19; A Collection of Plays

By Francis Bass

A collection of three plays set in worlds not quite like our own—one a fictional medieval embassy from a country devastated by plague and civil war, another an academic institution so insular and study-focused it's nicknamed a "monastery"—each with a brief afterword providing commentary on the origins of the play.

First in the collection is “Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle,” a ten-minute play tracking the power struggle between two property managers over a steadily eroding island, followed by “Monastery,” an hour-long play, focusing on a group of students who attend a "monastery," as they debate whether or not they should drop out. Closing out the anthology is "We'll Tell Happy Stories," a short full-length piece following two refugees from a destroyed country, posing as ambassadors, as they struggle to deal with a new decree expelling all foreigners from their host country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Bass
• Release date: Aug 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370372683

Francis Bass

Francis Bass is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. His work has appeared in RECKONING, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, and others. He lives in Philadelphia.

Book preview

19;

A collection of plays

Copyright © 2017 by Francis Bass

All rights reserved.

Every play contained in this anthology is copyright protected. All rights, including rights to performance of any kind, are strictly reserved, unless written permission is granted by the author. For inquiries concerning performance rights, contact Francis Bass at [e-mail].

Cover font Lusitana by Ana Paula Megda.

Distributed by Smashwords.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle

Monastery

We’ll Tell Happy Stories

Foreword

One thing that I absolutely do not want to do is have all of my works spread out between various anthologies that leave some pieces uncollected and other pieces over-collected. This has been the case for some authors and playwrights in the past, and it’s always nice when they have a Complete Works volume or series of volumes. Whether I actually want to read all the writer’s plays or not, I like that these sorts of collections can give me my bearings. They can be useful for tracking down a particular play, or for tracing the arc of an author’s progression through a specific time period. So, that’s why I’m starting this series. In essence, the anthology whose forward you are now reading is the first in an annual series of anthologies collecting all of my plays self-published within that year. (I’m also doing an annual series of anthologies collecting my short stories.) Because, why wait to have a Complete Works series? We’re well into the indie revolution, and publication rights aren’t the most important thing with plays, and producing this costs nothing but a little bit of time, so I may as well start now.

The title scheme for this series corresponds to my age when the plays were published—published, not written. It becomes too messy otherwise, with plays written over long periods of time. So, if you’re looking for where books 1-18 are, they don’t exist. This is the first year I started self-publishing stuff (pretty much), so it’s the first year I’m putting out one of these anthologies. The one exception to this is Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle, which I published when I was 18, a couple months before my birthday. I wasn’t going to give it its own anthology though, so it’s in this one.

Hopefully this will be a very, very long series.

As for the actual content of this anthology, the plays vary in topic and in length, starting off with Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle, a short play about an eroding Floridian island. Monastery, a one act, also takes place in a tertiary-education setting, though in the future, when getting a good job requires even more years in an academic setting than graduate programs do now. Rounding out the anthology is We’ll Tell Happy Stories, a full-length play (albeit one on the short side) about two refugees posing as ambassadors from their destroyed country, who have to convince their hosts that their nation is still strong.

And all the plays have afterwords, similar in style to this forward, but after.

Francis Bass

August 2017

Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle

Characters

RAYMOND MARE

50s. Spent his whole life on the coast.

SANDRA HOLT

40s. Grew up inland. Hardly ever went to the beach.

Setting

Sandcastle Isle, a fictional Floridian island close to the coast, lined with beach houses. The near future, then a few years later, then a few years later. Summer each time. Rising sea level, increased hurricane activity, and natural erosion are combining to tear away sand from beaches all along the east coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The downstage edge of the stage is the ocean. The upstage edge is the dunes. SANDRA HOLT enters upstage with a cell phone in hand, having come down from her beach house. She holds the phone up to her ear, but she has no signal. Frustrated, she wanders up and down the beach trying to find a signal. At one point she walks up to the water’s edge, but darts back as a wave comes in. She finally gets a signal at center stage right. She dials, and puts the phone to her ear.

SANDRA

Hey honey.

He asks, Who is this? though we do not hear this.

It’s—Sandra. It’s Sandra. Oh, right. This is a work phone. It probably said Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle, or something?

Yeah, I wasn’t sure if it was you or …

Yeah it’s me.

Beat.

So I’m actually going to be out here a bit longer. I still haven’t found any houses that weren’t already listed on the site. Or any houses owned by smaller companies, Mare seems to own everything.

Who?

Mare, the company. The old, old, old company.

So how much longer will you be out there.

I don’t know. Until I can find some property that BRSI can buy. We’re not going to make it if we can’t get more of a foothold here, so.

Beat.

How’s Sarah?

Good. She misses her—

Good. And she’s doing well at St. Joseph’s?

Yeah, she’s adjusting well.

The teachers there, they’re so … I think she’ll finally get the help she needs there. I don’t know how long we can afford it, especially if we don’t—

A beach umbrella flies on from right and smacks into SANDRA’s back. She almost drops her phone in surprise, then grabs ahold of the umbrella before it flies away.

SANDRA

Ouch.

She stands up the umbrella and keeps a hold of it, attached to it like an anchor, then puts the phone to her ear. She’s lost the signal.

Crap.

RAYMOND MARE jogs on from right, chasing the umbrella.

RAYMOND

Oh, thank you!

SANDRA

This yours?

RAYMOND takes the umbrella from SANDRA. He holds it like it’s a part of him.

RAYMOND

Thank you. I just got in a full week’s work-out chasing that thing down. Boy. I don’t remember the last time it was this windy.

SANDRA smiles, nods. The phone is still in her hand, ready to be redialed the moment RAYMOND leaves her.

RAYMOND

I don’t think I’ve seen you around here. You ever been here before?

SANDRA

No, this is my first time visiting.

RAYMOND

Ah. Well, yes, that would explain it. I know most everybody who comes here, and I try to meet the people I don’t know. I’m Raymond Mare, but Ray is how most folks know me.

He extends his hand. SANDRA recognizes the significance of her situation, and quickly pockets her phone, and shakes hands.

SANDRA

I’m Cass.

RAYMOND

What house—

His phone rings. He frowns, and pulls it out to read the text.

Oh, a think tank. I’d rather sit in a fish tank all day than listen to these guys talk about rebuilding beaches and anti-erosion bioengineering, on and on.

He puts his phone away.

So, what house are you staying in?

SANDRA

Pointing upstage.

The Sand Dollar, there.

RAYMOND

Oh, yes. Well. I guess that takes the wind out of my sails a bit. That’s one of a few beach houses here that I don’t own, that’s one of those Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle houses, right?

SANDRA

I think so, yes.

RAYMOND

Chuckles.

Yes. If you had named, say, the Marlin,

He points it out to her.

well, I could’ve said, excellent, that’s one of mine—the oldest one of we have, in fact. If you see the Mare sign on it, that’s one of mine. But no. Is the house nice?

SANDRA

Oh, yes, it’s lovely.

RAYMOND

You can’t really go wrong on Sandcastle Isle. Any house here, it’s gonna be marvelous. You staying with family?

SANDRA

Oh, no, I’m just by myself. My daughter’s just starting a new school, and she has—I didn’t want to disrupt things for her by bringing her out here.

RAYMOND

So you’re just here for a little personal vacation?

SANDRA

Well, I spend so much time with people in my work, I like to come out here and just be alone.

Beat.

Present company excepted I mean, I don’t mind talking to you.

RAYMOND

Laughs.

No, I didn’t take it that way. What is your work? I feel like I’ve talked so much about myself, I shouldn’t do that, I should hear something about you. Lots of people you say?

SANDRA

Well, I’m a real estate agent.

RAYMOND

Ah! Fancy that!

In a mock conspiratorial tone.

You’re not undercover for Beach Realty of Sandcastle Isle, are you?

The two laugh.

No, that’s the only real competition on this island. The rest is us. Well, and a few little winter houses, and those little shops down by the bridge. But, yes, the business can be tiring. I’ve never done work in the agent side of things, but I still do a lot of talking, pitching, all that. Just last week—well, here I go steamrolling you down with a tidal wave of conversation again.

SANDRA

Oh, no that’s fine! What—something happened last week?

RAYMOND

Yes, well, you may find this interesting. I was telling my parents about it—they left the business in my hands years ago, but you’d think they’d still be interested—nope. Just wanted to watch the game.

Laughs.

Well, maybe you’ll find it interesting. Just last week—well, the board’s pushing really hard to sell some of these high risk properties—ones that are most likely to get hit by hurricanes, or ones where the beach is more likely to erode. They’re getting more and more worried about that, it seems, like these houses are just gonna sink into the ocean. So we got a lot of those up for sale, but of course no one’s biting because they’re all well-developed, they’re all expensive. Except these few that got hit, they got destroyed by Hurricane Erica. And these ones, the board says, we gotta sell at whatever offer we get on them.

Pantomiming.

"We got a buyer wants ‘em for