The October People’s Choice Award goes to…

The people have spoken… The October People’s Choice Award goes to Susan H. Pak for her short play, Masks On, presented as a staged reading Simulcast & On-Demand via Vimeo Live on October 31st. Congratulations, Susan!

Courtesy of Susan, we’re pleased to share the first few pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

Masks On
by
Susan H. Pak

CAST BREAKDOWN
MO – Korean American 16 FEMALE
AMY – White American 16 FEMALE

Setting: 1980s Suburbia

AMY and MO are sixteen. They wear
matching white cheerleader uniforms and
hold matching gold pom pons.
Their faces are covered in heavy, pancake makeup,
bright red lipstick, bright blue eye shadow, and bright pink blush.
Their hair is tightly bound with bright
gold ribbon, matching, high, side
ponytails, and they wear identical
blinding white Keds with their initials
monogrammed on the sides.
Upstage center is a large, IKEA style,
cubed shelving unit. Each cube is
elegantly lit, and contains beautifully
folded sweater sets, starched, striped,
button down oxford shirts, turtlenecks,
and matching accessories and shoes.
A frilly, well-appointed vanity set
sits stage right.
An array of band posters hang from the
ceiling. All of them are of U2 or Duran
Duran.
The girls dance and cheer in front of a
full length mirror (the audience),
perfectly performing exuberance and
joy.

AMY AND MO
(singing, in unison)
Our boys are F-I-N-E FINE
On the L-I-N-E LINE
And we L-O-V-E love them all the T-I-M-E TIME
They are the B-E-S-T BEST
Of all the R-E-S-T REST
And we L-O-V-E love them all the T-I-M-E TIME

The two finish with a flourish,
kicking, jumping and tumbling their way
to a final, electrifying pose.
They hold for a beat before Mo leaps up
and immediately begins the cheer again.

MO
Our boys are —

AMY
God Mo, give it a rest. We’ve done it like ten billion times.

MO
It’s gotta be perfect.

AMY
Let’s do this one instead!
(cheering)
Todd Pearson he’s our man! If he can’t do it no one can!

MO
Ugh no! I hate that cheer!

AMY
Come on, Mo.

MO
(unenthusiastic)
Coach Belden he’s our man, if he can’t do it no one can.

AMY
That sucked.

MO
How come I gotta cheer for the coach, when everyone else gets
to cheer for the players?

AMY
We’re cheering for our boyfriends!

MO
(resentful)
Exactly.

Pause.

AMY
You know, you could have a boyfriend too.

MO
On the football team?

____________________________________________________________________________________

Join us for our next Monday Night PlayGround on December 5th! For more info, click here!