We Were Stardust by Michael Druce

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This Play is the copyright of the Author and may not be performed, copied or sold without the Author's prior consent

WE WERE STARDUST

ACT I
Fall 1967 to Summer 1969

Houselights fade. The apartment. An easily recognizable sixties rock
anthem blares out. SIMON, CHASE, and ERIKA enter in the blackout and
sit. Lights Up. ERIKA is seated on the loveseat by herself, SIMON is
sitting right, and CHASE is playing an air guitar to the music blaring
from the stereo. TODD enters and turns off the stereo, the needle
skipping noisily across the vinyl album.

TODD: Alright, enough, enough! Some of us are trying to think.

CHASE: Far out! Is this great, or what? College, our own apartment. No
parents, no rules. No cleaning up after ourselves. From now on we
can be completely irresponsible. The class of 1967 is finally free.
Free at last, free at last.

ERIKA: You're being disrespectful, Chase. That is not the kind of
freedom Martin Luther King was talking about.

CHASE: I wasn't being disrespectful.

ERIKA: Freedom requires maturity and responsibility, not
irresponsibility.

CHASE: (To SIMON.) What's her problem?

SIMON: She's pouting.

ERIKA: I am not. I don't pout, I sulk.

CHASE: All right, Erika, I don't want to ask, but I know you want me
to. Why are you sulking?

ERIKA: While you three are enjoying your freedom, what about me? What
about my freedom? Why can't I share the apartment as well? Haven't
we always said we're the
four musketeers? Isn't that why we all came to the same college? All
for one, one for all?

SIMON: I hate that stupid musketeers analogy.

TODD: Historically speaking, women weren't allowed to be
musketeers.

ERIKA: Shut up, Todd, you're beginning to sound like that guy with
the ears on that space show.

TODD: That guy with the ears is Spock, my personal hero and role
model.

ERIKA: What happened to you guys? You used to be pretty decent, but
now you're nothing but—sexists.

CHASE: Now don't go burning your bra.

SIMON: How are we being sexist? It's only a three bedroom apartment.
Where would you sleep?

ERIKA: Two of you could double up, or one of you could share your room
with me.

CHASE, SIMON and TODD: (Simultaneously.) No!

ERIKA: I could sleep here on the couch.

CHASE: That won't work.

ERIKA: Why not?

TODD: Well-think of your parents. What would they say?

ERIKA: They wouldn't say anything, because I wouldn't tell them.

SIMON: The manager will know, and she's not going to let a girl live
with three guys.

ERIKA: It worked for Snow White, and there were seven of them.

CHASE: True, but you're not-

ERIKA: Don't say it, Chase, otherwise you'll be singing an octave
higher.

SIMON: Erika, be reasonable. This doesn't change the-
(Reluctantly)—the musketeers. We're still together, just like high
school. The only difference is instead of all living on the same
street, the three of us live off campus and you live—

ERIKA: In a roach infested dump that has an eleven o'clock curfew on
week nights and a midnight curfew on weekends, which is completely
sexist because the guys don't have a curfew at all.

TODD: You can come over whenever you want. (CHASE glares at TODD.)
Well, almost whenever, except when Star Trek is on. (Exits.)

CHASE: And Batman. (Exits.)

SIMON: And The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

ERIKA: (Facetiously.) Thanks. (Exits.)

SIMON: We're kidding. You can come over whenever you want.
Nothing's gonna change.

Music. Apartment lights fade. SIMON crosses down center, speaking
directly to the audience. We are in the present.

SIMON: Everything changed. When I began college in the fall of 1967, I
still hadn't completely crawled out from under that rock known as
high school. Looking back, I see how naive I was. I really believed
everything and everyone would stay the same. By the time I graduated
in the spring of 1971, nothing was the same. I felt as if I had been
on a roller coaster. It had been wild and crazy and sometimes a little
scary. Those of us who came through the sixties remember them for all
kinds of reasons. For me, it really wasn't about Vietnam or
politics, it was Annie. She was the center of my universe, and it was
around her everything would turn. These are my memories of those
times. What I didn't experience personally, I found out about later.
And some of it, I guess I imagined what happened and what was said.
Some of my memories are a little hazy and out of sync, some are
memories within memories, and some—even still—cut a little too
close.

Lights change back to the past. SIMON steps back. A group of peace
PROTESTORS, some carrying signs, enters from stage right chanting.

PROTESTORS: Hell, no, we won't go. (This is repeated until they are
dispersed.)

As the protestors continue to chant, a group of DEMONSTRATORS from
stage left enters with signs supporting America. ANNIE and WILL are in
this group. ANNIE is carrying a sign.

DEMONSTRATORS: America, love it or leave it. (They repeat themselves
until dispersed.)

The TWO GROUPS confront each other. The chanting builds in tension,
but there is no fighting or physical contact. Offstage, a megaphone
bellows.

OFFSTAGE SPEAKER: You must leave immediately. This is an illegal
gathering. Unless you depart immediately, you are subject to arrest.
The police have been notified. You will be placed under arrest.

The TWO GROUPS pour into each other in an attempt to flee. In the
rush, ANNIE and SIMON collide. SIMON is struck in the head by the sign
ANNIE is carrying. The PROTESTORS and DEMONSTRATORS exit as the
following exchange between SIMON and ANNIE takes place. WILL stands
near ANNIE.

SIMON: (Covering his forehead.) Oh, ow!

ANNIE: Oh, sorry. Sorry. Are you alright?

SIMON: Yes, I think so.

ANNIE: Are you sure?

SIMON: I'm alright, forget it. (Hardly looking at Annie.) I'm
okay.

WILL: (Pulling ANNIE away.) Come on, he said he's alright. (ANNIE
and WILL exit.)

SIMON: (Totters to the bench left of center and sits, holding his
head.)

BETH: (Emerging from the confusion, BETH goes to SIMON and sits next
to him. BETH is all business.) Here, let me have a look at that.
(Examines the wound. Opens a small first aid kit and removes a cloth
and an adhesive bandage.)

SIMON: Are you a nurse? (BETH attempts to wipe the wound.) Ouch! That
hurts.

BETH: Just let me look. Yes, I'm a nurse. It looks worse than it is.
Other than a little scar, you'll live. (Applying a bandage.)

SIMON: That's good.

BETH: You ought to know better. Nothing good comes of stuff like this.
I need a name.

SIMON: What? (Suddenly defensive.) I'm not here to protest. I was—

BETH: It's for the infirmary, not the feds. Whenever we dispense aid
on campus, we're required to get a name.

SIMON: I'm a reporter for the campus news. This is my first
assignment.

BETH: Good for you. I still need a name.

SIMON: Simon Gray.

BETH: Simon Gray? (Writing on a small notepad.) The Simon Gray?

SIMON: What do you mean, the?

BETH: The Simon Gray who shares an apartment with Chase Wilson and
Todd Baxter?

SIMON: You know Chase and Todd?

BETH: Chase is my cousin.

SIMON: Oh, sure. You're Beth.

BETH: That's me. Look, tell Chase I've been meaning to drop by,
but studying and working at the clinic keep me pretty busy, but I
will. You'll be okay?

SIMON: I think so, sure. Thanks.

BETH: (Moving left.) Don't forget, tell Chase I'll call.

SIMON: Beth?

BETH: Yes?

SIMON: (Rises and crosses to BETH.) Look, I don't want you to think
I'm being forward, but maybe we could get together some time.

BETH: That's very-sweet—of you, but like I said, between school
and my work at the clinic, I don't think I'd have the time.

SIMON: (Disappointed.) Oh.

BETH: It's not personal. This is my last year. I graduate at the end
of the semester, and then I'm off to Vietnam, so I'm not looking
to get involved.

SIMON: You're going to Vietnam? (BETH nods.) Really?

BETH: Yes, I really am. Is there something wrong with that?

SIMON: No, it's just that everyone I know is trying to get out of
going. Maybe the war will end soon and you won't have to go.

BETH: Maybe. I hope so.

SIMON: Then why go?

BETH: (Not wanting to discuss her reasons.) Look, I've got to move.
It was nice to meet you. Drop by the clinic some time and I'll check
your vitals. (Exits left.)

SIMON: See you. (Lights fade. SIMON crosses down center. We are in the
present. To the audience.) When we began college, the Summer of Love
had just ended. The Summer of Love was about being yourself and
freedom, which is why getting an apartment off campus was a big deal.
That summer was the summer of Haight-Ashbury, the San Francisco sound,
and free-love. Everywhere you turned, love was in the air, but not the
air I was breathing, at least not yet.

Music. SIMON crosses to the apartment. CHASE, TODD and ERKIA enter.

CHASE: (To SIMON.) I can't believe you. You tried to hit on my
cousin? My cousin?

ERIKA: Isn't she a senior?

TODD: She is? Wow, that would make her-very mature.

SIMON: Is that what she said? She said I tried to hit on her?

CHASE: She said you said, "Maybe we could get together sometime."

SIMON: That's it? That's all she said?

CHASE: Then she laughed hysterically.

TODD: The laugh of an older woman. That's such a turn on.

SIMON: (Disappointed.)

CHASE: Simon, she's four years older than you.

SIMON: So? What difference does that make?

ERIKA: A young guy and an older woman doesn't play well.

SIMON: (To the audience.) In two months The Graduate will open and
become the most talked about film of the year. Here's to you, Mrs.
Robinson.

CHASE: Simon, I'm sorry your love life has been in the toilet since
you were—well-at least since I've known you, but she's my
cousin, and that's all I'm gonna say about it.

SIMON: She really laughed?

CHASE: (Feeling bad about what he has said.) No, she didn't laugh,
she just smiled and said she thought you were cute.

SIMON: Yeah, well that's the story of my life. Cute, but no cigar.
Do you know that statistically there are two and one-quarter girls for
every guy on this campus?

TODD: I didn't know that.

SIMON: Yeah, well, here's the thing. Since the beginning of school
Chase has met four girls, I've met none, so where's my half?

ERIKA: You are perverse.

CHASE: I think we know the answer. I mean, you're like the Grim
Reaper of dating. You've got bad karma.

SIMON: How can say you that?

CHASE: Let's see, there was that one girl you accidentally locked in
the trunk of your car. What was her name?

SIMON: Oh, yeah, Sarah.

CHASE: Sarah. Then there was the one you threw up on at the amusement
park.

SIMON: Carol, but that was on the Tilt-a-Whirl right after lunch. And
it was hot,a very hot day.

CHASE: And then the one you tried to take to the prom, but instead of
pinning the corsage to her dress, she ended up sitting on the corsage
and the pin.

SIMON: That was Jeannie.

CHASE: Now do you understand why I don't want you near my cousin?
You're cursed. She'll be in Vietnam this time next year, so she
doesn't need your bad karma putting the kiss of death on her.

SIMON: It's the curse of Marcy Newton.

ERIKA: Who's Marcy Newton?

SIMON: When I was in junior high, there was this girl named Marcy
Newton. I did something that got me in a lot of trouble. I stole her
underwear out of her gym locker and ran them up the school flag pole.

A special fades up on MARCY NEWTON, who is dressed as a junior high
student.

MARCY: I hate you, Simon Gray, I hate you. Do you hear? I hate you.

SIMON: (To audience.) Marcy hated me.

MARCY: You and your friends always pick on me. What have I ever done
to you?

ERIKA: How come you picked on her?

SIMON: She was easy to pick on. Nobody liked her.

MARCY: One of these days, Simon Gray, you're gonna get yours.
You'll see. (Special
on MARCY fades.)

SIMON: She even wrote in my yearbook: I hope your life is a terrible
as you've made mine. After that, every girl I meet, things are
terrible. It never works out. My love life is a disaster.

ERIKA: You deserved it. You guys really are sexist pigs. Those are the
kinds of attitudes running this university, which is why in thirty
minutes I have a meeting with the dean. (Rising to leave.)

SIMON: I'm sure he'll appreciate that.

ERIKA: For your information, I think I have him talked into allowing
on floor visitations on a trial basis, thank you very much. (Exits
through kitchen.)

CHASE: (To SIMON.) She's about as strange as your Marcy Newton
story.

SIMON: You don't know what it's like. Girls practically throw
themselves at you. When do I get to meet the girl of my dreams?

CHASE: Just because girls throw themselves at me, doesn't mean
I've met the girl of my dreams.

TODD: I haven't met mine.

SIMON: (To TODD.) You I feel sorry for, but you (To CHASE) I don't.
You've had plenty of opportunity.

CHASE: Don't hate me because I'm a stud.

TODD: Maybe I'll meet a gorgeous Amazon tonight at the Jerry Rubin
speech.

SIMON: With your luck she'll turn out to be a cop. (To CHASE.) Are
you and Darlene coming?

CHASE: Patty, not Darlene.

SIMON: Patty, okay. Last I heard, it was Darlene

CHASE: There was a Sally in between. (SIMON and

TODD shake their heads.) I can't help it. It's a gift. (Exits.)

SIMON: Todd, you're the math wiz. Statistically, shouldn't
my-our-chances of meeting someone be improving?

TODD: Statistically yes, but probability-wise, no. (Rising to leave.)
You know there could be something to this Marcy Newton business, only
I can't figure out why it would affect me as well. (Exits.)

SIMON: (To audience.) Okay, so the Marcy Newton thing was a little
weird. I admit it, I was jealous of Chase, but I knew the right girl
was out there somewhere.

[end of extract]

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