The Plays
soot and spit [sample]
by Charles L. Mee
the Morton Salt girl enters, stands stock still
THE MORTON SALT GIRL
James,
why don't you draw me?
You could always draw me.
I am standing still.
Do you see how I stand still?
I stand still for a long time.
I don't move.
You can take your time.
And while you draw
you can think.
Because I am not going anywhere.
Or, if you like,
I could sit.
And you could do my portrait.
And I won't talk.
I will be quiet.
Completely quiet.
So you can have some quiet
and some peace.
[Now, the sears and roebuck catalogue comes to life
while John Hartman sings
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
James's people
emerge from the backdoor of the icehouse
through a projection:
the Gerber's baby,
the Saltine girl,
the Nu Bora detergent woman,
Prince Albert
a man who quacks like a duck
a lingerie ad girl
Sugar Honey Maid Graham Cracker
a woman in an elegant black dress
with a blood red face
does a wild wild dance
and smears red lipstick all over her face
in time with the music
and then throws herself to the ground on her back over and over and over
she becomes covered with dust
as she kicks and writhes wildly on the ground on her back
like a cockroach frantic on its back
Several couples enter and dance to the song.
The young women are in cotton dresses
as though at a summer ice cream social.
the lingerie ad girl
joins in for a duet with the john hartman voiceover
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
musical interlude
while
couples dance
and there are some solos
James's mother dances with a floor lamp
and his sister dances solo
a guy in overalls walks through pushing a wheelbarrow
full of leaves
The Down syndrome choir returns in their gunny sack race
and then stops to provide a backup singing chorus
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
Good Old Boys
while
James makes art of the materials at hand
meticulously
a paper bag folded just so
soot and spit
sharpening the stick
and he draws
they all dance out
leaving the lingerie girl alone in duet with john hartford
and then she leaves at the end
as the music dies out
Now, James's "people"
are lined up against the back wall of the ice house
like a Greek chorus.
They are wearing paper dresses
or paper shirts and pants
with drawings on them.
Or they just have flat cardboard fronts with drawings on them.
And they may wear flat paper or cardboard masks
with cut-out collage pieces pasted over their faces.
And, as they speak,
projections of pen and ink drawings
of people, landscapes, letters of the alphabet,
and interiors of the ice house
are projected on the back wall of the ice house,
on the back wall of the stage
and on the home movie screen.
One after the other, these drawings fade into one another.
