February Stars: A Play

RICHIE: (suddenly a little nervous) Uh . . . we don't have to.

TAELI: (toying with RICHIE just a little) You got a problem with your own song?

RICHIE: No (*), its just that . . .

TAELI: (*) Fine. Count it off, Ash.

ASH: One . . . Two . . . One, Two, Three, Four.

(They play "Always on the Run" by Lenny Kravitz, and they really have fun with it, even CHRIS to an extent. At some point, the song seems to take over, as if the song's need to exist were causing RICHIE, TAELI, CHRIS (not so much) and ASH to play. When they finish, they all freeze in a moment of hesitation.)

TAELI: Whoa . . .

(RICHIE, TAELI, CHRIS (not so much) and ASH all sit back plesently stunned, with dumbfounded smiles, smirks, or half-laughs. Then GORDY pops in over the p.a. in the booth.)

GORDY: That was incredible! That sounded great! How'd you guys pull that off on the first shot?!

RICHIE: I dunno . . . that was pretty cool!

ASH: Pretty cool?! That was a trip!

CHRIS: It wasn't bad, but I don't think we should be patting ourselves on the back yet.

TAELI: Oh, c'mon Chris. That was great and you know it . . . (she trails off as the line has more effect on her than on CHRIS, and slips back into her own little world)

GORDY: Ya know, I think it's safe to say that this could be our next single.

RICHIE: (Tripping out on GORDY's last comment.) Oh man . . .

CHRIS: I guess I can see that.

ASH: Yeah!, considering that that's probably the best we've ever played, right Tae?

(No response.)

ASH: Tae?

RICHIE: (tapping her sholder) Taeli?

TAELI: (snapping out of it, and at RICHIE) WHAT!?

(everyone reacts)

CHRIS: Look out rookie. You might lose a hand.

TAELI: (nervous and panicky) I . . . I'm sorry, I just . . . I, just, gotta go to . . . I'll be right back.

(TAELI gets up and rushes out. RICHIE watches closely as she leaves.)

CHRIS: Well, I guess we're takin' five. I'll be back. (exits)

GORDY: That's not a bad idea, but don't go too far. (he and APPLEGATE exit)

(pause)

RICHIE: (addressing ASH, but still staring at the exit) This was a bad idea.

ASH: (making adjustments to his drums, not entirely paying attention) What's that?

RICHIE: I shouldn't be here. I'm not making things better, only worse.

ASH: What? What are you talking about, you're not making things worse.

RICHIE: Tell that to Chris and Taeli. They probably hate me.

ASH: (laughs) You have no idea all the shit you've walked into. First off, Chris is just an asshole, he hates everybody. Secondly, Taeli doesn't hate you, she just misses Tommy. Bein' here is just hard for her, and this was the first time we've actually played since Tommy died, so she's got a lot of stuff to work out.

RICHIE: I take it they were close.

ASH: As close as two people can be. I try to help, but a friend is a poor substitute for a lover. (awkward silence, then) I'm gonna go check on her.

(As ASH exits, APPLEGATE enters)

APPLEGATE: So, how ya doing in here.

RICHIE: (somewhat sarcastic) Could be worse, I could still be playin' open mics.

APPLEGATE: You're definitely doing better than that. After all, the band has their newest single after months of not even seeing each other. Both Gordy and I think that it could be the hit that the band needs.

RICHIE: I guess I just feel like a fish out of water here.

APPLEGATE: Things are going to get better. . . Trust me.

(Something about the way APPLEGATE says 'trust me' hits RICHIE as being not quite right, and we can see the gears in RICHIE's head start turning as the lights come down and the curtain closes.)

Scene 10 - Anna's Bedroom

(The lights come up on a table and chair at center in front of the closed curtain. On the table sits a backpack and a stereo boom-box with a built in CD player and a tape deck.)

MR. GOODWYN: NOW YOU GET IN THAT ROOM AND YOU STAY THERE, GODDAMMIT!

(ANNA runs on, stopping just on stage. Her hands are covering her face and she is crying. She looks up at the table and slowly walks over to it. She sits down slowly and carefully, as if her whole body hurts. She sits back in her chair trying to relax. As she moves her hands away from her face, we see blood crusted under her nose and that she has a black eye. After a moment, a look of desperation spreads across her face as she practically lunges for the backpack. She yanks out a couple of stacks of audio tapes and scrambles through them. She finally finds the one she's looking for, sticks it in the tape deck and starts playing it. It is a bootleg recording of RICHIE and 'Manhattan Rhodes' playing a slow pop/rock tune. She sits back and lets the music infect her. It doesn't seem to help, though. She starts looking back through the tapes, trying to find something that might help. She doesn't find it. She stops and thinks for a moment. She looks back in the bag and pulls out a CD jewel case. She puts the CD in the player, switches off the tape, and plays the CD. The room fills with the sound of RICHIE and Wilde Blue Riot playing a mellow rock/blues tune. The music infects her, and, as she takes a moment to sit back and relax, it looks as though some great weight has been lifted from her. After a moment, she pulls the booklet out of the jewel case, and starts looking it over. After another moment, she sees something in the booklet that stops her. She sets the booklet down, then pulls a notebook and pencil out of the bag. As she writes, we hear her recite the letter as a voice over.)

ANNA: (writing, v.o.) Dear Richie Benz, (stops, erases it, then writes again, v.o.) To Wilde Blue Ri- (erases it again, thinks for a moment, then writes, v.o.) To Richie, (pause, v.o.) I . . . (trails of momentarily) . . . want to say right now that I don't really do this, ever, in fact. I mean, the last thing that I want to do is come off as one of those carbon-copy, brainless, screaming, pre-adolescent little groupies that would give anything, and I do mean anything, for even the most minuscule of moments of attention from a celebrity. (pause) I guess I'm just writing to tell you how much I like your music. (pause) I mean, you guys are really good! Definitely better than your old band. I know. I used to come see you play when you were with Manhattan Rhodes, and Wilde Blue Riot is a major improvement. And your music now, God! The songs on this album are incredible. I'm listening to it right now, and . . . (more serious and personal) . . . it just really helps to know that somebody out there knows what its like to go through . . . something really hard. Sometimes, I think it's the only thing that helps. I wonder, sometimes, what it takes to write this kind of music, what you have to go through, and then I think that it just must be really hard and I try not to think about it. Anyway, that's really all I wanted to say. Well, that and . . . thank you. (stops, thinks for a minute to see if she has anything else to say, then) Yours Truly, Anna Goodwyn.

(ANNA rips the letter out of her notebook, folds it up, tucks it in the front of the notebook, then sticks the notebook back in her bag. She turns up the music, and sits back as the lights fade out.)

Scene 11 - The Green Room for the Top Twenty Request Show

(The lights come up and the curtain opens inside the green room for the Top Twenty Request Show, evident by the Top Twenty Request Show logo projected on the back wall. The room looks like some sort of lounge; a few couches, some chairs, a coffee table, and a mini-bar off to one side. As soon as the lights come up we hear cheering, shouting, screaming, and applause from off stage. Through it all, we hear DAVY LARSON.)

DAVY LARSON (o.s.): ALL RIGHT! LET'S HEAR IT ONCE MORE FOR WILDE BLUE RIOOOOOT!!!! YEAAAAH!!

(And the crowd goes wild!! The shouting and screaming from off stage gets almost twice as loud as ASH comes running on stage, absolutely ecstatic.)

ASH: OH MY GOD!! THAT WAS SOOOOOOO COOL!!

(He spins around to see RICHIE and TAELI following in suit. ASH tries to talk, but is so excited that he has temporarily lost the ability to form sentences. [yet another good place to ham things up] CHRIS just strolls on stage, trailing behind them, the only one not having a good time.)

ASH: Holy Shit! Did you see-- I mean, oh my go-- holy -- oh wow-- I, oh damn!-- wow! (breaks down laughing)

RICHIE: (laughing along with him) Ash, dude, just remember to breathe!

TAELI: (laughing as well) Yeah, and if you need to, just stick your head between your knees--

CHRIS: (serious) --And kiss your ass goodbye.

(Nobody takes notice of CHRIS's comment, since ASH pops right up, and now has regained the ability to form sentences.)

ASH: (still insane) Oh my GOD!! That was the coolest thing EVER! All those people and all those reporters and all those GIRLS SCREAMING OUR NAMES! (ASH does a quick impression of dozens of screamming teeny-bopper girls) I gotta do somethin'! I gotta--

(Before she can protest, ASH grabs TAELI around the waist, lifts her up off her feet, and plants a big cartoony kiss on her cheek. He sets her down, practically dropping her, as he goes right back into his rant.)

ASH: I can't believe it! Number TWO!! Our record has been out for a week, and we're at NUMBER TWO!! (looks over at RICHIE) YOU!! You made this happen! C'mere--

(ASH jumps on RICHIE's back and starts kissing his head, again, very cartoony, then jumps off RICHIE's back. As he does, RICHIE stumbles, trying to regain his balance, and bumps into TAELI as their eyes meet for just a brief moment. Meanwhile, ASH's excitement hasn't decreased any. After jumping off of RICHIE, ASH looks around like a hyper little dog looking for a mailman to chase.)

ASH: Okay, who's next! (sees CHRIS) CHRIS!!!

CHRIS: Ohhh, nooo . . .

(ASH runs at CHRIS. Actually, ASH tries to run at CHRIS, but after only one step, trips over his own feet and flops down on the floor behind a couch. The other three just look at him as he lays on the ground.)

ASH: (after a moment, still cartoony) Owwwwww . . . I've fallen and I can't get up.

CHRIS: (still straight-faced) Now that's funny.

RICHIE: If you promise to not start kissing people again, I'll help you up.

ASH: I promise . . .

CHRIS: (crossing to the mini-bar) Why bother? Just leave him there.

(RICHIE helps ASH to his feet.)

TAELI: What's your problem now, Chris?

CHRIS: My problem, Tae, is what just happened out there.

ASH: What are you talkin' about, man. They loved us out there!

CHRIS: They loved you out there. They loved the three of you, while I was stuck in the background.

TAELI: Oh, please . . .

CHRIS: Shut up, Taeli, you know what I'm talking about. At least when Tommy was with the band, we may not have been as successful, but at least I wasn't the only one getting ignored. Now, each of you has a gimmick. Richie's the frontman, Ash is the clown, and Taeli's the chick. What am I?

ASH: (under his breath) A whiny little jerk.

CHRIS: Fuck you, Ash! I'm sick of all this shit--

TAELI: What about all your shit, huh? You've done nothing but bitch and moan since you've been with the band. For three years now, all you've done complain. You complained about having not enough to play, then you complained about having too much. You complained about the music, about pay, about each of us. You complained about us not succeeding, and now that we're getting some descent air play, you're complaining again. If it's that much of an inconvenience for you to be here, why don't you just get the fuck out!

APPLEGATE: Because he can't.

(Everyone spins around to see that APPLEGATE has entered the room.)

CHRIS: You!

APPLEGATE: It's in his contract.

CHRIS: You slippery shit!

APPLEGATE: It's called a "Resonable Departure" clause.

CHRIS: Fuck you, man. Fuck you all.

APPLEGATE: He can't leave without a very good reason.

CHRIS: Watch me!

(CHRIS storms out, pushing past APPLEGATE as he exits.)

ASH: Wow, what a complete ass.

APPLEGATE: It's sad really . . .

RICHIE: Why would you sign him?

APPLEGATE: Simple. Family.

TAELI: Chris is your family?

APPLEGATE: In a six-degrees-of-separation sense. He's my sister's husband's niece's fiancee. Well . . . ex-fiancee. Seems she thought he was a bit of an ass as well.

RICHIE: That's . . .

ASH: . . . strange!

APPLEGATE: Quite. But, he's a great bassist, he rounds out the sound nicely, and his constant bitching keeps the rest of the band together and in check. It may not be a completely comfortable situation, but it is preferable to some of the other possibilities.

RICHIE: But what about him just taking off like that?

TAELI: He does that all the time.

ASH: Yeah, he'll just go drink it off and then sleep it off. He'll be back, just as feisty as ever--

TAELI: --And probably sooner than we'd like.

RICHIE: Great. Any good news?

APPLEGATE: Yes. You're going to play the stadium.

(And a hush falls over the crowd.)

ASH: Exsqueeze me?

APPLEGATE: You are booked to play Bulls Stadium in three weeks.

(The shock begins to set in. RICHIE begins feeling light headed, stumbles, and falls to his knees. ASH and TAELI, half in shock and thoroughly ecstatic themselves, try to help RICHIE.)

TAELI: Damn.

ASH: Dude, just put your head between your knees and breathe

RICHIE: Whoa, deja vu.

(ASH and TAELI clumsily try to prop RICHIE up on the couch, and end up falling back on the couch laughing along side him. APPLEGATE just stares on.)

APPLEGATE: Well, my work is done here. Come up to the office next week, we'll talk with Gordy about the line up for the show.

(APPLEGATE exits. ASH hops to his feet, thoroughly excited.)

ASH: I gotta go, too. I gotta go call my mom and tell her about the show, maybe see about gettin' her some backstage passes or somethin'. (Exits with a flourish)

(RICHIE laughs to himself, saturated in a puzzled euphoria. He restlessly hops to his feet and starts pacing sporatically. TAELI just sits back and watches for a moment.)

TAELI: What are you doing?

RICHIE: I dunno. I gotta do something. Celebrate, party, go out, pass out, anything! I'm just way too excited to just sit here doing nothing! (starts laughing to himself again) Oh, man . . . Bulls Stadium! Do you realize how massive a venue that's gonna be?! It's gonna be huge! . . . I gotta be dreamin'. This is way to good, this is way too cool.

(Something about RICHIE strikes TAELI as somehow familiar. RICHIE notices something about the way she looks at him.)

RICHIE: Something wrong?

TAELI: No. (thinks for a moment) I dunno . . .

RICHIE: You're thinking about him, aren't you.

TAELI: (somewhat shocked) Is it that obvious? (RICHIE half shrugs, half nods) Oh jeez . . .

RICHIE: You really miss him, don't you.

TAELI: Yeah, but it's more than that. It's like he's still holding on, still there somewhere . . . in my head somewhere . . .

RICHIE: . . . floating around in the back of your brain, unable to let go of you 'cause you can't let go of him.

TAELI: Yeah . . . you know what it's like.

RICHIE: I know what it's- (correcting himself) -what it was like for me losing my brother.

TAELI: How did you deal with it?

(RICHIE thinks to himself for a minute, then laughs to himself briefly.)

RICHIE: If you're lookin' for a way to deal with it, you're asking the wrong guy. (more serious) After the funeral, I just kinda locked up. Nothin' anybody was sayin' made any difference, 'cause it was like-

TAELI: -Like nobody really understood the way you felt about the person you lost.--

RICHIE: Exactly.

TAELI: --So, instead of dealing with it, you just tried to block it out.

RICHIE: But it didn't work. I ended up blocking out the rest of my life with it, pushing away everybody, including my closest friends. It was like everything had become less important. Like-

TAELI: -Like everything got the volume turned down.

RICHIE: Yeah.

(mellow pause, like a weight has just been lifted between them)

TAELI: Do you . . . do you ever think about what it would've been like . . . without him?

RICHIE: You mean, do I ever think about if I'd never had a brother in the first place?

TAELI: Yeah.

RICHIE: Yeah. All the time.

TAELI: And?

RICHIE: And . . . I think about if Alex wouldn't'a been born. I think 'Does that mean my dad wouldn't'a left?' 'Does that mean my mom wouldn't'a gone off her nut and ended up in the fuckin' nuthouse?' 'Does that mean that I would'a actually had a family, and a home, and a normal life? Crusin' the trailer park with two-year-old son and some high school drop out I knocked up one night?' And then I think 'Or, does it just mean that my life would have been pretty much the same, in and out of foster homes for seventeen years, only this time, alone?' I think about all of that, and then, I realize somethin', and you wanna know what that is?

TAELI: This is really gonna suck if you don't tell me.

RICHIE: I realized that I can ask myself woulda-shoulda-coulda's till I'm blue in the face, when all of that's just bullshit that I can't and won't ever know. What I do know is that I love my brother, love my brother, and I am the person I am today because of him, and as far as I can tell, I'm a better person having had Alex in my life than not. And when I wake up or come to or just out of nowhere I'm feeling miserable or sick or down, it's because I wish I would've had just one more hour or minute or anything to be with him, and not because I wish he hadn't been a part of my life just so I wouldn't have to feel bad. So yeah, I do think about if I hadn't had a brother . . . and then I think 'Fuck that.'

(With that, TAELI reaches up, and kisses RICHIE fully on the lips. RICHIE reciprocates, kissing her back. After a moment, something washes over TAELI, and she pushes him away. She stammers and stutters, trying to say something.)

TAELI: . . . I . . . gotta go . . . (is all she manages)

(TAELI heads for the exit, then, suddenly stops, and turns to say something else, again stammering.)

TAELI: Uh . . . thanks.

(RICHIE, thoroughly confused, can barely respond.)

RICHIE: Uh, yeah . . . Any time.

(TAELI exits, leaving RICHIE standing alone with his confusion. Lights and Curtain.)

Scene 12 - Anna's Bedroom

(The lights come up in front of the closed curtain, as we are again in ANNA's bedroom. Same set-up: table, chair, boombox. This time, ANNA rushes on, ecstatic. She drops her bag by the table and plops down in her chair. She hits a button on the boombox as the sound of RICHIE and Wilde Blue Riot playing again fills the room. ANNA sits back as a euphoric smile spreads acrosse her face. After a moment, she reaches down to her bag and pulls out what looks like a credit card on a string. It's a backstage pass. She takes a good long moment to look it over. The moment passes, and as she puts it away, she takes out a notebook and a pen, and starts writing. Again, as in I:10, the writing is accompanied by a voice-over.)

ANNA: (voice over) Dear Richie, (pause) I can't believe it! My best friend in the whole world Sheila and I camped out all night and got backstage passes to see you at Bulls Stadium next week! I'm soooooo excited! Hopefully I'll actually get a chance to talk to you this time. I can't wait! They said on T-T-R-S that you were gonna be playing some new material, too. I just hope we can get around all the spoiled, screaming twelve-year-olds. (pause) Look, I don't know if you got my last letter or not. In fact, considering how I was kinda ranting in it, I'd probably be happier if you didn't read it. Anyway, whether you did or not, I just wanted to say, I understand how busy you can get, and I don't mind that you didn't write me back. You guys probably get a hundred 'a these things a day, and you probably get sick of hearing from all those little middle-schoolers who know nothing about you but still claim to be totally in love with you . . (thinks for a moment) . . then again, maybe you don't get sick of it. But, I hope you do get to read this letter, and I hope I get to see you backstage, and maybe meet and talk. Seeya soon, I hope. Yours Truly, Anna. (gets ready to tear it out, then thinks of something else to say) P. S. Is it just me, or does it really suck that you guys are being kept out of the number one spot by some crappy phony boy band. It's not like they're even a real band, and they don't even write their own songs.