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 1300!
Get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site. Wishing you much success!
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Monologue Mania Day # 1305 The Lucky One by Janet S. Tiger (c) Sept. 10, 2017
Two monologues below - one about 9/11, the other linking Pearl Harbor and 9/11 - in honor of those who gave their lives - and who give their lives to defend our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
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Two monologues below - one about 9/11, the other linking Pearl Harbor and 9/11 - in honor of those who gave their lives - and who give their lives to defend our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
The Lucky One
(in honor of 9/11)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger
© all rights reserved
(The woman who enters is carrying a large box of kleenex, which she places on a table.)
I like to be prepared. After you hear, you'll understand.....and you may want some of these yourself.
You see, I was fired. Never good to be fired.....or so you would think. And it wasn't done on a Friday. All the other times I've been "let go" were on Fridays. End of the week, end of the pay cycle, end of the job.
So when I was called in at 4:30 pm on Monday, I thought it was for some more work, something else to take home. I was a personal assistant to one of the account executives - a job that used to be called 'executive secretary' but that title changed. Not the pay, just the title.
When Mr. Carrington told me, I was so shocked, my mouth actually hung open. Like this...
(She illustrates)
And I just said, 'what?' He explained that the company was 'restructuring' and my job was being merged with two others - meaning that one person was now going to service three executives instead of one......so, in actuality, those were his exact words....'in actuality' they were doing ME a favor by firing me, so that I could get unemployment now, and that should help. Help! Now there's a great word!
(She looks around, seeing it again)
Funny, this happened fourteen years ago and I can see it all, frozen in my brain, just like it was yesterday. And so I went to leave, and he told me I should take all my things right away, that tomorrow the decorators were coming to re-design the work space, and I wouldn't want my things disturbed. (Sarcastic) He was so concerned about my things.....
(Sighs) Five years. I was there over five years. And they didn't have the decency to allow me to say goodbye to my friends......So I took all my stuff and staggered down in the elevator to my car. And when I got home, I cried. And called my friends, who told me I'd find something better. And I should come in on Tuesday, and they'd make a party for me at lunch......
So I cried myself to sleep that night.....I had terrible dreams, and then ......
(She starts to shake)
and then, the next morning.....I slept in, and....my husband was sick, so he was home, too, and he shook me awake......(as husband) Honey, get up! Something horrible is happening! And he turned on the TV in our bedroom......and I watched as an airplane struck right into the office where I had just been fired!
(She takes a kleenex and blows her nose)
Dead! Everyone in that office who was there that day! All my friends, Jessie and Alice, Peter, Lex......all gone......no one had a cold that day......they were healthy enough to go to work......so they were all......gone!
Except me......I was....the lucky one. How does luck work? Who decides? Every minute of every day, something can happen, but why? Why did I get fired on that Monday....to that I could be home on Tuesday? I stopped asking those questions after a few years, but I decided if I was alive, I could use what life I had to change my life. I never went back to being a secretary. I went back to school. I started my own business, helping families in crisis. No one knows what's going to happen on any one day....in any one minute. That's how we are all equal on this earth.
So now I look at it differently. Some things, they just can't be controlled.
They died in a fire, but I was alive because I'd been.....fired.
(She turns to leave, stops, looks back)
And so, every Sept 11th, I cry...because I'm the one lucky enough to be able to cry.
(She holds out the box of kleenex to the audience)
We can share.......because - right at this minute now - we're all the lucky ones....
(She exits through the crowd, to hand out the kleenexes as a reminder that today is a day to be remembered forever.)
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For those wondering - yes, this was based on a true story.....one of many from that day.
And yes, this has been done for 9/11 before -
Original post Day #576 The Lucky One by Janet S. Tiger Sept. 11, 2015
Personal note - The year after 9/11, we took the family to Disneyland on Sept. 10, 2002. It was an amazing time, a first for our kids - and on 9/11 we went home. Sad for those who had been lost the year before - and for those who had lost them. And we did not want to be at a major amusement park on that day - there had been threats about more violence on this anniversary.
The following monologue is Radio Row -
Day # 211 by Janet S. Tiger Sept. 11, 2014
This is the last scene of the play/screenplay Radio Row started on Day # 158 – but I believe the monologue can stand alone. Please let me know what you think – thanks.
9/11
(for Radio Row)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights reserved tigerteam1@gmail.com
(This is for a movie concept, but it could be onstage with some clever staging ideas. The narrator comes out, he is older, in his forties now, he is watching the sky and we can see a wrecking ball come across the stage, hear the noise of the smashing against concrete and steel, glass. It is an awesome sound)
And so it ended, Radio Row, with a wrecking ball and me watching the end of an era......
(We can see and hear the past through his ears and eyes, the previous scenes, the people, the machines, all jumbled, crashing together.)
It was an awesome sight, the sign of a new time......
(We now see the Twin Towers being built, hear the sounds of construction. And with digital help, see the towers growing)
From the graves of the Radio Row stores, grew up the World Trade Center buildings, the symbols of New York, which made an amazing light in the sky.....
(The Towers are built and the lights on them are brilliant, the opening of the towers a sea of incredible sensations., as we see the millions who visited, including the narrator and family)
I took my children there.....
(He shows them the roof and the restaurant, the elevators, it is more than impressive, and they are mightily impressed)
But I could never get my brother to come......
(We see the funeral of his brother in solemn contrast to the lights on the towers)
He cursed the towers with his last breath, and then one day, twenty years to the day he died.......
(There is a flash, an explosion, and the towers are falling)
9/11
Much as he hated those towers, I don't think he wanted anything like this to happen! I think..
(We see his brother, as a younger man, watching the towers come down in horror, and he bows his head and is shaking)
I think ......he would have cried.
When those buildings fell, the world watched, but for those of us who were there when it was just Radio Row, we knew that planes may make a dent in us......
(There is a switch now to the planes of Pearl Harbor, and the two days of horror merge)
Like they tried to do on that earlier day in December 1941.....But they can never destroy us.......we will rise from the ashes stronger and more resolute.....
(The lights of the towers are seen, and the shadows of the new buildings slowly rise from the dust of the old. Behind the growing buildings the names of the stores from the past flicker, beneath the sign......Radio Row.......)
Just like our family did......
(He puts his arm around his brother as they watch the new buildings grow as the lights fade on the Radio Row sign.)
Goodnight, Eddie.....don't worry, I'll close up.......See you in the morning......
(They walk off together as the sun begins to come up. The end.)
This is the last scene of the play/screenplay Radio Row started on Day # 158 – but I believe the monologue can stand alone. Please let me know what you think – thanks.
9/11
(for Radio Row)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights reserved tigerteam1@gmail.com
(This is for a movie concept, but it could be onstage with some clever staging ideas. The narrator comes out, he is older, in his forties now, he is watching the sky and we can see a wrecking ball come across the stage, hear the noise of the smashing against concrete and steel, glass. It is an awesome sound)
And so it ended, Radio Row, with a wrecking ball and me watching the end of an era......
(We can see and hear the past through his ears and eyes, the previous scenes, the people, the machines, all jumbled, crashing together.)
It was an awesome sight, the sign of a new time......
(We now see the Twin Towers being built, hear the sounds of construction. And with digital help, see the towers growing)
From the graves of the Radio Row stores, grew up the World Trade Center buildings, the symbols of New York, which made an amazing light in the sky.....
(The Towers are built and the lights on them are brilliant, the opening of the towers a sea of incredible sensations., as we see the millions who visited, including the narrator and family)
I took my children there.....
(He shows them the roof and the restaurant, the elevators, it is more than impressive, and they are mightily impressed)
But I could never get my brother to come......
(We see the funeral of his brother in solemn contrast to the lights on the towers)
He cursed the towers with his last breath, and then one day, twenty years to the day he died.......
(There is a flash, an explosion, and the towers are falling)
9/11
Much as he hated those towers, I don't think he wanted anything like this to happen! I think..
(We see his brother, as a younger man, watching the towers come down in horror, and he bows his head and is shaking)
I think ......he would have cried.
When those buildings fell, the world watched, but for those of us who were there when it was just Radio Row, we knew that planes may make a dent in us......
(There is a switch now to the planes of Pearl Harbor, and the two days of horror merge)
Like they tried to do on that earlier day in December 1941.....But they can never destroy us.......we will rise from the ashes stronger and more resolute.....
(The lights of the towers are seen, and the shadows of the new buildings slowly rise from the dust of the old. Behind the growing buildings the names of the stores from the past flicker, beneath the sign......Radio Row.......)
Just like our family did......
(He puts his arm around his brother as they watch the new buildings grow as the lights fade on the Radio Row sign.)
Goodnight, Eddie.....don't worry, I'll close up.......See you in the morning......
(They walk off together as the sun begins to come up. The end.)
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World Trade Center memorial - click here
* 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
1 comment:
Luck is an odd concept. Good one!
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