Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

Our text was an excerpt of the play “Crimes of the Heart” by Beth Henley, posted below.

Our prompt was: Write about a wish.

More details on this session are coming soon, so check back!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Please join us for our next session: Monday, May 4th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Crimes of the Heart, excerpt by Beth Henley

(Lenny enters. Meg covers Lenny’s eyes with her hands.)

LENNY: (Terrified) What!? What is it?!! What?!!

MEG AND BABE: Surprise! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday to Lenny!!

LENNY: Oh, no! Oh me!!! What a surprise! I could just cry! Oh, look, “Happy Birthday to Lenny– A Day Late!” How cute! My! Will you look at all those candles– it’s absolutely frightening.

BABE: (Spontaneous thought.) Oh, no, Lenny, it’s good! ‘Cause— ’cause the more candles you have on your cake, the stronger your wish is.

LENNY: Really?

BABE: Sure!

LENNY: Mercy.

(They start the song. Lenny, interrupting the song.)

LENNY: Oh, but wait! I— I can’t think of my wish! My body’s gone all nervous inside.

MEG: For God’s sake, Lenny-come on!

BABE: The wax is all melting!

LENNY: My mind is just a blank, a total blank!

MEG: Will you please just—

BABE: (Overlapping.) Lenny, hurry! Come on!

LENNY: Okay! Okay! Just go!!

(Meg and Babe burst into the “Happy Birthday Song. “As it ends Lenny blows out all of the candles on the cake. Meg and Babe applaud loudly)

MEG: Oh, you made it!

BABE: Hurray!

LENNY: Oh, me! Oh, me! I hope that wish comes true! I hope it does!

BABE: Why? What did you wish for?

LENNY: (As she removes the candles from the cake.) Why, I can’t tell you that.

BABE: Oh, sure you can—

LENNY: Oh, no! Then it won’t come true.

BABE: Why, that’s just superstition! Of course it will, if you made it deep enough.

MEG: Really? I didn’t know that.

LENNY: Well, Babe’s the regular expert on birthday wishes.

BABE: lt’s just I get these feelings. Now come on and tell us. What was it you wished for?

MEG: Yes, tell us. What was it?

LENNY: Well, I guess, it wasn’t really a specific wish. This— this vision just sort of came into my mind.

BABE: A vision? What was it of?

LENNY: I don’t know exactly.. It was something about the three of us smiling and laughing together.

BABE: Well, when was it? Was it far away or near?

LENNY: I’m not sure, but it wasn’t forever; it wasn’t for every minute. Just this one moment and we were all laughing.

BABE: What were we laughing about?

LENNY: I don’t know. Just nothing I guess.

MEG: Well, that’s a nice wish to make.

(Lenny and Meg look at each other a moment.)

MEG: Here, now, I’ll get a knife so we can go ahead and cut the cake in celebration of Lenny being born!

BABE: Oh, yes! And give each one of us a rose. A whole rose apiece!

LENNY: (Cutting the cake nervously.) Well, I’ll try— I’ll try!

MEG: (Licking the icing off a candle.) Mmmm—- this icing is delicious! Here, try some!

BABE: Mmmm! It’s wonderful! Here, Lenny!

LENNY: (Laughing joyously as she licks icing from her fingers and cuts huge pieces of cake that her sisters bite into ravenously.) Oh, how I do love having birthday cake for breakfast! How I do!

(The sisters freeze for a moment laughing and catching cake; the lights change and frame them in a magical, golden, sparkling glimmer; saxaphone music is heard. The lights dim to blackout, and the saxophone continues to play.)

END OF PLAY