The February People’s Choice Award goes to…
The people have spoken… The February People’s Choice Award goes to Lisa Gaye Thompson for her play Mack & Mimi Encounter Totality, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround on February 19th live at Freight and Salvage and simulcast via Vimeo Livestream. Congratulations, Lisa!
Courtesy of Lisa, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!
Mack & Mimi Encounter Totality
by Lisa Gaye Thompson
CHARACTERS
Mack: 40s – 50s, any race, Midwestern. Mack is a good father, colleague, and a good friend to his wife. He’s a gentle man, moderately funny, but like a watch that needs to be carefully wound each day he functions in a narrow range.
Mimi (Mimes): 40s – 50s, any race, Midwestern. She’s the life of the party, but not a wild party, she’s more like the life of the bake sale or the book club. Attentive and funny. She’s been afraid to rock the boat, but there’s still time for her to find passion, and the promise of that prompted her to book this trip to see the eclipse. Looking back, she’s sure she always knew.
SETTING
On top of a mountain in Belize, Mack and Mimes (pronounced memes) wait for a total eclipse to bring on the rebirth they both seek, and desperately need. They are the kind of adorable Midwestern couple who dress similarly and in this case they do both wear tropical-tourist type outfits. They’re also that couple who could finish each others’ sentences, but Mack and Mimi are so kind that they don’t. They both know something needs to happen, but neither of them can quite make it happen. Until totality.
MACK
Eight minutes ’til totality.
MIMI
You really love saying that.
MACK
Yes I do. Cameras, glasses, binoculars. Check.
MIMI
So, are we gonna be one of those couples, you know, chasing eclipses all over the world in our golden years?
MACK
I don’t know. This is our first one . . . but they say it changes you.
MIMI
Is that why we’ve come all this way, you think?
MACK
I suppose it is. (pause) It’s a marvel. The moon and the sun are both the exact perfect size and distance from one another for the moon to block the sun perfectly and completely.
MIMI
Totality. Some say it proves there’s a god.
MACK
I guess that’s our modern version of seeing gods in celestial events.
MIMI
Like planets named after gods.
MACK
Yeah. People used to find eclipses terrifying, world-shattering. Here in Belize the Maya thought that the moon, in the form of a demon, was devouring the sun. People thought the light might never come back.
MIMI
It must have been something to have beliefs like that. To not always know about the reasons for everything.
MACK
We’re lucky. We get to experience the beautiful phenomenon without any of the terror.
MIMI
We don’t know what we’ll feel yet. But if people today can be changed by an eclipse, even knowing what it is, then imagine how much they could change when they didn’t have a rational explanation for what was happening. In a way, the fact that we know things blocks us from having pure experiences.
MACK
Maybe they wouldn’t have been changed, not in the way we moderns seek transformation, maybe just traumatized.
MIMI
I guess. Didn’t folks in ancient Greece think eclipses were a warning, like a sign mankind had gone off the rails?
MACK
That one that still makes sense. I don’t see how the world could get any more messed up than it is 1994.
MIMI
It’s not all bad—if Nelson Mandela can become president of South Africa . . .
MACK
Our politics have gotten so mean.
MIMI
Oh, that’ll pass. People won’t put up with that nonsense for long.
MACK pulls neck pillows out from his pack. Tenderly places one on MIMI’s neck, and puts his own on as well.
MACK
You know that perfect ratio of sun and moon isn’t going to last.
MIMI
No?
MACK
The moon’s drifting further and further away from Earth. At some point its apparent size will be too small to cover the apparent size of the sun.
MIMI
Oh. I’m glad we’re seeing it now. When does that happen?
MACK
In about 650 million years.
MIMI
Then we still have time. (beat while MIMI takes a drink of water) Even with all of our knowledge, we count on the sun and the moon being where we expect them to be. In separate orbits. I expect it’s seeing them merge is what makes eclipses powerful to witness.
MACK
They’re kind of like the mom and dad of the sky. When they’re not where they’re supposed to be, it could be disturbing.
MIMI
But sometimes things not being where they’ve always been is okay, maybe even necessary. That’s change. (beat) We’ve done right by our kids, haven’t we? We’ve been constant.
Join us for the next Monday Night PlayGround on March 18! For more info, click here!