I had to write a scene once in an Acting for Writers class.
A Stop Watch was started and I had to write a scene involving two people.
In this short amount of time we had to develop a scene that displayed opposing opinion, desire or need between these characters. But with minimal physical or emotional actions directed to the actor. Minimal descriptions of the place and time. This scene was to be about dialogue. Telling a story only through dialogue but without filling the dialogue with exposition.
Upon completion it was read by two actors.
A solo scene that told a story independently without needing to know what happened before or what happens after.
A scene that in and of itself tells a story.
A scene for the actors, an attempt to give them both something to be fighting for in the scene.
This is what I came up with.
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FADE IN:
INT. JOLENE’S BEDROOM - DAY
TEEN BEAT posters are plastered on the pastel walls. Sally sits on the edge of the WATERBED, JOURNAL BOOKS strewn across it.
SALLY
Ugh, no, “Why can’t I just stay with my dad? She’s so selfish. AARGH... Sometimes I can’t stand her! She’s such a” -
JOLENE
Mom?
SALLY
Oh... shit... (beat) How dare You Jojo.
JOLENE
What? How dare you?
SALLY
What did you just say?
JOLENE
Nothing.
SALLY
After all I do for you?
Sally flips through the pages of the notebook.
JOLENE
Those are mine.
SALLY
Did you pay for them?
Sally stops on an open page.
SALLY
Huh, you go way back here, don’t you sugar plum? “I’m driving home in the back of my dad’s new Monte Carlo.” Zippity frickin do dah, he got a new car. “I feel so alone back here.” No guff kiddo, I wonder which one he was dating that year?
JOLENE
Mary.
SALLY
“I run my fingers over the comfy seat. It’s a pretty pale turquoise blue. Snow hits the windshield. I look out the frosty back window, searching for” -
JOLENE
Mom!
SALLY
“Santa”?
Sally tosses the notebook onto the bed, then picks up another.
SALLY (cont.)
Let’s see... Oh, what’s THIS? Look at all of these pretty little hearts. “August 26, 1989”. Huh, this is really recent. “So today” -
JOLENE
Mom please!
SALLY
“is a day that I will never ever, Ever forget” -
JOLENE
Stop!
SALLY
Why? You wouldn’t keep secrets from mummy, would you?
JOLENE
No?
SALLY
“George and I”. Who’s George?
JOLENE
No one.
SALLY
“George and I spent the last day of the summer together at the pond”-
JOLENE
Mommy, please.
SALLY
Is this a diary?
JOLENE
No. Nope. It’s not.
SALLY
It’s dated like a diary?
JOLENE
So.
SALLY
It’s written like a diary?
JOLENE
Not even. It doesn’t even say ‘Dear Diary’ at all.
Sally considers this.
SALLY
I hope not Jojo, because some of these things you wrote -
JOLENE
Mom, they’re just stories.
SALLY
Pinky swear? Even the part about -
JOLENE
Yes, pinky swear.
SALLY
Cross your heart?
JOLENE
Cross my heart, hope to fly, can’t wait to eat my mom’s chicken pot pie.
A telephone loudly rings. (O.S.)
SALLY
Ok. I’m gonna motor and get that. It’s probably Bill.
Sally tosses the book onto the bed with the others.
SALLY
Unless you think it might be George?
JOLENE
Um no, duh. It's just a story.
SALLY
Jojo, if you want to make this “no one” named George a someone, then watch and learn how a lady walks out of a room. It’s something your daddy can never teach you. At least I have that over him.
Jolene flops onto the bed. She puts her face into her pillow and screams.
FADE OUT:
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