Monday, April 24, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1166 I Wonder (for Holocaust Remembrance Day) by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 24, 2017

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
  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.
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 1150!
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!
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Monologue Mania Day # 1166 I Wonder  by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 24, 2017             
                    For Holocaust Remembrance Day - in honor of those who perished, and those who survived.....and those who helped  

                                                         I Wonder
                                  (from my book of poetry, A MOTHER'S GARDEN OF VERSES,
                                            written when my children were very young)
                                                       by Janet S. Tiger
                                                © 1996 all rights reserved
                                                   tigerteam1@gmail.com

    (A woman comes onstage)

I wonder
I wonder
What they did in the cattle cars
On the way to the death camps.
On the way to Auschwitz and Treblinka
On the way to eternity.

What did they do for the babies?
What did they use for clean diapers?
For milk?
What did they do for...hope?

What did they do for the children?
Who wanted to go out and play
What did they do to keep them from thinking and wondering
How did they explain the unexplainable?

When I was young'I used to think that if I were given the choice
Of going to my death with my children
Or living to maybe one day have more

         I thought I'd choose life.

It's so easy to make choices
When the choices are just in your head
It's so easy to say---------
        That would never happen here

         That would never happen ....to me

But now I have children and
        I understand how those mothers
Walked into the gas chambers
With their babies

How could they let them walk into hell alone?

So now I wonder different things
Like what did those mothers say to their children?
Did they sing to them?
Or tell them a story?
Or tell them that they were going to visit God?

And now I wonder what I would do
If I were one of those women...
And I pray...that I never have to find out.... 

         (She leaves the stage.  For the millions who were forced to exit...may they rest in peace.)
---------------------------------
I have other pieces related to the Holocaust on my website here


This was originally posted Monologue Mania Day # 428 by Janet S. Tiger  April 16, 2015
---------------------------------------------

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1165 Addiction (2-from the Stand-in) by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 23, 2017

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
  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.
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 1150!
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!
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Monologue Mania Day # 1165 Addiction (2-from the Stand-in)  by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 23, 2017               
          
This is Violet's reaction to Ginger's ideas from Day # 1165
                                       Addiction (2)
                                                              (from The Stand-in) by Janet S. Tiger  
                                                                           (c) 2017 all rights reserved
                                                                              tigerteam1@gmail.com


        (Violet goes after Ginger and grabs her arm. Ginger pulls away and Violet uses both hands to stop her)

VIOLET -  Wait a minute!  You think you have it all figured out, but you have no idea what's like for me!  How dare you make fun of all the people who read my books!  Everything is a joke to you, but let me tell you, addiction isn't something funny - people read my books, okay, women read my books because life is not so easy!  Life is not like in the books!  You don't end up with the perfect guy who has lots of money and a great body!  You end up with someone who has problems, and doesn't wash his feet, and tells you you're getting fat while he rests a beer can on his huge belly!

(She yells this with all her might)  LIFE IS MESSY!  That is the horrible truth!  Life has all kinds of ugly stuff, not the least of which is alcohol, which makes it even messier!  And smellier and uglier!  And when people read my books they can pretend that life is just perfect and there are no problems and they can put up with everything and no matter what, they can smell....

GINGER -  Did you say smell?

VIOLET - I said SMILE!

GINGER -  No, you distinctly said...SMELL!

         (In spite of herself, Violet laughs and Ginger joins in)

VIOLET -  How do you do that?

GINGER -  What?  Smell?  I can put up with everything and still smell!

         (They laugh again and then Violet holds up a hand)

VIOLET -  Stop it!  Please!  Laughing does not help...

GINGER -  Could've fooled me....

         (Violet's laughter turns into tears and Ginger goes over and puts an arm around her)

GINGER -  Honey, with all the acting you do - YOU should be the actress....

          (Violet calms a little)

VIOLET -  I am the actress.....I pretend and pretend that nothing upsets me....

GINGER - Except for dealing with any other human beings in any way....

VIOLET -  Except for that......but I do a good job....

GINGER-  You do.....except, you don't......Do you have any idea what you feel at any one time?

VIOLET -  Like when?

GINGER -  Like right now ....

           (She thinks for a minute)

VIOLET   -  I feel.....I feel....

GINGER -  Not so easy when you keep it all bottled up inside....go ahead, you can do it....what do you feel?

VIOLET -  I feel like shit.....

GINGER -  So that explains the smell.....or the shit-eating grin?

              (She sees Violet's reaction)

GINGER -  Sorry, that wasn't nice.  My go-to emotion is humor, so maybe, we have more in common than we think.........I have an idea.....and before you pooh-pooh it....and I don't mean the smelly kind of pooh- pooh, just listen.  How about, if you and I go together on the next tour.....I do one night, then you do the next.  You can learn from me how to deal with the crowds, and I....I can learn from watching you how to really learn who you are.  You'd have a chance to confront all of these demons that scare you.....talking in public, meeting new people, not having every moment of every day planned to the last second!

VIOLET -  I don't know....

GINGER - Come on, you do know...

VIOLET -  Let me think about it....

GINGER - No, not thinking this time, just feel it.....if it feels right, say OK....

VIOLET -  I never make an important decision this way...

GINGER -  You mean from your guts?  You know what they say - no guts, no glory....

VIOLET -  I think that expression is meant in another way....

GINGER -  Shut up and don't think this time.....

VIOLET -  Funny, that's just what he said on Prom Night.....

GINGER -  But what'd you do?

             (Violet screws up her face, shakes her head no, then Ginger shakes her head up and down.  End of scene)
----------------------------------------------

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1165 Addiction (from the Stand-in) by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 22, 2017

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
  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.
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 1150!
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!
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Monologue Mania Day # 1165 Addiction (from the Stand-in)  by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 22, 2017               
          
                                       Addiction
                                                              (from The Stand-in) by Janet S. Tiger  
                                                                           (c) 2017 all rights reserved
                                                                              tigerteam1@gmail.com

            (Ginger is talking with Violet - later in the play/movie)

GINGER - You still don't get it, do you?  I mean, you think you are writing literature, which is an 
even bigger crazy than having me run around pretending to be you!

You are a pusher- a dealer, a person who sells to people who are addicted to reading these romance novels!

You heard me, addiction is the name of your game - you get young girls hooked on these books and they 
grow up thinking this is what life and love is going to be like and they grow old wondering why their
lives didn't work out  and it provides an escape just like all drugs do!  And it means they spend money 
and time and thinking space on all these characters, and you get paid for it - 

       (She turns to leave, stops, looks back, snorts)

 ....and you don't even appreciate that it's legal!

         (End of scene)
----------------------------------------------

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Friday, April 21, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1164 More from The Stand-in by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 21 , 2017

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
  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.
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 1150!
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!
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Monologue Mania Day # 1164 More from The Stand-in by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 21 , 2017                   
                From a movie/play still floating in my brain - another scene Day #1163

                                       More from         The Stand -In

                                                   (Not) a monologue by
                    ©Janet S. Tiger all rights reserved
                                                     tigerteam1@gmail.com                     

           (Ginger is sitting with an icebag on her head, surrounded by newspapers as Violet reads them, more and more horrified)

VIOLET -  When you told me you liked to drink, I thought I made it clear, that a little drinking was not a problem, but this.....

            (She waves the papers at Ginger)

VIOLET -  This is me they're talking about!  ME!  This is a picture of me dancing on a table in some bar!

           (She puts the paper in front of Ginger, who pushes it away, weakly, then grabs it and stares, smiling faintly)

GINGER-  But they spelled your name right!

            (Violet is speechless)

GINGER-  Don't you know the first commandment of publicity - they can say whatever they want, just spell your name right!

VIOLET -  You think this is funny, don't you?

GINGER-  Honey, right now, I am not thinking at all, about anything except a giant bell in my head!

VIOLET -  I don't think you were thinking two nights ago, when you...you....(sputtering)....made a fool out of yourself...

GINGER-  Wait a minute, that's not true....I made a fool out of you!

VIOLET -  Oh!

             (Violet sits down heavily, then takes the ice pack and puts it on her head)

GINGER -  Cheer up, things could be worse....

             (The phone rings)

GINGER -  Then again, I could be wrong....

             (Violet looks at the number and shudders)

VIOLET - This is my agent, who arranged this whole thing....

GINGER -  (Starting to get worried)  Was he there last night?  

VIOLET -  We'll find out.....

             (She answers the phone and listens, shaking her head)

VIOLET -  Yes, I know, I'm so sorry, I don't what came over me....

            (She stands up straight, looks at Ginger in surprise)

VIOLET -  What?  Really?  Okay......yes, I'll stop at two drinks next time.....thank you Alex.....

            (She hangs up and Ginger is not sure what is happening)

GINGER -  How bad was I, I mean you, or us....or.....am I fired?

VIOLET -  Well, it turns out.....the signing was...... a success......

              (Violet gives a big sigh of relief, then groans)

VIOLET -  (Still stunned)  The audience loved you....

GINGER - (Starts to preen)  Well, I did do a pretty good job of you...

VIOLET -  It's worse than that...

GINGER -  Worse than being loved?  You mean, they adored me?

VIOLET -  They want you to come back.....and the publicity has kicked the books sale up to double what they expected, and it's just one day......

GINGER -  So I'm not fired.....or...is it, that you're not fired, so I'm not fired.....boy this is confusing!

VIOLET -  Perhaps the best verbiage is....WE are not fired.....

           (She looks at Ginger and they both laugh.  End of scene)



----------------------------------------------

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1163 The Stand-in by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 20 , 2017

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
  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.
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 1150!
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!
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Monologue Mania Day # 1163 The Stand-in by Janet S. Tiger (c) April 20 , 2017                   
                From a movie/play still floating in my brain

                                                The Stand -In

                                                   (Not) a monologue by
                    ©Janet S. Tiger all rights reserved
                                                     tigerteam1@gmail.com                     

   
         (Two women are in the room. Both have similar features - same height, weight, but otherwise very different personalities. Ginger Fox is an actress, and Violet Burnside is a writer, more quiet, reserved.  She is explaining the idea to Ginger, who is a bit stunned.)

GINGER -  Let me understand this.....whew, I could really use a drink now.

VIOLET -  Would you like some water, or coffee, or juice?

GINGER -  No, I said....a 'drink'- as in, something to kind of settle nerves that do not quite get this whole very strange proposition of yours!

VIOLET -  First of all, perhaps I did not explain clearly, this is not a proposition, it is a job offer, and as an actress, I would think, a very good opportunity to allow you to use all your talents.

GINGER -  Okay, I don't know what plays you ever went to, but, here's the 411 - in a play, after the play is over, you take off your make-up and go home and you get to ...be yourself.

VIOLET -  That would be fine in the hotel rooms.  You could meet reporters in a restaurant or even a bar, I suppose.  Your hotel room could be off limits - just for you.

GINGER-  You want me to not just act a part, you want me to BE the part, and the part is completely improv - but with a ton of memorization involved - because the part is ...YOU! And you have written 38 books!  All romance!  And I would have to memorize all those titles and all those characters!

VIOLET -  Okay, I see there are no misunderstandings, I'm so glad, I was worried that my explanation would be inadequate.  And if you prefer, it's not that you would be me, perhaps you could think of it like this....you would be my....stand-in.

GINGER -  (Laughs)  Stand-in!  You really think you could pull this off?  Where will you be hiding?  In the shower?  Under the bed?

VIOLET -  Oh, I won't be going on the book tour with you, I'll be right here.....working on my next book.  Don't you see, I have no interest in crowds at all, and I have absolutely no interest in traveling all over the country to talk to crowds.  I like to write.  And if you ....as you put it....become me.....I get to write and you, as an actress, get to act.  It seems very simple to me.  From what I understand, your last paying theater work was seven months ago, and your rent is two months overdue.  So I am offering a place to stay - here - when not on tour - paid training where you learn to become...me.  And then to travel, to stay in nice hotels, and eat good food -  for a substantial amount of money.  I see no problems with this at all.  It's a win-win situation.

         (Ginger goes over to Violet and looks at her closely)

GINGER-  We are pretty similar, but your eyes are different.

VIOLET -  Contacts can fix that.

GINGER - What about....if I want to......go out on dates.....how do we handle that?

VIOLET -  (Thinking)  Not difficult.  You bring a wig and your own clothing.

GINGER -  (Smiles)  I like to drink....

VIOLET -  So long as you don't get drunk and reveal this little secret of ours.....of course if you do, you won't get paid....it's in the contract....

           (She shows the contract to Ginger, who looks and her eyes widen)

GINGER -  I would have to pay back all the money!  

VIOLET -  It's called an incentive to follow the rules.....

GINGER -  Incentive, threat, I thought you were a pushover, but I kind of like this crazy idea.....who knows, maybe it will work.....

VIOLET -  I don't see what could go wrong.....

            (Ginger looks at Violet, then looks up)

GINGER -    Somehow, I expect those words to be on a gravestone........

         (End of scene)


----------------------------------------------

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8