A Sketch for a Puppet Show

Notes: The location and time period of the main action is the western front during WWI. However, this is an alternate history, or rather, a hidden history, so the design is expressive, the characterization of political attitudes and personalities should eschew the typical realism that accompanies war stories. Basically, anything that would require extensive research should be excised. The show’s opening locations, backstage at a Vaudeville theatre and a top-secret war room, should be treated similarly. Also, it appears that I have contempt for the proper written format of a performance piece. Because I don't care. ____________________________________________________

Plot: G is a ventriloquist. He is American. Vaudevillian. The play opens with the end of a performance, as seen from backstage.

G: [sets up joke]
Dummy: [says something mean]

Audience laughter, Dummy berates audience. Curtain falls. G walks backstage with Dummy, stating gentle, amusing things to his dummy in a way that indicates his awareness of the Dummy’s inanimateness. Think pre-Blue Fairy Gepetto, I suppose, talking to his puppet. He puts his Dummy in a case, closes it, and sits on the case, releasing a weary sigh.

Enter Revue Manager, Mr. White.

W: You still got it, man. You were killing them out there, etc. Say, say I couldn’t pay you tonite.
G: What?
W: Yeah, see, the receipts are even worse than last night. We don’t have a draw, a real gimmick. They’re flocking to Grapeswine’s on 47th. He’s got a trio of Chinese jugglers that sing patriotic dedications as they toss flaming daggers across the stage. They say he smuggled ‘em over here in the same briefcase. Look, pops, I’ll have your money for you by the beginning of next week.
G: Mr. White, can I at least stay…
W: Sure, sure, stay in your changing room if you want. Look, I don’t mean to do this. But not even I can eat on this scratch. [exit]
G: [sigh] Well, that’s that. At least I’ve got a place to rest. An empty stomach, but I’ve got a warm place to stay the night.
W: [popping back in] Oh, and hey… we had to move the heat stove in your room to Camilla Cluck’s room. She’s on the town tonite and her eggs need incubation. Bundle up. [exits]

G sighs and pushes his trunk off the stage to his room. Exits. Once the stage is clear, two government-military-lookin’ dudes enter.

GMLD 1: So, that’s the guy.
GMLD 2: Yeah yeah, my wife goes to see him all the time. She’s crazy about him.
GMLD 1: Well, let’s go see if he wants in.

Exit government-military-lookin’ dudes.

Thus begins the saga of G, a ventriloquist recruited for the American cause during WWI. What the government wants with a voice-thrower (desperate for cash but old enough to know what’s what) will be entirely up to me, the playwright. When I’m done with this, it will be excellent.
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This post is an installment in a continuing series of content coordinated by theme or motif with posts from Enoch Allred of Chiltingham, John Allred of clol Town, Jon Fairbanks of Funkadelic Freestylings of Another Sort, Eli Z. McCormick of Modern Revelation!, John D. Moore of Whatnot Studios, Joseph Schlegel of Sour Mayonnaise, Sven Patrick Svensson of Sadness? Euphoria?, and William C. Stewart of Chide, Chode, Chidden. This week's theme: 'Ventriloquism'.