Excerpt from Performing & Telling Your Life

Characters:

Narrator’s Voice
Mona
Young Mona

Narrator is speaking in conjunction with the projector showing the quotes then pause for a moment while the image appears

Quote appears on the projector:   “I Think Therefore I Am”  — Rene Descartes

NARRATOR’S VOICE: … ‘I Think Therefore I Am’

          (Image of a girl either being lifted or lowered into a cage, comes on the projector as Narrator speaks.)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “A Bird That Flies Is Always Free” is my narrative, and yet, a human experience. The main voice of my story is from this young innocent child, who grows up on the islands of South Carolina, and then among the humid mountains of Georgia where she dreamed the impossible. Wished upon stars yet to have been discovered. Dreamed for what her young mind could yet to articulate.

(Quote appears on the projector:   

“Dream Like You’ll Live Forever, Live As If You’ll Die Today”

— James Dean.)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “Dream Like You Live Forever, Live As If You’ll Die Today.”

          (Image of a solitary barren bench follows on the projector)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: Mona is sitting over there among her faithful journals that have been with her since she was a small child. They are the friends that held her deepest fears, while engulfing her happiest thoughts among there pages.

(Setting: Mona is sitting at a table or bench writing her inner most thoughts down in her journal as if she was speaking with her younger self. Young Mona is seen reading a book on old Hollywood stars unaware where life will take her.)

MONA: I wish I could go back in time and hug you. You are what I want to be when I grow up! …I miss us. Why did I let what we are get so mixed up with nonsense?

(Quote appears on the projector:  

“The Purpose of Life is to Discover Your Gift, The Meaning of Life is Giving Your Gift Away” — David Viscott )

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “The Purpose of Life is to Discover Your Gift, The Meaning of Life is Giving Your Gift Away.”

          (Image of partial young girl face with the word Sunrise above it comes on the projector.)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: Mona, I wish you could hear me, as you too wish for young Mona. Yet, science has thus far to invent that time machine that would allow us such a feat. But rest assured that she has all your writings to assist and guide her. Oh… you fret Mona over things out of your control. As cliché as this might sound, you do not want to change her path because than your path to will be altered.

          (Setting: MONA is writing faster and more purposeful, if only to throw here words to YOUNGER MONA thru time.)

MONA: Don’t be afraid of your green eyes, they make you more beautiful then you know. Love your smile, because it is all yours. Yes, you walk that path to the left, when everyone is on the right side of the road. But that is just because you see another path. Stay there!

(Quote appears on the projector:  

          “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer, It Sings Because It Has A Song.”)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer, It Sings Because It Has A Song.”

(MONA puts down her pen and speaks straight at YOUNGER MONA who cannot hear her.]

MONA: I remember when we would sit among the fireflies in the yard and look out to the fields where the neighbor’s cows would moo all evening, and we would dream of how one day we would be bigger than life, and our amazing talent would shine brighter then the sun on a spring morning.

          (MONA, back to her original writing and speaking her inner thoughts.)

MONA: Don’t rush to be an adult, enjoy childhood. It is in that state you are 100% genuine to yourself. Yet, don’t be afraid to let life progress. Don’t be intimidated by the idea that you must be your own best friend, especially and I cannot reiterate this enough, before you expect others to be. Oh, and Relish in laughter and sorrow because that is what you will remember most in life.

          (Setting: MONA completes writing silently as NARRATOR speaks.)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: Wow! Can you say BUMPER STICKER! I mean a really long one, but one all the same. Oh, but I digress…

(Quote appears on the projector:

“At Least Once A Day, Allow Yourself the Freedom to Think and Dream for Yourself” — Albert Einstein)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “ At Least Once A Day, Allow Yourself the Freedom to Think and Dream for Yourself.”

MONA: I am writing these letters to us so one day you will come be OK. If I can tell you one final message, remember the basics of playing as only a child can do and we will be OK.

(Quote appears on the projector:   

“It’s About Finding Your Bliss, Losing It, and Finding It Again”

— Natalie Chapman)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “It’s About Finding Your Bliss, Losing It, and Finding It Again.”

          (Image of a bird in mid flight abandoning a cage)

         (NARRATOR’s voice and MONA say in unison, while the quote is on the projector.)

NARRATOR’S VOICE: “A Bird That Flies Is Always Free.”

MONA: “A Bird That Flies Is Always Free.”

          (Lights down after last spoken quote)

The End