5+Minute+Script

Part one (preparation for a gentleman caller)


 * __Scene one__**

__Tom (narration):__ The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building…the scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic…it omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches.

[Tom enters the dining room, Amanda and Laura are seated at the table, Amanda faces the audience]

{Laura rises} __Laura__: I’ll bring the blanc mange

{Tom remains standing with his cigarette by the portiers}

__Amanda:__ Resume your seat, little sister-I want you to stay fresh and pretty- for the gentleman callers!

__Laura:__ I’m not expecting any gentleman callers. {sitting back down}


 * __Scene two__**

__Amanda__: Why? Why? How old are you, Laura?

__Laura:__ Mother you know my age.

__Amanda:__ What are we going to do, what is going to become of us, what is the future? But I stopped off at Rubicam’s College and they didn’t know who you were…Laura, where have you been going when you’ve gone out pretending that you were going to business college?

__Laura__: I’ve just been going out walking.

__Amanda__: Is that the future that we’ve mapped out for our-selves? Of course-some girls do marry. Haven’t you ever liked a boy?

__Laura:__ Yes his name was Jim.

__Amanda:__ Girls that aren’t cut out for business careers usually wind up married to some nice man.

__Laura:__ But mother, I’m crippled!

__Amanda:__ Nonsense Laura, I’ve told you never, to use that word.


 * __Scene three__**

__Tom (narration):__ After the fiasco at Rubicam’s Business college, the idea of getting a gentleman caller for Laura began to play a more important part in mothers calculations.


 * __Scene four__**

{After dinner, Laura leaves stage, only Amanda and Tom are present}

__Tom:__ Mothers obsession grew and she came to me for help.

__Amanda:__ Tom, I-I sent out your sister so I could discuss something with you.

__Tom:__ What is it, mother, that you want to discuss?

__Amanda:__ A few days ago I came in and she was crying…she has an idea that you’re not happy here.

__Tom:__ I know that, mother.

__Amanda:__ But why-why, Tom- are you always so restless? Where do you go, nights?

__Tom__: I go to the movies because- I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much of at work, so I go to the movies.

__Amanda:__ Most young men find adventure in their careers.

__Tom:__ Then most young men are not employed in a warehouse.

__Amanda:__ You’re joking. However, that isn’t what I wanted to discuss…I want to talk about Laura…She just drifts along doing nothing it frightens me terribly how she just drifts along…there’s no such type, and if there is, it’s a pity! That is unless the home is hers, with a husband!

__Tom:__ What do you mean?

__Amanda__: I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent- why, then you’ll be free to go wherever you please.

__Tom:__ What can I do about it?

__Amanda__: Overcome selfishness!...down at the warehouse, aren’t there some-nice young men?...find out one that’s clean-living-doesn’t drink and ask him out for your sister!... will you?

__Tom__: Yes!


 * __Scene five__**

[Later on that night the family gathers for supper. After supper Amanda and Tom step out to the fire escape to converse.]

__Amanda__: I remember suggesting that it would be nice for your sister if you brought home some nice young man from the warehouse. I think I’ve made that suggestion more than once.

__Tom:__ We are going to have one…I’ve asked him to dinner…He’s coming tomorrow.

__Amanda:__ Preparations! Why didn’t you phone me at once, as soon as you asked him, I could have been ready!

__Tom:__ Mother, this boy is no one to make a fuss over.

__Amanda__: Do you realize he’s the first young man we’ve introduced to your sister?

__Tom:__ James Delaney O’Connor…This young man’s position is that of a shipping clerk, mother…one little warning, He doesn’t know about Laura. I just said, why don’t you come and have dinner with us? He said ok.

__Amanda__: He’ll know about Laura when he gets here. When he sees how lovely and sweet and pretty she is.

__Tom:__ Laura seems all those things to you and me because she’s ours and we love her. We don’t even notice she’s crippled.

__Amanda__: Don’t say crippled!

__Tom:__ But face the facts mother, she is…


 * __Scene six__**

__Tom__: And so the following evening I brought Jim home to dinner.

__Laura:__ Mother, you’ve made me so nervous...by all this fuss! You make it seem so important!

__Amanda__: I try to arrange something for you; you seem to always resist it.

__Laura:__ What did you say his name was?

__Amanda__: O’Connor…It was Jim.

__Laura__: Not Jim! Oh, Mother you answer the door! Don’t make me do it.

__Amanda__: You’ll have to go to the door because I can’t. {Tom knocks on the door, Laura opens the door

__Tom:__ Laura, this is Jim. Jim this is my sister Laura.


 * __Scene seven__**

[ It is half an hour later. Dinner is just being finished in the dining room, a moment after the lights in both rooms flicker and go out.]

{says to Jim} __Amanda:__ But sister is all by her lonesome. You go keep her company in the parlor.

{Jim walks towards Laura, holding a candle}

__Jim__: Hello there Laura.

__Laura__: Hello…I don’t suppose- you remember me at all?

__Jim:__ You know I have an idea I’ve seen you before…As I remember you sort of stuck by yourself…I guess being shy is something you have to work out of kind of gradually.

__Laura:__ Yes- I guess it…oh please don’t think I sit around doing nothing! My glass collection takes up a good deal of time.

__Jim__: Laura, you know, if I had a sister like you, I’d do the same thing as Tom. I’d bring out fellows and-introduce her to them. Only- well he made a mistake about me. I can’t call up next week and-ask for a date.

__Laura__: You-won’t-call again?

__Jim__: I go out all the time with a girl named Betty…It happened that Betty’s aunt took sick, she got a wire and had to go to Centralia. So Tom- when he asked me to dinner- I naturally just accepted the invitation not knowing that you- that he- that I…

{Amanda walks in}

__Amanda__: Betty? Betty? Who’s Betty?

__Jim__: We’re going to be married the second Sunday in June.

__Amanda__: Tom didn’t mention that you were engaged to be married…Mr. O’Connor I wish you luck- and happiness- and success…Tom!

{Tom walks in} __Tom:__ yes mother?

__Amanda__: You didn’t mention that he was engaged to be married.

__Tom:__ I didn’t know about that.

__Amanda__: You don’t know things anywhere! You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!

__Tom:__ All right, I will! The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I'll go!

__Tom (narration)__: Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left to Saint Louis.

