Serio-Comic Play — Two Small Sets — 2 Actors
Description: Him and Her create a perfert internet relationship, until they fall in love.
Synopsis: After meeting during an online jazz discussion, Him and Her set up a private chat room. They test each other out, trying to decide if they want to connect. Him, influenced by his fascination with Plato, proposes that they create a perfect relationship together. Because they will never see or hear each other, they can become the people they want to be, not the people they have to be. They share each other’s ideal (fake) physical appearance, and their Internet relationship begins.
At first Him and Her dance to jazz and exchange poetry. It is fun. But when a shooting happens below her window, Her forces Him to reveal one flawed piece about himself. And pretty soon, week by week, they begin to share more and more details about themselves. As their relationship becomes more intimate, they must also decide whether it should become real. And so they arrange to meet halfway in Omaha…
Why It Was Written: Back in the days when you had to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to America Online, I was a semi-avid participant in playwriting chat rooms. The words that appeared on screen reminded me of jazz, as the words flowed semi-randomly around various subjects when people responded to each other in the chat room. The words also looked like the script of an improvised play.
So I wrote this two character piece that incorporates jazz and technology. It also fiddles with identity, so the casting possibilities for Him and Her are wide open. I developed this play while I was a Core Member at the Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, and later through a reading at Abingdon Theatre in New York City.
Excerpt Published In: The Playwrights’ Center: Monologues for Men
Read the First Ten Pages: Script Sample
