besubversive | Procrastination CITY.

I'm performing "Nothing Better" - Postal Service with Drew on Saturday. Don't read beyond this point if you plan on coming to the show, because it's a bit of a spoiler.

The idea is that I'm a girl who has broken up with her man for a new one, and she's coming to get her stuff and tell her ex to let her go.

Basically, I think the set-up should look something like a living room. A chair next to a small table, with a vase of fake flowers on it and something that looks like some alcohol, maybe. As the intro is going on, I come in from one side on the arm some other boy, and we kiss right off the stage and I pretend to let myself into the "house". The other boy hangs back or looks at his watch and walks off, conveying that he's coming back to get me later. Drew, or rather, Woody Valentine, is sitting at the table, drinking liquor and looking really forlorn. I bring with me a suitcase or duffel bag. Somewhere else on the stage should be another table, maybe covered with a sheet and having clothes and personal belongings on it. When I come in, I look at Woody for a moment and then I cross over to the table with my things on it and start gathering them into my bag. Woody immediately starts his plea with me.)

Woody: Will someone please call a surgeon
Who can crack my ribs and repair this broken heart
That you're deserting for better company?
I can't accept that it's over,
And I will block the door like a goalie tending the net
In the third quarter of a tied-game rivalry (At "I will block the door", Woody throws himself dramatically against the "door", spreading his arms.)

So just say how to make it right
And I swear I'll do my best to comply

Tell me am I right to think that there could be nothing better
Than making you my bride and slowly growing old together? (At "nothing better", Woody takes the flowers from the vase and shoves them into my hands, and gets down on one knee. In the space before the next line, I look down at the flowers and smile sadly, almost seeming to consider it. But I shove the flowers back into his hands and take some things out of the bag I've brought.)

Me:I feel must I interject here
you're getting carried away feeling sorry for yourself
With these revisions and gaps in history
So let me help you remember.
I've made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear.
I've prepared a lecture on why I have to leave ("So let me help you remember" cues me to open up a cardboard display of the relationship.. like a graph showing the way the love has steadily declined. Also, the lecture will be a binder with "Why I Have to Leave" printed on the front.)

M: So please back away and let me go (I push him him away and turn my back)
W: I can't my darling, I love you so... (Woody stands behind me, with his hands on my shoulders, I seem to melt a bit.)
Together: Uh oh, oh...

W: Tell me, am I right to think that there could be nothing better
Than making you my bride and slowly growing old together? (Some sort of dance thing here.)

M: Don't you feed me lines about some idealistic future
Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures (I gotta think of something for the sutures part.)

(More physical stuff here in this space... me zipping up my suitcase while Woody tries to distract me. Dancing? At the end, I should have my bag and all my things ready to go, and then I face Woody.)

W: I know that I have made mistakes and I swear
I'll never wrong you again
M: You've got allure I can't deny,
But you've had your chance so say goodbye, (As I walk to the door, look out and see my new boy.)
Say goodbye. (I look at him one more time, then sing "Say Goodbye" and leave through the door, joining arms again with the other boy and exiting.)

...

Yeah?