Metal Children: A Play - Softcover

Rapp, Adam

 
9780865479241: Metal Children: A Play
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0865479240 ISBN 13: 9780865479241
Verlag: FSG Adult, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

A play about fiction's power to both divide and unite, from Pulitzer finalist Adam Rapp

In small-town America, a young adult novel about teen pregnancy is banned by the local school board, igniting a fierce and violent debate over abortion, religious beliefs, and modern feminism. Its directionless New York City author arrives in town to defend the book and finds that it has inspired a group of local teens to rebel in strange and unexpected ways. A timely and unforgettable drama about the failure of urban and heartland America to understand each other, The Metal Children explores what happens when fiction becomes a matter of life and death.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Adam Rapp is an OBIE Award-winning playwright and director, as well as a novelist, filmmaker, actor, and musician. His play The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois had its world première last month at South Coast Repertory. His other plays include Red Light Winter (Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association, a Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best New Play, two OBIE Awards, and was named a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize), Blackbird, The Metal Children, Finer Noble Gases, Through The Yellow Hour, The Hallway Trilogy, Nocturne, Ghosts in the Cottonwoods, Animals and Plants, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Faster, Gompers, Essential Self-Defense, American Slingo, and Kindness. For film, he wrote the screenplay for Winter Passing; and recently directed Loitering with Intent. Rapp has been the recipient of the 1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, a 2000 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the 2001 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and Boston's Elliot Norton Award; and was short-listed for the 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, received the 2006 Princess Grace Statue, a 2007 Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, and the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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The Metal Children

A PlayBy Adam Rapp

Faber & Faber

Copyright © 2010 Adam Rapp
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780865479241
Metal Children, The
ACT I
SCENE 1
A one-bedroom apartment in the West Village that looks as if a bookmobile and a roving, high-speed Salvation Army float had collided on top of some tasteful Pottery Barn furniture. A small kitchen nook with a counter that divides it from the living space. There is a barely functioning fish tank, with one live fish and at least one dead one. There are also a few expired plants and scores of makeshift ashtrays scattered here and there. At one time, it was probably a pretty nice apartment.

 
TOBIN FALMOUTH, late thirties, is seated on his congested sofa in the living room. A camcorder has been set up in front of him, and he is clutching a piece of paper. He wears boxer shorts, mismatched socks, a stained white T-shirt, and an old, light blue terry cloth bathrobe. His hair is a mess. He needs a shave. He regards the camcorder for a moment, clears his throat, and then begins to read from the piece of paper.

 
TOBIN Um, Hi. My name is Tobin Falmouth. I am talking to you from my apartment in New York City. I apologize for the mess. With regard to my current state, lately things have been a little, well, “shoddy” would be the word, I suppose. Shoddy at best.
I am the author of The Metal Children, a young adult novel that was published by Frontage Road Press in 1997. It’s my second published novel, the second of four. It has recently been brought to my attention that certain members of your community have taken issue with my book. I am aware of the events of a recent school board meeting at which a disgruntled student read some carefully selected quotes in front of your five-member committee.
The bathroom door is flung open, and BRUNO BINELLI, TOBIN’s agent, storms out. He is in his mid-forties, a feisty gay Italian American. He wears a nice suit and tie, nice shoes, a good haircut.

 
BRUNO I’ve felt more passion from a can opener. At least pretend like you have a point of view.
TOBIN Who are you all of a sudden—Uta Hagen?
BRUNO Tobin, do you have any idea what this might mean to these people? The least you could do is read it with a shred of enthusiasm.
TOBIN But I didn’t even write it.
BRUNO What, my prose isn’t fucking purple enough for you? TOBIN Your prose is fine, Bruno. It’s just—I don’t know—I’m not an actor.
BRUNO You don’t have to be a fucking actor; you just have to fucking mean it. And don’t apologize for the messy apartment; you’re a novelist.

 
BRUNO exits to the bathroom. TOBIN resets the camera, begins.
TOBIN (with slightly more feeling) Hi. My name is Tobin Falmouth. I am talking to you from my apartment in New York City. As you can see, I am a profound slob. But according to my well-groomed agent, who is currently sweltering in my three-by-five bathroom, this should be of no consequence because I am a novelist.
BRUNO (from behind the bathroom door) I’m editing that!
TOBIN (barreling on) In fact, I am the author of The Metal Children, a young adult novel that was published by Frontage Road Press in 1997. I can also make origami cranes, a rather potent mint julep, and a halfway decent western omelet, but I digress. Back to the script …
The Metal Children was my second published novel, the second of four in a mildly uneventful, slightly depressing career riddled with artistic impotence. Just kidding. (back on the script) It has recently been brought to my attention that certain members of your community have taken issue with The Metal Children. I am aware of the events of a recent school board meeting at which a disgruntled student read some carefully selected quotes in front of your five-member committee. I also learned that upon hearing the quoted material, albeit out of context, the committee decided that the book be immediately struck from the curriculum and that without following proper procedure, several paperback copies of The Metal Children were then confiscated from readers, taken out of classrooms, seized from library shelves, and placed in a sealed vault. (to BRUNO) Nice peppering of active verbs!
(back to the script) I am speaking to you now so that I may shed some light on what my intentions were in writing the novel. First I must say that I have never considered myself to be—
The buzzer sounds. TOBIN stops the camcorder, crosses to his intercom, answers.

 
TOBIN Hello?
VOICE (VO) It’s Kong.

 
TOBIN buzzes KONG in. BRUNO enters from the bathroom.

 
BRUNO Kong?
TOBIN Relax. This’ll just take a sec.

 
A knock on the door. TOBIN crosses, opens the door. KONG, a somewhat androgynous white teen, dressed like a hip-hop skater punk, enters, carrying a book bag. He eases into the room a bit suspicious of BRUNO.

 
TOBIN That’s Bruno. He’s my agent. (to BRUNO) Bruno, Kong.
BRUNO Hidy.
KONG (to TOBIN) Why you got a agent—you a actor?
TOBIN Writer.
KONG Word?
BRUNO Several hundred thousand words, actually.
From his book bag, KONG removes several small, multicolored terrariums of high-quality hydroponic marijuana, sets them on the floor.

 
KONG What kinda stuff you write?
BRUNO He writes very powerful and provocative novels.
KONG A novel’s like a book, right?
BRUNO A published work of fiction, yes.

 
TOBIN picks up each terrarium, turning it in the light, studying their crystals, etc. BRUNO watches the proceedings suspiciously.

 
KONG (referring to one of the terrariums) That’s the hoobily-doobily right there, yo. Smell it.

 
TOBIN removes the top, smells it.

 
KONG What about you, B.?
BRUNO What about me?
KONG You like the hoobily-doobily?
TOBIN I’ll take this one.
KONG Word.

 
KONG goes to work retrieving the other terrariums, putting them back in his book bag. TOBIN produces eighty dollars. KONG counts it quickly.

 
KONG Thanks, yo. I’m out. (to BRUNO) Nice to meet you, Pluto.
BRUNO Bruno.
KONG I mean Bruno.

 
KONG exits. BRUNO is shaking his head.

 
TOBIN What?
BRUNO The hoobily-doobily? No wonder you’re nine months late on the new book.
TOBIN Look, Bruno, I...

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Verlag
FSG Adult
Erscheinungsdatum
2010
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0865479240
ISBN 13 
9780865479241
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
124
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Uwe Hübener
26632959738
uhuebener@gmx.de

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