PSWBPORTRAITURE
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The Early Portraits


The Playwright Portrait Project
peter sumner walton bellamy©2021

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PictureCrystal Skillman 2006
Birthday
LEILA
In my building.
When it was snowing out of nowhere here last month.
All these seagulls fl y past my windows.
Fucking weird, right?
Right in the snow.
The way they moved, right up to the windows, glide
their bodies right by, then raise up, that’s grace I
thought.
I’d like to move like that.
Some people make mistakes but can move through
them, let them go and they don’t hurt.
They don’t cry in hallways and look like shit.

They sit in corners and keep it all inside.
But I can’t.
I have this wish, the way I want things to be.
And when I see it, in my head, it’s good, it’s good but
how can I make that…
I dream about it.
Being that.
I wake up.
It’s a feeling.
Alive like…
Like there are all these possibilities.
But I wake up.
I lose it

Crystal  Skillman 2006

Picture
Tom Bradshaw 2006
Tom Bradshaw 2006
                     Courtney Barron 2006                                               Jean Reynolds 2006                                              Kitty Chen 2006

A VERY COMMON PROCEDURE 
Anil: If I stretch out my hand, palm open, like this. (They all
​unclench their fists, following Anil's lead, they slowly open their hands, fingers outstretched in almost a waving position.) From the tip of my middle finger to the tip of my thumb is how big the trunk of your baby's body was at birth. Her heart, the size, essentially, of the pad of my thumb,
Michael: Small.
Carolyn: Yes, Michael, small.


​DANCE WITH ME
​
(Ruth and Grace drink tea)
RUTH
It was on our honeymoon.
(RAY enters during speech)
Raymond and I were at a small hotel on a point overlooking a lake. One night there was a gathering. A crowded room. I was by a window looking out into the night. I saw the room reflected in the window. A woman watched me. I had seen her on other evenings playing cards. I watched her watching me. I was afraid to turn around, afraid to see, afraid of what she would see. She crossed the room and stood behind me. Our eyes met in the glass, caught. She whispered something. Her breath was warm. It was a foreign country.

RAY
What foreign country?
(He waits for an answer)
What foreign country?

RUTH
Raymond.

RAY
What are you up to?

RUTH
Up to?

GRACE/RUTH
Talking.

RAY
Talking. Ah, talking. I envy you. Women know how to talk to each other.
BLESSINGS OF CHAIRMAN MAO

Prologue
Bare stage. Night. The lighting suggests a hilly forest landscape. A woman enters, carrying a heavy burden on her back. She makes her way slowly uphill. Blackout.
Act 1
Scene 1. At center, a body lies on a table in a body bag. Lighting is bright, artificial. A barely audible drone of an air conditioner. Shivers sits at a table knitting, suddenly looks at watch, goes to body, bows deeply 3 times.
Announcement (loudspeaker)
Attention, attention: It is now time to show your love and respect.
Shivers
(to the loudspeaker, with a lewd gesture) Hah! Beat you to it!
She hears someone approach. Babelov enters.
Babelov
Oh me oh my. I thought I was on the sub-sub-sub-ground level, when the whole time I was only on the sub-sub-ground level.
Shivers
What was the vote?
Babelov
I can't breathe. I’d better bring down some fans and more ice.
Shivers
BABELOV! WHAT WAS THE VOTE?!
Babelov
They told me to rush right down and they'd beep me the instant they had the count.
Shivers
WHAT'S TO COUNT?--THERE'S ONLY 20 MINISTERS. And what's with the friggin' air-conditioning?
Babelov
The generators are old. Russian leftovers. Why don't you just go ahead with the prep.
Shivers
IDIOT! WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR? A good prep is like BREATHING to a good embalmer--it's the first thing you do!
Babelov
Okay, okay. I thought maybe you'd have to do something special, or different, if he was a god.
Shivers
He's a god? Oh my god--he's a god!
Babelov (cutting in)
I didn't say that! Calm--down. I said "IF he was a god." IF!
Shivers
When are they going to know?
Babelov
After they count the votes!

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  • Playwright Portrait Project
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