THE SECOND BODY (excerpt) BY Lyndsey Bourne

The Second Body (A play with taxidermy)

By Lyndsey Bourne

Helen Schultz Abrams Artists Agency 350 Fifth Avenue, 38th Floor New York, NY 10118 T 646-486-4600 helen.schultz@a3artistsagency.com

“She is only one of her mother A NICE PERSON She is only one of her mother DO MY PART She is only one of her mother ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE she is only one of her mother…” Ariana Reines

I BELONG TO NATURE NOT TO THESE ARTIFACTS YOU CHOOSE. I AM ELECTRICAL VULVIC BOLT IN TIME - Carolee Schneemann

“There is, for me, no difference between writing a good poem and moving into sunlight against the body of a woman I love” – Audre Lorde

2.

CHARACTERS: Pearl (55) Alice (35-40) Bird (50s) Old Lady Deer (70s +) Teenage girl Deer (17 -ish) Squirrel (30s) Raccoon (20s-30s) Badger (20s-30s)

CASTING NOTES: The actors playing Pearl and Alice should be as close to the characters specified ages as possible The animals must be played by female identifying actors. The ages of the actors need not necessarily match the ages of the animals. For example, it might be interesting to see an actor in her 70s playing Teenage Girl Deer. ***This play should be built with and for the specific bodies of the actors playing these roles. I’m interested in the intersectional, collective and inclusive experiences of being women - meaning, we need as many different voices in the room as possible. Casting trans and disabled actors is strongly encouraged. The cast must be racially, physically and energetically diverse. Pearl and Alice should not be played by actors of the same race.

3.

A NOTE ON STYLE/SETTING: A studio A warehouse A space where histories are interfered with Architecturally, we shouldn’t feel confined to a theatre (even if we are in a blackbox theatre).

Transitions should be seamless, each scene bleeding into the next NOTE ON TAXIDERMY: There should be real, taxidermied animals throughout the space. Ideally, these taxidermied animals could be sourced from local, female identifying taxidermists.

The women/GNC performers playing the six taxidermied animals should somehow be costumed/masked to indicate that they are also taxidermied animals.

Though the practice and skill of Pearl’s taxidermy and sculpture is important - realism is not the goal. We should feel the ongoingness of these interwoven worlds.

It’s my hope that this play (and moments within it) achieves a sort of saturation and suspension though never at the expense of misrepresenting her craft.

4.

PROLOGUE

A record player in the center of the room, barely lit A record begins to play – slowly – something ‘20s, something filled with vacant enchantment A woman on roller skates slowly circles the record player – wide circles She wears a pale pink baby doll dress with a white baby doll collar and a giant, oversized paper maché bear head As she skates, we notice a small red-ish dot in the area of her skirt, right where her crotch would be The red grows The red grows She skates faster, tighter circles The blood red continues expanding, filling the full skirt of her dress The speed and pitch of the record matches the pace of her skating Blood now streaming down her legs, creating streak–y but defined red circles on the floor, spiraling tighter towards the record player All and everything collide

............

5.

An artists studio, a breathless zoo, a living space Plaster, paint chips, splatter, tools for skinning and fleshing, saw dust, metal tables, bags of pre-mixed tanning solution, canvas etc.

Taxidermy mounts: Chimerical, rogue. More whimsy than camp. A few old school, larger mammals (full body mounts) in creative, un-natural or exaggerated poses.

The taxidermied animals live in this space, throughout this space, like they’re holding this space It’s messy, but there is space A gamey smell mixed with something metallicMaybe formaldehyde. Maybe wet flannel.

We freeze a moment (too long?) with the animals A sense of lingering or waiting. An uneasy silence Then: PEARL (off) I work and I live in this place Which has its ups and downs Pearl enters, with Alice trailing behind PEARL It’s a converted warehouse space, artist cliché I can make noise, I brake what I want to At any hour At any hour You can do pretty much whatever you want to At any hour

6.

I live here as well There’s no way to cook ALICE Cleaning must be hard PEARL I don’t really clean Pearl fills a bucket of water, opens up a box of plaster bandages.

Alice walks through the space, examining it, a little fearful of the animals. Removing items of clothing as she walks.

When she is down to her T-shirt and underwear, Alice returns to Pearl.

ALICE Where do you want me?

Pearl pats the metal table PEARL Hop on.

Alice sits on the table ALICE Like this? OrPEARL Um, I’m just gonnaPearl starts adjusting Alice’s legs. Steps back.

She adjusts Alice’s legs again, focusing on the form and shape of her right leg. Steps back.

PEARL It’s- okay,

7. keep that but lie down Alice sort of awkwardly scoots/slides down the table.

There isn’t quite enough room for her head to rest comfortably.

Pearl scoops her hand into a tub of vaseline.

Oh, want me to-

ALICE Pearl covers Alice’s right leg in a thin but even coat of vaseline. This may appear sloppy and reckless, but Pearl is careful, Pearl is quick.

When she’s finished, Pearl wipes her sticky hand on her shirt or a nearby rag.

Relax your left leg

PEARL Alice adjusts

and your toes, relax your toes

PEARL Alice adjusts

Good.

PEARL Pearl layers two bandages, dips them in water. She removes the excess water and begins to create a seam along the outside of Alice’s right leg.

As she works, little drips and trails of watery plaster slide down Alice’s leg, Pearl’s hands and forearms...

Cold.

Sorry.

ALICE PEARL

8.

Pearl works quickly, Still building up the seams on either side.

Beginning at the top of her thigh, Pearl layers, dips and smoothes the bandages.

Layers, dips and smoothes the bandages.

Layers, dips and smoothes the bandages.

Pearl stops for a split second, examining the large mole on Alice’s right knee. She continues ALICE that big brown mole on my right knee, that’s where god pooped on me When I was little, littler2 or 3 or 4 or 3, My mothers mother would take care of me She’d sit me on the counter while she’d make me scrambled eggs, She’d sit me on the toilet while she curled her graying hair She had this birthmark, this big, ugly birthmark Brown like molasses but also sort of purple, sort of plum That’s where god shit on you God shit on you, I thought He shit on you too Alice laughs PEARL

Try not to move.

When you talk, when you laugh- you move Sorry.

ALICE Pearl layers, dips and smoothes the bandages.

I can put on some music

PEARL Music comes from somewhere...

They continue to work, but the light and tone and energy shifts-

9.

Everything fuzzy, all fuzzed over…

A kinetic washing We refocus on the animals They infuse and animate: a rhythm feeling tactile and somatic

BIRD You’re in the men’s room and I’m in the ladies room and then we both walk out at exactly the same time OLD LADY DEER Women who drop their coats to the floor when they enter a room Crescent fingers fitting buttons Not a window but a sigh A spoon with a serrated edge

SQUIRREL OLD LADY DEER RACCOON

BADGER Do they make spoons with a serrated edge?

RACCOON For grapefruit. For eating grapefruit TEENAGE GIRL DEER Girls and books about girls and menus BADGER the very very back of my underwear drawer BIRD I like pornography, a quiet, hushed pornography

10.

SQUIRREL

mostly pictures, dirty pictures Something suggested to me, and then I run with it myself, in the wide open spaces of my mind, mind body BIRD bodies full of want and play, knowing, knowingbut stylized too, a clear aesthetic SQUIRREL it doesn’t feel like porn, no it’s not exactly pornRACCOON a camera with a point of view, full of postmodern intertextuality BADGER a man who’s not afraid of my desire, of it’s depths and lengths – it’s girth SQUIRREL not the “porn” porn, poor women – porn OLD LADY DEER

I like being agreeable I like to be what the other person wants me to be BIRD I’ve grown particularly adept at talking dirty SQUIRREL I can see that, I mean, I can imagine that BIRD I’ve grown particularly adept at copying things I hear and see on TV, on the TV Oh yes, Me too, me too

BADGER

TEENAGE GIRL DEER How do I know if I know what I desire?

BADGER I tried to stick a TV where the sun don’t shine There is a sort of porousness…

OLD LADY DEER

11.

RACCOON He likes to watch me touch myself Wants to know every detail of what I’m thinking about TEENAGE GIRL DEER People like to think I’m vain, like to tell me I’m vain Because I love my body Because I worship it RACCOON Then he said, I’d like to be near you always, if you’ve got the time BADGER Typically, I might find that sort of power disgusting SQUIRREL Some nights I wander around cold and drunk looking for someone to fuck TEENAGE GIRL DEER Girls who never have to pay their own bar tabs…

BADGER A celestial cum-shot. I guess I want it weirder?

RACCOON Early mornings of unstructured grace BIRD I want pairs of hands that speak to me cleanly OLD LADY DEER A part of nature that just keeps pouring and pouring Designed to fit a good thing perfectly Alice has somehow disappeared. The now dried, still drying cast of Alice’s leg rests against the table SQUIRREL In grade four I started my own business I drew comics of people fucking and they weren’t just people they were teachers And teachers were fucking teachers and teachers were fucking children I didn’t know, I didn’t knowEverybody’s just a person!

And I sold subscriptions for 50 cents and this became quite profitable I put them in peoples lockers I got caught-

12.

Obviously, I got caught I got in lots of trouble They couldn’t understand how I was coming up with all this. And I don’t know, I don’t even know…

I knew it was wrong.

I liked knowing I was wrong

............

Pearl alone at her table.

She’s hunched over something, the freshly skinned hide of a fox. She wears a little head lamp and glasses.

With scalpel, borax, a small wire brush and her fingers - she meticulously fleshes the skin.

Every so often Pearl moves the skin, sliding it taught over a beam.

Maybe the lights flicker like a ghost or a ghost film or an outside window shadow dance.

We hear music: an empty accordion Slowly, warmly, the animals are illuminated.

Old Lady Deer plays the accordion. She faces the audience.

The other animals watch her, transfixed.

Pearl doesn’t notice Pearl never looks up from her table Old Lady Deer finishes playing her song as:

13.

A phone rings.

A rotary phone rings Teenage girl deer picks it up.

TEENAGE GIRL DEER

Yeah.

No, I’m in the tub Soak fitting my jeans My levi’s jeans 501, charcoal black Put your legs in your jeans in your tub I don’t know, the beatniks did it You like, soak in the tub They like, huuuug to your curse Hug to your curves Shape to your shape My ass is my curse cuz I got a fat ass No, girl, I haven’t been fucking anybody…

If I was a guy I’d get so many girls pregnant I’d fuck so many girls and get so many girls pregnant.

I wish I could get myself pregnant.

Yeah.

One time I walked in on my mom in the bathroom, crying all pathetic Like butt ass naked, bare ass naked Wet hair Tits sagging like bent over belly Holding her head, rocking, crying cuz she fell cuz she slipped Then she looked up at me like tears streaming down her face and she yells at me to get out she yells at me to go away like I was the slip that she slipped on, like I was the cramp in her style And her pussy and her pussy hair was long And I liked seeing her naked Cuz that’s my mom Pearl stands.

She takes the phone out of teenage girl deer’s hoof