FREE EXCERPT FROM "THE DARK TOWER" (For 1 male, 1 female)

Scene from "The Dark Tower", as produced by Pope Theatre Boosters, GA

 

Today, I'm offering a free excerpt of my play, "The Dark Tower", inspired by Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, which also inspired Thornton Wilder's playlet. 

This play of mine, available from Eldridge, is my interpretation of the story of Roland, as an immortal warrior, trained by Merlin, who has eschewed death, but now seeks it out at the Dark Tower, where he meets three sisters, and must live through some of his memories before he gains admission.

If you want to read more about this play or order it for performance, CLICK HERE.  Feel free to use this scene for acting class work or audition work, just make sure to give the play and the author (me) credit. 

In this scene, Roland, the warrior, remembers the death of his son and his wife, Susannah.  Susannah awakens to find she has lost her child, and that she herself is giving up and succumbing to her mortality. 

Here goes:

 Excerpt from "The Dark Tower", by Bobby Keniston,  available from ELDRIDGE PUBLISHING.  Note:  this work is protected by copyright.

(HE closes his eyes, and the marsh changes its LIGHTING.

A bed appears from stage left, with SUSANNAH upon it. She

is beautiful, but very pale. Her eyes are closed and she

moans quietly in pain. NOTE: If the role of Susannah is

doubled with the DARK SISTER, then the Dark Sister simply

leaves her window, comes out the door of the tower and

takes her place in the bed to play her part. After a moment,

Roland opens his eyes, and rushes to Susannah's side to

offer comfort. She stirs at his touch and opens her eyes.)

  

SUSANNAH: Roland. Are you by my side in Heaven? The

pain has been so great, but I find solace in your eyes.
 

ROLAND: Rest now, my love. We both live still. Sleep.

SUSANNAH: (Gently moves her hands down to her middle,
and touches her belly. She gasps, afraid.) Our child?
Where is our child?

ROLAND: Sleep now, until you are strong again.

SUSANNAH: Where is our child, Roland? Tell me I bore you

a son who sleeps peacefully this very moment in the next
room. Tell me our son is sleeping.

ROLAND: (Cannot look at her.) My love, there can be other

sons, but there will never be another you. I pray you let
your mind forget these concerns and rest. You have been
through so much.

SUSANNAH: Dear, sweet God, he was to save us. He was

meant to save us, husband!

ROLAND: Sssh. It is the pain, sweet wife, it is only the pain.

SUSANNAH: How long must we live sequestered from the

world? Secluded from the very act of living?

ROLAND: My love...

SUSANNAH: Let me speak, husband. This pain from my

body I can endure. It is the other which saps my spirit and
will. Let me speak.

ROLAND: We have one another. And we might yet try

again...
 

SUSANNAH: No. This was our time. This was our hope.

And that hope eludes me now. A strong-limbed young boy,
a son made from you might have cured your fear, might
have delivered us from your desperate need and into the
arms of sweet mortality. You might have seen your own life
continuing as he grew, and given up this quest that leaves
nothing behind. Nothing so tangible as an heir might leave.
ROLAND: I beg you to stop.

SUSANNAH: And so we are alone again. I am an empty

room with no life stirring. (Beat.) Was he beautiful? Was he
as beautiful as we dreamed?

ROLAND: (Softly, turning his head.) Yes.

SUSANNAH: I wish to see him, but not on this Earth.

ROLAND: Susannah, it is only the...

SUSANNAH: It is not the pain that speaks. I do love you and

always will. But I can no longer walk through a land that is
barren of hope.
 

SUSANNAH: (Cont’d.) My love cannot conquer the

loneliness of immortality.
 

ROLAND: There is our love. Our love which makes us our

own universe. It is enough. I should never forgive myself if
you were to...
 

SUSANNAH: No, my dear one. There is another you have

lost that robs you of forgiveness. I ask you to let me go, so
that I might see our son. Do not think I wish to leave you. I
only know deep in the secret chambers of my heart that
you would choose your endless travels to making the final
journey with me by your side. And I feel no bitterness for
this knowledge. I love you completely and without
reservation or remorse. I ask you now to release me. Our
travels have been fair, and there has been much joy. It is
not the way of nature or of God to have walked through as
many ages as we have. I clung to our mortal coil with you,
in the one great hope that I would one day change your
heart and put your terror to rest by creating the greatest
gift a wife can possibly create: our child. And when I finally
managed to bear you down with my insistent
determination, I have failed you.

ROLAND: No, my one love, no. You have failed me nothing.

SUSANNAH: Forgive me, my sweet Roland. I see them in

my mind's eye, and they offer me the chalice.
 

ROLAND: No, Susannah.

SUSANNAH: Forgive me. I do not drink to leave you.

Perhaps only to inspire you to make this journey yourself.
And let it be soon, my love. Come and join me with our
son.
ROLAND: Don't leave me, Susannah. I beg you.

SUSANNAH: The Sisters hold the chalice, and I drink.

Goodbye, dear husband. I pray you find me soon.
 

(SUSANNAH is still. ROLAND collapses in sobs over her.)

 

 

 All right.  I hope you've enjoyed this excerpt.  Again, to order it or learn more, here's the link:  http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2434

 

Until next time, have fun challenging yourselves, and remember--- theater is a sport.

 

 

 

 

RULES FOR HIGH SCHOOL DATING: My New Play, "Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating" Now Available!

My New Play, Available Now From Eldridge!  Click HERE to order!

Greetings everyone.  My name is Bobby Keniston, and I'd like to welcome you to Theater is a Sport. 

I often like to read about writer, how they write, what inspires them, and even the nuts and bolts, day-to-day of their process.  In that tradition, I figured I would talk a little bit about the writing of my latest published play, now available from Eldridge, called Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating.

As a high school drama teacher, I know how difficult it can be to put on a play with a limited budget and a cast full of kids who are busy participating in several activities. I wanted to try writing a play that was very simple to stage with a very limited set and props, and that consisted of a series of easily rehearsed scenes, something that could be put together in pieces, not necessarily requiring the entire cast at every rehearsal. 

One day, I found an article online that offered 10 tips about successful high school dating.  It was a good article with good advice.  My mind, which likes to take such things and push them to the most farcical and absurd extremities, immediately started to imagine a seminar or infomercial with two very fake hosts talking about their rules for "Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating".  I could immediately picture these seminar hosts, a man and a woman, doing their best to sell this product.  I started brainstorming ideas for examples of their techniques in action, basically imagining how teenagers could take their advice too literally and destroy what could have otherwise been perfectly acceptable dates. 

This is where the fun really began for me as a writer.  Coming up with ideas for comically disastrous dates doesn't feel like work for me--- it feels like fun.  Even more fun, is coming up with the characters who will make these dates disastrous.

That's how Lenny and Matilda were born.  Lenny, a potential dater, is now what you call "typical dating material", with his odd quirks and obsession with Castles and Kingdoms, his favorite role-playing game.  Matilda, too, certainly has her eccentricities--- not least of which is a fondness for funerals.

Throw in the two hosts, Lucky Daye and Starry Knight, and some poor befuddled blind daters, and I felt I was cooking with a teenage comedy that would actually make teenagers laugh, and a script that ANY high school with ANY budget could easily stage and have the audience rolling in the aisles!

I'm not going to give too much away about the "dates" themselves, but, trust me, they are not dates that you will likely forget any time soon. 

Once I had figured out these characters, the writing came pretty easily, with only one big hiccup that was easily solved after some meditating (I like to meditate while I'm running, by the way.)

So, if you're a drama director looking for a simple one act that's a guaranteed crowd pleaser, I invite you to take a look at Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating!  And if you do decide to try it out for a production, feel free to drop me a line to let me know what you think at theater.is.a.sport@gmail.com. 

Thanks again, and remember--- theater is not just a craft or an art form.  It is also a sport.

ARE GYM TEACHERS CRAZY SCARY FOR SELF-PROCLAIMED GEEKS?: The Inspiration for Writing My Hit Play, "How I Learned To Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher"

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS PLAY!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  My name is Bobby Keniston, and I will be your host this evening at Theater is a Sport.  I am a drama teacher at Foxcroft Academy, and a published with playwright with 21 titles for the youth, high school and community theater markets.  I hope you feel at home at my blog if you are a theatre-lover or a drama geek.  I am both of these things, and I mean the terms in a good way. 

From time to time, I like to share a little bit about the plays I write.  This is not for self-aggrandizing, although it is nice to toot your own horn once in a while (it's good for the self-confidence).  The real reason I like to share a bit about how certain plays were written and published is because I, as a writer, love to read about how writers write what they have written, their process, their thoughts while writing, etc.  I find it educational and pretty encouraging for my own work, so, I figure I will offer the same thing for anyone out there who might be interested in how and why I write what I write, and how I went about getting it published.  At the very least, I hope you find it interesting, or, if not, that at the very VERY least, it might give you some hope knowing that if a guy like me can get his work out there, that you can too with a little patience and hard work. 

How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher was the eighth play (if I remember correctly) I was fortunate to have published, and my very first with Eldridge.  Like all of my plays, I have difficulty pinpointing the exact moment that the inspiration hit me.  I knew I wanted to write something that was about "geeks".  In fact, the "geeks" in this play use the term in an empowering fashion.  I also knew I wanted to address the issue of bullying, but not in a preachy way, and to explore the idea of an adult bully as well. 

Then one night, as I sat down to write, I just wrote out the sentence, "How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher."  It made me smile.  And I thought of a young man who was afraid of gym class.

I should jump in right here and tell you that I never had a cruel gym teacher.  I was lucky.  In elementary school, my gym teacher was very kind, in middle school, my gym teacher was very fair and nice to me, and in high school, my gym teacher was actually very encouraging to someone like me who was not, shall we say, a natual athlete (except when it came to volleyball, interestingly enough). 

Having said this, I think I should now point out that I was afraid of gym class, however.  As I said, I was not a natural athlete, I didn't immediately take to sports.  I wasn't plain awful, per se, but it took me time to get my bearings, and I often felt embarrassed and a little useless in my gym classes.  And yes, there boys who were much better than I was who would pick on me.  I can't say I was terribly "bullied" because many people have gotten it much worse than I have, but I did often feel like dirt, which made me wish I could just skip out on gym class for the rest of my life. 

In any case, the protagonist of How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher, a young man named Will, was based off of me to some extent.  He is a good student, a friendly personality, who happens to be afraid of going to gym class.  Will, of course, has an extra reason:  the formidable gym teacher, Mr. Breakwater, who, in his last year of teaching, is just as ferocious as he was when he first started.  Mr. Breakwater hates weakness and hates excuses.  He also appears to hate Will. 

Lucky for Will, he has a girl in his gym class named Riley who is always there to help him out (and, she's cute, too!).  He also has two wonderful friends named Ellard and Margie, who help him get through the day.  It is his friend Ellard who calls them "The Geek Squad", as though they were superheroes (Ellard and Margie are also a bit obsessed with Star Wars, which plays a part in another play they appear in). 

Will's father had Mr. Breakwater for a gym teacher, and is still traumatized about it.  In fact, upon hearing Mr. Breakwater's name, he has to go and hide in the bathtub.  Thus, Will's mother decides to talk to Mrs. Puffin, the soap-opera addicted principal, but doesn't really get anywhere with it.  You see, Mrs. Puffin happens to think Mr. Breakwater is the bees knees (she likes his "buns of steel"). 

Will eventually finds help from his older sister, who had found a way to deal with Mr. Breakwater when she was in school.  She shares a secret with him that holds the key to taming the beast.  But what is most impressive, I think, is how Will decides to handle this secret.

I am fond of this play and actually remember having a great amount of fun writing it.  The first few scenes flew out of me rather quickly.  I do remember I became a little stuck about midway through the writing, thinking to myself, "how is Will going to give Mr. Breakwater his comeuppance?"  It was at that point that I thought about giving Will an older sister who was in college, and who  knew some things about the harsh gym teacher. 

If I were to pick a play of mine that is my funniest, this one would probably be it.  Aside from the characters I have already mentioned, there is also a child psychiatrist named Dr. Brattigan who I had such a good time writing--- she is a stitch and a half, loves to play Jenga, and is probably much better at her job than she lets on.  There are also the characters of Alexis ( a lip gloss covered texting fiend) who Will misguidedly has a crush on, and Marco, a flat-out bully, who leads a Jock Chorus in his attacks against Will during gym class.  Both Alexis and Marco also show up in another play as well. 

After I figured out that Will had an older sister who would be able to help him out, the rest of the play came together rather quickly.  I would say the total writing time for the first draft was about two weeks.  I then read it out loud with a group of people who were doing a grown up play I had written, and hearing it out loud confirmed that I had a winner, even though it needed some adjustments.

That may sound egocentric, what I just said, but I don't mean it to be.  Every once in a great while in your life as a writer, there are some pieces that you know are winners.  They have a certain feeling about them--- for one thing, they read well, actors can jump right in and bring it to life pretty easily. 

I think what tipped me off the most is that my goal to make the play really funny, but have a semi-serious, poignant ending, really worked out well.  It felt like a satisfying conclusion.  I was very proud of it. 

I decided to send it to Eldridge because I was, and am, a big fan of Eldridge's catalogue.  My dad was a drama director as I was growing up, so I remembered always flipping through the Eldridge catalogue when I was kid.  Playwrights seemed like some magic far away beings back then (when, in fact, we're actually pretty darn accessible).  I had submitted to Eldridge twice before and been rejected, albeit with kind, constructive notes from real people, and not just a form.  I figured I would give Gym Teacher a go with them.  So, I once again followed their submission guidelines, wrote a little cover-letter e-mail with my bio and a paragraph synopsis of the play, attached the play as a word document, wished myself luck and sent it off.

IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS, THEY E-MAILED ME BACK TO MAKE AN OFFER ON THE PLAY

This was, and still is, the fastest turnaround I have ever had for a play being accepted for publication.  The title caught their eye, they read it, liked it, and made an offer.  I signed the contracts, wrote up some stuff for them, and, before you knew it, How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher was an Eldridge play by Bobby Keniston, and my name was next to some of the all time big writers in my field (Tim Kelly, Craig Sodaro, Pat Cook, etc.)  It was a very exciting and gratifying experience for me.

The play has done well.  It holds the record so far for highest number of productions in a single year.  I have also received some very nice fan e-mails from students, which is always rewarding.  I got an especially nice one from a student in a drama class who had to read a play and write a report about it, and he chose mine.  This young person was so complimentary about the play, and what it meant to him, that I misted up a bit when I read his message. 

Again, not trying to toot my own horn, but if you're looking for a proven winner one-act for your school or community theater, I do recommend How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of My Gym Teacher--- it's very easy to stage, has flexible casting with doubling possible, and very funny and touching.  And if you do produce it and like it, please let me know.

Thanks for reading about my play.  I hope you are all happy, healthy, and full of the sport that theater is. 

This is Bobby Keniston, saying good night until next time.