Act One/Scene Two

Question: Has anyone ever been sitting in a waiting room, or on the bus, or standing in line at the grocery store and felt compelled to talk to the person next to you? Even though this person is a total stranger?

Personally, I feel really awkward talking to a total stranger. But I notice that other people do it all the time.

Let's raise the stakes here.

What if this person in the grocery store or on the bus is someone that you don't know but you see them at this place all the time. Is the fact the you frequent the same place at the same time grounds to strike up a conversation?

Let's raise the stakes even higher. What if your thoughts of or about this person happen when you AREN'T at the grocery store. What if this person slowly ends up in every other thought throughout any particular day. Is that grounds to say hello and introduce yourself the next time you are both buying milk and bread on saturday afternoon?

I am directing a short play in my directing 2 class this semester and this scenario that I have just described is the plot. Except the two characters, Sue and David, sit in the waiting room of their therapists office every Monday night, waiting to go into each of their therapists offices and begin their session. They do not know each other and they have waited in the same waiting room at the same doctor's office every Monday night for the last 18 months. He has noticed her. She has noticed him. Attraction? Well, of course. But not a word has been exchanged.

In the scene, David decides to finally talk to her. But mostly because this is his last therapy session and presumably, they will never see each other again.

The stakes are not high.

I am curious and interested in why people do things or say things when they think they have nothing to lose.



Stay tuned and I will tell you how my directing scene goes.