THE TREE

a new opera

libretto by Peter Wing Healey

Characters:

Narrator actor

Jessica Marie de Sappler Castlegrove, III, an Oak soprano

Red, the Sequoia Chief/Buck Sparks, a developer bass-baritone

Tolorosa Dellarroyo, a Juniper mezzo-soprano

Bramble, a Blackberry baritone

Frank Latalle, an architect tenor

Jim Grandy, Mayor of Edgeville comic actor/tenor

Patty Grandy, daughter of Jim soprano

Robert, son of Frank (Little Robert) actor

Sparrow, a modern dancer soprano/dancer

Eyce Kyublick, Activist, Eucalyptus, Waverer actor

Ryude Frahthaus, Activist, Orange, Waverer actress

Chorus of Trees

Chorus of Shoppers

People of Edgeville

Chorus of Famous Guests

Dancers

CASTING: The Tree was first produced in Los Angeles in 2006 with a cast of 18 with piano and percussion. All but Jessica, Frank, the Narrator, and Buck/Red doubled into the ensemble whenever possible. Only one dancer was used.

ACT ONE:

Scene One – Vision of the City, then at The Tree

Scene Two – the Main Street of Edgeville

Scene Three – the Greyhound Bus Station

Scene Four – the House on Orchid Street, great hall with staircase

ACT TWO:

Scene One – the Edgeville Mall

Scene Two - the House on Orchid Street, the garden

Scene Three – at The Tree

Scene Four –Jessica’s upstairs bedroom with balcony

Epilogue – the House on Orchid Street, great hall

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE: The opening scene is set at The Tree on the outskirts of Edgeville. There should be however, in the distance, a vision or skyline of a great city.

NARRATOR The city is our joy. So vast, complete.

A terraced, lush epitome. The densest

Feat. Eras layer beneath our

Feet like forest loam and each

Competes for memory. Farthingales and pheasant

Under glass, bathtub gin, bellbottoms,

Togas, hanging gardens, beheaded

Queens, triumphs and ticker tape parades

Hurry through the night of our imagination,

As we hail a cab or buy a peach.

The Seat of Culture, the Cauldron of Desire,

History and the Planet within reach. The songs!

Singers warbled songs about their cities. Paris,

London, Rio, Rome, “New York, New York”,

“I love Paris in the Springtime...”,

And the people danced in the streets. But then

There came a time when the love of cities stopped.

A vogue of spread and sprawl took over.

Riffing writers stiff with science,

Business and technology spewed out

Bright suburban prophecies, “We’ll live

In charming rural towns, with yards

And cars and screens. We’ll work from home.

We’ll play at home. We’ll stay at home.”

But “home” like any sweet can curdle to a cloy,

And rural towns were disappearing,

Gobbled by the mally sprawl. Our story

Takes us back to those chaotic days

When downtown cores decayed, when stagnant,

Car-congested roads devoid of public

Transport were the fashion and the law.

The tale we tell you now perhaps

You’ll find fantastic. If spirits walk

Abroad, and faces lurk in forests dark,

And houses hide how power rides

The Earth, then look about, take stock

Of how we live, and why, and wonder.

“I don’t believe it.” people grumble.

“It can’t be true.” “Well, suit yourself.”, I say.

What’s gone tomorrow rare betrays

The secret of what’s here today.

The scene shifts to The Tree. Frank, Jim, Patty, Buck, townspeople enter to mime the story as it unfolds. The Chorus of Trees is just offstage, or glimpsed.

It all began upcountry, years ago,

In what was then the little town of

Edgeville: a gas pump with a smiling guy,

A store with beer and popsicles, a snapping screen,

A napping dog, a movie house. A place surrounded

By a countryside of cosmic splendor, not unloved,

But thought to count for little. A few -

Among them, Frank Latalle - would often walk

The mile or two to sit beneath, "The Tree".

Of all the trees that grow on Earth,

That crowd in groves or climb cold mountains

Or stand bedraggled by the dusty road,

One will sometimes stand apart;

Will serve as maypole, lovers' tryst or picnic spot;

"Meet us by the tree at three." You know -

"The Tree".

TREES: Flutter. Sweep. Tremble. Hum.

Frank. Frank.

NARRATOR: Time passed. Patty Grandy, daughter of the mayor

(Who owned the store besides), seemed a perfect match

For Buck Sparks, captain of the football team.

But Patty set her sights on Frank, like Scarlet

Wanting Ashley. And she got him too.

Down by The Tree. She knew her man.

She'd swoon and trail about The Tree and twist herself

Around the trunk and down he fell, proposed

And was accepted on a clear November night

As the leaves of The Tree fluttered "Frank. Frank."

TREES: Frank. Frank.

NARRATOR: Time passed. One summer day Frank lay

Beneath the Tree and had a sudden, vivid thought.

A vision, some would call it. He saw the Tree

As a building, tall, with shady room to sit or work

Or eat, beneath, above, a chirping,

Flapping boarding house for birds and squirrels

On levels climbing, piled up, each on each.

He’s been concerned about the cars, you see,

How people drove and drove and crowded

On the roads. A vivid thought becomes

A vision when it fuses with a mission. Frank thought,

“I must do this. I must build cities. There aren’t enough cities.”

He knew it. All at once, his sights were set.

He hurried home, enthused to Patty,

Gushing, pacing, shouting. He would work

In offices and stores to save, then go to

Temple City, far away, to study urban planning

Architecture, transportation, engineering. Patty thought

“I hate visions and I hate people who have visions.”

But burped the baby, bit her tongue, and stewed.

She rued her schoolgirl crush and reconsidered.

Buck was in construction. He had money.

It happened at the Tree, of course . One night

Beneath the silent branches Buck and Patty

Cemented their alliance. She would seek

Divorce and custody. Buck had purchased

The entire valley and spread his hand and promised her

A kingdom, or a pool, or mink, or power brakes

Or whatever guys those days were offering

Besides devotion and a thick body.

Buck, Patty, Robert exit. Frank throws himself under the tree.

CHORUS: Divorce. Swish. Custody. Swash.

Divorce. Custody. Hmmm. Hum.

FRANK: Tree, oh Tree.

You’re the only one

Who understands me.

How could they take my son?

How could my life

Though just begun

Be over. None of my dreams

Amount to even one dry crumb

Your birds could feed on.

Frank weeps into the Tree then exits slowly. The stage is bare except for The Tree.

NARRATOR: Stunned by events, Frank wept into The Tree.

Perhaps it was that watering so intimate

That woke the spirit of The Tree to love.

She would have shown herself right there had not she

Known too well the rule that death

At once was the result for humans seeing

Spirits move from out of trees or back to trees.

It's an awkward moment, like dressing and undressing

That humans also feel, but which

For trees is so extreme we all would

Die of fright. And so tonight

We'll dim the lights to shield you, thus

From sight as Jessica Marie

De Sappler Castlegrove the Third now steps

In graceful spirit form, into the night.

CHORUS: Ah. Ah...

The lights dim then come up to reveal Jessica. She is dressed as a Tree Spirit, her human body will come later. The music of the storm starts.

NARRATOR: It wasn’t easy. She’d have to seek permission

From the Council of The Trees to lead a human life.

The Council meets, on average, every century.

She would have missed Frank's life completely

But late October came a storm of wind

So fierce that trees were ripped up whole

And tossed like baby toys. The Council

Met in shrieking crisis led by Red,

The Giant Sequoia Redwood Chief.

Enter Red, Tolorosa, Bramble, and all the trees.

RED,CHORUS: We meet in crisis. Urgent emergency.

The air, the water, soil, sky

Are changing. Why?

Oh shriek and moan!

Why must humans build more homes?

Why must cars pick up and roam?

Why do forests fall? For whom?

Oh toss and snap! We are the trees.

The Earth is ours. We want it back!

NARRATOR: Jessica, seizing the moment, grabbed a passing

Juniper she knew, Tolorosa Dellarroyo -

A tough old bird, though said to have been quite a beauty

In her day (she claimed, California-fashion

To have been featured in a film with Myrna Loy.

` Or was it Hepburn?

CHORUS: Shriek. Moan.

JESSICA: Tolorosa! Donde esta!

TOLOROSA: Hola Jessica. Get back in your tree.

This no kind of night for you.

JESSICA: I need your help, madre.

I love a man.

TOLOROSA: You love a man?

I loved the mens too.

I loved the Cary Grant.

I was carefully raised

By gardeners from Japan

Beside a sculpted cement pool

Where Cary Grant once came.

He sat down in my shade.

He gazed into my eyes.

He dropped his robe, dove in and swam

Then languished on a pink divan

‘Till cocktail time. Then he went in.

He died before I got

My chance. Oh, Darling

Humans live so fast.

EUCALYPTUS: Red! Ahoy Mate. Don't let us down Mate.

Yeeouve got to help us. We're dyin' mate

I jist lost tin fine fellows off Ceaiirmeal.

RED: I'm not your mate Eucalyptus.

I told you not to come here. You're too pushy

For California, if such a thing is possible. But did you listen? No. Now look how you’ve cheated the natives.

They can’t even get started. You drop trash

Everywhere. I admit you’re damned good looking

But looks aren’t everything. And now

You want my help! What's this? Dellarroyo?

TOLOROSA: Let us through!

My friend must ask his lordship. Go on.

JESSICA: Sir. I humbly beg

Short leave to live

With a human for his span.

To spin the web of life entwined

That humans have refined.

I'll leave no trace

I’ll shed no light

On secrets. Sire, accept this plea.

CHORUS: Well versed she is in ancient rules and bold.

RED: Aren’t there enough humans already?

Look what they’ve done. How can you love them?

Besides, the human's dead for whom you pine.

Get back into your oak.

JESSICA: Not so, my Lord. He lives.

RED: Bramble - come forth.

You know all the comings

And goings. How stands it.

Is the man alive?

Bramble has a sort of internet connection to the whole world. He has a keyboard.

BRAMBLE: His name is Frank.

He’s under thirty

He’s tall and tan.

He’s lank and swank.

His future is an open book.

He’s money in the bank!

RED: Grave the dangers

Steep the slope

You here invoke. Who are you?

JESSICA: I am descended

From the favorite tree

Of Queen Marie of Antoinette.

My folks are oaks

That stood in woods

A million years, and yet

We rose to fame in old Versailles

And here’s the reason why…

We’re sturdy. We’re stately.

We’re shapely. We’re shady.

We spread our arms

Beneath the stars.

We harbor life

Of every stripe.

And daily, nightly

Morn and noon

Our chef d’oeuvre

You will observe

Is to deserve

The name they call us

“Mighty Oak”.

RED: Rubbish. You’re a live oak,

An evergreen.

In Paris, France, you’d be

Deciduous. Mutated

Long before

Marie could lose her head.

Mighty! Ha!

They call me “Giant”

But I don’t take vacations

That last a hundred years!

JESSICA: Oh please. Have mercy, Sire.

Don’t refuse me.

I know his heart

His stinging tears

And secret fears

Ran down my bark.

RED: It’s just a lark.

Does he want you?

JESSICA: It must be true.

TOGETHER: We’re sturdy, etc.

ORANGE: Oh let her do it. How exciting. How romantic.

Is he awfully cute? You never let us do it.

"Stay put and bear fruit!" you always tell us.

CHORUS: Toss. Pace. Fear. Grip. Hope.

RED: Are you prepared?. Do you know the facts?

Many years are needed to establish

Spirit in a tree, to let the powers coalesce

To form an Entity. Don’t hold it cheap,

The glow you’ve come to be. It’s true

You can afford an independent moment

But, like all extravagance, the cost

May far exceed the pittance you allot it.

A Spirit should indwell. Your tree

Without you will be numb, diminished.

Beware!

When Red says “Beware” most of the Chorus of Tree can scurry away terrified. They will need to change costumes for the next scene.

When you step outside

The solid line

That fate has laid your life on

You send a chill

Through space, for ill

And loss you can depend on.

Forbidden fruit

That seems so sweet

Can have a taste so bitter.

In the end

You may regret

Your passion

For this creature.

The human fate

Of man and mate

Is not exactly heaven sent.

The divorce rate’s up near

Seventy percent!

When you step outside

The solid line

That fate has laid your life on

You shake the laws of life

Inviting strife.

On bended knee

You beg short leave

With burning words

That strike my heart.

‘Tis freedom rarely granted.

But sometimes change

Of great import

Illumines such transgressions.

That is why

Though mind misgives

I grant you now permission.

Go. Beware.

You, Bramble, you, Juniper Tolorosa -

Go with her. She’ll need your help.

You’ll find bodies at the bus station.

Be careful of them. They break easily.

CHORUS: Rustle. Wave. Relax.

Clear skies. Cool night. Go on. Go back.

Who knows? Look sharp! Exist.

SCENE TWO: The main street of Edgeville. If a realistic set is used, it has a small downtown core with apartments above shops and the General Store stage right. But stage left should suggest suburban houses with their own yards. The chorus enters. They are divided into suburban couples in 1950s clothes. Each couple sets up their dream house, mowing lawns, cleaning, cooking, washing the car, etc. Some of the chorus can play children and play with Little Robert. The Activists sit in the coffee shop reading papers.

NARRATOR: The next morning when Frank woke up

In his room over the General Store on Main Street

In Edgeville he felt a strange elation. The pain

He’s been laboring under for months had lifted like a fog.

His sight was clear. He felt composed and, as he dressed,

He bounced. It wasn’t long before Jim Grandy

His father-in-law sensed the change and didn’t like it.

Jim and Frank come out of the General Store arguing.

JIM: I would love to keep you on. Nothing

Would make me happier than to see you do well.

FRANK: But you just had to fire me. All because your precious

Patty-cake, that treacherous lecherous..

JIM: You leave my

Patty-cake out of this. If you were any kind of a man

You’d never have divorced her.

FRANK: She divorced me.

JIM: A man with strength of character always maintains

The upper hand. He abandons women.

They don’t abandon him. You’ve cheated me.

FRANK: You told me to order these rakes.

JIM: I told you no such thing. You have a poor memory.

FRANK: I have an excellent memory. You’re old

And can’t remember what happened ten minutes ago. Why

I’ve done an excellent job with this business.

Profits are up and customer satisfaction ...

JIM: You call this a job! A job is when you go out

Into the world and carve out your own territory

From strangers and ruthless businessmen and gangsters

And dangerous sorts of such things and so on. This

Is a family favor for a weak and frivolous

Ne’re-do-well with “visions”. Ha! Delusions.

And who told you to care about this store? It’s history.

We’re building a mall. Downtown? Who needs it?

We won’t have to worry about parking or walking

In the driving rain and the freezing snow...

FRANK: It doesn’t snow here. Nobody wants this mall.

It’s being forced down their throats by Buck Sparks.

Patty, little Robert and Buck enter and stroll over to Jim.

JIM: Good morning Sugar Pie. Good morning Buck.

Robert, give Grampa a kiss. Now Buck,

Frank here was just denigrating

And riding down your mall again. That’s right.

BUCK: Denigrate away. Everybody wants it

And what everybody wants, everybody gets.

JM,PT,BK,CH: We're building a mall.

An order that's tall

Has taken us all

And put us on call

To get on the ball

To heed the enthralling

Siren telling us

To build another mall.

So we’re building a mall.

JIM: Look at this place!

Surrounded by nothing but empty space

With acres of weeds in a pestilent breeze

Breeding spiders, delinquents and poisonous snakes.

We’ll clear it and drain it and pave it with tar

Paint cunning white lines where you pull in your car.

With “comparative shopping” on levels galore

Throw in ice skating, movies and snow cones and beer.

Come summer we’ll chill it to forty below.

In winter - how festive! Where else would you go?

BUCK: First we built the houses

Then we built the roads

Leading from the carports

Right up to the mall.

Got in on the ground floor

Bought up all the land

Merchandise and property

Go marching hand in hand.

PATTY: Everybody gets a house

Every house has lots of yard.

Every yard has a garage

In which to park a car.

Every car can come and go

Pick-up, deliver, ramble, roam.

This is what America

Will now define as “home”.

Oh Dream, dream house

Alone and unattached

Upon a piece of earth,

Below a patch of sky

That’s mine, all mine.

CHORUS: Every house has bedrooms -

One, two, three.

PATTY: Well one of the them is the Master Suite, of course.

CHORUS: Every bedroom has a bath.

PATTY: No, no. Only two and one half baths.

CHORUS: Every bathroom has a tub.

PATTY: No. Just showers. But a tub

With little jacuzzi jets for the master.

PT,CH: Every basin has a backsplash

Every rec room has a plasma screen.

PT,CH: Acrylic carpets wall to wall

In eggshell, beige and bone.

This is what America

Will now define as home.

FRANK: Wake up. That dream is dead.

The sprawl is here instead.

Humans built cities

For ten thousand years

Now suddenly we stop

We’re building malls and worshiping cars.

ACTIVISTS: The sprawl. The sprawl.

The cars that crawl

In the traffic that’s stalled

In the heat, in the cold

With the gnawing doubt

Will we ever get home?

FRANK: Every year the sprawl consumes

A park the size of Yellowstone.

JIM: So what. We’ve Yellowstones to spare.

The continent is empty, bare.

PATTY: I don’t like this word sprawl.

It gives me the heebie jeebies. It’s elitist.

BUCK: Somebody around here has to make a living.

ACTIVISTS: In a city a greater diversity of people can make a living.

And who says there won’t be building to do?

The whole civilization has to be rebuilt.

FRANK: What we need are new cities. Not malls.

JIM: What cities? What are you talking about?

FRANK: You know. Cities. Like .. Paris.

JIM: What would you know about Paris? You’ve never

Been out of Edgeville. You saw some motion picture

With a dancing girl and someone selling flowers in the Springtime.

I was in Paris during the war. World War II!

I saw things that would make your hair stand on end.

All those cities are the same. Filthy, crowded

Dark, infested, cruel, diseased

Corrupt and dangerous. New cities. Impossible.

FRANK: Impossible. Yes.

Yet the world dreams of it.

A new vision has arisen for mankind.

There it is

The Impossible City

In the yonder blue

On the cusp of truth.

Very clean with trees

Lining avenues

Laid down in lines

Both bold and true

See the flying cars

Dodge the monorails.

Every dwelling is spacious.

Every ceiling is high.

Gardens in towers

Drop petals that lie

On statues of heroes

With fountains that reach

To the sky.

A thousand tints

Fill the atmosphere

With a hope that hints

That a song will appear.

Then the people will sing

Of the city they love

They will dance in the streets

And believe in their powers

Again.

Here it is.

The impossible city

At the dawn of a new era.

Calling to me.

Calling to you.

Take my hand

And step into

The shape of the new.

PATTY: I can’t live in an apartment

With neighbors overhead.

I can’t live with people

Who don’t own cars!

I can’t ride in a bus

With people chewing gum

And coughing.

JIM: Or worse! You don’t think, do you

Just because you imagine some city - that nobody wants

I’m going to give you your job back? You’re fired.

FRANK: You can’t fire me because I quit.

I was going to quit next month anyway.

I’ve saved up some money and now I’m leaving.

I’m going to Temple City on the very next bus

And I’m not coming back. And all of you can just.. rot

For all I care. I’m going to meet the great minds

Of my generation.

JIM: Temple City?

Cities are for bombs. Not people. Haven’t you noticed?

That’s what they do. Blow ‘em up! Burn ‘em up!

I think you're going to find the road to Temple City

Isn’t paved with gold or strewn with pink daisies!

I think you're going to find that ivory towers

Have tiny doors

And rats in cages fighting over crumbs

Will be the feast of great minds

You imagine. You’ll come crawling back.

If a great ball of fire doesn’t get you first.

If a falling tower doesn’t land on your discussion group.

If a mushroom cloud doesn’t redecorate your apartment.

PATTY: Temple City! You can’t leave.

I divorced you but I didn’t expect you to leave.

I’ve never told you this but

Well, Buck has a bit of a mean streak.

He makes good money.

He’s rich. I needed that.

I never told you this but

I always saw you living down a dirt road

In a shack, well more like a cabin

In the woods.

I never told you this but

I saw myself going to visit you now and then

Just to talk

Maybe I’d bring the boy

Or maybe we’d walk, just the two of us

Out to The Tree.

FRANK: Goodbye!

PATTY: Oh Daddy! Look what you’ve done.

You’ve never given me one single

Thing that I ever wanted. I hate you.

Frank leaves. Patty exits in a huff. Little Robert runs after his Dad but Buck stops him.

LITTLE ROBERT: Daddy! Daddy! Don’t go. Don’t go.

BUCK: Come on now son. Your dad’s an artist.

Artists always leave, or starve

Or cut their ears off like Van Gogh. It’s always

Been the same. Nothing ever changes. Let him go.

An Impossible City! Hah!

Who’s gonna’ pay for that?

Nothing ever changes

The rebel rises full of gist

The gold of Change

In each tight fist.

He preaches, rants.

He fights. He wins.

Within a blink

He thinks the way

All rulers think.

His helping hand

Was full of mist

And rebels rise

To oust him.

Net gain? Nada. Niente.

Nulla. Nothing

Ever changes.

SCENE THREE: The Greyhound Bus Station.

Tolorosa, Bramble and Jessica enter in fashionable traveling clothes, perhaps a little out of date. They wander around feeling their bodies. A man sitting waiting for the bus is eating a sandwich. Bramble smells it, sneaks up behind him and grabs it. He nibbles at it. The other two excitedly sniff and taste. The bewildered bus rider protests in vain.

NARRATOR: At the Greyhound Bus Station, where their new bodies

Nicely packaged in the lost luggage room

Have been successfully installed, our arboreal friends

Experience the pangs and hungers we know so well.

TOLOROSA: He wants to be an architect! An architect! You didn’t

Tell me that! What will we do? How will we live? Humans

Got to eat. Not like trees. Just stand there soak up

Nutrients, water, sunlight. No!

Humans got to have a job.

JESSICA: He’ll be an architect. I think it’s wonderful.

He won’t need a job.

BRAMBLE: He’ll need years of schooling.

We need something right now. Something solid.

JESSICA: Well, then, I could have a job. We have contacts

Orange and Acacia can arrange for something.

I could be a waitress or a seamstress or a hostess or a star.

TOLOROSA: A star! That’s it. Djou will be a movie star!

I know all about it. Trust me.

When you’re a star

Your light shines so far.

When you’re a star

You don’t live like a Spar-

Tan. When you’re a star

You won’t live in a car-

Ton on the street they call “Hard

Luck”. No! No!

When you’re a star

You can be sure

They will open the door

When you step from your car

And the crowd starts to roar

And the flashbulbs explore

Every pore

Of your famous glamour.

You can foxtrot, three four

Down the Sunset Boul’vard

Where producers will spar

For your smile. What a bore!

They will wine you, adore you

They’ll dine you, assure you

That no one could ever

Replace such a face!

They will cast you as queens

Fulfilling men’s dreams.

Buy you houses with pools.

Give you airplanes and jewels

But who cares?

As you step in your Rolls

You’ll say,

“Pluck my guitar.

Have a drink at my bar.

Take a dip in my dark

Blue lagoon.

Kiss me, but softly.

Run your hand through my hair.

Take a walk on my ranch

With your ghost of a chance

By the light of the moon.

But don’t go too far!

I am the star.

What you are

Can’t compare

So prepare

To be doomed

To be helpless, harpooned

Like a butterfly pinned

Like a moth that’s been singed

Like a drunk on a binge

To be frozen, transfixed and marooned

In the headlights

And share

With the whole world

The scare

Of identity squared

In the glare

Of the stare

Of the star.”

JESSICA: I’m a star

What a fit!

Just like Marie

Antoinette.

I’ll strut and shake

Say, “Let them eat cake.”

I’m aware

What’s a stake

For a star.

BRAMBLE: An ivy bed in Hollywood

A creeper in Bellaire

In Malibu, a Morning Glory

Dripping down a stair

Oh Ice Plant battle stations, Trumpet

Vines to action call.

Come minions, breach, with stealth and tendril

Stardom’s crumbly wall.

Okay now. Oh baby baby.. A star is born.

Only two things. We need a stretch limo. Done!

Our sources say we have to come from

Canada.

JESSICA: Canada? Why Canada?

But soft. He approaches.

Frank enters with wheeling suitcases.

JESSICA: Excuse me sir

Is this Edgeville? We just got off the bus.

It all seems so strange. You see.. We’re from

Canada.

TOLOROSA: From Saskatoon.

BRAMBLES: Oshawa.

FRANK: Are you stopping in Edgeville?

JS,TL,BR: We have roots here.

JESSICA: We've met before it seems.

FRANK: I can't shake it

JESSICA: The feeling

FRANK: We've danced all night or sworn

JESSICA: To never part.

FRANK: Come with me to Temple City.

JESSICA: That’s just great. That’s where we’re going.

I’ve a limousine. Look! I’m a movie star.

FRANK: A movie star? But how?

TOLOROSA: Don’t worry mister. Trust me.

Here. Just get into the car.

BRAMBLE: See, we’re going. Temple City can’t be far

FRANK: The city’s dangerous and crowded.

We will need a place to stay.

BRAMBLE: We have a house. On Orchid Street.

JS,TL,BR: An old aunt died

And left us a house.

A house in the city

On Orchid Street.

FRANK: Who are these people?

I’ve always heard of Orchid Street.

Famous and exotic buildings

From ancient times

To modern eras

Up and down.

TUTTI: It’s settled then.

We’re leaving Edgeville

In a purring limousine.

What’s ahead we can’t be sure of.

What’s behind we’re glad to leave.

Goodbye old friends.

It’s not the end,

But don’t wait up.

Don’t fret. Don’t grieve.

NARRATOR: And so Frank set out with Jessica and her friends.

They chattered in the crisp fall air

As mile on mile of open country

Slipped by, then suburbs, condos, strip malls.

They arrived at last in Temple City

The sight of towers, sunstruck, fabled

Jostling crowds, darting glances, hurry, noise was

Thrilling! Then a crawl through traffic, a missed turn,

Directions. They crossed a stone bridge

And found themselves entering an old neighborhood

It was quiet and dense entangling trees

Made an arched ceiling over the street. There it was.

The House on Orchid Street. Tolorosa found the key

Hidden behind a loose brick and in they went.

The house was owned by the Council of Trees

Which always keeps a house or two in major cities.

You’ve noticed them I’m sure. You said, “Who owns

That place, so overgrown?” You’ll never ask again.

SCENE FOUR: The House on Orchid Street, the great hall.

Jessica, Frank, Tolorosa and Bramble enter from different directions as if returning from exploring the house.

FRANK: This place is wild.

No telephones. No toilets. Vines growing through the walls

The courtyard garden with statues carved,

Immense, ornate.

TOLOROSA: The family is very, very

Old.

BRAMBLE: Telephones? Toilets? Right away!

No time like today. We’re on it. We’re on it.

FRANK: I counted twelve bedrooms, a ballroom

Library, dining room, pantry, a kitchen so huge..

JESSICA: It’s perfect. What a lovely dwelling place. And look

A view. I’m accustomed to a view.

FRANK: Me too. Jessica.. I’m feeling..

TOLOROSA: They say

There is a wine cellar. Rare, expensive

Wines.. Go down and bring up some champagne.

Bramble hurry Frank away to the wine cellar.

We need to celebrate. Listen dear one. He’s going to woo you

Now. You need some.. orientation. Where to begin?

Every Spring you have the male and the female

Flowers all over you. Then the gentle Spring winds

And the rains of April move the air about you.

Then the pollens from the male flowers

Drift into the female flowers and then the

Acorns grow, drop off, and roll

Away from you.

JESSICA: Really! Tolorosa

I think I know how to reproduce. We Oaks don’t usually

Speak of these private things. How embarrassing.

TOLOROSA: We must. You are a human woman. You have only one

Flower. One female flower. Mr. Frank must bring

The flower of the male to you. You must wait for him.

You must attract him to you.

JESSICA: Then what happens?

TOLOROSA: The male flower fits into the female flower

And the pollen has to be shooted out

Right into the female flower.

Then one big acorn grows inside of you.

You swell to twice your size

And then you have to get it out

Through a very, very small hole.

JESSICA: It doesn’t just roll off of me?

How does it get out?

TOLOROSA: They say is very painful.

JESSICA: Painful? What’s that about? Who designed this?

It can’t possibly work. I don’t want to talk about it.

We won’t do that part. We’ll just be in love.

Anyway, it’s October. Spring is months away. We have time.

TOLOROSA: Humans have only one Springtime.

JESSICA: I’ve seen them under my tree.

They pant with passion.

Now I understand it. I feel it. Oh I feel it.

JESS.TOL.: Every human has one Springtime.

Every face one magic hour.

Every waist a single shot

To be held in hungry hands

Alas so soon

Like autumn leaves

To fall and rot.

Then barren Winter

JESSICA: Winter! Winter!

Fatal. Final.

No rebirth.

No eternal youth.

JESS.TOL: Barren winter

Coming early

Rues the day

The Chance of Love

Made its excuse

And went away.

Lost forever

The happy life

That could have been.

TOLOROSA: Yes my darling, the human life is hard.

But if you use your imagination there are things you can do.

To draw the pounce of the male animal

You must pretend to pull away. You must pretend to not want

What you do want.

JESSICA: I don’t know how to pretend.

TOLOROSA: All the female humans have that equipment.

Don’t worry.

JESS,TOL: Every human has one Springtime.

Every face one magic hour.

One slim chance to linger for a lifetime

‘ Offered sometimes in a passing glance.

One fine night to whisper precious nothings.

Lips and heart one cue to say, “I do”

TOLOROSA: Also, we must dress you like the female

Blossom. In my day, this was the way.

We will go now and prepare the ritual

So the human male will know just how it stands.

Jessica and Tolorosa exit. Frank, Bramble enter with champagne.

BRAMBLE: Uh.. Mr. Frank.. sir. We thought you might need

A little advice about.. Canadian customs.

FRANK: Canada is not so different as you seem to think. I’m sure..

BRAMBLE: The women in Canada have.. every Spring

Both male and female organs that sprout

From their bodies. Then the Canadian men

Play softly around them like the wind

And the gentle rains. Well, they start more gusty

Like March, and end soft and wet like April.

This causes the male organs to fertilize

The female organs. Then.. babies -

Lots of babies - grow all over

The female. In October the babies drop off

And roll away, the farther the better.

FRANK: What part of Canada did you say

You were from?

BRAMBLE: Very remote part of Canada. Here she comes.

Remember.. just play softly, the wind, the rain...

Jessica enters in a huge tulle ball gown with a hoop skirt. The skirt has what look like male and female flowers strewn over it. Tolorosa exits with Bramble.

FRANK: What are you wearing?

JESSICA: Oh this old thing.

My Aunt left it here.

FRANK: Like the wrapping

Of a Japanese gift

Inviting hands

To tear, reveal, the sweet

Surprise beneath.

(What did I say?)

He takes a step to reach for her but remembers his instructions and does a little swirling step around her. She is thrilled but then retreats.

JESSICA: There’s a speed limit in this state

Mister. (What am I saying?)

Thank you. I mean, how kind.

FRANK: (I’m on fire.

I’ll make conversation.)

Today they told me

Broken down and ruined

By this step to my imagined

Destiny I’d be.

But look - a limo ride

A teeming city

New friends

A mansion.

Large, I feel

Vast, mysterious

Guided by my Fate.

JESSICA: And can you share that fate?

Will you require a mate?

(How can I ask these things?

What force possesses me?)

FRANK: I’m burned by mating.

Nothing now must

Interfere,

Impede my quest.

JESSICA: But what if mate could

Help, abet, invest

Increase your chances

Of success? (The tongue

Must be controlled.

Retreat, oh stupid girl!)

FRANK: I’m grim and can’t pretend.

My heart so trampled

Crusted wound.

Don’t touch it

Pain and shame

And loss are all I know.

Jessica sinks into a chair and he kneels and cries into her lap. Then he starts away horrified.

FRANK: (Oh my God, I’m raining

On her organs.

Can this be true.

Who are these people?)

JESSICA: (How do humans bear it?

I stood alone and touched

The sun, the sky, the wind

The birds and bees.

Now standing on a single flower

Needing from another creature

Circling me in space

To pull my face

To his and kiss.

Is this the bliss

I compromised

My very life

To taste?)

While she sings Frank slumps into a chair and broods.

FRANK: And you.. a star. You must have

Men in every port.

A Jacques in Montreal.

An Alex in Manhattan.

A Travis in Paris!

You can’t want me..

As I want you.

He tries to leave but is pulled to her. She pulls away. He swirls around her until at last he pulls her to him and they kiss.

JESSICA: I want you

And not just now

But every day

And every night

Forever.

FRANK: I don’t believe you.

The story told today

You’ll not remember.

The promises of May

Will end in ashes

By December.

But just tonight

We could pretend.

Champagne?

As they near their final duet Tolorosa and Bramble enter.

JESSICA: Pretending seems to come

So naturally.

TOGETHER: Let’s pretend

That our pain will be our pleasure

That Time will not measure

Or limit this treasure,

That what's rigid will bend.

Let’s pretend

That today is tomorrow

That we’ll laugh at our sorrow

And keep what we borrow,

That Death is a friend.

Let’s pretend

That the gain of a mutual

Life lived together

Will gather momentum

Each day and attain

A crystal creation

Of cosmic dimension

That people will gasp at

From every direction.

My dear

Let’s pretend

We have

Love without end.

Jessica and Frank go slowly upstairs. Tolorosa and Bramble holding candelabras nod to each other as if to say “Mission accomplished.”

curtain

ACT TWO

NARRATOR: And so it was that Frank left Edgeville

And came to live in the great city.

He went to many schools and teachers, got degrees,

And prizes, but the teacher he consulted most

Was the city itself, its ups and downs

Its glories, horrors, smiles and frowns.

He and Jessica would sit up talking all night

Then watch the dawn come up on the Piazza della Grande

From a balcony way at the top of the house.

Jessica and Tolorosa undertook to “do”

The house. Some centuries had passed since anyone

Had bothered with it. They searched the world.

Twining, curving, carved and gilded

Pieces were flown at great expense from Tuscany

And Timbuktoo, Amritsar and Alabama. Jessica

Spent hours at Versailles. She searched for clocks

And escritoires believed to have belonged to the

Queen she’d dreamed of all those years.

When the house was done they held a wedding

Of such magnificence even the jaded

Sophisticates, the creme de la creme of Temple City,

Bowed their heads in awe. Some of Frank’s

Friends shook their heads and muttered about

“Clean modern lines” but nobody

Listened to them. Jessica’s name, they called her

“J. Marie”, was a household word.

Her movies came and went like thunderstorms, promising

Terror and excitement, delivering sentiment,

Warm and wet. Her real work was loving Frank.

This had been her pact with life and she fulfilled it.

Time passed. Ten full and happy years.

Meanwhile, back in Edgeville, Frank and Patty’s

Robert grew to turbulent youngmanhood

And was soon to be observed escorting

Janice, the modern dancer/activist,

Who changed her name to Sparrow and pierced her tongue.

His mother wasn’t happy about Sparrow, but then,

She was hard to satisfy. Sparrow had plans of her own.

Today, Robert and Sparrow are doing a little show

At the Edgeville mall and will spend the night

With mom and dad even though it means missing

Jessica’s garden party. Patty is pretty agitated

By the way Robert informed her, when she asked him

Which bedroom he thought Sparrow would prefer

That Sparrow was sleeping in his bedroom

And if she didn’t like that they would go to a motel!

SCENE ONE: The Edgeville mall

The Chorus as Mall Shoppers enters. Patty is among the shoppers. Robert, Sparrow and Bramble enter looking for a place to set up.

PT,CH: We shop and shop and shop

And yet there just is not

A single clue

In all we do

Of what we actually got.

Our dress is non-descript.

Our style does not exist.

We look like slobs

Or shapeless blobs

In bargain togs we can’t resist.

The stores are all the same

From Anchorage to Key Biscayne.

But still we prowl

And shriek and howl

For products with a branded name!

ROBERT: Sparrow! Wait up. Where are you? I can’t see.

SPARROW: Robert, this is the spot. It says here in the letter

That we can set up between 12 and 12:48 by the broken

Fountain under the west escalator in front of Health Bars

R’ Us, beside the plastic palm. I was, like, so lucky

That my friend Serena, you remember her, she went with us

To Big Sur, works here, like, at Health Bars R’ Us, and got me

Into the business office to, like, set this up. I still can’t believe

Your, like, stepmom is J Marie!

And she gave us money for these costumes, and she’s, like

So hip and like, green.

ROBERT: She’s great.

My dad is happy now. He had a hard time

At architecture school. But now he’s working

At a firm and seems okay.

SPARROW: Why does he

Work? They must be, like, sooooo rich.

ROBERT: He has all these theories and visions. He says he

Needs to work in the field to get grounded.

She hates it when he leaves. She never seems to work.

SPARROW: Puhleese! She works all the time. She was so great

In “Lethal Hairdoo”.

SERENA: Sparrow. Hi. This is, like, so cool.

All of my friends are coming.

SPARROW: That’s it.

Everybody’s here. Robert, you ready baby?

ROBERT: This is too wierd. My mom is here. You see that?

SPARROW: Inhale. Exhale. Be thankful. Places everyone.

SPARROW.: I had a dream. A dream about trees.

I saw the trees. They were marching.

I heard them moaning in the night.

We are the trees.

The Earth is ours.

We want it back.

Roam. Moan. Swing. Strike.

Clamor. Climb. Climax.

As she sings the song over and over it becomes more emphatic until drums take over. Two dancers as Tree Spirits are drawn to the mall. They dance. Robert and Bramble and Serena dance as if with them. For a while the shoppers are transformed but soon they go back to their pursuits. Buck enters with Security Guards.

BUCK: (to guard) Get on with it.

SECURITY: Excuse me, Miss. You have to leave.

This is not allowed. You can’t do this.

SPARROW: But I cleared it with, like, the security office.

Here’s the letter. Signed, dated.

You see? Today at 12. Done deal. If you ask me.

SECURITY: (rips up letter) Sorry Miss. This wasn’t

Properly authorized. We can’t let people do this.

If we did, there’d be chaos.

SPARROW: Chaos! There is, like,

So already Chaos. Hello!

BUCK: Robert. What are you doing? When I was your age

I was out on the football field. Look at you.

ROBERT: ‘I was out on the football field.’ Yeah

Busy screwing other men’s wives.

BUCK: Robert. So help me..

Jim enters and quickly intervenes between son and step-father.

JIM: Now Robert don’t be that way.

You know the mall is private property.

You’re deliberately trying to annoy your father.

A mall is a place for the public

But never a public place.

A mall has a private owner

Not required to show his face.

It seems like a bustling city

With places to eat, talk and drink

But it’s not and it’s just plain silly

To come here and make such a stink!

CHORUS: A mall is a place for the public

But never a public place.

JIM: These streets are a clever copy

Where no artists or activists shout

Where no reds, pinks or commies can gather

Where no cries for freedom ring out.

At the end of each quarter we measure

The money produced by each foot.

It’s a system we like and a model

That’s spreading from France to Tibet.

JIM,CHORUS: A mall is a place for the public

But never a public place.

JIM: So if you come here atraipsing and atripping

With all of your “activist” rot

I have soldiers with guns who’ll escort you

Right out to the parking lot.

Out there you can stew, fume and lecture

To all the mosquitoes and ants.

In here you should shop and remember

The rules of this non-public place.

No one’s allowed to sing and no one’s allowed to dance.

For (he does a tap dance and sings)

CHORUS: A mall is a place… etc.

BUCK: Attention shoppers of Edgeville.

I have news.

For some time now this mall

Has been feeling a little cramped.

The traffic is terrible.

So we’ll abandon this mall

And build a new mall,

A showplace mall

An international destination mall

With four hundred luxury

Golf course condominiums.

We’ll put it right here.

But since we’d have to take

Route 1 from Elm Street

Around the old Taggert place

All that way past Muir Pond

We’ll build

An eight lane super highway

In a straight line

Shortest distance

From here to here.

We’re building a mall

An order that’s tall

Has put us on call

To heed the enthralling Siren

Adore the appalling Siren

She’s calling, haranguing, untiring

Cajoling us. Listen. Hark!

The insatiable, ruthless unstoppable order

To build, not a town with a park

But to build another mall.

The chorus crowds around looking at the map. There is some grumbling. Robert runs back and forth trying to see the map. He pulls the people away and shouts.

ROBERT: But that’s … that’s where

The Tree is. You can’t cut down the Tree.

That’s my dad’s tree. Everybody’s tree.

The Tree will die.

BUCK: So what!

The chorus immediately splits exactly in half. Chorus I defends the tree. Chorus II defends the mall.

CHORUS I: The tree. The tree! You can’t cut down the tree.

CHORUS II: Oh please. Bleeding hearts won’t help the economy.

PATTY: I can’t sit in traffic another day.

ROBERT: This is all about cars. Cars have to go!

SPARROW: It’s the cars or us! The earth or the cars!

BUCK: One in six Americans has a job connected to cars.

PATTY: Cars are freedom. Cars are democracy.

SPARROW, RB: That’s right. Better to go to war. Better to kill.

Better to bomb ancient cities.

Better to blow the hands off children

With land mines. Better to poison land

That for thousands of years

Has grown the golden wheat

Than to give up a single car.

From Patty’s song here through to Robert’s cry, “Our culture is eating itself alive” is sung as an ensemble.)

PATTY: A powder blue Mercedes

With tawny leather seats

On a snaking silver highway

In a sunset by the sea.

It’s an image yoked to freedom

And it’s whirling in my head.

If I had to live without a car

I’d rather be, well, dead.

CHORUS I: Die then selfish monsters.

The cars have gone too far.

We have to build a better world

Or die like dinosaurs.

CHORUS II: So what then? Public transport?

Subways, buses, trams?

Forget it. It will never work.

Just think of the expense.

BUCK: Come on guys lighten up now.

We love our cars. They’re great.

We have to make a living here.

Utopia can wait.

BR,SP,RB: Horrible! Horrible!

Oh stupid, wasteful, blind fools.

Can’t you see? Can’t you think?

ROBERT: Our culture is eating itself

Alive!

PATTY: Robert, honey, please. Don’t be so extreme.

The world will change in time. I too loved the tree

We’ll plant another one.

ROBERT: I dedicate my life

To saving this tree. I make a stand

Here and now. I will sit in this tree.

SPARROW: Robert! That was magnificent. I have friends who can help us.

They know how to tree-sit. I’ll help you. I’ll do anything.

BUCK: That land belongs to me.

I can do what I want with it.

This is a free country.

CHORUS I: Yeah! Free for us to be your little slaves

And do exactly what you tell us to do.

There are laws in this land

That protect us from people like you.

We’ll fight you. And we’ll win!

JIM,PT, HK: There’s no fighting allowed

In the mall.

The mall is a place for the public

But never a public place.

SCENE TWO: The street outside the house as Frank walks home.

NARRATOR: Life is pretty dull. Nothing ever happens.

Then suddenly lots of things all happen

On the same day. This is one of those days.

As Bramble and Sparrow and Robert rush

From Edgeville to Jessica’s party with their news

About the Tree, Frank is having problems of his own.

After his schooling, Frank had landed quite a

Plummy job at what was then the reigning firm of

Quick, Brown and Fox. They were highly

Prestigious and carried themselves with a grandeur

That only architects are capable of. All the best

Commissions for corporate headquarters, luxury towers

Landed in their laps. Frank tried to quietly

Fill his humble post, designing

A rectangular atrium planting box here,

An aluminium heating vent there, but his ideas

Bubbled over and out until today when old

Mr. Quick called him into his office. “Mr. LaTalle,

I’m afraid you’ve been warned repeatedly to stick

To the task at hand, to avoid

Boring our moneyed and important clients

With all this drivel about sprawl.” Ms. Fox

Stopped in. “Damn it Frank, you’ve done it this time

That was Fizzwit you were mouthing off to. He owns

Half the malls from here to Hartford.” Mr. Brown, Jr.

Drawled, “We observe a tact here, sir,

Which you’ve seen fit to neglect the better to -

Spout, I believe is the word, your theories.

Henceforth spout without these walls.

You’re fired. Ms. Fox will escort you to the elevator.”

Frank exits. The garden scene is revealed. It is elaborate and sparkling. Lanterns hang from the trees. Jessica and Tolorosa enter, checking everything. They are dressed in flowing tea gowns. They take positions down center, standing stock still with their arms out like branches.

TOLOROSA: Aiee. So much running around.

From one end of the city to another. I must

Take some rest.

JESSICA: We will stand here

As we often do, and refresh ourselves. Moving

From place to place is something I can never

Get used to.

TOLOROSA: Aiee. Moving. Moving.

So far no phone calls, no cancellations.

These people are always leaving on the airplanes.

JESSICA: Yes. They have houses and apartments all over

The world. Frank says it’s become a problem.

He says that it’s killing small businesses in the cities.

TOLOROSA: Even here. The butcher on the corner is gone.

Many years we have used him. Sad.

But Mr. Frank is always upset about something.

JESSICA: Yes, I don’t understand it. Do we not

Provide for him? I will not heed his grief

Today. We are giving our great party.

TOLOROSA: Oysters, lobsters, spit-roasted boar,

Cheeses from Italy, wines from France

Chocolates from Belgium, dancing , music.

JESSICA: Wait! I hear Frank’s step. Human poses! Quick.

Jessica and Tolorosa lounge about. Frank enters ignoring the decorations.

JESSICA: Honey is that you? Come see what we’ve done.

You’re home early. Is something wrong?

FRANK: I just got fired! Those corporate bastards.

Quick, Brown and Fox! What a racket.

All they know is luxury tower

Chain store, food court. Not again!

JESSICA: How could anyone fire you?

FRANK: But, listen to this.

A guy came up and told me about a

New studio of designers and architects

Committed to a better and brighter future.

The Lazy Dog Studio they’re called.

I went right over there and showed them my work.

They said they were .. interested.

There is a knock at the door. Tolorosa answers it.

TOLOROSA: Jessica,

Some gentlemen have come to see Mr. Frank. They seem

A little loco.

FRANK: That must be the team

From Lazy Dog. That was fast. Of course, I dropped your name.

Show them in ‘Rosa, will you?

Eise Kjubelik and Ryude Frahtthaus are shown in.

TOLOROSA: (reads card) Mr. Eise Kjubelik and Mr. Ryude Frahtthaus.

EISE,RYUDE: A pleasure to meet you I’m sure, Ms. Grove.

We, um…find much to admire in your work.

We loved that one .. you know..“Martian Death Ray”

JESSICA: Thank you. What can we do for you gentlemen?

EISE,RYUDE: We’ve um looked over this material. It’s not..

RYUDE: Our cup of tea. Cities with people

Dancing in the streets? Monorails!

EISE: New cities?

Impossible.

JESSICA: Fine. My manager will show you out.

EISE,RYUDE: Wait. I don’t think we made ourselves clear.

We control all commissions outside the big firms. All!

You either work for us or you work for them.

Either Quick, Brown and Fox or The Lazy Dogs

There’s nothing in between.

FRANK: But..

JESSICA: Let me handle this.

Is there something, perhaps, that would induce you

To reconsider my husband’s work?

EISE,RYUDE: We’ve always

Wanted to redo a house on Orchid Street. A large

Commission, perhaps, from you, to remodel,

And we might find a few blocks in the slums for

Your little bourgeois experiments.

JESSICA: What would you do?

EISE,RYUDE: First, of course, we’d tear this down. It’s a tear-down.

Like, what is that place? Pennsylvania Station!

Tear it down. Restore the courtyard to the native

Mud pits originally here. Bring in homeless bloggers.

Put them in cardboard computer sheds, force them

To raise chickens and pigs and slaughter them right here.

Then a sharp, fifty-storey, glass tower

With tiny cubicles looking down on the filth.

With no stairs, no elevators, just a ladder going up the side.

We’ll put a moat filled with formaldehyde around it

With dead sharks floating in it. Then we’ll project

All the opinions of the bloggers onto the walls

In illegible overlap. The Opinion-opolis.

Performance installation blogosphere architecture.

JESSICA: That wouldn’t be very comfortable for me to live in.

EISE,RYUDE: Comfort! But you must have read our manifesto?

“No comfort. No space. No windows. No rooms.

No privacy. No gardens. No ornaments. No style.

No color. No “concepts”. No drama. No views.

No careers!”

JESSICA: You’ve thought of everything haven’t you.

Would you like to see the rest of the house?

EISE,RYUDE: Oh, “the tour”!

Eise Kjubelik and Ryude Frahthaus hiss together over the bourgeois idea of the house tour and leave with Jessica. Frank is very upset.

TOLOROSA: Frank? Are you okay? What is it? Can I get you something?

FRANK: I can’t believe it.

So this is culture.

I aped the masters.

Honed my drafting

Pediments to architraves.

Learned to model

Art museums, research parks

Efficient, ultra-modern, sleek.

I roamed the world.

Saw everything from

Tombs to temples.

Craft is soothing, daily, rhythmic.

Progress, talent, insight, skill

Accrue to power. You can feel it

Flow from eye to mind to will.

Seek it in the world and waken

To the politics of building. Welcome

Friends, to madness. Nothing works.

Whatever made me think

My truth would stride

Into the world and guide it

Forge a crucial link?

A burst of hysterical laughter from Jessica, Eise and Ryude is heard from upstairs.

FRANK: And she sides with them.

They laugh at me.

The idiot. The loser.

Deluded. False. Pathetic.

JESS.E,R: Ha.. ha ha ha ha ha ha.

TOLOROSA: Oh Frank don’t think that. Ever.

Her love for you

Can never fade.

A truer heart

Was never made.

You are the sun

She is the shade.

Jessica pushes Eyce and Ryude out the door.

JESSICA: What a bunch of nuts. Frank, what’s wrong?

FRANK: They don’t care about stopping the sprawl.

JESSICA: I know.

I know. They only think of themselves.

Let them go.

Let the world outside go by.

Let the hours glow like gold.

Let the shadows fall, for cold

And rain in vain will try

To separate us, sunder, pry

Apart what grows entwined.

Revolving on our axis we will wind

Along our trail in time. So why

Not let the world outside go by?

FRANK: Why can’t you see

What maddens me?

JESSICA: Don’t take it on. Stand tall

And still. Lift your arms

Reach out and feel.

FRANK,JSCA: Let the world outside go by… etc.

The doorbell rings. The Chorus of the Fabu-tocracy enters and poses. They are dressed as Movie Stars, Director, Screenwriters, Producers, Actresses. They are all on their cell phones.

FRANK: Great. Your “friends “are here. Just what I needed today.

Now we get to hear about all the houses they own

All over the world.

CHORUS: Hello! Hello! Can you hear me?

I’ve just arrived at J. Marie’s

Garden Party. This place is fabulous. Can you hear me now?

You’ve never seen it? But then, how could you? Darling!

Remind me to mention your name.

We just adore the shore in

Montauk, Maine and Singapore

Or maybe it was

Bangkok, Split and Mogador.

We’re back now for a week or two or three

Then back to Singapore.

We love Bali.

Staying put is a bore.

Oh! How beautiful.

Is that wisteria? How does she do it?

Mysterious, the hanging vines

The massive stones, the moss, the pond

The carvings from an ancient land.

Look! Tiny, wild, unheard of flowers

Fleeting, fragile, fragrant!

You must come to the house.

You really should get out.

How ‘bout the flat in

Paris, Aspen, Bangalore?

And did we mention

Bombay, Lima, Elsinore?

We have a house here too you know.

We’re back now for a little while.

Call the airport.

I must have an aisle.

Oh! Exquisite. How does she do it?

Forsythia. Magnolia! Mysterious.

Look at this view. The vistas set just so.

The setting sun makes shadows jump

And jitter. Giants from the dawn of time

Are calling us to bend and bow.

You really must get out.

You must come to the house.

Unlock the door in

Lisbon, Prague and Luxembourg

And don’t forget

Amalfi, Goa, Myanmar.

It’s down the road from Angkor Wat,

It’s on a hilltop in St. Bart’s

It overlooks the Grand Canal

It’s on a ranch in Baja Cal.

It’s Number 20 Russell Square.

It’s down the rue from the Louvre on Quai Voltaire

But you really should get out.

You must come to the house.

It’s on the beach at Biarritz.

It’s empty darling

All year long it sits!

In Bali, Sutton Place or Mauna Kea

While sipping chardonnay or fresh sangria

You’ll study screenplays, tan and have ideas.

But frankly we’d prefer to stay right here.

Jessica sweeps them all together and they sit as though under her tree.

JESSICA: We walk in the Garden of Plenty.

Oranges ripen around us.

Roses and daffodils fall in our footsteps.

Chocolate and cinnamon

Sturgeon and venison -

Come with me. Bask in the bounty

Creeping and twining

Blooming and thriving

The bushels, acres,

Teeming, chirping

Mewling, brawling.

Abundance is calling.

It stems from the Plenty

The surplus that seeps

And gurgles and drips

Amasses and floods

To an oil that flows

To a river of Love

From the sun to the soil.

The lily has toiled

To teach you the law

Of the Living –

Partake!

Bramble, Sparrow and Robert enter.

SPARROW: The tree! The tree!

ROBERT: They’re cutting down the tree.

FRANK: What tree?

ROBERT: Oh dad, my step-father is building a mega mall

And a golf course and condos and a six lane highway and the whole

Countryside is falling to the developer’s axe

Including the tree, our tree, your tree.

But I have sworn to sit in the tree.

FRANK: Oh the tree.. right. There you see Jessie,

You were right. There’s nothing we can do. Sprawl is all.

Jessie? Jessica? Honey?

Jessica has gone into some sort of deep state. Tolorosa and Bramble join her, holding hands and wailing. They lapse into Tree Talk.

JESS,BRM,TOL: Shock. Stun. Grieve. Bend.

Aiee. Moan. Surge. Sob.

Twist. Lash. Flail. Fall.

SPARROW: Oh my God, like, what is going on?

FRANK: Please, Jessica. Jessie?

I can’t bear it.

What could that tree mean to you

Who come from Canada?

CHORUS: Oh this is too weird.

This is some family thing.

We don’t do family. Gotta go.

There’s a flight to fill-in-the-blank

At ten tonight. Don’t call us. We’ll call you.

The Chorus edges to the door.

JESSICA: Leave me. All of you.

The Chorus exits. Jessica, Tolorosa and Bramble stand frozen like trees in the forest, staring front with their arms out. Frank wanders through them, lost.

FRANK: When I have problems

You ask me to pretend

They don’t exist.

When you have problems

You ask me to pretend

That I don’t exist.

Fine. I’m gone.

I don’t exist. I never existed.

Frank exits.

TOLOROSA: You must go back now. Tonight.

JESSICA: I can’t.

TOLOROSA: You must. Robert will go now to sit in your tree.

After that you won’t be able to get in. Aie!

She won’t listen to me. How do they do it?

The humans

Move so quickly.

They are sudden.

Like the wind

From the North.

JESSICA: The party’s over.

SCENE TWO: At the Tree. Tolorosa and Bramble stumble in. They look anxiously to see they are not observed.

BRAMBLE: Thorn of rose and jasmine scent

Bracken black and tendril bent

Dodder, sweat pea, wild grape, stretch.

Poison Oak and Hairy Vetch

Clamor, climb and hanging trail

In thought, in word, in dream and smell

Shroud this mall in pall of dark

Cause this man to build, instead,

A park.

Oh baby, baby. That should do it.

No! Nothing! I can’t get through.

What’s happening to us?

TOLOROSA: It’s the money. The root of the evil. Once we got

Miss Jessica set up and all that money came in

We used the human magic, money magic, and lost

The use of our native powers. Do you know

That I came up here that dreadful night, before Robert

Could start his sitting in the Tree and I couldn’t

Say which tree was Jessica’s? All the trees

Looked the same to me.

BRAMBLE: Yes. Jessica wanted us to use only human means.

We went on talk shows, made that special movie,

Put together that rock show and toured it.

Oh baby baby save the tree

Save the tree, save the tree

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby!

But once you interfere with another human

Doing his money magic, you got trouble.

TOLOROSA: Trouble is what we got. And now they’ve realized

That Jessica won’t come down to the tree. They sense it.

BRAMBLE: I can’t remember why she can’t come down.

What’s the matter with me? Why can’t she come?

TOLOROSA: All these people, including Robert, would die

If she comes within sight of this tree.

The tree would take her back. She could not stop it.

It needs her. Those sitters are here around the clock.

BRAMBLE: Well let them die. They make great fertilizer, by the way.

She should be back in her tree for this.

I heard that humans’ death is very painful.

TOLOROSA: We would die too. We have human bodies.

BRAMBLE: Oh! That’s nasty. I like this body. I’m not ready to go back.

TOLOROSA: Exactly. If they vote to save the Tree, Miss Jessica

Can live many more years with Mr. Frank.

BRAMBLE: It’s a good thing they made up.

TOLOROSA: Oh yes. She went after him

That very night. It’s been a whole year

And their best year so far. She understands how hard

It is to get humans to change. She’s tried.

If only the activist group, who’s trying to save the Tree

Hadn’t insisted on having the vote here, right

In front of the Tree. They think it would sway the others.

Instead, it makes it impossible for her to visit them.

BRAMBLE: Everything has failed us. Now it comes down to today

Today they vote. But I have a bad feeling.

TOLOROSA: Yes. Today they vote. I too have a bad feeling.

To think that this continent

Was once a jungle of trees.

To walk through the ancient groves

Where sunlight fell like drops of gold

What must have been their sentiment

Those forest folk of old?

The spell is broken

Now. No notion

Of the Royal pillars

Holding up the sky remains

Inside their fevered brains.

Tolorosa and Bramble exit as Frank enters. He stands alone before the Tree.

FRANK: Now they want to cut down my tree.

Oh Tree, remember the vision

You gave me? It changed my life, Tree.

It’s like you told me,

“Go forth and build

The Impossible City.”

Yeah, well I should have paid more attention

To the “impossible” part.

When an image fuses with a mission

It becomes a vision.

What good is a vision

That fails in its mission?

What good is a vision

Without the intention

Of powerful nations

To foster and make things

To move things and shake things,

To change?

Change for the better

Has happened before.

It happened from visions.

From thinkers who burned

Midnight oil.

They toiled

For lifetimes to foil

The plots of the despots

Who profit from stasis

Who move like molasses

Impeding a vision that tries

To empower the future to rise.

Tree, you must be my eyes.

Tell me the steps I should take.

Tell me the phonecalls to make.

Show me the secret of how.

Oh Tree don’t abandon me now?

Patty enters and strides up to Frank.

PATTY: I hope you’re satisfied.

Day and night

You dream about your cities

While Robert risks his life

To follow this agenda

Of your worthless wife.

FRANK: Patty, my work

Is going very well.

Robert has his own life

Now. Let him go.

PATTY: Let him go? Haven’t you heard?

The activists sat

In the tractor’s path.

The loggers came

With pepper spray

On cotton swabs.

They dabbed it in their eyes.

Soldiers held their friends away.

Ritual public torture. That’s what it is.

Haven’t you heard?

In times like these

Hide. Be silent.

Save yourself, not trees.

They put a bomb

In Judi Bari’s car.

Her pelvis was shattered

And her legs destroyed.

The F.B.I. said,

“She did it to herself

Just to make a fuss.

Throw her into jail.”

Ritual public torture. That’s what it is.

Haven’t you heard?

In times like these

Hide. Be silent.

Save yourself, not trees

At night they came to

Julia Butterfly Hill

With helicopter downdraft -

Gale force winds.

She lashed herself to the ancient tree.

The cables cut her tender flesh

Ritual public torture. That’s what it is.

Haven’t you heard?

Robert! Robert!

Come down. Save yourself.

Not trees.

FRANK: I’m scared too Patty.

Jessica will come down today.

I know it.

PATTY: I thought you let him go.

You’ve engineered an artificial triumph.

Jessica! She won’t come. You’ll lose.

He’ll be shattered.

FRANK: You engineer defeat. You could convince your husband.

PATTY: Oh my God. There’s an ant on my leg.

Convince Buck?

Are you crazy? Where is that spray? Pssst. Pssst. Psst.

Robert! Come down. Come down.

They exit. Sparrow enters and prepares a ritual dance to the tree.

SPARROW: Oh Tree. I summon thee.

Awake. Partake of struggle.

I dance for thee. Oh see.

She dances. Robert calls down from the Tree.

ROBERT: Sparrow. Sparrow. The food you brought this morning

I never knew a single bowl of rice could taste so good.

Nine days with nothing but rain water. I’m weak.

SPARROW: You’re strong. Oh Robert, you’re so strong. The law

Is slow. In courtrooms they can sit, debate and order

Shrimp Lo Mien while someone starves. But we prevailed.

It’s just that, I don’t know. It’s like.. I can’t feel this tree. It’s like

There’s nobody home.

ROBERT: I know. It’s like

I think the Tree is like.. really scared.

SPARROW: Like.. totally!

The Chorus enters still split in Chorus I and Chorus II. Patty, Jim, Buck and Frank enter. Tolorosa and Bramble pretend to merge with the townsfolk.

CHORUS I&II: We will not waver. Neither will we budge

We have dug in our heels

Wild horses couldn’t drag us

From our firm convictions.

WAVERER I: I have something to say. I’m wavering. I’m not

So sure All of a sudden I’m looking at this

Dancing girl and these tree guys and I’m thinking,

“What is this? This is flaky. These people

Snipe at everything from the sidelines of life.

They don’t really care about trees. They just

Show up and jitterbug for the TV cameras. “

CHORUS I&II: We will not waver. Neither will we budge

We have dug in our heels

Wild horses couldn’t drag us

From our firm convictions.

WAVERER II: I have something to say. I’m wavering. I saw

“Lethal Pantsuit” last night and I have to say that

J. Marie is wise beyond all reason.

She’s a real star. She knows everything.

She could tell the sun when to rise and set.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to do what she tells me to do.

JIM: People of Edgeville, I have something to say.

Listen to me. We should do what the stars tell us to do.

But couldn’t she come down here, in person, if she cares

So much about this tree? She’s so spoiled. She just throws

Her opinions around like flapjacks. Sometimes they land

In the pan, sometimes they land on the floor. She doesn’t care.

She doesn’t have to do the dishes or clean up the house.

She doesn’t have to honor and obey her husband.

We know for a fact he begged her to come here today.

To honor and obey. Ha! The vows o

Of marriage mean nothing to her.

Marriage!. That’s right. If you listen to her, if you vote

To save this tree, you vote to destroy the sacred

Union of marriage!

ROBERT: Don’t listen to him. So what if a star shows up.

We are human beings. Look what we can do!

We can build anything we want. We can solve any problem.

It was us, not, like, some movie star

Who built Rome. We strung cables under the Atlantic Ocean.

We filled the air with planes and the sea with ships

We, humanity, not movie stars,

Set satellites in orbit and walked on the Moon.

What have movie stars got to do with anything?

Sure they may be passionate and caring, but who are they?

They do not represent us. You act as though

They had the Divine Right of Kings, as though

They alone have been chosen to have voices

In a voiceless world. This is your chance

This is the moment of your voice.

Think for yourselves. Speak for yourselves.

BUCK: She’s not coming.

Time is up.

Gotta’ vote now.

White is yea, we cut it down.

Black is nay, we wait

Until next month.

They vote in silence glancing nervously at each other. Buck quickly counts.

BUCK: Yes. A clear majority.

The decision is Yea. We cut. We cut.

FRANK: Go ahead. Cut down this tree.

Build another mall.

I quit. You people can’t see

And you never will.

It’s hopeless.

Nothing ever changes.

As everyone prepares to leave the sound of the buzz saws starting up is heard. They all turn for a last look at the Tree.

TUTTI: To think that this continent

Was once a jungle of trees.

To walk through the ancient groves

Where sunlight fell like drops of gold

What must have been their sentiment

Those forest folk of old?

The spell is broken

Now. No notion

Of the Royal pillars

Holding up the sky remains

Inside their (our) fevered brains.

TOLOROSA: Mr. Frank. We must go to her at once.

FRANK: You go. I’m sick. I just don’t get it.

TOLOROSA: You don’t know.

You must come now.

Jessica is dying.

As they leave the sound of chainsaws fill the theater.

SCENE FOUR: Jessica’s bedroom on the top floor of the house. A carved wooden bed should occupy center stage. Behind and above the bed is a balcony with stairs going up to it from behind. Red and the Trees will need to appear on the balcony. There must be some way to suggest the balcony looking out over the city when they will sing their final duet. The bed with balcony above and behind it can be part of a unit that turns so that they face downstage at the end. Frank enters. Jessica is lying on her bed. The scene is punctuated by the sounds of the buzz saw.

JESSICA: Hold me Frank.

Relive

The flying years

We’ve shared.

FRANK: So now you’re dying.

What next?

People don’t just die Jessica.

People have doctors,

Lab results, biopsies.

I don’t believe you

Anymore.

I’m sick at heart

And can’t ignore

That I don’t really know you

And I’m starting not to care.

JESSICA: Before the sun can set today

I will die and never, never

Will you see me more.

The first blow to the Tree takes place. Jessica is thrown onto the bed. Tolorosa and Bramble enter and move protectively close to Jessica.

FRANK: What was that?

Who are you?

JESSICA: I’ve known you longer

Than you know.

TOLOROSA: You must not speak.

He cannot know.

He cannot see.

You swore an oath.

You dare not breach.

BRAMBLE: He has to leave.

What happens now

Can never be revealed.

TOL.BRAM.: Move on human.

Go your ways.

Begone from here.

Forget this day

This house is not a place

Where you can stay.

Jessica prays for Red to intervene.

JESSICA: Grant this man a glimpse

Behold! He stumbles.

Chaos bends his will

To apathy.

Tear down the prison

Human minds

Throw up. Be quick.

We need this man.

Red and the Trees enter as though waking up from a sleep. Red climbs slowly up the stairs to the balcony so he dominates the scene.

RED: You summon us.

We wake.

Which does not follow

Hence we know

A deep-laid plan

Has fallen due.

In a sudden clap of thunder Red and the Trees become visible to Frank.

Frank of Edgeville. Hear my words.

FRANK: No! No! Not me too. I’m going mad.

I hear a voice. I see a towering man

Within a walking tree.

RED: Hear my words and wonder.

You have mated with

The Spirit of a Mighty Oak,

The Oak you loved

From youth.

Now torn from Earth

She dies.

Another blow to the tree sounds. Jessica falls. Red turns to leave but turns back.

In parting know

We stand beside you.

Fight the pack.

Enforce your truth

Against the world.

` Go forth to battle.

Risk your life.

We look to you.

CHORUS: Truth against the World will prevail. Have no more fear.

Take no heed of their cries. Let them squeal. You know best.

Forge a way to be here on the Earth with all life.

Take heart. Feel our love. Know we stand always near you.

Go forth. Tell the world, “Be alive to all that is.”

RED: You will not remember this night. But the power

We here bestow will burn within you forever.

FRANK: The universe is expanding

Of course.

There are roads that have yet to be traveled

Of course.

There are mysteries never unraveled

Of course.

There are temples still lost in the jungle

Of course.

Nothing will ever be finished

Of course.

God is still making the world.

Frank suddenly realizes that Jessica is indeed dying.

FRANK: I always said “Who are these people?

JESSICA: My name is Jessica Marie de Sappler

Castlegrove, the Third and I’m a very

Silly tree spirit who lost her head

For a small town guy.

FRANK: If I had known I would have stopped them

I could have … (he weeps)

JESSICA: (starts to lose human speech) Weep. Drop. Crack. Fall.

Take me to the balcony! The sun is rising.

Keep your mind on the city, Frank.

Remember. Remember the city.

The balcony turns so they will be facing downstage as they sing.

FRANK,JESS: When the sun comes up each morning

On the piazza Della Grande

All the merchants in their aprons

Sweep the chill of night away.

By the gleaming red tomatoes

Cherries, peaches and bananas

Outside stores so grand and perfect

Full of things you can’t resist.

Look at the lovers

Still dressed to the nines

Come from dancing the night away.

There are tables for hot chocolate

Where the populace can linger

Talking laughing, telling stories

While the day gets underway.

Jessica stumbles and emits strange cries. She is losing strength fast. Frank holds her up.

FRANK: Don’t go. Oh, Jessica. Stay with me.

Stay with me.

FR,JS: Come stroll with me my love

Down tree-lined boulevards

Extol with me, my heart,

The riverbank and barge

We will ..

Sing the city changeful

Restive, watchful, festive

Humble, regal, soulful

And suggestive where our

Quest for life unfolded

And our story

Found a way.

There is a final crash as the tree comes down. Jessica starts to sing in meaningless moans, walking around like an automaton from side to side on the balony. She gets faster and higher until finally she runs off the balcony dashing her body to pieces.

JESSICA: Ah, ah, ah, ah etc.

EPILOGUE: In the great hall of the House on Orchid Street. Frank sits alone. The Narrator enters.

NARRATOR: And so Jessica died. She left a great deal

Of money to Frank. He used it well.

The house wasn’t hers to give but he stayed here

Until his own death many years later.

Tolorosa and Bramble stayed on to take care of him.

But that was a long time ago. Of course, everybody knows

Frank LaTalle. They know how, after his wife died

He went back to Edgeville; how he converted it to a city;

How he convinced some of her rich friends to build

Mansions and palaces right downtown; how the middle class

Flocked to build townhouses to copy them and apartments

Rose and a new social life began to emerge.

People stopped running all over the world

Looking for amusement. They found it on the streets

Where they lived. The arts flourished. Amazing

Transportation systems were invented and the impossible

City became a reality. From there the movement grew

And the world we know and love today

Began to emerge. The cars died out slowly

But surely. Of course you can still go to special parks

Set aside for the cult of car lovers. But they’re pretty low.

People back then spent hours in their cars

Then they got home and watched car chases on television.

They kept making movies about machines that took over the world

Not realizing that the cars had become so hard-wired

Into their brains that it had already happened.

Can you imagine? When we visit the country now

The air is so pure and the stillness so perfect.

The diversity of species astounds us. We are restored.

The temperatures finally came down. Sweaters

And hats came back into fashion and the poles froze up nicely.

Frank always came back here to the house on Orchid Street.

And they say that late at night, as he worked at his computers, The room filled with a murmuring and sighing.

A great rush of whispers could be heard, like a choir.

The chorus of Trees and Jessica’s spirit emerge from the shadows.

TUTTI: Truth against the World will prevail. Have no more fear.

Take no heed of their cries. Let them squeal. You know best.

Forge a way to be here on the Earth with all life.

Take heart. Feel our love. Know we stand always near you.

Go forth. Tell the world, “Be alive to all that is.”

curtain