SMOL DERING FIRES By KERMIT FRAZIER Dra matic Pub lishing Woodstock, Il li nois Eng land Aus tra lia New Zea land
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For Eliisa and Katja, my two won der ful daugh ters
IM POR TANT BILLING AND CREDIT RE QUIRE MENTS All pro duc ers of the play must give credit to the au thor of the play in all pro grams dis trib uted in con nec tion with per for mances of the play and in all in stances in which the ti tle of the play ap pears for pur poses of ad ver - tis ing, pub li ciz ing or oth er wise ex ploit ing the play and/or a pro duc tion. The name of the au thor must also ap pear on a sep a rate line, on which no other name ap pears, im me di ately fol low ing the ti tle, and must ap pear in size of type not less than fifty per cent (50%) the size of the ti tle type. Bio graph i cal in for ma tion on the au thor, if in cluded in the playbook, may be used in all pro grams. In all pro grams this no tice must ap pear: Pro duced by spe cial ar range ment with THE DRA MATIC PUB LISHING COM PANY of Woodstock, Il li nois
Smol dering Fires was com mis sioned by and pre miered at the First Stage Children s The ater, Mil wau kee, Wis con sin, on Jan u ary 27, 2006. The di rec tor was Rob Good man. The pro duc tion in cluded the fol low ing: CAST Emma Johnston/Marcher...Sheri Wil liams Pannell Delroy Ty ler/marcher/neigh bor/mar tin Lu ther King Jr./ Com mu nity Leader....Chiké John son* Juanita Ty ler/marcher/neigh bor...libya Pugh* Wil lis Patterson/Marcher...An thony Wills Jr.* Bo gus/marcher/neigh bor/mayor...jo seph Hemphill Mr. Crawford/Marcher/Preacher/Drug Buyer/ Teacher... Mi chael A. Torrey* Bull Conner/Neigh bor/teacher/drug Buyer/ Po lice Chief...Dan Katula* Alex/Po lice/neigh bor/thug....al ex an der Knapp Un der studies...tina Machele Brown, Kemaine Hol land YOUNG PER FORMERS Free dom Cast Hope Cast Corey Ty ler Joel Boyd** Justin Gaworski** Dashaun Johnston Chris to pher D. Stone** Josiah Wil liams** Keisha Ty ler/marcher Alayah Walls** Keelee Roggenbuck** Ger ald Jeremy Warwick Sam Markwardt** Evelyn/Hip Hop Girl Trin ity Lit tle** Kelli Kimbrough Rose Lashanda Slade** Julia Burke** Har old Matthews/Marcher Lonnie R. Smith** Ryan Green** Jetts/Marcher/Neigh bor/thug Derrek Carter Wes ley Haas** Marcher/Sub ur ban Woman/ Carole Alt** Em ily Widen** Po lice/stu dent Po lice/col lege Guy/Stu dent Chris Osterndorf Josh Greiveldinger** 5
PRO DUC TION STAFF Sce nic De signer...fe lix E. Cochren, USAA Cos tume De signer....daryl Har ris Lighting De signer...chris to pher Brown Mask & Pup pet De signers... Max Sam son Sound De signers....ernie Brusubardis, Ted Brusubardis Mu sic Di rec tor...sheri Wil liams Pannell Pro duc tion Stage Man ager....mark Baughman* * De notes mem ber of Ac tors Eq uity Association, the un ion of pro fes sional ac tors and stage man ag ers in the United States. ** De notes stu dents of the First Stage The ater Acad emy, the sec ond larg est the ater train ing pro gram for young peo ple in the coun try. De notes First Stage Children s The ater per for mance in tern. AC KNOWL EDG MENTS Many thanks to Rob Good man and Max Sam son for giv ing me the op por tu nity to write this play. Also thanks to the Blue Moun tain Cen ter for pro vid ing me with a place to be gin writ ing it. 6
SMOL DERING FIRES CHAR AC TERS Dashaun Johnston...12 years old Corey Ty ler...12 years old Emma Johnston...Dashaun s grand mother, 49 Delroy Ty ler....corey s fa ther, 35 years old Juanita Ty ler....corey s mother, 31 years old Keisha Ty ler...corey s sis ter, 9 years old Wil lis Patterson.... drug dealer, 25 years old Bo gus... drug ad dict, early 20s Har old Matthews...13 years old Mr. Crawford... neigh bor, mid dle-aged Alex...drug hawker, 16 years old Jetts...drug tout and run ner, 15 years old Rose.... civil rights marcher, 12 years old Ger ald... civil rights marcher, 14 years old Evelyn... civil rights marcher, 16 years old Bull Connor.. white man, Bir ming ham po lice chief, 40-50 Mar tin Lu ther King Jr. All above, ex cept Bull Connor, are Af ri can-amer i can. Var i ous Af ri can-amer i can stu dents and neigh bor hood folks; also teach ers, pub lic of fi cials, po lice, drug buy ers, march ers, dem on stra tors of var i ous ethnicities. TIME: The present and into the past. PLACE: An Amer i can city. 7
NOTE: For the orig i nal pro duc tion of the play, masks and pup pets were de signed. For ex am ple: Huge mov ing and talk ing head for Bull Connor Re al is tic-look ing snap ping dog A ten-foot, shoul der-mounted Willpower in Dashaun s night mare scene Huge bob ble heads for Mayor, Po lice Chief, and Com - mu nity Leader in pub lic form scene Masks for Bo gus, Mr. Crawford, Preacher and nearly all nonspeaking roles 8
14 SMOLDERING FIRES Act I Af ter a mo ment, the neigh bor hood sounds fade out as the lights rise upstage on a park tha t slightly overlooks the neigh bor hood and more fully over looks the city s gleam ing, newly re vi tal ized down town, which is so neaṟ yet so far away. The park itself is r ather rundown, un kempt. DASHAUN and COREY run in from UR and then down to their special hang, a part of th e park where they hang out at times af ter school and on the week ends.) COREY (breath lessly). Caught you and beat you. (They take off their back packs while catch ing their breath.) I m al ways gonna be faster than you, D. DASHAUN. Maybe. But you ain t never gonna be as big. Or as fly. COREY. And that s why you got it on with Har old? DASHAUN. No. Was n t about all that. It was noth ing. COREY. Noth ing? It was enough to make you miss my book re port. DASHAUN. Oh, yeah. How was it? Bet it was tight. COREY. Tight as can be. (They pound fists.) DASHAUN. You got an A? COREY. A plus. DASHAUN. Man, see. There you go again. That s why I be get ting C s and D s in Eng lish. COREY. What do you mean? DASHAUN. Okay. It s my the ory of bal ance, see. I fig ure that the whole class has got to be bal anced out. And yo u keep on stretch ing the class way, way up there. So to even it out, somebody s got to be str etching it way, wa y down here. The Dramatic Publishing Company, Woodstock, Illinois
Act I SMOL DERING FIRES 15 COREY. And that some body s got to be you? DASHAUN. Hey, what are friends for? COREY. You re crazy. DASHAUN. I know. (They laugh.) COREY. But hey, check it out. (COREY takes his pa per - back copy of Free dom s Children from his back pack.) DASHAUN (read ing the book cover). Free dom s Chil - dren. Must not be about us. COREY. No, but it is about black kids. How they marched and dem on strated and fought for in te gra tion. You know, the civil rights move ment. DASHAUN. Oh, yeah, all that stuff way back when. COREY. Not so way back. Wanna read it? DASHAUN. Man, you know read ing gives me a head ache. COREY. This won t. DASHAUN. I don t know, Corey. Shoot, if they fought so hard for in te gra tion, how come we don t have any around here? COREY. Huh? DASHAUN. Well, in te gra tion is like mix ing, right? Folks all mixed up to gether? COREY. I guess. Sorta. DASHAUN. Well, do you see any white peo ple liv ing around here? COREY. Okay, but that s not the only thing about in te gra - tion. I mean, we can go any where we want to now. Movie the aters, stores, amuse ment parks, beaches. Back then black peo ple could n t even use the same drink ing foun tains as white peo ple. DASHAUN. I know all that. I know we can go places. But peo ple ain t al ways happy to be see ing us when we do go places. (Looking downstage to ward down town.)
16 SMOL DERING FIRES Act I It s al most like they wanna be stop ping us some times. White peo ple s eyes all up on us like we re gonna be rip ping them off. COREY. Not all of them. Just be cause some white peo ple don t like us does n t mean they all don t. DASHAUN. And just cause they like you don t mean they like me. COREY. Well, I know one or two black peo ple who don t like you ei ther. DASHAUN. Fo sho. COREY. Why d you fight him this time? DASHAUN (re luc tant to say). I don t know I just wish I had me some better clothes. COREY. You look all right. DASHAUN (de fen sive de spite him self). I know I look all right. COREY. He talked about your clothes? (DASHAUN says noth ing.) Man, don t you even wanna grad u ate from mid dle school? DASHAUN. Yeah, like to mor row, yo. (Looks up at the sky.) Man, I sure wish I had me a pi lot s li cense. And my own per sonal jet. I d be able to go any where at any - time. COREY. You d be a great pi lot. DASHAUN (con fi dently). Yeah, I know. Zoom ing across the sky. (Look ing around.) And maybe I d even drop a bomb or two on cer tain run down things around here. COREY. It d be better if we could fix stuff up. This ole park, some of the houses. And kick out all the drug deal - ers. DASHAUN. Well, you can for get that. They ain t go ing no where ever.
Act I SMOL DERING FIRES 17 COREY. They will if my moms and pops have any thing to say about it. DASHAUN. Yeah, they re all right, your moms and pops. COREY. Your grandma s not so bad ei ther. DASHAUN. Ex cept when she gets on me. Also, she s get - ting kind of old all of a sud den. Gonna be fifty soon. COREY. Fifty? DASHAUN. Uh-huh. And I got about zero dol lars to buy her a pres ent with. COREY. Wow, fifty! DASHAUN (be gins beat ing out a rap rhythm, rap ping). To make fifty put the five and zero together It ll make you feel cool no matter the weather Or not you re too hot or going down slow To the sto on the corner Whenever you wanna Cause you re still my fine grams Who cooks me chicken and ham And all the other things I like To keep me hopping and psyched And (Faltering.) And got no more rhymes in my head Cause COREY (rap ping). Your feet s full of lead. DASHAUN. Yo, what? COREY. Just try ing to help. DASHAUN (be grudg ingly). Thanks. COREY. I know. You could fin ish that rap and make that your grandma s birth day pres ent. That d be free. DASHAUN. Naw, it s got to be a thing. A big, ex pen sive thing! COREY. But you don t have any money.
18 SMOL DERING FIRES Act I DASHAUN. I ll get me some some how. COREY. You could bag some gro cer ies. DASHAUN. Chump change. COREY. Not if you keep sav ing it. DASHAUN. Shoot, I d be fifty my self by the time I d saved enough. (Re flec tively.) I just want stuff, Corey. You know? COREY. I know. Me, too. DASHAUN. A big ole house. COREY. A big back yard. DASHAUN. A big-screen TV. COREY. A lit tle red sports car. DASHAUN (al most with out think ing). A girl I can talk to. (He and COREY look at each other, both a lit tle em bar - rassed. They just as quickly look away.) Well, you know (A si ren SOUNDS in the dis tance. COREY jumps and looks at his watch.) COREY. Oh, man, I m gonna be late. DASHAUN (jump ing up). Yeah, let s bounce. (COREY and DASHAUN hurry off UR as lights crossfade from the park to the neigh bor hood street and street SOUNDS rise again slightly. The boys dash onto the street. Only a cou ple of peo ple are around. In ad di tion, WIL LIS looms UL in the shad - ows.) COREY. See you to mor row, D.
Act I SMOL DERING FIRES 19 DASHAUN. Yeah, all up in school. COREY (tak ing out the book). Wait, the book. DASHAUN (looks at the book, then takes it re luc tantly). Thanks. (The boys pound fists. Then COREY ex its DL just as WIL LIS co mes downstage to DASHAUN, who puts the book in his back pack.) WIL LIS. Yo, lit tle bro. (DASHAUN turns to WIL LIS.) What s go ing on with you, man? How you be? DASHAUN (coolly). A ight. WIL LIS. Good, good. Lis ten, like I m gonna be straight with you, okay? DASHAUN. Okay. WIL LIS. Cause there s still space in my crew for some - body as bright and am bi tious as you. You feel me? DASHAUN. Yeah. WIL LIS. And like I know there s got to be all kinda things you need that your grams can t get for you. Not that she don t be work ing hard, but you know what I mean. DASHAUN (some what wary). Yeah. WIL LIS (putt ing his arm around DASHAUN). So look here. Walk a ways with me some. DASHAUN (looks around quickly). Awright. (DASHAUN walks UR into the shad ows with WIL LIS just as the lights come up DL on the Ty ler home. There, JUANITA TY LER, a 31-year-old black woman and Corey s mother, is at the din ing room ta ble writ ing. [She s draw ing up a pe ti tion.] KEISHA TY LER, Corey s 9-year-old sis ter, is prac ti cally cir cling her mother.)