art girl: unscripted

a hallway. brick and tile. paintings no one looks closely at, even though they’ve hung for years. even though one is a neon mint green canvas with a black elephant on it, painted over with silver polka dots the size of your fist. a group of young adults, chatting. it feels like maybe you've been here before.

ART GIRL

my show was postponed.

LAUNDRY BOY

what?

ENGLISH BOY

laura told me.

LAUNDRY BOY

with a whine like a child sliding down a stair rail and sticking

but I wanted to seeeeee it.

LAUNDRY BOY holds blue spaghetti o's in his eyes. ENGLISH BOY looks confused and a little angry. ENGLISH BOY unfolds his arms.

hugs, one after the other.

_____________________

the last day of november. a sidewalk. looks like fall, feels like fall to the footsteps approaching. feels like spring to the heart that belongs to the ears listening to the footsteps approaching.

CURLY BOY

psst.

ART GIRL

in lowercase

oh.

hi.

CURLY BOY

are you okay?

ART GIRL

yes.

CURLY BOY

with footsteps approaching a new building

great job today.

ART GIRL

I thought of you when I read, the name of the lord is a strong tower. first I cried because the righteous run into him and they are safe. and I felt safe. safe from failure. and then I wondered what ways he may have placed strong in my life, in that moment, in that day.

and I thought of you, in the middle of two doors, on your way to church, catching me at the perfect moment, twenty feet from my home. and you put your hand on my spine and I could feel it all the way through my body and you hugged me and you felt strong. I didn’t know I was feeling God in you. the stillness of God. the peace of God. the comfort.

and then you watched me all the way out the door. watched me cry against my rejected canvasses. wanted to see what I was carrying but needed to leave. watched me with the face that watches a heartbreak happening in front of them.

and I wanted to say thank you, in a way, but...not thank you. because it’s more than a thank you, it’s a planetary gratitude for your existence. and the way God put art and strength inside you and allowed me to see it.

CURLY BOY is gone

_____________________

ART GIRL

to the painting behind the sink

I've never wanted to fail before. I've always wanted to be the best. but now I just want to be different. I want it to be so bad it's good. so bad that it's not about what it is anymore, it's about what it took to get there.

PAINTING BEHIND THE SINK

I'm three layers of mistakes.

_____________________

LAUNDRY BOY

I don't want to go to playwriting.

ART GIRL

shouted down the hall

why, because your work is garbage?

LOVEY GIRL

with an exhale holding both dejection and lovability like they are two lost kittens

how do I heal you?

_____________________

ART GIRL

ringing an orange through the rhyme like it’s a juicer

is that matt?

SMILE BOY

in the manner of his name

it is. how are you?

ART GIRL

okay. but also not well.

a generic pause.

what are you doing?

SMILE BOY

on my way to class.

ART GIRL

playwriting?

smile boy nods. smiles.

I’ve seen a lot of people on their way to that class. It seems like some of them don't want to go.

SMILE BOY

as if maybe his name is SHRUG BOY

I like it. I have fun. and I am paying for it, so I figure, why not go.

you?

ART GIRL

back to my room. to finish a presentation.

smile boy crossed the street sentences ago. now leans against the short staircase rail that is directly perpendicular to his route. out of his way.

SMILE BOY

is this the outfit for the day? renaissance fashion to class?

ART GIRL

smiling herself

no, we had a performance this morning.

ART GIRL

a bit like a waterfall

my art show is cancelled. postponed. that’s why I am not doing well. they think it isn’t good enough. not that it isn’t good, but that it should be better.

SMILE BOY

I like your art.

ART GIRL

I see my art in your teeth. I wanted to add you to my project, actually. and the way you’re like a stick of celery, kind of. also a rubber band. because...celery and rubber bands aren’t ashamed of what they are. a celery stick will show up to anything and have a good time. a rubber band is useful in every situation it finds itself in. and both of them are usually smiling. I’ve never seen a celery stick have a bad day. or be with someone it didn’t want to talk to. or find itself somewhere it couldn't enjoy.

SMILE BOY is gone

_____________________

ART GIRL

to the wall

maybe I don't want an art degree, okay? maybe I've noticed that the people who hold them don't appreciate and play as much as those who are just studying it. the people living it. maybe I don't want to grow cold to art. and forget. forget how it lives in everything and plays with everyone. maybe I don't want to think that painting is better than poetry or that printmaking doesn't count. maybe I just want to lean into all of them and mess up the styles and modge podge them together.

silence. ART GIRL contemplates hating modge podge for its "sophomoric" quality. realizes her mistake.

yeah, I said it. modge podge. modge podge is like mud. I think they'd be friends. modge podge on my hands. mud on my feet.

_____________________

a residence hallway. people sleeping in beds behind doors that are behind even bolder doors. the doors are opaque, but not deceptive.

MORNING GIRL

hi.

ART GIRL

headed to class?

MORNING GIRL nods

are you going to playwriting too?

MORNING GIRL

smiling as if she read about playwriting in the newspaper

no, it's a different class. how are you?

ART GIRL

I'm doing okay. I'm going to work on a presentation I have in an hour.

ART GIRL lies without realizing. ART GIRL actually spends the next hour of her life in her own playwriting class.

ART GIRL

I hope your class goes well and isn't boring.

MORNING GIRL

It don't think it will be boring.

ART GIRL

I wish I had paid more attention to you when we first met because I didn't realize how much imagery you are capable of, to me. did I say that too abstractly? I guess I might just say it this way, that you're beautiful, in a flowing type of way from 1970 and I can't believe we wore matching bell bottoms to a party one time just because it came up in conversation. I can't believe that I'm that lucky, that we're that lucky, to have met and talked and made something happen just by being in the same room. that's what energy does, zipping around like tinkerbell's pixie dust and suddenly things glow.

lucky, I think that's a good word for you. lucky, sunny, morning, does that make sense? not that you have a lucky life, but that you seem like a charm of some sort--and there's that side to you as well. charm-like, mysterious. like there's something in you that people can't quite find a way to describe. a bookish type of mystery, like starting every sentence of a poem with a different letter and all those letters make a message when you put them together.

I'm a little torn, because on the one hand I wish I'd spent more time trying to read that poem, but on the other hand I like that there is a mystery there.

lucky, wish, sunny, charm, morning, mystery.

MORNING GIRL is gone.

_____________________

ART GIRL

to the bedsheets

thank you for being sweet. and strong. when I woke up.

tilts her head to the left. squints.

ART GIRL to jesus

thank you for being sweet. and strong. when I woke up.

everything just felt like it was in the right spot. my body was hollow, almost. like a canoe with no one in it on a cloudless lake. and that's how it felt. and I didn't hate work. I followed the smells around. and when I got home I looked in the mirror and I was surprised, in a nice way. like I came home to a five stemmed impulse bundle of roses. so I put blush on, I felt like I should. I felt like I should leave my eyes alone and put blush on. and I did and I loved it and I love what you made for me. I love that I don't always love it but you give me days that I want to love blush and rosy things. and days that I want to look a little bit like a strawbale. and how I said I wanted to wear my silly green bucket hat today and you gave me the perfect messy cantankerous sleep spiked bangs this morning and I rolled my eyes because they weren't curly but you knew the whole time how happy they'd make me as bucket hat bangs.

ART GIRL

late to class but realizing

you can't rush it. you have to live in it and don't rush it. you have to love it like you love thrift shopping. it's an escape and not a deadline. don't treat it like a deadline. treat the mistakes like your bucket hat. pull them out on rainy days and write.

CHARCOAL GIRL walks into the room in a manner of style undocumented because ART GIRL wasn't watching

CHARCOAL GIRL

noticing that ART GIRL isn't wearing a shirt

what shirt are you going to wear?

ART GIRL

I hadn't decided yet.

CHARCOAL GIRL

are you still going to be wearing your hat?

ART GIRL

yes.

CHARCOAL GIRL

want me to go pick out a shirt for you?

ART GIRL

YES

ART GIRL doubts CHARCOAL GIRL knows how happy she's made ART GIRL

_____________________

a space between two sets of doors is called a vestibule.

ART GIRL

are you home? can you come let me in?

echoes issue from the phone

it doesn't sound like you are home.

toilet flushes. COMIC BOOK BOY laughs.

COMIC BOOK BOY

yeah, I'll come let you in.

several people pass by in the time it takes COMIC BOOK BOY to reach the door, eliminating the need for the call. he arrives anyway.

COMIC BOOK BOY

what's going on?

ART GIRL is visibly amused by the phone call

COMIC BOOK BOY

yeah, I think I'm funny.

ART GIRL

anyway, not much. just heading back to my room.

COMIC BOOK BOY

I've got so much going on.

COMIC BOOK BOY's body language says that he likes talking with ART GIRL, thrives on the spontaneity of a simple request at the right time. ART GIRL likes to live in spontaneity and thinks about asking COMIC BOOK BOY if he wants to get lunch. doesn't.

_____________________

ART GIRL

to the discarded art

I think it has to do with the format, the formalities, the balance between playing and professionalism. that's what they said. they didn't like the canvasses. they liked the work. just not the canvasses. so I change it.

how do I change it, again?

I hate professionalism. I want to play with my art instead, as an act of defiance. but after everything I did, they could see pencil lines where I traced the photos I had glued on. they noticed the lines weren't straight. I tried to make them straight. square. it didn't work. never does. and the worst thing is, I knew it wasn’t working.

LAURA'S PIECE

fuck professionalism.

ART GIRL is not as surprised as she should be, perhaps, that the pieces can talk.

ART GIRL

I know, I know. I want to make something that's me, but not. a reflection of the people, but something inspiring, something that speaks to everyone, not just the people it's about.

LAURA'S PIECE

shit, write a play about it. not like you didn't already do that.

ART GIRL

I mean, yeah. it does feel good to think about it in a different format. because somehow, somewhere, I chose to put it on canvas and because of that it wasn't art.

SONIA'S PIECE

but it is art. and it's not on you to be something you're not for someone else. you have to believe that your work is valuable.

ELLEN'S PIECE

they said they liked the colors. and the concept. and the photos. they didn't get the poems, but they really did like my honeycombs.

DEVON'S PIECE

personally, I love the honeycombs.

ART GIRL

yeah, cause I felt like that was authentic, like that was ellen. like that worked. and I felt like I was resting and not rushing in the embroidery.

SONIA'S PIECE

resting. not rushing.

ART GIRL

I think, with more time, it could be like that. I think it will be restful over rushed. but I don't know what else to do.

DEVON'S PIECE

I don‘t know, I love all of it. I know they want it to be better, but I think it was perfect.

ART GIRL

that's what everyone keeps saying, but I see it now. I see what they were saying and I want it to be...better.

ELLEN'S PIECE

I think it will come to you, eventually. it always does, and I like how you want it to be brilliant and have it be your best work, too.

SONIA'S PIECE

it's going to be so amazing. it already is, but you are amazing, so I know it will be wonderful.

ART GIRL

I'm just tired of putting in so much work for nothing.

ELIJAH'S PIECE

It's not for nothing. it never is.

a pause. ELIJAH'S PIECE gathers its thoughts.

I think you could do more. not in a bad way, but I think you will do more. but I also think it's great already.

ART GIRL is clearly having a Ruby moment.

LAURA'S PIECE

what the fuck is happening right now?

_____________________

CAST

ART GIRL: not sure how to define herself out of body. usually sticks to poetry for its forgiving "I" and "my" and "we" and "our." not much of a "she" kind of artist. but today she is.

CURLY BOY: like he intends to make cinnamon rolls in the afternoon and is already thinking sweet thoughts. like you were intending to make cinnamon rolls, and didn't, and left the oven on in your own house before a road trip with him, and you're at a stoplight in a small city an hour away, and he's driving, and you remember, and he says "do you want to go back?"

LAUNDRY BOY: more of a dryer than a washer, I think. warm hearted and tumbling around inside. in a happy way. do you think a dryer would ever be sad? or would that be the washer? what if there was a third type of laundry machine? but ask anyone to choose between a washer and a dryer to mean sad and happy. which one is blue, and which one is yellow? wet is cold is blue is sad. dry is warm is yellow is happy. can a person be both?

ENGLISH BOY: seems to be a bit italicized, most of the time. thinks about a lot of things, like shapes and colors and websites and the music staves. CMYK. the printer colors. cyan, magenta, yellow, key. the K stands for key, which means black.

LOVEY GIRL: extremely knowable. liveable. wearable. like a pair of leather loafers your grandfather has worn for years and now fits perfectly. loafers that you can't really say what color they are, because they're brown, but different shades of brown. mahogany, originally. but also a soft tawny in some spots, deep brown down at the toes. liveable. like she would read a whole paragraph about different shades of brown if you wrote it. like she lived in the eyes of a puppy you had growing up. well known. you know her. you see her in other people because of it.

SMILEY BOY: always wants to be where he is. seemingly. it is difficult to tell what he is actually thinking about, but he has a story to tell. a perpetual story that is untold that starts every time you say hello again, except the story doesn't stop when you're not there. it's like a choose your own adventure book, and he's an equal opportunity adventurer. so you read and he tells and it's not just you choosing, you're choosing together, and then you're adventuring together, and suddenly there's a dragon but you both choose to turn into green army men and you win the battle, not by killing the dragon with your guns but by remaining so still and small that it can't find you, even when you chant insults at it, and it's really just that simple.

MORNING GIRL: carries something with her everywhere that she can't take off. at first I thought maybe it was a secret, but it's not. she'll tell you things if you ask her. it's not a secret, but it's still a mystery, and a pretty one, like a butterfly on her back, between her shoulder blades, like if you got to know her better than your own voice, the butterfly would peel off like the thin film that makes photos shiny and flutter in front of you. she doesn't know how pretty she is.

CHARCOAL GIRL: stunning in absolutely every sense of the word. arresting, even. does everything in style, like a fashion magazine. glossy pages, perfume ads every once in a while. flawless like a close-up macro model photograph. but guarded, as models are. have you ever seen a model cry?

COMIC BOOK BOY: walks into the room like a comic book character does. not that they ever walk, the superheroes that he likes. it's always pop! and bang! and whack! and that's the way they do it. he likes that feeling, pop! and he's part of the conversation bang! and he is the conversation, and whack! and he's sent it over to you, look at him go, light on his feet, darting and dancing with the pieces and the punches and the people and the words. but sometimes that sizzle! is too much and the wrong reader gets singed through the page.

ENSEMBLE

LAURA'S PIECE wants to be more outspoken, wacky, and elegant all the same. SONIA'S PIECE should have more open space.

DEVON'S PIECE needs to be heartbreaking.

ELLEN'S PIECE is bright but can easily be brilliant.

ELIJAH'S PIECE should be deep, reflective, inspiring.