With These Four: Keep me in Mind by Atiya Imani - HTML preview

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EARTH

 

-INT: Stone & Rain --table read (location: Theater, on the edge of the main stage)

Two young actors, Stone & Rain are sitting across one another in a rehearsal environment. They are reading lines provided by two anonymous lovers gearing to star in a 1 Act, 2 Actor performance. 

 

Curiosity sits on their expression as they read each line. Stone & Rain are intrigued by the love & language in which they are experiencing.

 

The dialogue forces Stone & Rain to stop occasionally; really tapping into every word the lovers spoke. They repeat “too good to be true”. 

Curiosity grows between the two.  

 

Stone: Damn what kind of love is this? 

**they share laughter**

Rain: Is this normal? *Slightly laughs*

Stone: Man, he said…

Rain: *snaps* get into this emotion, man!

Stone: *looks up at her, peculiar. As to ask “women like emotional men, since when?

Rain: *flips the page over; runs across the stage to get a bottle of water*

Stone: *head down reading still, mouthing words*

Rain: *walks back across the stage* From the top pimp!

 

Stone & Rain take it from the top...each time Rain starts reading Stone peers into her. The beginning of “love”

 


 
 

1 4 3 minutes (EARTH continued)

 

HE said: 

The way I would stare if I saw you standing

in the natural light, the curtains let in

Nature is the nastiest of natural precursors...

Would you rather be kissed by the sun or rain?

 

SHE said:

The sky turns a different color whenever life is done over

Whether a newborn baby or the breaking of concrete in the ghetto 

What’s life without rain caressing your shoulder blade--water, to clean 

 

HE said: 

restoring rain,

or revitalizing light?

you swim underwater with your eyes open to see where they end up

but light leads you to the safest place

and you either, peace in the conclusion or fall in love with the journey?

 

They are being--the eyes, not the water

 

SHE said: 

Water in waves --waves live long

Peace lives in darkness 

More often than it does it light

We feel, for real

 in darkness

More often than we do in the light 

We breathe deeper in darkness 

More often than we do in the light 

But it’s all, life 

 

HE said: 

so, you’d be willing to close your eyes,

and let the rain hit you?

neglecting position and leaning into the feeling.

because when it touches you,

you either flow with it, or let it roll off you

but to use it, to its potential...you got to let it touch you, without fear...

 

SHE said: 

Fear is fake

I’d close my eyes and tie my own hands behind my back and walk into a rainforest

Alone

I know God and I trust my feet 

I can breathe deep

Life touches me every day and I haven’t flinched once

 

HE said:

What if I said, I love that?

that you’d close your eyes and move without hesitation.

what if I asked you to only move with your eyes closed?

and if they were ever open, let your words lead you

so, you can see what you say and follow the words?

where you think they’d leave you?

 

SHE said: 

I’ll grip the sound of your voice

Listen to every wave and move my hands across your mouth 

As if your lips were brail 

I’d keep my eyes closed 

And learn life different with a faster beating heart 

And get my adrenaline from you

 

HE said: 

Soon, if you listen intently enough,

the rain will greet your shoulders like my lips would

and the light will show you things,

that darkness only prepares for day.

you’ll notice that breathing is the only thing easy,

and anyone and anything that helps you to do so

will be hard to shake...

then maybe you’ll stand still and let me stare.

 

SHE said: 

Breathing must be another word for loving and life, for truth 

But there are hiccups in everything 

Being able to stare is a luxury 

Eyes to look in, is a pleasure 

Hands to hold, fingers to straddle are a gift 

How’d you know it’s yours?

 

HE said:

The knowing is for the soul to recognize

I don’t wish to know you in the sense of the word

but in the reactionary movement of my mind

that in my thoughts, there’s only so much I can do

that in comparison to what I can’t…

those effects would be unmatched.