THE REFUGE PLAYS (excerpt) by Nathan Alan Davis by 3Views on Theater

The Refuge Plays Parts 1, 2, and 3 McCarter Theatre Rehearsal Draft By Nathan Alan Davis

03-09-2020

Contact: Di Glazer ICM Partners 65 E. 55th St. New York, NY 10022 (212) 556-6820 dglazer@icmpartners.com

THE REFUGE PLAYS (parts 1, 2, and 3) Part 1: Protect the Beautiful Place Characters GAIL EARLY WALKING MAN JOY HA-HA SYMPHONY

The de facto head of the household. The original matriarch of this family. A ghost. Gail’s husband. Early’s son. Gail and Walking Man’s daughter. Joy’s son. A young woman from a nearby town.

Setting A small, makeshift, two-room house, which is nestled deep in a southern Illinois forest. Fall. The Present. Part 2: Walking Man Characters WALKING MAN EARLY CRAZY EDDIE DAX CLYDETTE REGINALD GAIL

An aimless wanderer, settled once again in his childhood home. Walking Man's mother. Early's husband. Has two prosthetic legs. Crazy Eddie’s younger brother. A ghost. Early’s mother. A ghost. Early’s father. A young woman from a nearby town.

Setting A small clearing in a big forest in southern Illinois, in which is nestled a makeshift house. Summer. The 1970s. Part 3: Early’s House Characters EARLY CRAZY EDDIE

A young woman who has survived the winter. A young man from a nearby town.

Setting A small clearing in a big forest in southern Illinois. Spring. The 1950s.

Text Notes An ellipsis line in the dialogue: ... represents a pause, a beat or perhaps a physical action. When a line of dialogue ends in a dash: â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this means the next line comes right on top of it, perhaps with an overlap. Where an overlap is needed in a specific place, it is marked by a slash: / Setting Notes Part 1 takes place indoors. Furnishings the characters interact with include: a wood-burning stove, a table with chairs, a cupboard, a sofa-bed, an easy chair, a coat rack, a bookcase with books, a bed, a dresser. Part 2 takes place in the clearing outside of the house. The clearing contains: a clothesline, a freshlydug hole in the ground, a washing station, a large tree. Part 3 takes place in the same clearing, with the same tree, before the house was built. Development History THE REFUGE PLAYS have received development support from: McCarter Theatre, The Public Theater, Rattlestick, New Neighborhood, Baltimore Center Stage, and The Juilliard School.

PROTECT THE BEAUTIFUL PLACE Part 1 of The Refuge Plays

1. Starlight shines through a canopy of ancient trees, beneath which is a small, tworoom house. A shadowed figure makes his way through the dark and quiet main room. This is WALKING MAN. He kisses EARLY, who is sleeping stretched out in an easy chair. He kisses JOY, who sleeps on a sofa bed. He kisses HA-HA, who sleeps in a sleeping bag on the floor. In the bedroom, on a proper bed, GAIL sleeps. WALKING MAN approaches the bedroom door. He knocks, but receiving no response, he does not enter. WALKING MAN exits the house, closing the door behind him. GAIL sits up. She spins herself out of bed, takes a tobacco pipe out of a dresser drawer. She lights it and smokes. GAIL Rope. You know about it? How when you squeezin’ it, When you holdin’ somethin’ up, Holdin’ up sometin’ heavy like a car or a house? Yeah. You can will yourself to hold on but your hands, they gonna shut down. Stop workin’. Your will ain’t enough. That’s not a pleasant thing to know. That’ll keep you up at night. … I ain’t finna make the bed just yet. This my time to do what I do. This time between dawn and sunrise, I stand alone, And smoke my deadass husband’s pipe, And watch. When you watch in the dark like this, shapes form, thoughts form, And thoughts, sooner or later they find their ways, don’t they? They find their familiar ways. Same old thoughts, Same old doubts,