Whispers of a Savage Sort: And Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience

Doogle

Doogle 81 FOR SEAN VIRNIG, BECAUSE HE’D ASKED FOR THIS. WITH SEAN VIRNIG AS producer, and Dawn Hill and Paula Schnoor as co-directors, the play premiered at the Minnesota State Academy of the Deaf, Faribault, Minnesota on 7 April 2005. CAST TANYA WEBB: Sabra Carlin CLIFF CLUSTER: Jake Lingle YVETTE POPPENS: Jenna Poehlmann MARK MELVIN: Lance Gonzalez MS. BARBETT: Janna Erlandson CATE: Kayla Gonzalez LEO: Dustin Gonzalez SUE: Rachel McBride DONNY: David Bowen Jr. MR. WEBB (FATHER): Daniel Durant MS. QUINCEY: Brianna Jacoboski MR. ISEL AND VIDEO RELAY SERVICE (VRS): Brittany Ellenbecker STAGE CREW Amanda Jacobson Kelsey Woodward Tenja Smith Chad Johnson Jessica Novak Jenny Smith Kirsten Pudas Phillip Hillenbrand Ryan Johnson Kayla Gonzalez 82 Doogle STAGING CONSIDERATIONS Minimally, the play requires four teenaged girls and four teenaged boys. One boy (LEO) can also play the male adult characters (WEBB, ISEL, etc.), and one girl (CATE) can also play the female adult characters (VRS, QUINCEY, BARBETT, etc.) as needed. If it’s possible to cast separate actors for these adult roles, that’s also fine. Nine lightweight classroom desks are needed for quick and fluid set changes. No special costumes are needed except for the two actors performing the adult roles; they could wear a simple tie or skirt as needed to indicate that they are not teenagers. Because miming props is a natural given in ASL, no hand props are needed. Scene 9 has detailed suggestions for a small make-believe TV. The director may want to consider having three main lighting areas across the stage to help vary the pace of the show and convey different locations. I can’t decide how the word “Doogle” should be signed. Initializing the sign “search” with the letter “d” doesn’t quite work for me. It is my hope the directors will come up with the right sign. If there’s already a sign for “Google,” then it may be easiest to adapt it for “Doogle.” Scene 1. Neutral. [All EIGHT students line up on the front of the stage. As soon as the first person is done signing, the second person says their next line, and so on.] TANYA: Once upon a time . . . CLIFT: A few people came up with the idea . . . YVETTE: Of the Internet . . . MARK: In the days of Cold War . . . CATE: When the United States and Russia . . . LEO: Built up huge arsenals of weapons . . . SUE: Ready to attack each other. DONNY: In 1965, the Internet was born. Doogle 83 SUE: If one country was bombed out of existence . . . [LEO falls to the floor. CATE suddenly reaches over to touch SUE’s hand.] CATE: An email could still go through another country . . . MARK: And arrive in the United States. YVETTE: One of the people who helped create the Internet . . . CLIFT: Was deaf. He couldn’t sign. TANYA: His name was Vint Cerf. CLIFT: (In case you were wondering.) YVETTE: But if he were a signer, he’d have invented . . . MARK: Doogle! CATE: Each deaf signer is a computer . . . [CATE notices LEO still on the floor. She turns to SUE.] SUE: We need to repair the computer. [CATE and SUE pull LEO up to his feet.] LEO: Thanks. Just needed to reboot. SUE: Anyway . . . DONNY: Doogle! SUE: Yes, yes, I remember! LEO: I swear that you women never forget a single thing. CATE: That’s not true. You guys never forget anything either! MARK: Doogle works like this . . . YVETTE: No one enters data about our personal lives . . . CLIFT: Not on Google, anyway. TANYA: You see, in our own brains and hands . . . ALL: We remember. CLIFT: We have eyes. We never miss a thing. ALL: We remember. YVETTE: A teacher says something funny. ALL: We laugh. MARK: A friend loans me ten dollars and I forget to pay him back. ALL: We remind. CATE: A friend sends me a joke through email. 84 Doogle ALL: We forward. LEO: A hearing stranger on the street gives us funny looks. ALL: We remember. SUE: A boy gives me my first kiss. ALL: We remember. DONNY: Look at our hands. [ALL examine their hands and hold them up for the audience’s inspection .] ALL: We remember. [Lights BLACKOUT.] Scene 2. In the hallway outside the cafeteria. [TANYA stands, busy thumb-typing on her pager, with YVETTE and SUE.] YVETTE: You finish your English homework? SUE: No, of course not. I have to work on the yearbook later this afternoon...