“Finally, he tossed his Campbell soup can out the car window and into the garbage can, turned to me, and quietly said, “Why are you trying to make something up? With your history?! You’re the play.”
- Gary Garrison, The Playwright’s Survival Guide
The Guy and someone new – Gary (who we’ll find out about in a minute).
THE GUY
Oh wow.
GARY
Hi.
THE GUY
You’re the guy.
GARY
So are you.
THE GUY
Yeah, I know that. I know. But YOU… you’re…
the GUY.
The guy who wrote the book on my desk.
GARY
So I’m told.
THE GUY
How’d you get here?
GARY
Connections. Those six degrees. Somebody knows somebody knows somebody else.
THE GUY
Right.
GARY
Like those old Prell commercials. “I told two friends. Then they told two friends…”
THE GUY / GARY
“Then they told two friends…”
THE GUY
Gotcha.
GARY
Exactly.
THE GUY
I can’t believe you actually ended up here.
GARY
Stranger things have happened.
THE GUY
True. For you to end up here…
It’s sort of a big deal.
I keep your book on my desk. I guess in the same way other people keep those daily affirmation things on their desks… your book is on mine. Because the first time I read it, seriously, it was like someone had finally said exactly what I needed to hear about being a playwright that made the whole thing… manageable. It had always seemed so impossible and complicated and unknowable to a kid like me from a Podunk town in south Louisiana…. but I read your book and suddenly –
Playwriting was knowable. It was a scalable mountain.
And now here you are.
GARY
Here I am.
THE GUY
Since I’ll probably never see you here again, I just want to say thank you.
GARY
You’re welcome.
THE GUY
The thing that has always stuck with me… “You’re the play.” That idea. I mean, I’m not going to be a cheeseball and suggest that that’s why I wrote any of this (because this came from something else entirely) but every time I sit down to write something I always remind myself to write from something inside myself.
That’s because of you.
GARY
The size of the world. Always impressive, don’t you think? So vast…
THE GUY
… yet not.
GARY
Exactly.
A nice moment. Then Gary goes. Which is fine.
At least I have his book.
The lights go down.
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2 comments:
What's this book on your desk? You can tell alot by what books they have on their desks...coffee tables...in the bathroom...hmmm...I wonder what having the IKEA catalogue on my desk means?
I have Ulysses on my desk right now. I don't know what I'd talk to James Joyce about without having to admit that I don't get his book. I'm changing my mind about I said Friday, I do enjoy reading this book. That's why I'm reading it.
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