The April People’s Choice goes to…..
The people have spoken… The April People’s Choice Award goes to Uma Incrocci for her short play, THE VAULT, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround on April 6, 2020 via Zoom live stream. Congratulations, Uma!
Courtesy of Ms. Incrocci, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!
THE VAULT
by
Uma Incrocci
Characters
MOLLY
LIV
Any ethnicity; 30s
Setting
An apartment
————
An apartment. An argument in progress.
MOLLY
Seeds.
LIV
Yes.
MOLLY
Seeds.
LIV
Yes.
LIV
I’m losing you to seeds.
LIV
Not losing—
MOLLY
In Norway.
LIV
Yes. Svalbard
MOLLY
I don’t know where that is.
LIV
North. Way north. It’s uh… the farthest north you can travel on a commercial flight.
MOLLY
Sounds convenient
LIV
That’s part of why they picked it.
MOLLY
And it’s a seed bank?
LIV
A vault, technically.
MOLLY
(still confused) Okay… More specificity in language please.
LIV
I’m sorry?
MOLLY
It’s something my mom used to say when she didn’t understand what the hell I was talking about.
LIV
It’s a vault. To preserve the world’s agricultural seeds. It’s like a big back up. Like Noah’s Ark. But for plants.
MOLLY
So you’re talking… doomsday stuff?
LIV
Well, it’s built into the permafrost, so it can stay cold no matter what.
It’s high up enough that it won’t be affected by rising sea water.
It’s remote enough that it should be out of any war zone.
If anything happens, anywhere – well, humans need to grow food to live.
MOLLY
So: super far, super cold, super noble – this is one fucked up way to break your girlfriend’s heart.
A beat as Liv takes this in.
LIV
… Now you’ll say girlfriend?
MOLLY
Yeah. I will.
LIV
But… like two weeks ago… you said “who needs labels?”
MOLLY
I was trying to be cool! Everybody told me to play it cool. I usually don’t. But you know what else is cool… and not like rad cool, but fucking cold as ice? An underground vault in the goddamn Arctic circle!
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Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming PlayGround Festival of New Works