Comedy/ 4 characters, 2 Men, 2 Women/ One Act
Synopsis: Three students (Janice, Beth, and Paul) and one teacher (Mr. Ankart) have all been sentenced to a special weekend detention by Mrs. Donnelly, the school principal. Each of them is in hot water with the principal for their own reasons. Partly as punishment and partly as a last chance to redeem themselves, the four have been given a special task in this day long detention. It is the job of these four to come up with some sort of presentation on teen sex issues and present it to the rest of the school on Monday.
When the students are uncooperative in their attempts to form the presentation, Mr. Ankart pulls out the script that he has written for the day. It turns out to be far from anything that the student body would care about. Secretly, Janice writes her own script. When Monday morning rolls around, she takes over the stage from Mr. Ankart and holds a vote with the student audience to see which play they want to hear. Naturally, they choose hers.
All four characters take on roles in the play and tell the story of two couples at a party (Britney/Kevin and Cameron/Justin) trying to make decisions about sex in their lives.
In the play-within-the-play, Cameron, who has had sex before, convinces her friend Britney that she should have sex with her boyfriend Kevin if she wants to keep him around. On the boy’s side, Cameron’s date, Justin, tells Kevin that he has to go for it as well. The two couples leave the party early, but at the last minute Britney and Kevin decide not to go through with it.
The next Monday at school, Britney overhears Kevin and Justin sharing bedroom stories from the weekend. When she hears Kevin lying about what happened she confronts him with a slap in the face. Feeling awful about what he has done, Kevin tells the truth to the whole school over the intercom system. Inspired, Cameron tells the truth about her weekend, too.
Once the truth is out in the open, all four characters have the opportunity to talk honestly about what they’re feeling. They can work through all of the questions that they each have surrounding this difficult issue and come to the conclusions that are right for them.
And backstage, after the play, the actors share some surprises of their own.
Amateur and professional rights:
William Brooks
204 Hilliard St. E.
Saskatoon, SK.
Canada
S7J 0E4
Ph.: (306) 934-8278 or (306) 341-4089
e-mail: williamallenbrooks@yahoo.ca
Playwright’s website: www.williambrooks.ca
About the Playwright: William is a playwright and actor living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. As a playwright, two of his plays, The Captive and Hope & Fury, have been featured at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s Spring Festival of New plays. Hope & Fury was premiered in Saskatoon in May of 2005 produced by Flux Theatre, followed by a production at Calgary’s Lunchbox Theatre. His youth play, Assignment: Impossible was toured by Persephone Theatre in 2006. His plays have also been seen at Globe Theatre’s On the Line and the University of Saskatchewan. As an actor, William’s work has been seen with Persephone Theatre, Quest Theatre, Vertigo Mystery Theatre, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, As-Q Theatre and Last Exit Theatre, among others.
Assignment: Impossible was first produced by Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon on tour in 2006.