Youth Plays

SALA CINDERELLA: An African Cinderella Tale... EXCERPT

(...A tattered Sala Cinderella tries to wash clothes in the river, while her stepsisters, Yaa and Tyi screech and throw their garments at her)

YAA

This is my favorite! Everyone loves the way I look in it!

TYI

(Shoving Sala into the water)

You can't do a good job Sala, if you're not in the water, and this one needs to be washed gently, an inch at a time!

YAA

That's right, an inch at a time Sala.

(Sala tries to say something)

TYI

We'll tell you when to talk! As your big sisters--

YAA

--Not real sisters! She's just a STEPsister--She's--

SALA

I gave you my room when you moved in, I do everything you and Mother Njeri ask--that's a real sister.

YAA

Let's make a path for her to follow and disappear, like her mother did into the sea.

SALA

I wouldn't make fun of you if someone you loved had been swallow by the ocean.

TYI

You miss sweetie-goodie, are not us.

(The sisters grab the clothes Sala has already washed, and drag them through the dirt, then into the water)

SALA

Stop!!!

YAA

Your father will get us new ones. He does anything our mother tells him. He loves making her happy!

SALA

He loves making everyone happy. He made my mother happy too.

TYI

He's forgotten all about her. He loves us now, his new family, much better than the old one.

(Drumming music begins in the background)

The celebration's starting!

YAA

Ooooohhh, Tyi, eligible men to marry from the village across the river! They'll give us jewels and beautiful--

 

THE CHALLENGE: Sophia and William Meet Chesnutt and Twain... EXCERPT

(From the audience, Sophia—struggling with an arm full of books, and William—dragging a colorful trunk decorated with travel stickers and buttons, enter the archival area of a library basement

WILLIAM

I love the way it smells in here, Sophia.

(Inhales deeply)

The archival section of the library has over twenty-two hundred volumes—archival means-

SOPHIA

I know what archival means, old book, old papers, old dust- I've been in a library before, okay?! I don't need you as my personal dictionary, William.

(Sophia dumps and spreads the books in her arms onto the long table)

Find yourself a table, this one’s mine. All I want you to do or talk about is what I tell you.

(William sits on the trunk beside Sophia staring up at her feigning interest)

WILLIAM

"The prisoner uttered no word of thanks or apology, but sat in sullen silence."

(William makes an accentuated pitiful face, and sighs aloud deeply. Sophia picks up a newspaper with the want ads already circled. She points to the stack of books, implying that William should get busy)

SOPHIA

You know what to do.

WILLIAM

(Peruses the binders of the books on the table, but doesn't open them)

"Such devotion and confidence are rare even among women."

SOPHIA

Try to be normal for like two hours?

WILLIAM

"I am convinced, on the whole that it will be for the best, we will be married next Monday night at eight...Will you be there, or at your father's?"

SOPHIA

My father's DEAD, so you can just STOP! I hoped paying you would make you act right.

WILLIAM

And what's right?

SOPHIA

Everything you don't do, like those stupid characters you're always pretending to be-I know we're not FRIENDS, but I thought having been in class together, seeing each other over the years, and me never bothering you or making fun, you might do this for me, especially since you’re getting paid. BUT if you plan to quote books-

WILLIAM

-Not just any books-

SOPHIA

-and be no help and make my job harder than-

WILLIAM

-You’ll give up owning me, controlling my words, my actions, my thoughts, my life, the way your friends and

(Snatches the circled newspaper)

would be employer own you? Thank you Sophia!

SOPHIA

Why do you do this?! Why do you go outta your way so nobody will like you?

WILLIAM

I don't care! - And what's to like about you? That you're so hip, so bad, you'll do anything to fit in including pretend you're too cool to be smart-pay people rather than use your own mind to accomplish anything?

SOPHIA

Don't come readin' me when you don't know anything about me-

WILLIAM

Then don't judge me!

(Sophia snatches her newspaper back)

WILLIAM (CONT'D)

I thought we were going to have fun, I thought you wanted my friendship...I could get to know you better...we'd have a serious...re

SOPHIA

Re what? 'Lationship? Me, with a junior?! I-Don't-Think-So. Look, I'll just do a poem about Charles Chesnutt and Mark Twain, get my usual C or D minus, whatever-

WILLIAM

-I'm not interested in you Sophia. I've had eleven years of school to get interested in you, so relax. I was going to say REPORT. I figure you must really be in trouble to bother to hire-

SOPHIA

-I don't want to do this project, which is way different than I can't.Everybody thinks they’re so smart, you’re probably no smarter than me-

WILLIAM

Than I.

SOPHIA

-Just got that reputation 'cause you're weird-

WILLIAM

—"In the early part of November 1905, Chesnutt received an invitation to attend Mark Twain's seventieth birthday party. "For Chesnutt, it marked the highest point in his career." Page 213, Charles Waddell Chesnutt. The difference between me and everyone else is I work, not I'm weird.