In the Shadow of his Language Trailer

This is a preview of my full-length play, In the Shadow of his Language, which will have its first public staged reading on May 30th, 2012 at Ohio University.

            In the Shadow of his Language Trailer
            By Jacob Juntunen

MRS. O’CONNOR addresses the audience. DIDI and RICHARD sit facing each other.

            MRS. O’CONNOR
(South Boston accent) My daughter, Didi, is the first of us to go to college. She’s fucking brilliant.

            RICHARD
(RP UK accent) This sentence needs to be buried in an unmarked grave at midnight.

            DIDI
(South Boston accent) Well, a student’s work must reflect her teacher’s skill—

            RICHARD
Our two weeks together is the cause of this abortion?

            DIDI
If you read it more generously—

            MRS. O’CONNOR
I ain’t saying she didn’t have no trouble her first year…

            DIDI
I can’t fail this class.

            RICHARD
Of course you can.

            DIDI
If I get an F, I lose my financial aid.

            RICHARD
Perhaps you’d like to use our office phone to call your parents and have them come pick you up?

            MRS. O’CONNOR
But she’s got this teacher helping her.

            RICHARD
One more thing. Who’s Didi, Miss O’Connor?

            DIDI
Um. That’s me.

            RICHARD
I noticed it said that on your paper. But Didi is a poodle, Miss O’Connor, not a university scholar.

            MRS. O’CONNOR
He made her change her name. And she talks real funny now. Like she’s on TV. But... I guess that’s success, you know?

            DEIRDRE
(American Standard) Why did you do this to me?

            RICHARD
Teach you? Prepare you? Enlighten—

            DEIRDRE
I try to show you what I’m up against and you just scurry back to this vault.

            RICHARD
I don’t allow anyone to speak to me like that anymore—

            DEIRDRE
But you leave the door open a crack just to make sure we can’t ever have a real conversation.

            RICHARD
That is the legal reality of the times Miss O’Connor—

            DEIRDRE
Call me Deirdre. You made me change it. Let me hear you say it. Just once.

            RICHARD
Miss O’Connor—

            DEIRDRE
You can’t even say it? (silence) Why did you put me put me up to this? Was it just to laugh at me?

            MRS. O’CONNOR
Anyway, she’s doing real good.

 Read full lengths by Jacob Juntunen here!

           

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