PUPPETSHOW

Adina Halperin:

Huck and Pearl

Huck: So, uh, Pearl, is it?

Pearl: Yes.

Huck: Tell me about your childhood.

Pearl: Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but my father was a priest and my mother was an adulteress. In Salem, my mother was condemned for her actions, and we lived on the outskirts of society. We were a mystery to society, my mother and I. An anomaly. I was free and at ease with nature, but I was so lonely.

Huck: So you were pretty free, huh? Seems like we’re kindred spirits. Me, my mama died when I was young and I lived with a widow for a while. Then my pap came and got me but he didn’t treat me no good. They all tried to civilize me but I didn’t like it none. I faked my death and escaped. I came upon Jim, who was escaping slavery, and we went on a raft on adventures across the Mississippi.

Pearl: Kindred spirits? Us? That could not be farther from the truth! You had a choice! You chose to live a life away from the comforts of society. I had no choice. Maybe my mother chose to live this way. She knew her actions had consequences. Maybe she disliked the rules, but by not playing by them, my life started in such a way that bound me to nature, making nature and my mother my only companions. You had the choice to live with people who could take care of you, and structure in your life that could cushion any harm that came your way. Why did you choose to live your life in such a way?

Huck: You think I was happy living like that, trying to act all nice and civilized? You talkin’ bout the comforts of society? It’s more like the confines of society. Sure, I knew society, but bein’ civilized wasn’t no good. I was the one who had no choices. I was either at the mercy of my pap’s drunken violence or of crazy rules that made no sense. How could I be happy livin’ like a clone of everyone else? I had to go have adventures. Otherwise I would a just been miserble.

Pearl: Well I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Huck: Uh, sure. Nice talkin’ to ya.

Catherine Wimberley:

Governess: So captain Ahab… I understand you hunt whales for a living, which must be terribly exciting. I work as a governess, most recently at Bly where I cared for two small children Miles and Flora.

Ahab: This is a bloody waste of time. I’m only here because my crew thought meeting someone would relieve my tension. The only thing that will bring me peace is the death of the white whale Moby Dick!

Governess: You speak with such passion. Tell me do you want the whale because it will bring you money?

Ahab: No! I hunt Moby Dick for vengeance. It was the white whale that brought me to this dead stump on which I stand now! Behind his mask lies an evil demon that deliberately sought to ruin me. I will wreak hate upon the whale. If needs be I will go round perdition’s flames to attain my vengeance.

Governess: I think we have more in common than you might think. My passion has led me to protect my small charges just as yours as led to your hunt for the whale. Miles and Flora saw spirits that tried to corrupt them. I was asked to perform a service that was both admirable and difficult. I had to protect and defend the little creatures whose helplessness was only too explicit. I saved Miles, he confessed he was seeing Peter Quint. I imagine the passion with which I held him afterwards equals your quest.

Ahab: You speak of love and redemption. I am referring to hate and vengeance. I don’t care what some silly chit who thinks she sees ghosts has to say. I have encountered pure evil.

Governess: You think your demented accusation that some dumb whale deliberately maimed you gives you an excuse to put the lives of your crew at risk? It’s a whale, you’re a whaler. No offense, but these things happen a lot in your profession.

Ahab: You’ll never understand what truly drives me. The force of my emotions are beyond your mental scope.

Governess: I’ve experienced the same thing. The difference is I was motivated by only the purest intentions.

Ahab: Are we done yet?

Governess: Ugh… the scar was a turn off anyway…

Angeldeep:

Eva and Miles

Miles: Hi, I’m Miles. What’s your name?

Eva: I’m Eva. Tell me Miles, do you believe in God?

Miles: God? I don’t know about that. I do believe in spirits though. Why do you ask?

Eva: God is very important to me. I believe that living life according to the prescription of his word is the only way to live, spreading love among fellow men and doing good for them. Don’t you think so?

Miles: I wouldn’t say that God is very important to me. I can say that growing up my Governess was very important to me. She took care of me and tried oh so hard to protect me and show me the right path, like you are doing. You see, when I was a boy living in my family home after I’d been sent away from school, I was haunted by evil spirits ..

Miles: [Eva Gasps] Yes, the ghost of the old governess and a man who used to work for my father. Peter Quint and Miss Jessel (speaking the names fondly).

Eva: Do you believe them to be evil Miles?

Miles: They were no angels that’s for sure, always trying to corrupt me and my little sister (mischievous).

Eva: All you had to do is stay true to the will of God Miles, then no harm would ever be able to come to you. I will think of you in my prayers.

Miles: Prayers? Why would you pray Eva? What makes you believe in God so much anyway? What’s the motivation behind your belief?

Eva: I could ask you the very same thing. What could possibly motivate you to believe in evil spirits like the ghosts you speak of?

Miles: Oh, you mean those two? (points to ghosts) They weren’t evil for me. They were trying to help me deal with the confined setting my father had put me in at school and with my dear governess at home too.

Eva: I can’t see what beings you speak of. But nonetheless I will pray for them. Dearly departed spirits, peace be upon thy soul.

Miles: Oh pray away Eva, I don’t believe it’ll do much good at all.

Eva: God save you all.

Laci Hutto:

Dimmesdale: Hi… Cassy, right? I’m Richard Dimmesdale. Look, I just have to warn you that I’m not here looking for anything…. Maybe I’m just looking for someone to talk to. I’ve been keeping things to myself for so long that I just want someone I can talk with….

Cassy: Okay…

Dimmesdale: I just mean I’m not looking for happiness here. I’ve given up on that. I don’t deserve to be happy. I let everyone around me down, I let myself down, I let the woman I was in love with and our daughter down…. Oh, I guess I might as well tell you about that up front. I fell in love with a woman of my town—a married woman—and she had a child, and I didn’t admit that I was the father to anyone of our town. And the worst part—I’m supposed to be their spiritual advisor. I’m supposed to guide them on the path to righteousness, but for years they’ve come to me for guidance and I’ve had to pretend to be this morally upright man when really I’m worthless and don’t deserve their respect….

Cassy: You are the most self-pitying man I have ever met.

Dimmesdale: What?

Cassy: Let me tell you something, your problem is nothing compared to what some people face. I had a good life growing up, but then the man I was with decided he didn’t want me anymore and he sold me and our children… I was passed from man to man until I ended up with this horrible man, Simon Legree…. I’m just saying you have no idea what troubles are until you’ve had a life like a slave.

Dimmesdale: You don’t understand, I’ve had to keep this suffering to myself for years, and it’s weighing so heavily on my soul…

Cassy: Stop it. Just stop. I feel like you most of the time—that there’s no hope, there’s no point--- but you had a choice. You could have lived your life the way you wanted. You made the choice to be with that woman, you made the choice to keep silent. I had no say in what happened to me. Your internal struggle is nothing compared to what the people I know have to face every day. So stop whining. (leaves)

Emily:

Jim: Uh, ‘scuse me sir. I think thar’s been a confusion with the set up here.I don’t, I’m not…

Ishamel: No no, me either, I understand what you mean. May as well introduce each other while we’re here. Call me Ishmael.

Jim: I’m Jim. I’m from Missouri.

Ishamel: I’m a New Englander myself, although I feel most at home out at sea.

Jim: Really, sir? Well I’se never been out to sea, as you says, but I did just spend quite some time on a raft float’in down river. I reckon there’s someth’in similar in that.Why does you go to sea, anyways?

Ishmael: Well, whenever it is a damp and drizzily November in my soul I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. It’s either that or pistol and ball.

Jim: Wait jest a minute. Are you say’in it’s take to the sea or kill youself? What are you runnin away from?

Ishmael: The misery of daily life, I suppose.

Jim: But you ain’t black! You ain’t no slave! How miserable can your life be? Tell me that!

Ishmael: Who ain’t a slave? Tell me that.How cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition! I suppose the simplest way of putting it is that the invisible police officer of the Fates influences me in some unaccountable way- he can better answer than anyone.

Jim: I still don’t seem to understand it. You sees, I was on that raft that I mentioned earlier as a runaway slave. Yup, thas right. My masser was gonna sell me down river, and I knows nothin good can come of that. So I says to myself, Jim, it’s a lookin like the time has come to make a run for it. And I did.

Ishmael: If you were already a slave, how would being sold make any difference?

Jim: My goodness, you is a New Englander, ain’t you? Well, life wasn’t so good nohows, always havin to do as the Widow Douglas told me, couldn’t even hardly tell my own chill’un what to do. Now, be’in sold south would only make things worse. Why, the stories I’se heard don’t have nuthin good about em. Sir, I’se been beat and I’se been hurt, but go’in south would be about ten times as bad as I had it. We ain’t all slaves, as you says. You ain’t never been beat, I reckon. You talk of drizzily Novembers and pistol and bullets, when all I’se try’in to do is survive. I jest don’t understand it.