Graduation Day: A Short Play
A New Short Science-Fiction Play
Originally written as part of Freestyle Repertory Theatre and Synergy Theater’s collaborative on-going online production of Write Away!, the show where 5 playwrights each write a new play in 45 minutes based on audience suggestions, then perform the plays together 10 minutes after that.
Keep an eye out for the suggestions “add in a metaphor about a pumpkin” and “insert the line ‘pass the siracha’”
(PROFESSOR and JAMIE stand backstage at the graduation ceremony of the Hero Academy.)
PROFESSOR: You ready for this?
JAMIE: I have to be, don’t I?
PROFESSOR: Come on, you’ve got this. You’ve been preparing for this moment for years. This has been you’re dream! You’ll walk up on that stage and walk off the other side as more than you’ve ever been before.
JAMIE: What if it doesn’t feel any different? Everyone talks about this moment like it kickstarts their life into motion, but what if I just stay the same scrawny little kid I’ve always been?
PROFESSOR: All I know, is you’ll be all you are meant to be.
JAMIE: I’m scared.
PROFESSOR: I know. I was too.
JAMIE: Really?
PROFESSOR: Of course! It’s terrifying. It’s the beginning of everything.
JAMIE: Or the end.
PROFESSOR: Jamie, you were accepted into this academy for a reason. All of us were. The Elders saw something in you, something that is going to grow into the most magnificent version of you there could possibly be. You are going to get a gift, when you walk up there today, and you are going to use it to help countless numbers of people.
JAMIE: I don’t think I’m ready.
PROFESSOR: You’re a wonderful student. You’ve aced every exam. Why wouldn’t you be ready.
JAMIE: I read something the other day. It scared me.
PROFESSOR: Read what?
JAMIE: Don’t get mad.
PROFESSOR: Jamie…
JAMIE: I got into the basement of the library.
PROFESSOR: That’s forbidden!
JAMIE: I know, but listen-
PROFESSOR: There’s a reason we keep things locked away!
JAMIE: I know! But I’m glad I went down there! I found the Elder’s journals, and I read the entries about Tyler McLevet.
PROFESSOR: He was an anomaly.
JAMIE: Ok. What about Michelle Decloud? She graduated in your year, didn’t she?
PROFESSOR: Two anomalies out of thousands of successes is nothing worry about.
JAMIE: You can’t just talk about them like they’re unexplainable flukes. They’re supervillains!
PROFESSOR: And every other student who has graduated from our school has used the powers they received upon graduation for good. Decloud and McLevet were just flukes.
JAMIE: No. They were kids. And they were scared. The Elders wrote about their exit interviews, just before graduation, and I swear some of the things they said… They talked about feeling afraid. Feeling like they didn’t fit in here like everyone else, like there was a darkness in them. If you had all just paid a little closer attention I’m sure you could have stopped them! There are signs. And I’ve been showing them.
PROFESSOR: You aren’t like them, Jamie. You couldn’t be. I have looked after you since the first day you showed up in my class. I have been beside you through every tragedy. I know things have been difficult, but that’s no reason to give up on yourself.
JAMIE: But what if I’m like them! What if I walk through the Transenhanceorator and it brings out every angry impulse, all my drive for revenge? I don’t feel like a hero. And if it senses that, I could become a villain. And you know it.
(Enter MICHELLE DECLOUD, taking form out a cloud of fog.)
PROFESSOR: Jamie…. Wait – what’s that?
JAMIE: Decloud!
PROFESSOR: How dare you step foot on these premises!
DECLOUD: I had a feeling this was gonna be the year. Jamie, you will be the next to enter our ranks. The rank of the Villain! Tyler and I have been waiting for a third partner. You will complete the team.
JAMIE: No.
PROFESSOR: Jamie get out of here, I’ll handle her.
DECLOUD: Ha! You’re weak. I know you, Harvey. We used to be friends; don’t you remember?
JAMIE: What?
DECLOUD: He didn’t tell you? He was the Cinderella to my pumpkin carriage. I was always around to support him and carry him to the ball, and as long as he was using me, I felt like I was that shiny carriage. But when I stepped through the Transenhanceorator I realized for the first time that I was just some pathetic pumpkin in his shiny story. And when I confronted him about it, I offered him the chance to apologize, to join me! But instead he chose to fight. I won and got away, but that day I felt like my pumpkin guts were torn out of me and I could hardly breathe. I thought there was something wrong with me. I’d lost my best friend, and the Elders ostracized me. 7 years later, when McLevet stepped across the stage with his own story – his own grudges – I knew we would return together to seek our revenge. He flies. I can control the weather. We just need a person on the ground. I’m sure that’s who you’ll be, Jamie. I can feel the hidden strength emanating from your core. You’ll be our greatest champion.
JAMIE: I don’t want to be like you. I never want to be like you!
DECLOUD: You won’t have a choice. Neither of us did.
(DECLOUD pulls out a business card and hands it to JAMIE.)
DECLOUD (CON’T): Give me a call when you’re ready.
(DECLOUD exits. There is a pregnant pause. Finally, JAMIE removes her graduation cap at throws it at the ground beside PROFESSOR)
JAMIE: I won’t do it. The Chief Elder is the reason my parents are dead! I know he didn’t mean for it to happen and I know I say that I’ve forgiven him, but I can feel the anger within me. This school, you, even those other punk students – it all has been such a blessing. I hate to think that I could become something that would destroy everything you’ve worked for. I don’t want to become fueled by hate! I love you like my own father. I can’t walk that stage. I can’t risk it.
PROFESSOR: Pass the siracha.
JAMIE: What?
PROFESSOR: That’s what you said to me during lunch on your first day. I told you it was too much; you’re your mouth would explode. And you said bring it. Listen to yourself, Jamie. If you were truly going to become a villain, you wouldn’t be feeling this fear. You have never backed down from a fight, and maybe you’ll have inner battles, but you have to walk that stage and find your true potential. She was right. Me, the elders, we’re weak; but there is a strength in you. You may be our only hope. I love you too. And I believe in you.
(Voice calls Jamie’s name from offstage.)
JAMIE: It’s now or never, I guess.
PROFESSOR: It’s now.
(JAMIE gets up her courage and walks off stage to get her powers. PROFESSOR takes a deeply nervous breath.)
END OF PLAY