The February People’s Choice Award goes to…

The people have spoken… The February People’s Choice Award goes to Kristy Lin Billuni for her play The Apple Tree, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround on February 20th live at the Freight & Salvage and simulcast via Vimeo Livestream. Congratulations, Kristy!

Courtesy of Kristy, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

The Apple Tree
by Kristy Lin Billuni

Cast of Characters:
APPLE – Tree of Knowledge. Generous. Heartbroken.
EVE – First Woman. Smart. Passionate.

Time & Place: In the beginning, the Garden of Eden.
Setting: The very center of the garden, where APPLE grows.
Props: Several apples.

Note: EVE cannot hear when APPLE addresses the audience.

At Rise: APPLE looks over the audience, friendly at first, then very friendly, then
flirtatiously, then brazenly. Then APPLE addresses the audience.

APPLE
I only need one of you. You? Or you. I want just one human being to like me enough to feed me when I hunger and water me when I thirst, to gently prune back my reach when I get too wild and leggy, to encourage me when I’m too timid. To hug me. I want you to do it every day, every moon, until eternity.

Actually, I want more than for you to like me. I want you to love me as I have always loved you. As I loved her, from the very beginning.

(EVE enters.)

The day we first met, I stood in the middle of the garden. She walked right up to me, made me nervous.

(APPLE drops several apples.)

Oh, excuse me. I am so sorry.

(EVE picks up apples.)

EVE
No, no, totally my fault. Hey, have we met?

APPLE
I don’t think so.

EVE
When did you get here?

APPLE
Day three.

(EVE is impressed.)

EVE
Day six, myself. What—are you?

APPLE
Apple. Try one.

(EVE takes a bite. It is delicious.)

EVE
Wow. Oh my—! I have never tasted anything like this! So crisp, so light, so juicy! Tart and sweet at the same time!

APPLE
Stop, you’re flattering me.

EVE
No, I am serious. I love you.

APPLE
Thanks. It’s—really nice to be loved.

(APPLE addresses audience. EVE lounges around APPLE’s roots.)

And so our friendship germinated. Humanity and Nature, companions for the ages. She wasn’t like the other beasts. And she thought I was beautiful.

EVE
Beauty is everything, Apple.

APPLE
You really think so?

EVE
Mm-hm. The sparkly bits of blue sky between your branches. The dewy clovers under my sun-warmed skin. The perfume of your blossoms on the wind. It is all so stunningly beautiful. We live in paradise. Abundant, beautiful, paradise.

(APPLE tosses EVE an apple. EVE accepts it gratefully and exits briefly. APPLE addresses audience.)

APPLE
It was good. So good. We spent all our time together. I believed in my very heartwood that we shared a common destiny, that Nature and Humanity could thrive together forever. Eve made me feel secure, like I was her equal in a generous exchange of love and care. She slept tangled in my mossy roots, nourished herself with my fruit. If I needed support, emotional or mineral, she was always there with a wagon-full of Epsom salt or a story from the stars to ease my yearning.

(EVE enters with hands clasped, protecting a gift in her palms.)

Join us for the next Monday Night PlayGround on March 20! For more info, click here!