NOVEMBER PLAYWRITING CHALLENGE

November 30 THE CANYON

PROMPT: WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY? WHAT MAKES YOUR CHARACTERS ANGRY?LET SOME OF THAT ANGER SPILL OUT OVER THE PAGES TODAY.

TAKE A BIG SWING FOR OUR FINAL OUTING.

(A woman, CYBIL and her mother LOUISE sit on a couch. They sit in silence except for the sounds of the tv)

CYBIL

So how has everything been going?

LOUISE

Oh it’s fine.

CYBIL

Cool…

LOUISE

Did you hear abut Jennifer LaRue from your second grade class? 

CYBIL

I did not.

LOUISE

She’s getting a divorce poor thing. Saw it on Facebook.

CYBIL

Oh yeah…I guess I knew that I just haven’t talked to her in over 20 years so I didn’t remember.

LOUISE

But you two were very close!

CYBIL

In the second grade, yeah. 

LOUISE

(silence. she starts changing the channel on the tv)

Anything you want to see on TV.

CYBIL

Oh I haven’t had cable in so long I don’t even know what’s on there…

(The lighting changes. Cybil breaks the fourth wall.)

CYBIL

Sometimes I think anger is the unspoken. Anger is the unfairness of a situation. Or in my case as a rather privileged person living in 2025 if you’re lucky anger is unspoken. It’s unspoken rather than someone dragging you off the street. But for me, a middle class white queer lady, anger has to be unspoken because if it is unspoken it destroys a house of cards. 

My mother and I are at different sides of the political spectrum in this world that has gorged out the middle like it’s someone taking a mellonballer to a honeydew after an 8 ball of coke. It’s vast. It didn’t always seem like a big deal but like a rat who has crawled into a wall and died the lingering smell in the air has gotten worse and worse but we still keep pretending we don’t smell it. 

(Lights change back.)

LOUISE

Harry Potter! You always loved Harry Potter.

CYBIL

I don’t watch those movies as much anymore because of everything with JK Rowling. 

LOUISE

What “everything.” 

CYBIL

She’s said some awful things abut trans people. 

(The lights change and we hear a buzzer.)

VOICE

OUT OF BOUNDS!

(Lights change back)

LOUISE

Oh, I wouldn’t know anything about that. 

CYBIL

(In 4^th wall voice.)

Things weren’t always like this. We were each other’s best friends when I was growing up. Then puberty happened and then my father’s sickness took away any growth we had made. After his death it felt like we were finally able to rebuild as 2 adults. Then 2016 happened.