NoName - An Excerpt.
Written by Tam Nguyen for LEAP level 1 2023-2024.
Stage reading premiered at The Arts Club Theater on May 16th, 2024.
Many thanks to my instructor, Tetsuro Shigematsu, and my LEAP peers for the generous support and adoration they gave to me and my excerpt.
Synopsis
A diary of a 20-year-old girl as she navigates her young adult life.
Characters
X (she/they): Asian woman, 20 years old.
Vinnie (she/her): 20s, open ethnicity, female identity. Double cast.
T.S. (he/him): 20s, open ethnicity, male identity. Double cast.
An old friend (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie.
A girl on a bus (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie.
French Professor (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie.
Roommate (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie.
Young Lad (he/him): Same actor as T.Sw
Dad (he/him): Same actor as T.S
Mom (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie
Nat (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie
Mysterious girl (she/her): Same actor as Vinnie
Content Warning: Violence, Animal Violence, Languages (fatphobia, shaming).
ACT I
SCENE 1
X (to the audience): I look ferociously handsome today, with my yellow corduroy jacket on. Doll up to view a new basement near the library. Doesn’t hurt to charm the landlord, make them feel a bit less inferior. Meet an old friend from high school on a bus. Surprise. She looks the same. Talks to her for a bit.
Vinnie (appears on stage, to X, cheerful): You look so good, happy!
X (to the audience): Confirm. A dull, dim-witted, unremarkable girl.
(continue) Arrived at the new place, a ghetto. Low ceiling and noise from children screaming upstairs. Dirty floor. The new housemate, turns out to be a whore. Sex worker, they said. Red rashes on their neck and arms. Goodbye.
SCENE 2
X (to the audience): Taking the bus, as usual. See a very pretty girl wearing a pink hijab sitting across.
(Vinnie becomes a new girl on the bus. They eye each other, fondly. X smiles, turns away.)
X (to the audience): Eyes on her. Turn away, she’s also eyeing me.
Oh god, the thing I do for all the pretty girls! How Mom dares to call me selfish again. I’ll be down on my knees, I’ll die for you, pretty girl, just say it. I’d be good for the rest of my life.
SCENE 3
X (to the audience): Skip the French lecture today. Debate if I should go or not sometime.
(Vinnie, now the professor, appears on stage, sitting on a chair, reading something. X kneels before the chair. The professor doesn’t see X.)
X (kneeling, both to audience and professor): The professor, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Long brunette hair with red lipstick. How can one not love a beautiful French woman?
X (to professor, French): Mademoiselle, vous etes belle super!
(Professor keeps reading, unaware of X.)
X (stand up, to the audience): Ugly sweater. Should also get rid of her sandals, doesn’t look flattering.
SCENE 4
X (to the audience): Have some free time today to write. Exquisite things. I shall be a famous writer in no time.
(Vinnie now becomes Vinnie, appears on stage, holds X’s hands.)
Vinnie (sincerely, to X): Will you keep me if you get famous?
X (to Vinnie): Maybe.
X (to audience): If she lost 20 pounds and mends her nasty ways.
SCENE 5
(T.S. appears on stage, drags X around, excitedly.)
X (to the audience): T.S. invited me over to a play at Apollo Theater.
T.S (to X): So what do you think about the playwright?
X (to audience): People, especially artists, like to pretend they’re important and they live in this fantasy where their works are meaningful and the audience will cry holding their hands, when in fact, most are full of shit. Nothing matters and we’re all gonna die one day.
(Beat).
(Continue) So what do I think about the playwright? Not much.
T.S. (to X): You are the brightest, genius writer!
X (bored, to the audience): I’m his champion trophy for a night. People fight to shake my hands, like moths into the flame. A beautiful Asian woman in her trench coat smiles at me across the room. Draining. Long day.
SCENE 6
(Vinnie, becomes a roommate, appears on stage, minding her own business.)
X (standing behind the roommate, to the audience): The roommate is annoying me, more than usual. Work at a nail salon, which is a synonym for a whore. Devoid of any half-decent intellect. I doubt the woman has any brains. If I could, a pity that I cannot, I’d slit her throat, clean and sweet. The society would thank me, for getting rid of a creature. Still a stretch. Rooming with this thing makes me feel inferior, briefly.
SCENE 7
(Vinnie becomes Vinnie again.)
Vinnie (to X): They like you
X (to Vinnie): Who?
Vinnie: The artists, they said you have brains.
X (to audience): I’m flattered.
SCENE 8
X (to audience): I’m a good person. And a good person shouldn’t be sad, a good person should be happy, because that’s what a good person is. But no matter what I do, I don’t feel happy.
Sometimes I wish I had someone to love, and to be loved, and I wish them to disappear the next day when I feel normal again. I don’t have time to carry emotional baggage. But today, just for once, I don’t wanna be alone.
SCENE 9
X (to audience): Watch a play today. Brilliant. There’s this actor in a white dress and curly black hair. She looks at me, heavenly. I couldn’t bring myself to ask, but I desire her tremendously. I wish I knew your name!
(Vinnie becomes Vinnie, appears on stage to walk alongside X. Vinnie looks sad and upset, refuses to hold hands with X.)
X (sarcastic, to the audience): I told Vinnie on the way home and Vinnie, as usual, starts getting very nasty. I think she’s jealous.
SCENE 10
(Vinnie becomes Vinnie, appears on stage.)
X (to the audience): To be honest, Vinnie is a fine girl, with some brains. She looks like a kitty and she dances gracefully. But she’s getting fat lately.
Vinnie (to X): Am I pretty to you?
X (awkward, about to say something, pause): Uhm..I-I.. love you?
X (to the audience): It’s the most charitable answer I can give under that circumstance. I’m a gentleman. Sometimes, I try to love a girl so bad. I feel guilty when they bored me.
SCENE 11
(Vinnie becomes the roommate, appears on stage, sits with her arms covering her face, pretends to sleep.)
X (sitting across, slowly standing up, walking to the roommate): 5 seconds. Another 5 seconds until the roommate starts coughing and sneezing again. I wake up. Grab a knife in the kitchen and open the door to her room. I see her, nasty as usual, sleeping like a slaughtered pig in the filthy bed. The air smells sweaty and sour.
(Vinnie as the roommate, starts coughing.)
X (next to the roommate): Another coughing and sneezing. I wake her up, gently.
(X raises the roommate’s chin. She slowly stands up, showing her throat.)
X (talking while doing): Then I slit the kitchen knife into her throat.
(The roommate struggles.)
X (to the audience, happy): Choke on her own blood, the filthy human being. I would have spared her if her face is a bit easy-looking.
(Audio of a dog barking.)
(continue) Her pet, a small dog crawling on me.
X (to the audience): No pets are allowed. I do the landlord a favor and strangle the little one till death. I find a rope and cling it to the ceiling. I resist the temptation to disassemble both of them. I don’t want to bore the housekeeper.
(Audio of a dog barking 2nd time.)
(Audio of roommate coughing 2nd time.)
SCENE 12
(T.S. appears on stage, becomes a Young Lad hosting the party.)
X (to the audience): Got invited to a dinner party. Extravagant house. Cheap taste.
Young Lad (to X, cheerful): Daiquiris?
X (to audience): No. Scotch and soda.
(Continue) Young fellas around the table. Uptight, cufflink, collars. Little brains. Pseud-pseudo intellectual. Praising Kerouac for enlightening their minds. Insufferable. Dull. Never understand why girls die over them. God blessed Natalie for changing the subject. More drinking, smoking, even more charitable laug-
Young Lad (suddenly to X): You don’t like me very much, do you?
X (sarcastic, to audience): Almost there, If only he goes a bit further!
SCENE 13
(T.S. now becomes X’s Dad, appears on stage to the left of X.)
DAD (to X): You shouldn’t be nasty, cause it doesn’t kill to be more polite.
X (to the audience): I’m a gentleman, but only to beautiful people with brains. And Dad is neither.
(Vinnie, now becomes X’s Mom, appears on stage to the right of X.)
MOM (to X): Also, behave more ladylike, cause you look like a dyke.
X (to the audience): She shouldn’t be the one to talk, she married Dad, after all.
I’m a simple girl, I want dinner party and I want dive bar, and I want people to like me. It’s better to be liked than to be loved, you know, cause people aren’t capable of loving unless they can change you a little bit.
SCENE 14
(Vinnie, now becomes Nat, appears on stage next to X, flirting with X.)
X (flirting back with Nat, to the audience): I think I love Nat. I know she’s fond of me. Standing straight at 5 feet 3, pretty mouth and green her eyes!
(Nat tries to kiss X.)
X (to the audience): She tries to kiss me on the doorstep.
(grabs her waist) I grab her waist, gently. My kind of woman. Go on a date with her tomorrow.
SCENE 15
X (to the audience, sarcastic): She bores the hell out of me. Lousy table manners. Expect me to pay for dinner at Harrison’s. I don’t mind, but I don’t like people expect me. She shouldn’t treat me like a filthy man. We’re homosexual, after all.
(calm down) At least she has a nice silk dress on. It’s glamorous.
SCENE 16
X (to the audience, confidently): Girls flock to me, naturally. One can’t help but be attractive and intelligent. Yet, I find myself unable to have any affection, no more than a delight to kiss their red cherry lips on a rainy day, and forgotten when the weather is clear.
I blame her for being the obstacle to my pathetic, young adult love life.
SCENE 17
(Vinnie now becomes this mysterious girl. Appears on stage. A dim light shines on her as X disappears into the shadow.)
X (in the shadow, to the audience): In my twisted imagination, I saw her behind the dark inner of the eyelids. A girl from Brooklyn, sun-kissed freckles, brown hair, fiercely light eyes. She likes to read under the Brooklyn Bridge crowded with tourists. She likes Bossa Nova and black boots, she cries walking down Broadway and she puts this red string around her wrist.
X (walks out of the shadow toward the mysterious girl): On the beach in the summer, under the warm sun, cold sand, and blue sky.
(speaking while doing, all standing) In her yellow swimsuit, lying on top of me, turns away, being very nasty whenever I try to rub her salty lips on mine.
X (both to the audience and to the mysterious girl): I can smell the sunscreen, fig leaf and cedar, on her skin. Neve feel close enough. I need to get closer to her flesh and soul. My devious darling knows it, and she tortures my desire until it gets to the state of burning ecstasy and nothing, not even the blue-iced ocean, can bring relief. Ma cherie, why can’t you love me?
(Mysterious girl rejects every move of X and walks away from the stage.)
X (to the audience, pitiful, mean): She left me heartbroken. She got with a white man, a mouth-breathing, redneck farm boy. Reeked of cheap Axe. Gaps between teeth. Never steps a foot outside of Wollongong. I see him impregnate her in a filthy, barbaric mannerism, and my once darling is now fat and dirty with a giant button belly.
(calm down) So no, you shouldn’t feel sad for me. I’m not fond of pregnant women.