 Okay, I'm Ben Williams, I'm directing Christina Masciati's new play, which is called Raw Megan from Poland. This play is going to premiere in June next year at Abrams Art Center. We'd like to thank Jay Wegman for being part of this final season there. Jay, and thanks to Nina, and Anja, and Tom, and Frank, and everybody here at Prelude. It's always great to be here at Prelude. A couple of things about who you're going to see today. We've been working on this for a few days, and we're going to show you some scenes from Act 1. And you're going to see Kate Benson again. This time in the role of Alice. Jay Smith is in the role of Marco. Sean Carvajal is in the role of Dennis. Douglas Scott-Sreeder is in the roles of John, and then also a little Freddie. And Paul Buchock will be playing the role of a male customer. You guys good? Yes. Tell me a little bit about why you're here. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have taken that plea. Any time a woman hits a man and calls the police, the man is arrested for domestic violence. What happened the day you were arrested? It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong. Dennis, why am I meeting you here? When I was in that rap, I was kicking down doors and strangling people. If I wanted to strangle my wife, they would have found her dead in her car. Let's focus on one thing at a time. I want to make sure you have a successful outcome through this program. You've been ordered to treatment three times a week. I don't co-pay every time? Yes. This is fucking crap. Why? When you get medical treatment and your insurance covers it, you make a co-payment. That's how insurance works. Look, I don't belong in that group. I don't have a problem with anger. I don't have substance abuse issues. And I'm not sure I even believe that such a thing has borderline personality disorder. And I'm insulted. I have to sit in a room with a bunch of rosters who beat the shit out of their wives. What's it like for you to be in a group like that? Fucking bullshit. Sounds like you will have to be angry about that. Damn right, I do. My wife pulled over and I grabbed her hair and necked that sick. Now I have to pay $40 three times a week. I work at a shoe store. I make minimum wage and commissions. God. Treatment is expensive. It's also expensive if you're in jail and your rent's not being paid. I understand your piss, but you can't blow up at the front desk because you have to make a payment. Make the payments or tell your lawyer you can't comply with the terms of treatment. Look, you agreed to an alternative to incarceration. We can't change why you're here. We can't change that you've played guilty. What's your goal while you're here? My goal is to see my kid. I see a one day a week. I don't want less custody. Let's work on that. I believe I wasted my up on that crazy bitch. Watch out for women in hats. They never buy. But you said older women looking at men's shoes are a sure thing. They're their own mission. Not if they're wearing a giant purple hat. This place is magnetic for bullshit. Park Avenue Psychotherapy's at that corner. The drugstore's there. We're in between. That means loopy tunes on the way to picking up prescriptions pass through us. I don't think I'm cut out for this. You just started. No, and I like it here. The atmosphere is outgoing. But I hate feet. Get your multiples up and see if you don't start loving them. Yeah, I don't have what you have. What do you mean? You can't lie. Coming from the most dishonest fucker I know. I don't need so small lies, elephant lies, white elephant lies. People can sense that I'm desperate. This is what you have to do. When you go to the stock room, come back with four boxes. What the customer wants. Same style, different color. Same color, different style. And the $600 version. Only give them one box. Let them ask you, are those all for me? They will. Tell them you found a few similar ones in their size. They'll want to drive them. That's how you sell shoes. Arouse curiosity. People have the means to be convinced that they need more than they want. Papo, your library in motion. What the hell? That last man I had in here from my bicep all said, won't we? You are a huge pain in the ass. Hey, wow, Papo. You never move your face like that since I met you. You look like you lost your whole fate in every system. You look like you're in trombosis. Thank you for corrupting a nice gesture. I was trying to give useful advice. Me too. Sexability cells. Noted. Look at me. I eat cookies before bed. Lots of cookies. And I still have a muscular gut. They look fat, but they're hard as rockets. And I'm most proud of my buck. It stinks out, but it's harder than my thighs when I flex. Next time Sustee reams you out for your numbers, don't come running to me. This job ain't for me. It's just a stud. And I fucked this one from my pro-sec commission shit. Now when I'm a personal trainer, I'll be making $60 an hour. That's my speed. I'm going to change my whole physical repertoire. Buy one of those suburban mucked mansions or the big highway mall strips. Five bedrooms, four bathrooms, golfing. Put my daughter back. Give her the best of everything. For breakfast, we'll have raw bacon for pony. I'll be running towards her with a happy face. And that shit not even on the fork, right out of my hands. And we'll go on a vacation to some part of the world that has little monkeys that don't rip your face off. Swimming in the ocean. Swimming things that you can lean on because they don't go down, they float. You and your fabulous ass haven't made it. So Joe said you got a guy for us. I have a Marine vet, two deployments. He's engaged with the court for a felony drug charge and a separate charge for domestic violence. The charge is strangulation, right? I don't think I mentioned that. Small world. I want to integrate him with a mentor program. I think he could make progress with a peer who's relatable. Well, you finally ready to admit that you can't help vets. I'm sorry. Is there a whole line of social workers waiting to talk to your guys? You think people are in a hurry to work with vets in Brooklyn treatment court? To have the pleasure of sitting here and be treated like shit? To listen to people under-report their substance abuse and gloss over their criminal history? Damn, I'm taking someone's spot. A veteran who served with you wants to sit at my desk. You got dental. Yeah, that I pay for. Yeah, well, keep painting because you'll be picking your teeth up with broken fingers. Listen, no one wanted to take this guy. He was running his mouth and throwing chairs across the room. They were ready to transfer him to another court with no social workers. I'm taking care of him, but he needs more than a treatment plan. Will you work with me? Well, does he have bad paper? His discharge was honorable? Well, if his discharge was dishonorable, that means he raped or murdered someone and belongs in jail. You say that to me every time like I have TBI. I was in art school when you were in boot camp. You don't need to repeat yourself to me. Give me his DD-214 and I'll meet him on Thursday. Can we just skip ahead a little bit? In the next few scenes, things get really bad for Dennis and he starts to hallucinate on the job, which causes problems with his co-workers and his boss. Beginning of this next scene, Dennis has just made a big mess of the sales floor. Dennis tried to help three people at once. Oh, children, middle country rednecks. There's a lesson in this for you, John. Don't destroy half the sales floor or a ballot. Oh, I've learned a lot from Dennis every day. What are you laughing at, Bambi? Nothing. Double-faced piece of shit? Wait, am I a marked man because I was laughing? I know what you told Suski. I'm not the reason you had to shut down the store. I never said you weren't. Yeah, you don't have to backpack. I know what you said. Look, I don't know what you heard, but I didn't mean to blame you for anything. How did I freak out? Well, actually, you freaked out several times and your freak out started to freak me out and I told Suski out of genuine concern. Bambi, you're up. Let me know if you have any questions, sir. Thanks. Does that say beautiful shoe made in Brazil? The leather's a little stiff. Got it in a letter? Sure. Here's your letter. I don't want you these. Are you sure you don't want to try these? I swear, Bambi. In Dennis, he didn't show up today. I saw him on Tuesday. You did? How was he? Good. I'm trying to keep him away from his brother. His brother? Yeah, his brother's selling guns in the projects and he reported he stopped taking his medication. Dennis stopped taking his medication? Yeah. Why didn't you tell him he ran away? Well, I'm on it. I'm looking into certificate programs for him. He needs to keep his mind occupied. He needs something to look forward to. He's not stable enough to be in school right now. Look, you need to be completely transparent about what he tells you. He trusts you. There's a reason he trusts me. Yeah, and there's a reason he doesn't trust me. I'm connected with the court. He's going to hide things from me that he doesn't want going up the chain. He presents a stable to me, but he's off his medication doing who knows what. I didn't know his brother was selling guns in the project. If he harms himself or anyone else, there's big problems. Okay? My license is attached. Well, I was thinking about what was best for him. And of course only you know what's best for him because you were both in Fallujah at the same fucking time. He wasn't in Fallujah. I don't care where he was. Your brotherhood cannot supersede his treatment. He should have been remanded last week. He wasn't based on the only evidence I had. You vouched for him. You put him in danger. It's not as bad as you're making it seem. You have no clue. You get angry when warrants are issued. It's the arrest that saves them. The arrest would have been clinically appropriate for someone medically unstable. I didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. You just don't know what you're doing. Okay. And if you did, why did you bring him to me in the first place? I'm talking about sticking to the limits of the fucking role. You answer the phone 24 hours ready to mobilize, drive three hours to Jersey in the middle of the night to talk to a guy outside the diner, walk into an amulet, whatever it takes. You go off half-cocked like a cowboy trying to heal yourself. The problem with veterans at risk, monitoring veterans at risk, they're not clinicians attached to the court with licenses at stake. Hey, what you got there, this? You see my middle finger on this box? Fuck you. What? Suski took me off the floor and put me on socks. Ouch. I don't get it. Which one's black and which one's blue? You know, they look identical. Exactly. Mix them up and you'll catch hell. You have to check the numbers. Blacks A131, 480, and Navy's A135, 480. You go blind checking those numbers all day. Then you have the perennial, the seasonal, the cotton, the soup, the wool, the liners, the anglics. They all need to be represented in the display. And kept segregated. You don't lose your mind keeping the calf length separate from the knee length. You'll lose it keeping the toes stuck together. And the elastic side folded over in thirds. And where do we keep the extras? In a locked drawer right under the accessories like we do with the tassels and the shoelaces and the wallets and the smart thing cases. No. We keep them in one stock room down two flights. And another stock room four flights down and out the lock away via a maze of hallways. Yeah. You don't want to be assigned to songs. Damn. Good thing Dennis already lost his mind. This is a joke. This is my life, you asshole. Let's go. We can't breathe. You should have thought about that before you liked the food. Stop it. It's not worth it. I was just playing. Marko call the police. I'm losing my cool now. I'm gonna call the police. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, come on man. What do you think you're gonna call the police? You assaulted me. Hey, you're gonna call the police or someone wearing a suit that ain't right.