Features

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

All girls, mid-teens.

Ky: Pianist. Often dresses cleanly/pinned up/tucked in, in white. Hair is often tied back. Asian.

Tara (Tee): Bassist. Dresses in flashy/neon colors, often orange and yellow. Wears large hoop earrings and is very stylish. Black.

Maddie (Mads): Guitarist/Lead Singer. Exclusively wears dresses and skirts, often seen wearing a denim jacket. Has an absurd amount of barrettes pinned in her hair and rectangular glasses.

Always looks slightly ridiculous. White/Blonde.

Rachel (Ray): Drummer. Dresses comfortably in blues and grays, often seen wearing a hoodie. White/Brunette.

SETTING

Modern middle-class wood paneled basement, circa the 2010s.

SCENE 1. PRACTICE

A wood-paneled basement. Center stage, Maddie stands in front of a microphone, guitar in hand. Tara is to her immediate right, and Ky is a small distance behind her, to the left.

Upstage right, Rachel sits at a drum-set.

Upstage left, a staircase rises out of sight. Underneath sits a sofa and a coffee table with magazines. A lamp in the corner. Band posters on the walls.

MADDIE: Ugh! No, stop. We have to run it again.

TARA: What?

MADDIE: Again.

TARA: This is the fourth time already, Mads. Would you at least like to share with the group why you keep interrupting us?

MADDIE: Me?! Interrupting you? You’re the one who can’t keep the bass line together, Tara.

TARA: What?! What do you mean? I’m playing it perfectly!

MADDIE: You're overpowering my vocals. You’re always overpowering my vocals.

TARA: Maybe you should sing louder then, Maddie.

KY: Tee…

MADDIE: Maybe you should quit trying to steal my spotlight.

TARA: Excuse you?

MADDIE: Stop trying to steal the show! This isn’t just about you, you know. We have to work together. As a band.

TARA: Look who’s talking.

KY: Guys, maybe we should just calm down and take a break for a minute.

MADDIE (interrupting): What’s that supposed to mean?

In the background, Rachel sets down her drumsticks, pulling out her phone and beginning to scroll. She seems disinterested and detached from the conflict.

TARA: It means you always want to be the center of attention, but I can do vocals too, you know. I can sing just as well as you can.

MADDIE: But I’m the lead singer.

TARA: Only because you made it that way!

KY: Guys, let’s just—

MADDIE: What are you complaining about, Tee? I’m the one who formed this band, of course I’m going to be the lead. Besides, you’re the bassist.

TARA: Bassists can sing too, Mads.

MADDIE: But I’m the guitar.

TARA: So?

MADDIE: So, the lead plays the guitar. Not the bass.

TARA: Says who?

MADDIE: Says me!

TARA: McCartney played the bass.

MADDIE: Sure, but Lennon played guitar.

TARA: But they both lead.

MADDIE: That’s great. But we’re not the fucking Beatles, Tee. TARA: Yeah, but we could be.

MADDIE: Enough! Just take it from the top.

The girls resume their original positions, though begrudgingly.

MADDIE: One, two, one two—

RACHEL: I got to go.

Everyone turns to Rachel.

MADDIE: What?

RACHEL: My brother texted me. He’s got a thing. I got to go.

MADDIE: Oh, well okay. Will you be here tomorrow?

RACHEL: I don’t know. I’ll have to see.

MADDIE: Okay. Well, what about Friday?

RACHEL: I don’t know about Friday either.

TARA: What’s Friday?

RACHEL: The pep rally. TARA: What?

MADDIE: The pep rally. We talked about this. Remember?

RACHEL: I really got to go.

MADDIE: Yeah, of course, see you around Rachel. KY: Bye Ray.

Rachel exits up the staircase. Ky’s gaze follows her.

KY: Isn’t that, like, the fifth time she’s done that? Why do you think she’s always leaving rehearsal early?

TARA: The pep rally?

MADDIE: Like I said, we talked about it.

TARA: Yeah, I remember. I also remember telling you not to book that gig because I can’t go. My father has a doctor’s appointment!

MADDIE: You never told me that.

TARA: You’re kidding. Last practice! You remember that, don’t you, Ky? You remember I told her that?

KY: Well… I—

TARA (interrupting): See, she remembers.

MADDIE: Well, I bet she also remembers that I told you about the pep rally, right, Ky?

KY: I mean… I don’t know.

MADDIE: You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know?

TARA: She means you didn’t tell her. You’re such a liar Maddie. You did this on purpose!

MADDIE: Did not!

TARA: Did too! I bet you were afraid I was going to steal the spotlight, like always. You're bossy, and controlling—

MADDIE (simultaneously): I’m the leader.

TARA: —and you’re jealous because I’m better than you.

KY: Tara…

Maddie gasps, horrified and offended, and maybe just a tad bit dramatic.

MADDIE: Well, if that’s what you think, then— then maybe you should just form your own band!

TARA: Fine! 

MADDIE: Fine

Tara starts up the stairs.

KY: Wait. Guys! Let’s talk about this!

Tara stops halfway and turns back toward the girls.

TARA: Good luck performing at the pep rally by yourself. You’re gonna need it.

She exits. Maddie throws her hands in the hair and stomps around in a circle.

MADDIE: Whatever! Forget her, we don’t need her anyway. It will just be you, me, and Rachel. Right, Ky?

A pause where Maddie waits for Ky to respond. When she doesn’t, Maddie turns on her forcefully.

MADDIE: Right, Ky?

KY: Well… I’m not sure.

MADDIE: What do you mean, not sure? You think I’m bossy too? You think I’m controlling?

KY: What? No! No, not at all! It’s just…

MADDIE: It’s just what?

KY: Well, I don’t know. We’ve never played just the three of us before! And what if Rachel doesn’t show again?

MADDIE: She’ll show.

KY: But… are you sure?

MADDIE: She’ll show.

KY: But-But what if she doesn’t?

MADDIE: Ugh! You know what? Fine! Forget it! You’re all useless anyways. I’ll play the pep rally by myself.

Maddie storms out of the basement, the door slamming behind her. We see Ky stand resolutely at her piano, looking after her, before turning back to the keys. She plays a few notes, something that sounds somewhat somber, as the lights fade. The scene ends.

SCENE 2. AFTERMATH

The basement. Stage left, Ky sits comfortably on the sofa with a magazine. Above her, we see Tara enter, coming down the stairs. She stops at the bottom and the two girls look at each other for a tense moment before Ky sets down her magazine.

KY: How’s your dad?

TARA: Fine. Better now. The doctor gave him something new. KY: Good. I’m glad.

TARA: Yeah.

Tara comes to sit down next to Ky on the couch.

TARA: Did you see, last night? The pep rally?

KY: Yeah. I saw.

TARA: Talk about a disaster. Not that she didn’t have it coming.

KY: That’s messed up, Tara. She broke her arm.

TARA: It was pouring rain and she was walking way too close to the front of the stage. What did you expect? She was bound to fall!

KY: She was trying her best.

TARA: Her best sucked. Have you seen the comments?

KY: Comments?

TARA: Oh my gosh.

Pulls out her phone.

TARA: It’s everywhere. All over my feed, posted again and again. Everyone must’ve been there, there’s like twenty different angles.

Hands phone over to Ky. Ky watches for a moment.

KY: Oh my god.

TARA: The more you watch it the funnier it gets. The guitar broke her fall, ha!

KY: These comments are brutal—Too bad she didn’t hit her head?—gosh, I can’t believe people would say that!

TARA: Why? It’s funny, Ky.

KY: She’s our friend, Tee! It’s messed up to make fun of her.

TARA: Well, if she’s our friend then why didn’t you go?

KY: What?

TARA: Why didn't you perform with her? You could have.

KY: I… I don’t know. I didn’t think we could do it without you.

Tara snorts.

TARA: Good call.

KY: I’m still surprised Rachel didn’t show.

TARA: Surprised? Girl, she always flakes at the last second. If anything you should’ve expected that.

KY: I know but… I mean, out of all of us, she’s the one who’s closest with Maddie. You think she would’ve been there. If not for the band then at least for her.

TARA: Girl, I’ve been telling you, Rachel is way too cool to be friends with Maddie. It’s a wonder they hang out in the first place.

KY: But they’ve known each other since, like, the first grade. Maddie says they're practically like siblings.

TARA: Sure, but, she’s way too bossy for anyone’s good. Even Rachel.

Tara stands up. She sighs.

TARA: Karma was coming for her sooner or later. Hey. If we’re lucky, maybe the humiliation will kill her. Or at least keep her from picking up a guitar ever again.

KY: Right…

TARA: Don’t feel bad, Ky. That girl was always bad news. If you want, I bet the two of us could start our own thing. Probably come up with a better band name too. I always hated Starstruck, but Maddie just had to have her name up in shinning lights.

KY: Yeah, I guess.

TARA: Well, I better head home. I heard it’s gonna rain again and I don’t wanna get caught up in all that.

KY: Okay. See you later.

TARA: See you

Tara exits up the stairs. The lights fade. The scene ends.

SCENE 3. ENCORE

The basement. Center stage, Ky is packing away Maddie’s microphone into a black case.

Other cases can be seen behind her. The rehearsal space equipment is in the process of being cleared from the room. The drum set has been stacked into the corner, the keyboard tucked into the other.

Rachel begins making her way down the stairs, hands stuffed into her pockets. Ky looks up her once she is about half-way down.

KY: Hey.

RACHEL: Hey. Sorry I just…

Rachel points toward the drum kit in the corner.

I left the drumsticks the other day.

KY: Sure.

Rachel walks over to the drum set, where the sticks are sitting on one of the snares. She grabs them and then starts back toward the staircase. She’s about to start climbing to exit when Ky speaks.

KY: Did you hear about what happened to Maddie?

Rachel turns back toward her, then shrugs.

RACHEL: Kind of hard not too with her performance being plastered all over everyone’s feed. She called me after. Broke her wrist.

KY: Oh my god.

RACHEL: She’ll be fine in a couple months. I’ve done the same thing before. Monkey-bars. When I was four.

KY: Did it hurt?

RACHEL: Yeah, but I was four. She’ll be fine. Don’t feel too bad.

KY: Why didn’t you play with her?

There’s a pause. Rachel doesn’t react to the question, but remains blank faced, as though the answer should be obvious. Ky fidgets, the extended silence making her uncomfortable.

KY: I mean… why didn’t you ever show up to practice? You were always late, or leaving early, and then we finally get our first gig and you didn’t even seem excited about it. You didn’t even show! I thought you and Maddie were friends. She put so much effort into all of this but you always acted like you didn’t care. And then at the pep rally, you didn’t even show up for her.

RACHEL: Neither did you.

KY: Well… that’s different!

RACHEL: How? Aren’t you her friend too? KY: Of course! We all are.

RACHEL: Well, if this was so important to Maddie, then maybe you should’ve gone.

KY: It’s complicated, Ray. There was this huge fight, and Tara said she wouldn’t go, and I wasn’t sure if you were going to show up, so I just… I didn’t want to be up there with her by myself.

RACHEL: You mean you didn’t want to ruin her show.

A pause. Rachel sighs.

RACHEL: Look, Maddie thinks the world revolves around her. She thinks she’s the best, even when she’s not, and she’s just about the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet. But she’s so wrapped up in her own little fantasy all the time that she doesn’t even know what’s going on around her! And she’s not the only one.

KY: What?

RACHEL: You’re all the same! All of you are so distracted by who should shine and who should stand out and who should lead that you can’t even see what’s going on around you. Friends should care about each other, and support each other, but whatever we are—it’s not that.

KY: That’s not true!

RACHEL: It is. You’re all lying to yourselves, throwing yourselves on top of one another to try and succeed. You follow Tara around because she’s the most talented, and Tara follows Maddie around because she’s a good song-writer, and Maddie needed us because she’s not good enough to make it on her own. But if we were really friends, if we really cared about one another, you

and Tara would’ve showed up to that pep rally, or Maddie wouldn’t have booked it in the first place, and the band would still be a band.

KY: Well what about you?! You never showed up for anything! You never cared! RACHEL: I’ve never touched a drum set in my life, Ky!

A long, stunned, pause.

RACHEL: I can’t play the drums! I never could. These sticks belong to my older brother. All I did at practice was sit at the kit and watch you guys fight about what song we should play, or what was going wrong, or who should lead. You guys never even noticed! And the worst part is, if we were really friends, you would have. But you guys just wanted to use me, just like you wanted to use each other. Well, I’m done pretending.

Rachel starts up the stairs. She pauses at the top and turns back to look at Ky.

RACHEL: Goodbye, Ky. Good luck with the next band.

She exits. There’s a long pause. Ky looks down at the microphone stand for a moment before continuing to pack it away. The lights fade. The scene ends.

End of play.

Danielle Jenkins's poem "Hideaway" is also published in his issue. She is an Illustration Major at the School of Visual Arts. "I love telling stories through my visual and literary work," Danielle says. "In my free time, I enjoy reading novels from my sagging bookshelf and drawing comics."