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 - 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 - if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues- for a list of the titles and blurbs from each day, click here There are now over 1130!
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Monologue Mania Day #1145 Three (one-act) by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 2, 2017
Three
(one-act)
(one-act)
(Not) A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights reserved 2017
tigerteam1@gmail.com
Set – Simple, a home, some chairs
Characters – 2 1 male 1 female
ROSE – 30s attractive (British
accent)
JOHN
- late 30s (American accent)
(Rose comes in, she is in her 30s, dressed
in a lab coat. She has a file,
which she holds close to her chest. A man is watching her from the side of the
stage,
shaking his head as she speaks when
he disagrees. This is John, her husband)
ROSE - (British accent, educated, she speaks slowly, thoughtfully) One, two three. Granny
ROSE - (British accent, educated, she speaks slowly, thoughtfully) One, two three. Granny
ate a flea. She roasted it, and toasted it and had it
for her tea..... Mum used to tell me that when she wanted to make me laugh.
It always worked....until now.
Outside of the Holy Trinity, I cannot think of anything else with three that is prominent, that can take my mind off of this.....
(She looks at the file, then throws it down)
Three. Wait.....Three sheets to the wind.....(Smiles) That's how the first came about.....poor thing....
Easy as 1-2-3- well there's a lie for you......Two's company, three's a crowd, well, not when the two are married and want a third.....or maybe just one of the two wants a third.
Genetic defect. Mitochondria. It's so funny. I never liked biology. Math. Numbers. From when I was little, I understood numbers. They were....my friends. They never lied. Everywhere I looked there were numbers! The number of windows in the church, 18. the number of squares on the floor. 400 minus the place where the counter cut in -372. The number of children in the class. 27. Even when it got more intricate, pi – always the same ratio! Then physics, such beautiful symmetry……all based on numbers! They were always clear and simple. No matter how difficult, it always comes down to numbers.
Outside of the Holy Trinity, I cannot think of anything else with three that is prominent, that can take my mind off of this.....
(She looks at the file, then throws it down)
Three. Wait.....Three sheets to the wind.....(Smiles) That's how the first came about.....poor thing....
Easy as 1-2-3- well there's a lie for you......Two's company, three's a crowd, well, not when the two are married and want a third.....or maybe just one of the two wants a third.
Genetic defect. Mitochondria. It's so funny. I never liked biology. Math. Numbers. From when I was little, I understood numbers. They were....my friends. They never lied. Everywhere I looked there were numbers! The number of windows in the church, 18. the number of squares on the floor. 400 minus the place where the counter cut in -372. The number of children in the class. 27. Even when it got more intricate, pi – always the same ratio! Then physics, such beautiful symmetry……all based on numbers! They were always clear and simple. No matter how difficult, it always comes down to numbers.
(She looks at the man, almost seeing him)
ROSE - But.....it
doesn't. Not now. Maybe it never did.
He doesn't want to take a chance with this new technology -
and it's funny, he's the biological engineer! He says he doesn't want
someone else's baby, and that's what we'd get - when I tell him it's just the
mitochondria, he shakes his head and walks away.
(He now walks away)
ROSE - Yet he would adopt. That's all right, because we would get to meet the parents. That's
all right. When I say, this would be our baby, his and
mine....he says....and a third. There'd always be....a third.
It's my fault of course. Always mine. The DNA in my mitochondria is....faulty.
It's my fault of course. Always mine. The DNA in my mitochondria is....faulty.
(We now see the man at another point
on the stage, holding some framed photos)
JOHN –(American accent. Takes a deep breath) Leigh's
syndrome. Our first died at three
months.....Elizabeth was her name. Sweet Beth..... Our
second......Angela....Angie she would have been, she made to nine months.
She doesn’t understand that I’m not just worried about the baby, but
about her…….
(He hangs his head)
ROSE - (Very hard) He's worried .....that I might not
survive the third....that another loss might
finish me off. I did go through some postpartum, and
having your babies die, well, that can be a bit depressing, but....he just
doesn't want to take a chance on the new. Scientists we are, and yet he
won't try the future. So we will leave the planet without a future for
us.....
JOHN - (Remembering) Future….when
we started, we had such a bright one…..maybe we
shouldn’t have waited those extra years…..although they said
her mitochondria were probably defective all along….mitochondria…..I remember
when I heard that word, it was my science teacher, Mr. Keefer, he was
fantastic…..(Imitates) Mighty Mitochondria! The power house of the cell! Without our mighty mitochondria,
nothing! Organelles, that’s tiny
organs….(back to himself) I loved that
word organelles! (Back to being Mr. Keefer) The ORGANELLES take the nutrients and digest
them and make energy rich molecules so that all of you can do the twenty pages
of homework for tomorrow! (Laughs) But it was only one page, and it was simple,
so simple. Just like everything, it
works or it doesn’t…now, why it doesn’t work, that’s another problem…..
(He looks at his wife)
JOHN - Do we still
work?
(She looks at him)
ROSE - What do I do? I still love the man, but.....I want a child. My child. Someone who
ROSE - What do I do? I still love the man, but.....I want a child. My child. Someone who
will look like me......Unlike numbers, there was something
amazingly....real about what grew inside of me! (Choking up) I
loved those babies, even before they were born.....and now, I have a chance to
have another. Before my time is up. I won't mind raising a child
not born in me....but later, after I have a chance for one to make it....past a
year......
But…what do I do with him? Do I try to convince him? How long will that take - if
ever? Do I leave him? Search for another love?
(Laughs) It took me 30 years to find him! Do I get a
donor? So my baby would be, part me, part stranger, part...strange woman
with healthy mitochondria.
JOHN - It isn’t that
and you know it….if you listened, you would’ve heard. First, there’s the
odds against it working….as a lover of numbers, you didn’t
like those numbers at all. Yes, others
have succeeded, but it took years. Yes,
they just approved it here in England, but will we be chosen?
There are so many questions!
(Takes a deep breath) And what if, what it goes wrong?
(Lights are on Rose now as John goes offstage. She is talking to the audience as if a friend
was there)
ROSE - I’m so glad
you could come to help out……I guess you didn't know, did you? That's
what happens when you go away across the pond for a few
years! After the second baby with Leigh's syndrome, we did some checking.
No one in my family had it, never, all babies born strong and healthy!
My Mum had a great deal of pride in that, she did. But that was my
family.... that raised me..(takes a deep breath)..my real family now they had
problems....a bunch of dead babies......and me, I was the lucky one who lived and
was healthy.....and given up for adoption because no one wanted to see if I
turn up dead in a few months.....after all that work of giving birth.....and
feeding me.....so they left me with the church.....
Was lucky I suppose .....that when we went to find my biological family one of the sisters remembered the name...and where to find them.........so the secrets come out. The sins of the fathers and all that....but in this case, it was....the sins of the mother's ...mitochondria.
I knew my Mum loved me.....but had she told me the truth, maybe.....well, things would've been different. She was a proud woman, proud of her ignorance, and yet proud I was smart.....so unlike the others in the brood. How she kept them all from ever telling me, I still don't know. Sheer force of will I imagine. How I wish that will had seeped into me, because I do need it now.....
(She nods at the audience)
Sorry to hit you with all this in one shot, but. you tell me, my friend - what should I do?
(Listens, shakes head.)
No answers? Not surprised!
(Turns to leave, stops, looks back)
Funny, I always loved ....the power of three....now, is the third time a charm? Or is it just.....three strikes and we're all out....
(She exits, end of scene)
Was lucky I suppose .....that when we went to find my biological family one of the sisters remembered the name...and where to find them.........so the secrets come out. The sins of the fathers and all that....but in this case, it was....the sins of the mother's ...mitochondria.
I knew my Mum loved me.....but had she told me the truth, maybe.....well, things would've been different. She was a proud woman, proud of her ignorance, and yet proud I was smart.....so unlike the others in the brood. How she kept them all from ever telling me, I still don't know. Sheer force of will I imagine. How I wish that will had seeped into me, because I do need it now.....
(She nods at the audience)
Sorry to hit you with all this in one shot, but. you tell me, my friend - what should I do?
(Listens, shakes head.)
No answers? Not surprised!
(Turns to leave, stops, looks back)
Funny, I always loved ....the power of three....now, is the third time a charm? Or is it just.....three strikes and we're all out....
(She exits, end of scene)
Scene 2
(John enters, holding a
briefcase, and some files in his hand.
He sits heavily. Rose enters and
they do not kiss. He hands the papers to
her)
JOHN - They
seem in order. I’ll sign them when I get
the strength.
ROSE - You make
it sound so ominous, it’s not like divorce papers, it’s just the….
JOHN – I know what it is, it’s us asking for
something……
ROSE - Asking
for a baby…..
JOHN - No,
that would have been the adoption papers, this is different. This is laboratories, and petrie dishes, and
the centrifuging of our future baby into some other woman’s DNA….
ROSE - Just
the mitochondrial DNA….
JOHN - How
can we be sure?
ROSE – You’re the biology expert! You should know!
JOHN
- I was fifteen and it my first
laboratory. My mother had a friend, and
they let me use the
spectrophotometer,
and the autoclave, and I was in heaven!
And I got to know all of the
other real
scientists! I was so happy…..and then….I
was working late, and I saw Peterson carrying a tray of petrie dishes, and….he
dropped them, and they fell, and it was awful…..and I felt terrible for
him….and I went to help him clean up and he said…..’how about if we keep this
our little secret?’ And I watched him
put the dishes back on the tray, and he put it into the refrigerator……and I
never told. But I learned something
about science that day…..
ROSE
- That numbers are better? That’s what I’ve always said!
JOHN
- That – in biology – you never
know! Whether the person told the truth
about the
results, whether
they were accurate….that’s why I believe in the proving and reproving of
experimental results…..before you try something new…..
ROSE
- Before you try something new on
humans…..animals you can experiment all day and
night,
but that’s ok, right?
JOHN
- This isn’t an animal!
ROSE
- We are all animals! And we want to have our own progeny – just
like any moth or
Monkey! We want our own! Something that looks like us! And sounds like
us – and
smells like
us! Not another moth or monkey – but our
own individual smell! Your eyes
my skin….your
love of biology, my love of music…..
JOHN
- Love……are you saying you couldn’t love
a child we adopted?
ROSE
- I could and I will…..but not now! Not while I still have a chance!
JOHN
– And if this chance…..doesn’t work?
ROSE
- I’ll still love you…..
(She takes the papers from him, goes
to sign. He takes the pen from her
hand. Blackout)
Scene
3
(Lights up on John – now with a basinet in the room. John looks into the
Basinet,
then goes and takes a suitcase. Rose
enters. He hands a file to her)
JOHN
- I think everything is signed in the
right place.
ROSE
- I wish you didn’t have to go.
JOHN
- As I recall, this is your choice.
ROSE
- It’s biology, you should understand.
JOHN
- I haven’t understood very much in
years, have I? But you got what you
wanted, didn’t
you?
ROSE
- Three – I wanted it to be three. And there’s still only two.
JOHN
- You got to be famous with this. Forcing me to help you have the baby you
wanted. A court case, a landmark
decision. Everything you wanted. How is that biology?
ROSE
- Survival of the fittest – in this
world, the fittest need good lawyers.
JOHN
- Thank you for letting me see our girl
as she grows up……
ROSE
- Thank you for your part in this…..
(He leaves, and she goes to the
basinet, smiles)
ROSE
- So much for numbers, I guess it’s just
the two of us…..and of course, your other contributor…..
(She turns to the audience)
ROSE
- Who would know we’d fall in love? And over something so simple as a baby?
(She exits….to a brave new world)
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* 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
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Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315 CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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