Ideas for Tuesday

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Kara’s critiques & mine plus cutting

1. Roth, direct “Dirty Immigrant” to Teresa.
2. Anya, your lines about Papa. Let us see the hurt,weakness, and emotion – cry.
3. Murmur, - people noises – laugh, sneeze, sigh, etc. Kylee’s idea
4. Women, have strike signs and banners on before Clara’s monologue, so we can see the silhouette. The script does say “ad lib” comments. So, yes, Clara, you can say French words. These words can be varied here.
5. Fight scene. Script says men can “ad lib” cat calls. Use Eytie, Mick, Do these at the same time. We need to rehearse this. Girls cannot ad lib.
6. Brandon – hey, Eytie, and do kissing noises
7. Chavez – Mick, come to papa, you potato eater!
8. Roger – Dirty Strikers
9. Nathan – Let’s show ‘em, Stolle!
10. Stolle – Little Duro – ask Alina
11. Cut Agnes’ line – You didn’t say we’d be takin jobs away from other girls!
12. Roth, put your hands on Margaret in a lustful way.
13. Joe, laugh, think it is humorous when you say – I told her I was your lawyer. See the humor in law student.
14. When Joe and Anya are talking after the jail scene and during Bridget’s monologue, women should raise strike signs in the back. At the end of Bridget’s speech, it begins to rain.
15. Cohen, be big at the beginning and slowly start losing your cool. There should be vocally varied statements in your dialogue. 30,000 girls in 600 shirtwaist factories. This should be astounding and everyone should murmur.
Man 2 Also standing, page 41 How can these girls know what they want? They’re just children!
16. Man 2 (Brandon) Say the first line as if you are perplexed. The second – look at them – and say it as if you are a 40 year old man looking at girls 13-18 years of age.
17. Looking at the script, after Anya says” If we call an industry-wide strike… if we can hold out…. It’s not just the shirtwaist girls who’ll win, it’s all of you! , people should shout – Justice – fairness until Joe quiets them down with a good humored grin.He likes their enthusiasm, but the other men do not . Nathan and Brandon and Lannon may be the exceptions. When do you change your mind? It needs to be at varied times. After the last second, the crowd breaks out in shouts of enthusiasm – some shout justice fairness. Nathan should go to one of the girls and shake hands.
18. It is December following Cohen’s meeting.
19. Society girl scene – some girls take flyers to mother, married woman, boyfriend and old man if we have time.
20. During the court scene, be sure to murmur as appropriate following lines of dialogue.
21. Remember that these lines are said en mass following the streetwalker line.
Woman 1 Liar!
Bridget That’s a lie!
Man 5 (Brandon) You filthy liar!
Teresa You have no right to say that!
Violet Liar!
Lenore How dare you say that?
Judge Order! I will have order!
22. Roth, cut about 3 -4 sentences in your monologue.
Bridget It’s the dreams that make it hard. You think you are in one place and when you wake, you’re in another! I keep dreamin I’m back in County Monohan, and everythin is green.
Ruth The worst of it is the dreams.
Violet The food’s the worst of it. The moldy bread.
Ruth The way your stomach twists in knots.
Clara Clara struggles to speak through her cough. Violet goes to her, stroking her hair, comforting her. The cold is the worst of it.
Bridget Five of us… one bucket for a toilet!
Violet CUT
Lenore Page 63 The rats are the worst of it.
Lenore CUT
Clara Remember the girl who was with us, those first days?
Violet She hardly said a word.
Clara She had the white lung, too. Remember?
Bridget She’ll be in potter’s field now.
Bridget She’ll be fair quiet now,
Clara I promised I wouldn’t forget her. Now I’m asking you, all of you, promise you won’t forget us!
Anya Quickly goes to Clara, kneeling in front of her cot You’re going to be fine, Clara! Once you can feel the sun again!
Clara Without self pity… only stating a fact I’m never going to get out of here.
Anya It is almost as if the very bones and muscles holding her up are crumbling Clara, I’m sorry you’re in here. That’s the worst of it for me. Lying on that bed every night. Knowing you’re getting sicker every day.
Ruth When we win the strike, you can make it all right!
Anya Take what you get and keep your mouth shut. People were right. But I thought I knew. WILDLY. But now… I don’t know why we even tried.
Anya All I ever gave you were dreams
Bridget It’s dreams brought me to America, Anya… that sent me to the picket line!
Anya Dreams aren’t enough.
Bridget Kneels beside Anya Dreams are what you go on, when there’s nothing else left.
Ruth hesitantly I had the dream of the New World… I have it still.
Bridget Standing CUT
Bridget Page 65 They’re waitin for the sound of our tears! But I say we give them the sound of our singin!
Bridget begins stamping her feet, pounding on the walls, clapping. With a sudden bold move, Violet joins her in making noise, shouting out her words with defiance
Violet I sing the song of a society girl! Who came to the east side for an adventure! Who stayed to prove she can do it!
Ruth and Lenore join in the noisemaking, and even Clara, as she lies on the cot, claps her hands. On her knees, Anya watches.
Bridget My mother and her mother before her, sang the song of the potato! But I sing the song of the shirtwaist and a finer, better song it is altogether!
Ruth With increasing bravery and feeling CUT
Bridget Indicating Ruth I sing the song of Ruth Stein and her new land!
Ruth Let them hear our song all over the Tombs!
Violet Page 66 I sing the song of the cold and the rats and the gristle and the smell!
Bridget I sing the songs of the overflowin bucket!
Ruth I sing of the jail! And the thugs!
Bridget And the judge and Mr. Mighty Johannsen
Violet and Bridget link arms and do a jig step. Then, as the noise continues, Lenore speaks beating out the rhythm of her words with her fist.
Lenore My parents told me if I supported the strike, I couldn’t come home again. That first night here, I wanted to beg them to take me back. I made it through that night. And I’ve made it through every night since!
Violet Let’s sing the songs of the nights!
Lenore And the mornings! I know there’s something inside they can’t break! Not the Tombs – not my parents! Every morning, I get stronger!
Ruth I sing the song of – possibilities!
Bridget Of new chances!
Violet CUT
Clara The girls cluster around Clara’s cot as she struggles to speak, still making their noise but dropping the volume so they can hear her.
Page 67 For the first time in my life, I stood up and I did something… and I was scared… and I did it anyway! And I got strong! I sing the song of strength! As she lies back down on the cot. I ….. sing the song of strength.
Anya A beat. Then Anya stands, filled with new strength. She joins the girls in making noise and now the noise does become music, the girls moving to it for a beat or two. Page 68
In a Fremder Schott,, cue 21 Are you watching, Clara? We’re dancing…. In the tombs!
Anya She reaches out her hands to Clara. Sing with us, Clara!
Anya But there is no response. Anya touches her. Clara? Clara!
The music stops, the girls stopping their noise and movement, as they look at Clara. A beat. With slow, firm movements, Anya begins again to make noise, but this sound is definite, deliberate, insistent, it’s a powerful rhythm that builds and builds. Girls join in one by one.
Anya Page 69 I sing the song of …. Clara!
Anya I sing my mother’s song and my sisters’ song. I sing for all the daughters. I sing of our strength ….. and our dreams!
The noise crescendos. Blackout
23. Joe, “Wanted Jew to keep fighting.
24. Newsboys, slow down. Brandon, do not say the first line. Go right to Cohen’s ““For the first time in my comfortably sheltered upper west side life, I saw real hunger on the faces of my fellow Americans in the richest city in the world!”
25. Pass out flyers to the mother, the pregnant woman, others if time allows.
26. Nathan, good job walking around as a newsboy.
27. Kylee’s idea – she will buy newspapers from newsboys in order to move right stage.
28. 2-3-2-4
29. We still need more levels with signs.
30. Roth, Thank, not think
31. Violet, good job!
32. Study lines even if you think you know them. We’re missing little words, but little words count.
33. Boys, no laughing
34. Stolle, better at being lustful
35. Can everyone Google images of winter in New York to see how cold and snowy it is? August can be quite hot and humid. September continues to be a warm month in New York City, but many of the summer crowds have left and evenings can be a bit cooler as the month wears on. October(65 degrees) in New York. New York City weather in November can be chilly, but snow is unlikely (54-40 during the day). December 41-32 during the day with snow and rain. January is typically the coolest month in New York City. Being in a city full of tall buildings can make the wind feel colder and stronger than normal(36-26 during the day). February is one of the coldest months with rain and snow.
36. Good job, Bridget, Wringing out shawl
37. Boys, take hats off indoors
38. Everyone is slurring the word “Union”. It sounds like sunion.
39. Good job spitting in union man’s hat, Bridget
40. Lannon, Kara likes your spiffy umbrella thing
41. Clara needs the gloves instead of others.
42. Ruth, good job being cold
43. Men need to be cold as well.
44. Great job, Brandon!
45. Murmur!
46. Immigrants is an insult! REACT
47. Awesome STOLLE,
48. We’re not were, Lenore
49. If you have read this far, tell Stolle you love him.
50. When Violet winked, only Bridget reacted.
51. Bridget was heard over everyone when Violet insults the judge.
52. Bailiffs are firm, not rough, so girls don’t struggle as hard
53. Roth, bigger arm movements during your monologue.
54.

Judge We’re into February now and they’re still at it!
Girls off Justice! Fairness!
Stolle Micks marchin with Eyeties! Rich marchin with the poor.
Judge CUT
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Judge Yelling out the window Go home… get married!
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Stolle We beat ‘em and haul ‘em off to jail, and they’re still at it!
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Stolle It almost makes a man afraid.
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Judge Page 76 There’s no possible way those girls can win.
A beat, as they realize what the Judge has just said.
Girls Justice! Fairness! Justice! Fairness!
Roth Steps away from the window To the judge The factories will close down before those girls give up! Because those girls are made of the same stuff Martin Roth is.
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Roth Yelling it out Justice! Fairness!
Roth He crosses to the men, who became increasingly alarmed at his manner and words. Rosie walked the picket line. She got sent to the Tombs. She’d been stuck in a cell with PAUSE Anya Rosen, Lenore Van Meer, Violet Vandercort, Bridget Feeney, Ruth Stein, Clara.
Girls Justice! Fairness!
Roth Page 77 The warden said she wasn’t in the Tombs no more. “So where’s Rosie?
Roth Right to the men. He stands on platform UCS Potters Field. That’s what the warden told me. Your sister told us she didn’t have any family. BEAT I know what they’re fighting for.
Roth and girls Justice! Fairness!
55.