Script . More than waiting for Goddo

More than waiting for GODDO






A short 5-10 minutes free form play about creativity


by © Megan A Sampson November 2010


All rights reserved contact megamoneybox at yahoo dot com dot au






Executive summary:


This short play is about tapping into creativity by use of words, cards and symbols.


It is about play and entertaining and amusing ourselves, and others..



The actors try to set rules to make sense of free form or experimental theatre.(see explanation on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_theatre )


They then co-operate and involve the audience in a magical performance. (Free form theatre can be used to help actors and or audience members to verbalise concerns and heal emotional traumas. However the purpose of this play is simply to amaze, surprise and entertain. ) 
This play is most suitable for actors who can dance, sing and play drums, guitar etc. I wrote it with Flamenco Fusions group in mind. new name Flamenco Ruido, leader April Sampson-Kelly. I hope they will perform it one day.






Scene 1


Outside in a park. Late afternoon. minimal backdrops. no distractions.


3 people are in a park.  One sitting on a bench and the others nearby on a picnic rug. Props include a large bag which contains 3 coloured capes ( red , yellow blue.) and a large piece of yellow see-through curtain material, about 3 -5 metres long.






Actors are called by number. 1,2, and 3.


1 is the leader,(preferably female 50 ish)


2 a bright pretty young thing (female aged 18- 20)


3 is a middle aged negative and funny male.










Begins with No.1 -Leader ,


"I have an idea. I know what we should do.


Let's perform a play. That way we can entertain people"






No. 2 - "and we can charge them to come and we'll all get paid."






No. 3 - gets up and walks around in a small circle. " Who wants to come and see us? We're just nobodies. We're not celebrities. We're not Known. "






No. 2 "I Think they might come and see us if they think we might be funny, or different or entertaining'






No. 1 "OR CLEVER.






No. 3 "OR idiots".






No. 2 "let's just presume that someone has nothing better to do.


Maybe they will come out of curiosity..."






No. 3 "Yeah, and leave in the 1st two minutes."






No.1 "Obstacles, obstacles, Mr Negative. Can we just make an assumption that we will get an audience. Actually, I guarantee an audience !.


People will pay to hear us. and they will even be emotionally affected".






No. 2 " emotionally affected? like how? (frowns) "like sex?"






No.1 "No, NO sex. We're going to be sexless."






No. 3 "sexless?"






No. 1 "Yes. When I said emotionally affected ,I meant enthused."






No. 2 "YOU MEAN CHEERED UP?"






No. 3 " Yes, They'll feel happy about laughing at us!"






No. 1 "No, I don't mean laughing at us.- I mean- happy, cheered up. Even inspired-


like being put on a path to a more positive life."






No. 3 "Deep and meaningful.- that's a big call"






No. 2 "well I like it. "






No. 3 "so what will we wear if we're sexless?"






No. 1 "Wear, everything isn't about appearances. We could all wear a cape or a cloak. just so we all look the same. Here try it." ( they are handed capes. yellow to the pretty girl, red for  Mr negative and blue for the leader.)






No. 3 "Sexless, unattractive, uninteresting - UN-entertaining."






No. 2 " Well, I suppose it depends on what we will say."





No. 3 " so what do we say? where's the script?"






No. 1 " Oh- we will say it all in free form. It will evolve. We'll use cards as triggers.






No. 3 "I don't like free form. We could end up saying anything".






No. 2 "or nothing"






No. 1 "Why would you say nothing?"








No. 2 "Well, I might not have any thoughts on the subject.


I might not know anything.


and even if I did know something,


I might not want to say it."






No. 3 "What? You're scared to embarrass yourself?"






No. 2 "maybe. yes. But I might not have an opinion or a thought, or even know what to say.






No. 3 speaks to audience "She means she's an empty head"






No. 1 "Don't be ridiculous. She's got thoughts and opinions and ideas.


We've just got to get it out of her head."





No. 2 "Can I just try to say yes or no or maybe, or just one word... just to start with.?"






No. 3 "That'll limit the time scale of the play to about 2 minutes! - The audience will want their money back, or They might sue us or worse, shoot us because we're sexless!"





No. 2 "I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT A FREE FORM PLAY IS"






No. 1 "IT'S EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE.


We start with limits.


like one word, one colour.. One choice. Whatever.





You look at a card and say what's in your head.


you talk for one sentence or no more than one minute.


then we add to it. We see where it goes.






No. 3 "like what or whatever? what does that mean?"






No. 1 " We could use any word - here's a bundle of cards. I'll write the word equal.


I mean, we could use any word. I could poke a hole in a newspaper and choose a word near the hole..preferably a noun, or a verb or an adjective. then write it on a card,


I hold up the card with the word equal and you say one sentence about it,


or you describe what you see in your head. Try it.






No. 3 "equal what?





No. 2 "just say anything about equal !"









No. 3 "OK. Equal, equality, we're all born equal, free like, naked, no name, nameless, no ownership, no taxes, no.........."






No. 2 interrupts excitedly. "I just saw this in my head! it was those two little lines that make the equal sign.. you know the ones that go together, one above the other..I could say that "






No. 1 "OK, no 3. You write one of your words on a card. Free or born or something.


Just choose one, and you No 2, you can write your equal symbol.


I'll write Enthuse on my next card.


Now let's do it again. let's try..say.. entertain, communicate.


No2 , you give us another symbol. and No 3 you give us another word".






No. 3 "like UN-equal, inequality, unbalanced"..






No. 2 "No, something positive, for goodness sake.".






No. 3 "I can't. It might take a while. I have to think about it".






No. 2 "my next symbol is the same little equal sign crossed out.. or should I have a dash through it.. to mean it's not equal?"






No. 3 "She's got the easy bit. all symbols or signs. I wanted symbols."






No. 1 " All we need is 3 words, 3 symbols, 3 colours. I could have done them myself, but I want your input. your ideas."






No. 3 "Colours? this is the first I heard of Colours."





No. 2 " I'm seeing colours now. I see RED. I'm getting angry!"





No. 1 "just write RED on a card. Yes use a red texta. That was good. We'll play a game in a minute.".






No. 2 " like a game to entertain the audience? "






No. 1 " A game to amuse ourselves. But the real reason is to UNLOCK, UNBLOCK or release our creativity. Just in case there's no audience, and no creativity to unlock or unblock."






No. 3 "you're sounding negative now, by saying in case there's no audience and no creativity."





No. 1 "maybe. But there's always an audience. "






No. 3 "How can you say that?"






No. 1 "There's 3 of us right? We are an audience to each other. I mean, If I was on the stage alone and you were watching in the wings, you'd be my audience. You have to accept that no man is an island."






No. 2 "like we all watch each other like in the street or on a train or a bus?"






No. 3 " more like we're all being watched. big brother and all that".






No. 1 "Please no more interruptions. we're losing momentum. I think we'll go with what we have. 

Here's 3 colours. red, blue and yellow.


and three words. free, entertain, enthuse.


Plus three symbols, equal, stop and go.






let's just do it. No 1 shuffles the nine cards.






No 3 choose 3 cards.


He chooses RED, free, entertain.






No. 3 "Ok.. I chose RED, free, entertain. 
So I'm red. red can mean angry..something's angry. I'm free to entertain.


let's see. I can say whatever I like. whatever comes into my head.


I can only think that if I had a red cape, I'd rush at the bull in the bull ring and the wounded matador would go free, The clowns would run and distract the bull,  I'd bow and the audience would cheer and be entertained. "






No1 and No 2 clap and cheer. 
Then No1 starts to sing /play/ hum the toreador song.


tor re a- dor  Da Da da-da Da ..tor re a dor, and 
No 3 swings his red cape and twirls like a matador. .. the the audience cheer bravo...and clap in time".






No2 says" I can dance free form.I can even do flamenco. I could do a dance"


She dances, using her cape as a skirt, while Number 3 and his red cape swirls and everyone sings and claps and yells bravo..






Then No 3 calls out to the audience, hand over his eyes...


"is there a drummer out there?" A drummer comes forward and starts drumming softly..





then No 2 says "has anyone got castanets in their handbag? or 2 soup spoons?"


spoons are handed over.





A guitarist yells," I can play the guitar for you.." he is motioned forward.







No 1 says "That was great, Lets do it again", while someone else yells out "I can sing for you"


and another comes up and says "I can wail".






No. 1 " Great. you wail, we clap, we do that three times, then drummer drums and the singer sings, and we all clap in time. then we repeat, while the cape twirls and then the dancer dances and we all yell bravo at each pause.. everyone claps and yells bravo at the end..





curtain call. interval










Scene 2






No. 1 "How about we choose another 3 cards,?"






No. 2 "But it mightn’t be as good as last time. I mean..that was pretty good wasn't it?"






No. 3 "I thought the last free form would fail, but it didn't .


I'm surprised. Maybe we can succeed again. You know, build one success on another.".






No. 1 "yes, let's do it. you pick this time, number 2."






No. 3 "You can do it - go on."






No. 2 " I picked yellow, Enthuse and the go sign. hmm


I am yellow, a pretty bright yellow, and I can see myself in a little yellow bug of a car, and it goes up, not on the road, but on a road up in the sky (?) and I wonder why?"






No. 3 It's all about the pretty you, a bit like a dream analysis. A yellow butterfly on a bright sunny day and flying off to a bright yellow sky."






Number 1 starts singing "My, My, my, what a beautiful day - claps and encourages the audience while No 3 wraps No 2 in a large piece of yellow parachute fabric and they twirl her around and flutter the cloth, until she goes offstage. .






The audience keep singing. the troop bow and run off.


then eventual silence. curtain call . end of scene.






Scene 3










No. 3 says "how about you pick now." to number 1.


"it must be your turn"


No. 1 "OK..here goes".






etc continued..




write to me at sampsms at ozemail dot com au for the rest of the play.Or create your own play using the ideas above and maintaining the rythmn of the play.









..

Poetry and Places, selected works by Megan A Sampson .

Included below is a selection of poems I have written over many years.
I'd like to share them with you. I don't know what you will gain from them, but I'd like to think they gave you insight, joy and hope.
you can write to me at sampsms at ozemail dot com dot au 
You can ring me on 61 2 42 2 8 5 7 7 4
No spam or ads please.
Kind regards, Megan

Summer (In Australia)

Summer, That fiery hothead,
wearing her halo of Humidity..
brandishes us with threats,
that she will leave us, (Oh , but NO.)
She revisits and scorches, long past the end of summer,

She comes to spit, heat and fire, even into autumn.
Scorching skin with fiery dragon breath.
till we dry up, like cicarda's,
Paper like, exposed to the coming winds,
cracking up, disintegrating,
into a thousand jigsaw pieces.

Begging for mercy, at Summers feet.
Summer and her sister, Devil Drought,
mercilessly extract every vestige of moisture,
cracking soul, into a thousand tessellated tiles,
hard as rock, unyielding, uncompromising.

Sandblasting the life-blood from all in their path,
burning and scorching.
Exposing lost towns beneath dead dams,
where chimneys stand defiantly, still pointing,
still worshiping,
the deity in the sky.

A farmer's creek drying and almost dying,
let Summer and her sister, Devil Drought,
Unwittingly, ACCIDENTLY,
give us lost dinosaur bones,
beneath breaking, baking mud.

Summer's curt cousin was the resplendent RY...
who would effect his entrance, thundering across the sky.
Ry would light the spark to magically ignite,
he'd smoke the grasslands, turn day into night.

He'd light the flames of ribbon dancers with white light.
He'd create a corroboree, ever growing, light entrancing,
a firestorm of might.

Summer and her sister drought, squealed in delight,
at the firestorm dancers, and the cyclonic sight.

Until resplendent, Revengeful RY,
maelstrommed his mastery of the sky,
and established himself upon his throne as king.

To restore order, he commanded,
with a booming voice and courtly ring..
"Now let the rain begin."

When Regal Revengful Ry cried for rain.
It fell as hail and sleet and snow.
Rys thundering voice, rainstrommed the sky, overland to the sea.

Swallowing, swirling, cascading into every crevice,
letting nothing be.
So the seven rivers, once finger slithers,
palmed into one hand and shadowed the land,

Reshaping, rechannelling, redirecting.
Ry buried towns, uprooted trees.
Royal Ry drove a stake into the heart of the dispossed,
while summer and her sister drought
left their souls to die as offerings to a future sun baked sky."

M Sampson 2007 Notes for the poem Summer.
Written in April 2007 . 2nd and third stanza added over the weeks that followed.(Notes huge dinosaur bones were found in western Queensland by McKenzie family (our Scottish clan name) & announced two days ago. the dam at Jindabyne has exposed the towns which were flooded and the buildings still stand. ( the image suggested that they were DEFIANT and the fireplaces and chimneys still point to the DEITY in the sky.) 3rd stanza written after rain and on 22.6.07Then on June 8-9 massive storms and floods in the Newcastle Hunter region. 7 people died, Pacific highway undermined by torrential rain and cars and a family of 5 plunged to their deaths. ) A whole section of the pacific highway was eroded and 3rd stanza about the floods and the rain.
The seven rivers were at Lakes entrance in Victoria and the flood changed the actual shape of the landscape.

THE Pain of an ONLY SON
Suddenly, in the midst of the crowd, a hand pointed.
a painted woman pointed her finger
and walked the long walk toward me.
The patrons pointed their noses,
the poker machines panted.
The painted woman pouted and she kept pointing.
her toes pointed, her arm pointed
her eyes pointed me out as the main player in her play.
People pointed, patted others, and they pointed.
She walked her slow walk, past the long bar,
meandered through the tables, still pointing
Then she pointed at the man beside me.
She cried out, my son!, he is my son.!
she turned slowly, lowered that limb, and went away wistfully.
The man was unmoved. He ignored her.
pretended there was no pointing,
no pathetica,
no painted woman, pointing.
Suddenly, I caught the disease of pointing.
In the sickness of that long silence,
I pointed.
My tongue pointed,
my words lashed him.
The accused confessed
Yes, .. . Yes,
that whore is my mother.
© Megan Sampson Sept 1990

"I shine not burn" - the Mackenzie clan motto. new poem 5.12.08

I do not need to be told,
nor do I deserve it. .
I know that you loved me, that you always did.
I know that you love me now,
it is not hid.

I know that the past has lit a light
I know that what might have been
T'is smothered by fear or flight.

I also know that men are like to..
torment their ex-es with what might have been,
to send them into jealous rages
that last for ages.

I know you now reap what you said in jest,
and cannot see me lest,
She believe what she always thought,
so revengeful stage be set and wrongs be wrought.

I am not a candle to be hid,
in some dark, damp place, ashamed, not proudly won.
I am not one to hide when bid.

I am a shining light to be adored, like the sun.
I must smile and walk in the honesty of the day.
© Megan Sampson Oct 2008


"Grandma said"
Inspired by Mum - She actualy said part of this.

Grandma said,
The Witchities are playing Doggo,
and the Warrigals think it's spring.

At the base of theLilly Pilly
there's a faery ring.

The Wattles are all budding
the tree fern shed it's spores,
the Flame is half coloured,
and the Corals' full of bores.

The Maggies were sky diving,
I almost had to run,
I nearly tripped ore Bluey
basking in the sun.

copyright © Megan Sampson 2007
explanation of Australian Terms.:
Witchities= witchety grubs – large edible whitish grubs,approx size of your little finger
Doggo= pretending to be asleep
Warrigals = is a native plant edible like small spinach.
Lilly-Pilly = a native shrub which produces small plum like fruit.
Faery ring= is a ring of small toadstools.
Wattles = wattle trees most varieties edible seeds. Used as a flour when crushed
Flame= Illawarra flame tree- often are half colured vertically.One side red blooms, the other none
Coral= Tree often attacked by borers
Maggies= Bird. Magpie. Will attack people in their territory in spring by diving at their heads.
Bluey= A blue tongued lizard

The tramp
“He humped his swag from the back of Whoopwoop,
all the way to the Wollongong sea.
Then trod slowly on the Sassafras road,
For Anzacs and a feed from me.”

copyright M Sampson May 2007
written for Sassafras website and Anzac Biscuits.
You could substitute "a kiss n a hug " for anzacs
"anzacs are a biscuit. "


The Karadgi Man (aboriginal medicine man.)
His voice pleased me.
it was more than pleasant,
With tones lilting softly.
His voice was a cresendo of sweetness and joy.
When the Karadgi man spoke to me,
suddenly,
I was a young girl again,
and he was a young boy.
© Megan Sampson June. 1998.