[Back to Play Guide] [Order Script] [Home Page] For an excerpt of this play click this link MOVING DAY 3 m., 3 f./ 1 act / 10 minutes It is moving day in a state mental hospital. Charlie and Glenna have been patients there since they were teenagers. Charlie does not speak and Glenna communicates best when dancing - especially for Charlie. They are more than friends and less than lovers, at least in the conventional definitions of the society who has no knowledge of them. Because they are not blood relations or legally married, bureaucracy has sent each of them to a different mental facility for re-location. Or , as one of the patients, Leo, repeats in his rhythmic wisdom, " Moving day. oh boy, Moving Day, oh boy. Budget cuts, dislocation, reallocation, not recreation, moving day, oh boy, amen."
This is their final day. Binky and Duke, a female and male orderly, are very compassionate about the fate of Charlie and Glenna, but feel helpless to change it. Doctor Lee is in charge of these patients and tries desperately to explain what is happening to Charlie. Then Glenna, who has been hiding, suddenly appears for her last "dying swan" dance.
A strange quirk of fateand a little help from their friendswill undo the misdeed and set the fates right for these starcrossed lovers.
Duke A male orderly Binky A female orderly Charlie A male patient Leo A male patient Dr. Lee A female physician Glenna A female patient
Institutional. Minimal.
Present though it is not specific.
1996 Theatre GEO, Los Angeles (CA)
© 1998 Halem Studios
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