour gum on your shoe.
Sticks to you like a sour gum on your shoe - I like that. Maybe I'll give that to some poet one day.
Now you, you look like you not comin back to Hope Street, am I right? Uh, huh, I could tell.
(Listens, laughs) Maybe the suitcase was a tiny clue! But you don't wanna be leavin Hope Street forever, that's not good. You gotta have hope.....even if it's the last thing you got.
Hope, Faith and Charity......the three sisters who liked to make things up. That's what my Daddy used to say. If you gonna make something up, make sure it is pretty, because pretty never dies. That’s what he used to say. He used to make up songs, and we would sing em and I have fond memories of days when we were a family, all together. Hope is something you get from your memories, my new friend, and it is something you never wanna be without…..
Now, I see that bus is comin soon, so I want you to have somethin.....
(She reaches into one of her bags and pulls out ......another bag. And inside that is yet another bag, until she finds a small plastic bag, which she holds up with great affection.)
See this a here bag? I make these myself - they are special bags of special soil - that I take right here, on this street, and I call them, my…. bags of hope.
(She hands it to ....the person? You?)
I am giving this to because everyone's gotta have some hope left......and when things get very tough, you can open this bag and sprinkle some of the earth from this a here street, and you will be amazed- your hope will return!
(She smiles and nods.)
You are very welcome.
(She steps back, shakes her head and waves her hands.)
Oh, no, there is no charge for hope, ever!
(Reaches out her hand, smiling.)
Well, if you insist. I will consider it a donation towards future plastic bags - which will help me to continue to spread hope throughout this world that needs it so much.
(She gathers her bags.)
I'm gonna get goin now, I see your bus a comin, so I will say goodbye and wish you luck on all your journeys. May they be safe and ......may you always have hope.
(She starts to walk off. Turns back)
And if you ever start to run out of the magic hope in that bag, you come on back for a refill, you hear? Cause you never want to be.....(she's said this many times, but it always makes her laugh) ...you never wanna be...at the end of your hope!
(She exits, laughing. The end....not of hope, just of this monologue, today.)
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Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315 CaregiversAnon.org
JanetSTigerMonologueMania.blogspot.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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1 comment:
Love this gal!
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