House of Music

By mcreed

House of Music takes place on a street in an affluent section of Harlem. The play explores the present-day complexities of a group of African Americans and a liberal Caucasian resulting from their experiencing the impacts of the Civil Rights struggle and subsequent Affirmative Action programs. The play is unique for many reasons. First, in most literature, there is one character that serves as the spokesperson for the author. This is not the case in this play. The author believes that in the real world, there is no one person who possesses all truth. This is especially true when presenting the subject matter of this play. Truth is relative; it is also a factor of time. What was true yesterday may not be true today, and the consequence of not being cognizant of this is one of the major issues explored in the play. The author, then, speaks through all the characters because to do so is closer to lifes reality. The play is a discussion between people concerned on very complex issues, and each persons position is respected and considered with the same weight. It is up to the audience to decide with whom they agree; or it may be that they will agree with more than one charactersuch is life.

The play is an exploration of myriad issues facing the African American community. Some of the issues, however, are universal, and thereby, the play has universal appeal. It is serious, delightful, and often funny. Finally, we have a surprise ending.


Enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466937277

mcreed

It began in the mid-1980s; it was like the “invasion of the body snatchers.” They infiltrated the bureaucracies: city, state, and federal as well as private corporations, like Enron. Under the guise of people qualified to make organizations more efficient and effective, these acronym-spewing suits set about dismantling the infrastructure of our society. They used words like reengineering; they very slyly changed reward systems to force workers to comply with their agenda. The compliant ones were transformed into acronym-spewing robots. Those who resisted were considered to be “not a team player” and were sidelined, eventually to be removed from their positions. I was there; I watched and wondered what on earth these people were up to. I would tell them that certain procedures existed to ensure internal control. Redundancies, redundancies, the head would shout at me. Well, I would calmly say, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. This novel was cooked in the cauldron of chaos that simmered, boiled, and burned during a twenty-year period in which our institutions were gutted. It is my imagination of what is possible under such conditions. When the bottom fell out of our economy in 2008, I expected it; I’d seen these people create an environment in which this could occur. I’m a certified organizational development specialist. I have the traditional training—BA in public administration, MS in human resource management—as well as the nontraditional training, landmark education.

Book preview

HOUSE OF

MUSIC

mcreed

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© Copyright 2002, 2012 mcreed.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4669-3726-0 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-3727-7 (e)

Trafford rev. 06/07/2012

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Contents

Synopsis

Act I

Scene I

Act I

Scene II

Act II

Scene I

Act II

Scene II

Act III

Scene I

Act III

Scene II

Epilogue

Appendices

House of Music

A New Play by mcreed

Cast

Garbage Man 1

Garbage Man 2

Policeman 1

Policeman 2

Policeman 3

EMS Worker 1

EMS Worker 2

Synopsis

House of Music takes place on a street in an affluent section of Harlem. The play explores the present day complexities of a group of African-Americans and a liberal Caucasian resulting from their experiencing the impacts of the Civil Rights struggle and subsequent Affirmative Action programs. The play is unique for many reasons. First, in most literature, there is one character that serves as the spokesperson for the author. This is not the case in this play. The author believes that in the real world, there is no one person who possesses all truth. This is especially true when presenting the subject matter of this play. Truth is relative; it is also a factor of time. What was true yesterday may not be true today and the consequence of not being cognizant of this is one of the major issues explored in the play. The author, then, speaks through all of the characters because to do so is closer to life’s reality. The play is a discussion, between people concerning, very complex issues and each person’s position is respected and considered with the same weight. It is up to the audience to decide with whom they agree; or, it may be that they will agree with more than one character; such is life.

The play is an exploration of myriad issues facing the African-American community. Some of the issues, however, are universal and therefore, the play has universal appeal. It is serious, delightful, and often funny. Finally, we have a surprise ending.

Enjoy.

Act I

Scene I

Before the curtain rises, we hear, in almost inaudible tones, a collage of music all around us. It is like the music heard in the courtyard of a group of tenements on a Saturday night in Harlem. The sounds are too low for the audience to hear a distinct song. The songs are Buddy Guy’s ‘Nineteen Years Old,’ DMX’s ‘Up in Here’ Richard Elliot’s ‘Just Me and You,’ Keith Whitley’s ‘When You Say Nothing at All,’ Dinah Washington’s ‘Bad Luck,’ Johnny Ace’s ‘The Clock’ Kirk Whalum’s ‘Living for the City,’ and Mahalia Jackson’s ‘In the Upper Room.’

The lights are very dim. The curtain rises and before us is a row of two story brownstones. They are well kept on an immaculate street. There is a street sign on a lamppost that reads, Hamilton Place. The light fades to black and the set turns to reveal a structure of six cubicles, representing the inside of the center brownstone. The stage is designed as specified in the Set Design section. The music rises two decibels. The light fades to black again and the set for Baron Struggles slides onto center stage. The only thing that remains from the other set is the stairway, stage right.

In the center of the set we see Baron Struggles, He is dress in a conservative and stylish navy blue business suit. The suit has a faint pink stripe that matches his pink shirt. His tie is navy blue as is his loafers. His socks are silk, pink. His hair is close cut in a Caesar style. He is clean-shaven. It is 6am. Baron is sitting at his desk, reviewing sheets of paper. The cellular phone rings. He reaches for it in deliberate and controlled movements, while still looking, intently at the sheet of paper in front of him. On the second ring, he clicks the On button.

Baron: (firm, businesslike) Baron Struggles here. (pause) Oh, hi Buddy! How are you my friend? (pause) Oh, that’s to be expected. When you move back home after such a long time you have to expect a period of adjustment. (pause) Oh, come on now; he can’t be that bad. Look he’s your dad and he’s concerned. He just wants to be helpful. (pause) No, no, Buddy I can’t see you working in a bottling plant. But your dad’s been working there for over 30 years. He doesn’t see anything wrong with it; it’s what he does—so why not you? Get it? (pause) I know we made 20 million dollars in 98-99 but when the dot coms failed-Look, everyone lost fortunes. But, I’m lucky because I haven’t had to touch my savings. If I hadn’t bought this brownstone, I don’t know where I’d be and remember this was just a tax shelter. (pause) Well what really helps is the rent from the tenants. Every one pays on time except the three guys in Apt. 5. It’s Harlem but the block is clean and really beautiful so I can charge 8 hundred a month and that comes to 4 thousand a month in total. The mortgage is only 12 hundred and the utilities are about 4 hundred. They’re low because each apartment has it own meter. I don’t pay their gas or electric, just fuel and water. I clear about 24 hundred each month and believe me, it comes in handy. You know with the note on the Mercedes and the other bills… (pause) (gently) Buddy, I miss you too but we agreed, this is Harlem… (pause) Yeah, 9/11 destroyed everything but I don’t know how long we would have been able to pay the mortgage on the condo in Battery Park. (long pause)

As Baron is talking, we see Rick Lamb, an older African-American man. He is wearing a light blue, short sleeved casual shirt, navy blue cotton pants, and sandals. He has on a straw Kangaroo cap, wire rimmed glasses and around his neck is an untied white handkerchief that he uses to wipe perspiration from his face. With him is a young girl, about 18 years old. She is wearing a very short tight red skirt and a black, backless halter-top. Her shoes are spike-heeled sandals. Her hair is a garish red, in sharp contrast to her dark skin. It is obvious that she is a lady of the evening. They slowly proceed up the steps, kissing and groping.

Yeah, the condo was fabulous; you did a splendid job decorating it and the view, my God, you had the water on one side and the twin towers. Remember the parties we had… (pause) Yeah, it changed everything. (pause) Yeah, Buddy, so I have to go; I don’t want to be late for work. (pause) Yeah, it’s a middle management position, (uncomfortably) you know, just until I can find something at the executive level… (pause) Well, Buddy, I just can’t sit around and mourn the lost of our IT business. Actually, 9/11 just rushed the inevitable. We were going down because the dot coms were our main clients and they were falling like sprayed flies… (pause) (uncomfortably) It pays 50 thousand with health benefits… (pause) I know we used to make 50 thousand in an hour. (laughing) the operative phrase here is used to make. (pause) I know Buddy, I know; how do you think I feel but there aren’t any alternatives