The First Western

 

 

 

Act III, Scene I

 

Audience:

 

(Place your hand over your heart.)

 

 

Act I, Scene I

 

(Lights up on “seldom.”)    (Pit banjo orchestra begins

song of romantic triumph.)    (Lights up on the deer

and the antelope. Give it a second. Let them lift their

head and ears toward you.)      (Pink lights up on

the saloon porch, as it is usually sunset. Lights up on her

bustle. They are necking.)

 

George: (smacking sounds)

 

Dorothy: (smacking sounds)

 

(Lights up on the birthing rope. When she has the

baby. Give it a)

 

 

Act I, Scene III

 

(Lights up on a boy and girl in a river. The girl is in

to her ankles, holding her skirts to her knee. The boy

is really wet. He’s digging. A bald eagle lands in a

tree acres above them.)

 

Dorothy: What if it washes away?

 

George: (with a locket in his teeth) This is

where gold comes from. It’s not going

anywhere.

 

Dorothy: But Jimmy said the mayor has

gills!

 

George: (a wet squint) If you keep believing

him—

 

(George is played by black actors.)

 

 

Act II, Scene V

 

(Lights up on the jail cell. The sound of a cow and its

cud can be heard.)

 

Jimmy: Been waiting to get you for some time,

George.

 

Audience:  Gasp!

 

(This is shocking, as George is now known almost

exclusively as “Cactus George.”)

 

George: They were just boys, Jimmy.

 

Jimmy: (gun against the bars) Whether they were

boys or not is not for you to decide!

 

(The smell of rich cow ambles about the town, over the

prairie.)

 

 

Act III, Scene III

 

(Lights up in a room over the saloon. They are in the

study because that is the only place they can be. Her

dress is fashioned oddly. His hand is in his hair. Her

hair is down.)

 

Dorothy: (wringing her necklace) Always I want

to be soluble. Always I want to be inaudible.

Always I want to be in water. Always I—

 

George: Damn it, Dorothy!  (He does not look

up from the papers on his desk.)  (Now he does.)  I’m

sorry, my darling, I didn’t mean it. (He kneels

before her.)

 

Dorothy: Always I want to don’t come

back, Jimmy. Sometimes they don’t come

back, Jimmy.

 

 

Act III, Scene VI

 

(Low light up in the back of a moving Budget truck.

Shhhhhh.)

 

Me:

 

(I show up when someone asks.)

 

Me: I really want you here.

 

Audience:

 

 

Me: At least put your hand back.

 

 

Act II, Scene II

 

(Little lights up on the Union Pacific Rail Way.

These are stars. Three runaways in the night. The

story is usually about intrepid boys who seek deeds.)

 

George: We aren’t going back!

 

Me: Well, you are.

 

Jimmy: Say, Mrs. Sloane’s linens kind of look

like flags tonight.