Live Virtual Group Session: 3pm EDT May 3rd 2020

10 Comments

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

10 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 3pm EDT May 3rd 2020”

  1. Kana (Kanako Kitamoto)

    A Wish
    A wish is a screen shot of my future.
    It is a still, static image with vivid colors.
    Depicted in detailes, but no clear context.
    A wish is like a prompt for our free writing.
    Whenever I look at my wish,
    my story begins toward the future.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. Dr Yewande Okuleye

    Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed listening to this. I also liked the experience of reading the text as you invite us into your wish world, ” A wish is a screen shot of my future” and showed us a pathway into our potential wish.” A wish is like a prompt for our free thinking. This is a very generous offering.

    Like

    Reply
    • Kana (Kanako Kitamoto)

      Thank you very much for your lovely comment! What a beautiful language, “pathway into our potential wish” is! I am very happy to receive such a perfect langage for my image. A wish might be our potential belief in the future.

      Like

      Reply
    • Antoinette Rose MD

      See I never understood, when you read it during the session, that it was “Eye, hear you.” and not “I hear you.” I imagined you were talking to someone deaf, literally or figuratively. Beautiful, in any case! Antoinette

      Like

      Reply
  4. michele348

    My wish as I stare into the night sky is to finally see the rainbow following this turbulent storm,
    a storm of such immensity bringing all mankind to its knees.

    It seems so distant and out of the realm of reality but isn’t that the purpose of wishing.
    Freedom from worry and fear and the opportunity to solely concentrate on the rejuvenation of springtime.

    A time to hug my grandchildren and to feel their arms about me.
    Oh, how I’ve sorely missed their raucous noise as they played at my feet.

    A time when all inhabitants of this fragile world realize the importance of respect and caring for each other,
    for we are our brother’s keeper.

    Wishes are hopes, hopes for second chances.
    Prayers for all the what-ifs or the only-ifs in our lives.

    And so, I will wish with child- like wonder upon my star,
    twinkling in the distant darkness of the night time sky.

    Wishes are hopes, hopes for second chances.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Antoinette Rose MD

    I wish – or I don’t.The very ability to wish is not a given. “I wish for nothing” can be a statement of fulfillment…or apathy. Like Lenny feeling rushed into wishing, by her sisters. We don’t believe in the wish and yet we are superstitious about getting just the right one! So much easier to wish for others, yet less brave an act. It’s not what you wish for but the courage to actually wish, to risk disappointment and pain in order to hold your wish up to the darkness, like a tiny birthday candle in a fat fist of fear, like a clenched heart. And to unclench, to embrace or breathe, might mean letting the candle fall. No wish can survive falling to earth, cheek to ground, sideways flame, gone in a breath.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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