Monday, November 10, 2003
Penny for My Thoughts
In the interest of equal time, fair play, and unauthorized republishing of other people’s work, here’s the monologue I was given to work on during my acting class last week when we all had to write our own monologues from the perspective of something that had been discarded. I was very highly impressed with the quality of the scripts that came out of this class, and I think I got one of the better ones, by a woman named Abby. Her discarded object was a one-cent coin. (Mine, if you missed it, was a foam rubber foot.)
I’ve got her monologue in the extended entry. It was a lot of fun to work on. And now it belongs to the ages.
Excuse me, miss? Maam! Yoohooo (whistle). Hellooooo. Yeah, you. The woman with the gray hair, in the trench coat, waiting for the bus! It’s me, Abe. Abe Lincoln. You know, “Honest Abe”, the 16th president of the United States, the Emancipation Proclamation...yada, yada, yada. By the way, I like your leather handbag. See I am talking to you. Look down here. In the trash can. I’m right here next to the McDonald’s French fries package. Small, round, copper color, shiny. See me? I wanted to give my two cents worth to the guy who tossed me in here, but I’m only worth ONE!! Hey, but one cent is better than none. Anybody will tell ya that! Go ahead and pick me up. How many people do you know who can honestly say they “picked up” Abe Lincoln? (laughs) Come on, that was funny. I have a feeling you’re gonna need me. Everybody needs somebody, some-time. Right? One is the loneliest number. Come on, have a heart. (pause) Okay, okay. Uh, hhmmmm… what about luck? You look a little down on your luck. You know what they say, “find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck”! (laugh) That’s it…
