Earth and Sky
8:01
Michael Thompson as Julius Gatz in Douglas Post's "Earth and Sky". This performance is from November 1995. Earth and Sky was produced at The Phoenix Production Company in Melbourne Florida.
Julius Gatz Michael Thompson
Sara McKeon Christina Adams
Joyce Lazlo Foy Staley
Tags: Acting Theater Earth and Sky Drama
Added: 1 year ago
From: Theatredude527
Views: 144
[scene opens in a restaurant, with a man sitting at a table, when a young woman sits down across from him]
JULIUS: Why are you sitting at my table?
SARA: I know who you are.
JULIUS: That's very nice ... I don't believe I've had the pleasure.
SARA: I'm a friend of David Ames.
JULIUS: Really? I'm a friend of Omar Suarez.
SARA: I don't know who that is.
JULIUS: Now we're even.
[he continues eating]
JULIUS: What, I'm supposed to know this guy?
[she says nothing]
JULIUS: Mind if I eat while we talk?
SARA: Your name is Julius Gatz.
JULIUS: Mmm, and your name is ... ?
SARA: I'm onto you, Mister Gatz. I know what you do for a living.
JULIUS: Mmm, is that a fact?
[he continues acting aloof, motioning across the table]
JULIUS: Could you pass me the salt?
[she doesn't move, so he shrugs and picks up the salt shaker himself]
SARA: I've spoken with Eisenstadt.
JULIUS: Is that a fact?
SARA: Yes, it is.
JULIUS: Who's Eisenstadt?
SARA: Eisenstadt and Gatz. Gatz and Eisenstadt Two names seem to connected in this part of town like Leopold and Loeb.
JULIUS: Mmm, see? Now, them I've heard of.
SARA: It's how I found you ... "Always eats dinner at the same restaurant. Seven o'clock. Every night."
[he wipes his mouth with a napkin]
JULIUS: Mmm, sometimes six thirty ... I like to shake people up a bit.
SARA: Tell me, Mister Gatz, were you having dinner at this table two weeks ago Monday night?
JULIUS: [pause] Monday, hmm ...
[he licks his knife and pretends to think hard about her question]
JULIUS: Let me see ... Yes, I do believe so.
[he continues eating]
SARA: I don't. I think you were at the home of Marie Defaria. I think you held down her arms while Eisenstadt sliced her wrists open. I think you then forced her into telephoning David Ames, who you then murdered. Also Emilio Sanchez.
[he calmly wipes his mouth with his napkin]
JULIUS: Let me check that for you.
[he takes a little black book out of his coat pocket and thumbs through it]
JULIUS: So, what did you say the puta's name was? Oh, wait wait wait! Here it is, here it is ... "Wrist slashing at Marie's."
[he shakes his head in a condescending manner]
JULIUS: Oh, that was some evening! And here I had forgotten all about it.
[he puts the book back in his pocket]
JULIUS: Is there anything else you'd like to talk about before you go?
SARA: [pause] Emily Lapointe and her little girl.
[he stops, as if ready to take the conversation seriously for the first time]
JULIUS: This conversation is beginning to put me off my meal.
[he puts his elbows up on the table and stares at her]
JULIUS: Is there something specific I can do for you?
SARA: You can sweat a little. You can give something away in the sound of your voice ... as you did just know.
JULIUS: Yeah well, lady, I don't know who you're fucking to get your little bits and pieces of information, but those kinds of accusations don't carry much firepower in my neighborhood.
SARA: No?
JULIUS: No ...
SARA: We'll find out ...
[he takes out a cigarette and puts it in his mouth]
SARA: You think you live outside the law? You don't!
JULIUS: Well, this has been a real swell date ... Thanks so much for stopping by.
SARA: I'm going to get you, Gatz.
[he casually lights his cigarette]
SARA: I don't know how, but I'm going to see you buried!
[he leans in close]
JULIUS: What a lovely sentiment. Thank you.
[she gets up and begins to storm off]
JULIUS: Oh, Miss McKeon?
[she stops]
JULIUS: Sara?
[she turns and looks at him, as he continues to calmly smoke his cigarette]
JULIUS: Do you get any vacation time at the library?
[she rubs her hands together (obviously nervous that this man knows who she is)]
JULIUS: Because I would recommend you use it ... Take a week. Two weeks. Longer, perhaps. Because quite frankly, Sara, you seem kind of frazzled. Like you don't know what you're going to bump into next. So take my advice. Go on holiday.
[he takes another drag of his cigarette]
JULIUS: I say this as a means of saving you from yourself.
SARA: I have no intention--
JULIUS: It's time to go now.
[...]
[scene opens in Sara's apartment, with all of the lights out]
JULIUS: There is a gun pointed at you, and the crack in the door. Please, turn on the lights.
[the lights go on, revealing Julius pointing a gun at her]
JULIUS: Hola.
SARA: How did you find me?
JULIUS: Oh, finding you was not hard work. I hope you don't have any plans for the evening. Sit down.
[he appears calm, then suddenly grabs her by the arm and forces her into a chair]
JULIUS: [yelling] Sit down!
[she fidgets nervously]
JULIUS: You've had a busy couple of days.
[he puts his hand over her mouth]
JULIUS: You're much quieter than I remember.
SARA: [nervously] What do you want?
[he points the gun at her neck]
JULIUS: You, amputated from my life! You've been a big time pain in the ass, lady, you know that? I don't know what you think you are ...
[he lets go of her]
JULIUS: Where's the piece?
SARA: [nervously] The what?
[he calmly removes his sunglasses]
JULIUS: Your weapon, Sara. Your sawed off shotgun ... Throw it on the floor.
[she nervously shakes her head]
SARA: I don't have a gun.
JULIUS: [pause] Stand up.
[she doesn't move, so he grabs her by the arm]
JULIUS: [yelling] Stand up! Now open your coat!
[she begins to slowly open her coat]
JULIUS: [yelling] Open it!
[she jumps in fright, then holds her coat open]
JULIUS: [yelling] Wider!
[she does as she's told, then Julius (laughing) bends down and begins "frisking" her underneath her dress]
JULIUS: [calmly] So where do you have it? In the back of your pantyhose?
[she starts to cry]
SARA: I have no gun!
[he grabs her by the throat]
JULIUS: [yelling] You have no brains! You have no sense! You come looking for me with what, a fucking nail file? Where'd you lose it?
SARA: [crying] I've never owned a weapon!
JULIUS: [yelling] I'm not laughing here!
SARA: It's true!
[he lets go and throws her to the ground]
JULIUS: Yeah well, tell it to the Ice Man, baby ... if you got a through line to hell.
SARA: Ei-Eienstadt ... ?
[he kneels down next to her and speaks in a mockingly soothing voice]
JULIUS: Eisenstadt is a dead fucking cock-a-roach ...
SARA: What?!
JULIUS: Like you don't know ...
[he suddenly grabs her by the hair while running the barrel of his gun across her chest]
JULIUS: He bought it in the alley behind his building last night ... Two shots in the heart.
[he runs the gun down her stomach and towards her crotch]
JULIUS: And a whole bunch all over the place.
[he takes the gun and shakes it in her face in a mockingly accusatory fashion]
JULIUS: A very messy job, lady ... very amateurish.
SARA: I didn't--
[he suddenly spins her around and puts his arm around her neck in a chokehold]
JULIUS: [yelling] Shut up! You went in where you do not belong! You fucked up ... real bad! Do you know what they say in my part of town?
SARA: No!
JULIUS: Don't run with the big dogs if you're going to piss with the puppies.
[he places some bullets in the gun, then lets her go]
JULIUS: Now these are words to live by. I remind you of this fact ...
[he spins the chamber, then slowly points the gun at her face]
JULIUS: Albeit a little ... too ... late.
[she struggles and screams, as he puts the barrel in her mouth and pulls the trigger ... except that the chamber was empty]
JULIUS: [calmly] Whoops.
[he throws her down on the ground]
JULIUS: Crazy bitch ...
[he grabs her by the arm and spins her around]
JULIUS: [yelling] You had your job, your looks, your nice little apartment! And you went fucking brain dead! And for what? Love?
[he leans in and kisses her]
JULIUS: [yelling] Vengeance? A chance to prove what a man you are? A chance to show me how much of a man you are? Well, I have news for you about about David Ames ...
[a woman's voice can suddenly be heard from outside of the apartment]
JOYCE: [from off camera] Sara?
[he suddenly bolts up and points the gun at the door]
SARA: Oh, Jesus!
JULIUS: What? What is that?!
SARA: Joyce!
JOYCE: [from off camera] Sara, you left the door unlocked ...
[the camera pans over to show the other woman standing in the doorway, as Julius calmly addresses her]
JULIUS: You have arrived home at a very inappropriate time, Joyce. It's too bad the checkout line was not two persons longer.
[he forcibly picks Sara up off the ground by the arm]
JULIUS: Now what am I going to do with you ladies?
[he turns to Sara]
JULIUS: This is a very nasty spot to be standing in right now, but I have no choice.
[he throws Sara towards Joyce]
JULIUS: We're going to try to make this look like a robbery ... I trust I can count on your cooperation?
[he points the gun at Joyce]
JULIUS: Put the bag down, Joyce.
[she does nothing, so he drops the calm demeanor]
JULIUS: [yelling] Down!
[she still does nothing, so he starts walking towards her (while speaking calmly again)]
JULIUS: Por favor--
[she suddenly drops the bag (revealing a gun in her hands) and shoots him several times, then kicks over his gun to a shocked Sara]
JOYCE: [calmly] Pick up the gun ... Pick up the gun, Sara.
[she does as she's told, while Julius (holding his side as he bleeds to death) laughs quietly]
JULIUS: [weakly] You fucking ...
[she ignores him, and (while still looking at him in the eyes while pointing her gun) speaks to Sara]
JOYCE: You heard me read him his rights, didn't you?
SARA: I ... I--
JOYCE: Good.
[she shoots him once in the head, as Sara screams]
JOYCE: Just following orders ...
[she kneels down next to the body and checks his neck for a pulse (finding none)]
---
From dramatists.com:
Earth and Sky
Douglas Post
Thriller
Full Length
6 men, 3 women: 9 total
Flexible Set
Winner of the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Competition sponsored by New Dramatists, this play received its world premiere at Second Stage in New York City. This exciting thriller examines the seedy urban underworld where murder leads to an indistinct demarcation between law enforcement and law infringement. "Douglas Posts' EARTH AND SKY is a case of film noir on stage. The devious U-turns in the plot continue past the evening of this taut new thriller." —NY Times. "…it is thoroughly engrossing, holding you fast for about 100 intermissionless minutes…a genuine cop thriller, with devious plot turns, tough, corner-of-the-mouth, Chandler/Hammett-style dialogue, and enough surprises to startle rabbits out of holes let alone hats." —NY Post.
Book/Item: EARTH AND SKY
Book Type: DPS
Price: $8.00
ISBN/Code: 978-0-8222-0348-3
FEE: $75 per performance.
THE STORY: EARTH AND SKY is a poetic thriller about a would-be poet and part-time librarian named Sara McKeon whose lover of ten weeks, David Ames, is found dead one hot August morning in the city of Chicago. It appears that David, owner and manager of an expensive art-deco restaurant, may have been involved in several illicit activities including kidnapping, rape and murder. Unable to believe that the man she gave her heart to was a killer, and outraged that the police seem to have closed the book on the case, Sara begins her own investigation of the crime and is led deeper and deeper through the urban labyrinth into the contemporary underworld. As the detective story moves forward in time, scenes from the love affair take us back to the moment when Sara and David first met. Finally the plots converge, and Sara finds herself face to face with the person who murdered her beloved.
No comments:
Post a Comment