AFTER THE STORM

A one-act play

By Eve Crusto

1 CAST OF CHARACTERS JOYCE ST. CYR, 52 Mom to Alana and Nel; she is a police officer for the NOPD; she represses a lot of her feelings in an effort to keep everyone happy this often ends in failure and anger. Older daughter to Joyce; twin sister to now deceased brother Michael; she works as a nurse at Charity Hospital; she wants to have a family of her own, but thinks she needs to prepare a good life for them first; she has not yet found the perfect man to father her family and feels like she is running out of precious time. Youngest daughter to Joyce; she always has been intelligent and smarter than people her age, but she can be stubborn to a fault; she was not in New Orleans during the storm because she was starting her first year of college far away at Cornell University and still hasnt forgiven herself; she drinks too often and, despite having a B.A. and M.A. in womens studies and psychology since May of 2011, she is still unemployed.

ALANA ST. CYR, 30

NEL ST. CYR, 23

TIME Saturday, February 18, 2012 around 6:00pm.

PLACE The kitchen of the St. Cyr home in the Seventh Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

2 ACT ONE SCENE ONE AT RISE: The crackling sound and crispy smell of ALANA frying chicken. She wears hospital scrubs. NEL walks into the room. She makes herself a bowl of cereal and opens a beer. She plops down at the table and turns on the TV. It blares ESPN football news. ALANA What are you doing? NEL Yes!! Its official! (NEL gulps and shovels food into her mouth.) ALANA Nel. NEL Brees-us is ours! (NEL gulps and shovels.) ALANA Nel? (NEL gulps and shovels.) NEL Super Bowl 2012 is comin to the Dome!! ALANA NEL!! NEL (yelling) WHAT?! (ALANA grabs the remote and silences the TV.) ALANA What are you doing?? (NEL sloppily tries to get the remote from ALANA.)

3 NEL Im working on my next Nobel Peace Prize. This time its going to be about commercial conspiracy and Super Bowl syndication. ALANA I mean why are you eating? NEL Natures orders. ALANA I cooked. NEL You know I dont wanna eat your health freak food. Fried chicken. ALANA You cant smell it?

NEL I assumed you were burning chicken flavored tofu. ALANA Not today. (NEL takes a swig, finishing her beer. herself to burp.) Do you know what today is? NEL Of course I do, my phone calendar always reminds me. Day two hundred and seventy-two of an unemployed Nel St. Cyr. See? And now its time for beer number two. (She opens another one.) ALANA That isnt your second beer today, is it? Okay, fine, I lost track. hundred and seventy-two. Its something better. NEL But today also isnt day two ALANA She forces

4 NEL I lost track of that too...day two hundred and seventy-one? ALANA No, twat, today is my birthday. NEL Ohhh...so youre finally turning seventy-one, huh? ALANA Damnit, Nel, knock it off. NEL Too old to take a joke now, huh? ALANA I have to go back to the hospital in forty-five minutes. All I want is a nice family dinner with you and mom before I have to leave, okay? NEL Hard to have a family dinner without the whole family. (She slurps milk out of her bowl.) ALANA And its hard to eat a dinner if you have no appetite, so please dont eat anything else until mom comes home. NEL How you know she isnt working late? (JOYCE ST. CYR enters, carrying a cake in a box, two large bags of groceries, and a bulky purse, while she balances her cell phone between her ear and shoulder. ALANA smirks at NEL as she goes to help JOYCE with the bags.) ALANA Right on time. NEL If by that you mean two hours late instead of four, then yeah. (JOYCE walks to each girl and kisses her on the cheek or forehead.)

5 JOYCE Yeah, hold on Rhonda, I got another call...Sargent Joyce St. Cyr. Oh hey, Tim, how ya doin? ... Yeah, I just walked in the door. ... I should sit down? Dont be ridiculous. ... Just say what you have to say, I need to go. ... (NEL takes the cake box from JOYCE. She opens the lid and sticks her finger in. She retrieves icing and licks it from her finger. ALANA catches her.) ALANA Nel!! Ugh! You wolf! Let my cake be free from your grimy paws until youve at least howled a happy birthday to me, please?! Chill out. mind. NEL Its just part of Michaels name he wont ALANA Michaels name...? (ALANA grabs the box and reads the cake in disbelief. Simultaneously, Joyces head drops into her hand and she sinks into a chair, unseen by her daughters.) I dont fucking believe this. (to JOYCE) Ma... She did it again.

(JOYCE silently shushes her with a piercing look of rage. NEL smirks.) She said she wouldnt do it this time...she said it was enough. NEL I mean...it is his birthday too. ALANA People dont keep celebrating their birthdays after they are gone, Nel. NEL Tell that to Mom, Allllana, not me. out... Im tryin to help you

(Her finger tries to steal more icing.)

6 JOYCE Uh huh. ... Thanks for letting me know so quickly. ... Yeah, Im leaving here now. Stop it! ALANA Its my cake and I wont let you slobber on it!

(JOYCE hangs up the phone, but keeps her head in her hands.) NEL Michael would have let me steal some icing. ALANA Michael isnt here! JOYCE (slow and stern) No one in this family needs to be reminded of who is here and who isnt. ALANA Ma, you promised me a happy birthday this year. JOYCE And I will keep that promise. ALANA Then let me turn thirty alone because thats what I am...alone. NEL (under her breath) It aint our fault you cant find a man. (ALANA scowls at NEL.) JOYCE Set the table, Nel. (NEL obeys.) Im not getting into this with you today. I promised that you would have a happy birthday this year, but I cant keep that promise if you bring up unhappy things. ALANA

7 You brought up unhappy things. JOYCE There is nothing unhappy about Michaels birthday. ALANA How am I supposed to be happy when my dead twin brothers name is still on my birthday cake? JOYCE And how am I supposed to be happy forgetting him? ALANA Im not asking you to forget him, Im just asking to have my own cake and my own day. JOYCE Okay, Alana, you want the name off the cake? will take the name off the cake. ALANA Thank you. (NEL grabs the cake and starts picking the icing off and licking it again.) JOYCE Use a knife, Nelissa. (JOYCE sits down with her head in her hands again.) NEL Ughhh... Yes maam. ALANA Now, lets have a nice, happy family dinner before I have to go back to work. (NEL and ALANA sit down at the table. hands and bow heads.) Lord, thank you and wellness of nourishes. May peace and love. Amen. They all join Fine. We

JOYCE for this food and thank you for the health all the people at this table that it it give us strength to grow together in Amen. NEL/ALANA

8 (THEY begin to pass the food around and eat silently.) NEL I called Maw-Maw up earlier to see if she needed that boy to bring her more groceries-JOYCE Did you take those FEMA papers to the bank like I asked? NEL Not yet. JOYCE What do you mean not yet? Its Saturday. ALANA Ma, this isnt a happy subject... So I couldnt go today. NEL Maw-Maw wanted--

JOYCE I gave them to you Tuesday to take to the bank this week. NEL And Ill have to go Monday. Thats the deadline, isnt it? JOYCE Yes, its the deadline, but-NEL So theyll be there in time. Monday is Presidents Day. ALANA All the banks will be closed.

JOYCE You didnt take those papers? When you had ALL week?? NEL Im sorry, Ill go Tuesday. JOYCE No! You cant go Tuesday! Those were papers from FEMA to refinance the mortgage and change the flood liability clause. The deadline was Monday! NEL They cant have a deadline on a day that they are closed.

9 JOYCE Oh yes they can because they did! ALANA They can do anything they want -- they are the bank. JOYCE We are screwed now. NEL If they were so important, why didnt you just take them? JOYCE Damnit, Nel, you know I work during the day! NEL Alana could have done it. ALANA I have work too! JOYCE I give you one simple task and you cant get off your lazy ass to do it? You cant stoop that low to help your family out?? NEL I said Im sorry. Ill take it to them on Tuesday and explain the whole thing. ALANA You know, for someone with TWO degrees, youre really not too smart... NEL Womens Studies and Urban Community Protest hardly count as Banking and Finance. Theres nothing to explain! beyond yourself! This house is trash anyway. ALANA We are supposed to be having a nice family dinner. JOYCE JOYCE You cant think of anyone NEL

10 Then go find your own damn house to live in because Im not gonna sit here listening your ungrateful mouth complain. NEL FEMA should have given you way more money for what happened to it. Cover hotel expenses or flights to and from Memphis or something... JOYCE Then maybe you should go work for FEMA and fix the problem. (Hurt, NEL is quiet.) Cant we just eat, please? You dont have time. ALANA Ive gotta leave for work soon.

JOYCE Nel, get the candles.

(NEL gets up, wounded. JOYCE finds a knife and sets it on the table. She takes a box of matches and lights the candles. NEL puts the candles on the cake and sets it in front of ALANA.) JOYCE Happy... JOYCE/NEL ...birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. birthday, dear Alana... JOYCE ...and Michael. NEL And Michael... ALANA And Micahel?? Mom-MA!! JOYCE I will not deny that today is my sons birthday. ALANA Thats fine, but he aint here Momma. JOYCE He is here in spirit. Happy

11 ALANA Its about to be seven years, Ma.

Youve gotta let it go.

JOYCE There is nothing wrong with remembering him on his birthday. ALANA There is when you forget its my birthday too! here and you act like Im not. Michael died saving you. Im still

NEL The least you can do is--

ALANA Dont act like you know shit. You werent there waiting on the roof with us-JOYCE That is enough. ALANA --And you sure as hell werent there wading through the water with him! JOYCE I said that is enough! NEL That doesnt mean I didnt want to be there! (JOYCE puts her head in her hand again.) ALANA No one should ever want that. NEL Well I do! You all act like its my fault I was away starting at Cornell, but I didnt want to be there. I didnt know or care about those people! I wanted to be right here with all of you. JOYCE It was better for you to stay away from the mess. NEL But I wanted to come back and help!

12 ALANA What could you have possibly done? NEL I dont know, but maybe if I would have been here, he would still be here too. JOYCE I said we are not going to talk about this. ALANA Why not, Momma? Nel is right. Maybe she should have been here and we would have gone through it as a family. Together. Then maybe we would all be a little happier together. JOYCE I said we arent going to talk about this. ALANA Now you dont want to talk about this? You keep bringing Michael up, Momma, so lets bring him up! Lets talk about what happened. About how he jumped from the roof and into that murky water to look for help-JOYCE I dont want to talk about this. ALANA --How we couldnt see him anymore after he rounded the corner at Filmore-JOYCE You shut your mouth! ALANA --How we kept screaming for him, but he never came. How a boat finally picked us up, by his request, but he was not on it-JOYCE Shut it!! ALANA --Lets talk about that happy day, Momma! (JOYCE lunges towards ALANA and suddenly her hands are on ALANAa throat. SHE is choking her. ALANA, shocked, tries to fend her off.)

13 NEL Momma?? MOMMA!! (NEL pries JOYCEs fingers from ALANAs neck as ALANA pushes JOYCE away.) Youve got to stop this! JOYCE Shut up!! NEL Stop it, Momma!! (NEL frees ALANA from JOYCEs grasp. NEL guides JOYCE to a chair on the other end of the table, away from ALANA. ALANA is gasping and crying, speechless. There is a long silence as the women catch their breath, taking in what just happened.) JOYCE I guess its time for me to tell you now that your grandmother has been shot. (ALANA and NEL look up, stricken.) NEL Maw-Maws been what...?? JOYCE It happened just a couple hours ago. ALANA How could you possibly know that? JOYCE That was Tim Hebert from the precinct who called me on the phone earlier. He said there was a burglar out in the East. I told her not to live out there alone anymore. Too dangerous. Of course she didnt want to listen and now look whats happened. NEL That isnt Maw-Maws fault. Sometimes things happen and you cant do anything about them...no matter how much you want to...

14 ALANA I dont understand. If youve known this whole time, then why wouldnt you tell us? (JOYCE stares straight at ALANA.) JOYCE I was trying to keep the day happy. (Fade to black.)

15 SCENE TWO AT RISE: THEY all sit, stand, generally mope around the kitchen. THEY wear funeral black, except their shirts have been bedazzled with golden fleur de lis and are each emblazoned with a single glittering word "Saints". NEL I feel like a fool. ALANA I cant believe we have to wear these ridiculous shirts to a funeral. JOYCE Biggest saints fan for the last forty five years dies...no doubt she wanted the whole city to hear about it. ALANA Its not the way I would honor the dead. JOYCE Yes, of course, you would have us merely forget about them and never mention them again. ALANA Ma, you have to think about where Im coming from. I just think you remember the dead so much that you forget the living. You would have us talk about them every waking second so that our lives become choked up with death. NEL I think its kind of nice. (They look at NEL, confused and shocked.) Well, you know, its nice because grandma is kind of like a Saint now. Up there looking down on us. Maybe she will make sure we stay on the right path, and let the storms pass. END PLAY.

16

How does grandmothers death/funeral relate to Michael's death?

bring about a kind of truce where the all laugh michael is up there tooyelling who dat with grandma bc you know she aint got no (voice? something) --EMC

I think you need to decide who the protagonist is in this piece and also decide on what the protagonist wants(goal) in the piece. It felt like Alana was the protagonist but it's not totally clear and her want could be to have a peaceful birthday party, so she would go out of her way to make that happen even if it means being nice about the Michael thing - and maybe eventually she can't take hearing about him and she explodes with the info about how Michael ended up losing his life. Would a drunk be so open and blatantly reveal that she's been drinking - I have close family members that battled and still are battling alcoholism and they are always in denial about it, they could have a beer can in their hand and they would still deny having had a drink.