 Or go to our website and see what our season is. I will take a moment just to call to your attention the fact that On Next Year's Season is a world premiere of a play that was brought forth in last year's festival. Nate Eppler's Good Monsters is on the season for next year. So we are going to see what's going to happen next year. Before we get started, let me say a few words of thanks very quickly here. I need to say thank you to National Arts Magazine, a new sponsor for this festival. So thanks to them for joining us. I want to say thank you to the Metro National Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission. Those organizations do great work making sure that we have a lively cultural life here in our town. I'm happy to announce that we've procured another source of funding that will support next year's Ingram New Works Project. So in next year's speech, I'll be thanking the National Endowment of the Arts. First of all, thank you to the National Endowment. I also want to say a big thank you to the Nashville Rep staff. Those folks worked so hard. And this year has been a tough one. When it's festival time, we're tired already. And yet they worked their tails off. So please indulge me by clapping really hard for the break. And then, of course, finally, a big thank you to the person without whom we would not be here at all, a woman who believes in the importance of new work for the theater and she gets her money where her heart is. So a big thank you to Martha Ingram. I hope that during the intermission of the reading this evening, you will go in the back there and buy lots and lots of candy. Not only is it healthy and good for you, but the proceeds support the professional internship program. So they'll appreciate it if you get some M&Ms during the break. This is where I'm going to ask you to just check your cell phones, please, and make sure that they are silenced, if you will, so that we don't disturb the reading once they get started. I'm going to give you a quick overview of the project. I see people not only that I know from the whole season, but you've been here. This is the ninth day of the 10-day festival. So forgive me. But I'm going to say it again. This project has three parts. The first part is the fellowship, which we offer to a playwright of national reputation, whose work we admire and someone we think we'd love to work with. And we were delighted this year when the fellowship was accepted by Donald Margolies. So he has been working with us throughout the season and mentoring the playwrights in our lab. And so a big thank you to Donald for becoming a member of our family this year. We really had a great time with him. And then, of course, the second part of the three parts is the New Works Lab itself, which is the place where four other plays go to get born. And I'm actually going to let Nate Eppler tell you about that in just a second. And then the third part is this festival. And that's where you come in. And so once again, I just have to say thank you for your being here. Your presence really does make a difference and impacts the work that the playwrights are able to do with their play. So thank you for that. But to tell you a little bit more about the lab itself, I'm happy to introduce to you our playwright in residence and the director of the New Works Lab, Mr. Nate Eppler. Thank you all so much for being here. I'm Nate Eppler, playwright in residence and director of the New Works Lab. And I am so proud to be here. I can't thank you enough for being here. Without you, these plays would be just words holding hands. Each year, the National Rhetorical Theatre supports the development of five brand new plays for the stage. The first play was played by our fellow and my new BFF, Donald Margolies, who was here yesterday and they were BFFs. You can ask him. And the other four plays are by our lab playwrights. One by me, one by Gabby Sinclair, who couldn't be with us tonight because she is at home watching on the internet or actually having a baby right in that home. And Bianca Samms, who's seated right over there. And Corey Keenan-Zelt, who's right over there, whose play you're going to see tonight. These playwrights have been with us since October of last year. A brand new play doesn't eject fully formed from the playwright's head, as much as I wish that it did. It takes a lot of time, energy, effort and people to build a muscular new play. The National Rhetory Lab is designed to give a playwright what they need when they need it. So they come to us, not with a play that's already in development, but a play that's just an idea or a pile of pages. They bring that to us and we start work on the play in October and meet once a month to bring the play to you today as part of the festival. The idea is is that we're giving those playwrights a home where they can work on their play and then see it. And to help it make the next jump to its next phase of development, we ask you to respond to the play here tonight. So after the show, we're gonna ask you to stick around and have a little talk back about it with the playwright and me, the director of this particular one. And your response is a valuable part of this process. You can participate online by tweeting to us directly at atnashrep or with the hashtag, hashtag new play. And I think that's all I'll say about it. So without any further ado for me, ladies and gentlemen, Airspace by Tori Keenan-Zelt. Airspace, a play by Tori Keenan-Zelt. Place, a small rust-belt city. Time, now. A small house divided into living room, kitchen, dining room, et cetera. Once it came perfectly out of a box that came in the mail from Sears. Since then it has been lived in and faded and rusted and sad and sunk in on itself and has died. Scene one, I'm telling you, it basically hugs you. Glory and Kyle enter, Kyle's eyes are closed. And if we take out the boxes, we can stage it so it looks like people live here. Not people, you know what I mean? Catalog people. You can rent the shit. Okay, so the kitchen is gonna be all over here. It's gonna be incredible. Wait till you see it. There's so many, so wait, what are they asking? Just 500. Well, you know I can't ask much. No, no, no, dollars. And my dad sent me three grants so we can just use the rest for the reno. See, the kitchen. Yes, you know it, doesn't look like the picture. I'll send him a before and after. If he wants a return, he has to take a risk. The bones are good. They don't make him like this anymore. I mean, this shit is collector. A seers house? We do this right. Two weeks we'll have a line of dinks down the block to take it off our hands and then we'll be liquid. You have to start somewhere. No, yeah, I guess I just feel like maybe we should keep looking. We will as soon as we're liquid again. Well, I thought you were just gonna bid. You have to commit to bid. Only if you win. You didn't think I'd win? No, that's not... Do you want to do this? No, I mean, I don't... Because if you're not all in on this... No, I am. Okay. Okay, I'm not wasting my time. No, yeah, of course. I just thought we'd talk about it first. It's just two weeks and as soon as we redo the kitchen... Does the kitchen look like the picture? Well, this will all be kitchen. But you don't start here. You take people through the rest of the house first. You come in the back door or the garage or whatever so you can help them see themselves here. Not who they are. Who they wanted to be before all the shit until you... Oh, what's this? Like it's an afterthought. Like you forgot it was there until now. But then you slow down here. You hover just at the threshold or the bottom of the stairs or whatever, like at the top of a roller coaster. Should I let them see it? Are they worthy? This is the moment. See, the rest of the house can be perfect. Whatever, it doesn't matter because if that kitchen looks like shit like if it's all 90s or whatever and you can see this, their eyes literally pull back into their faces and they'll say some crap about oh, I have to ask my wife or oh, let me sleep on it and they are gone. It's like in the movies when pretty people start coughing and you know they'll be dead in like 10 minutes. So what do we do? Get it right. And if you get it right, that kitchen, that's what reminds them of what brought them here in the first place, what makes them sign 30 years of their life away. Their wife hates them. She married someone else. They had the wrong kids. They forgot to have kids. The worse it gets, the more they believe deep down that it can be better. Have better get better. If they just had a good house, deep down they know if you want a good family, you need a good house. And if you want a good house, you need a good kitchen. And if you got that, you don't need the rest. So then all we really have to do is make everything into the kitchen. Open concept, stainless, sub-zero, not that off brand shit, people can tell. And maybe, yeah, yeah, maybe a skylight right over the sink. So when you're washing dishes, you can look up and your kids can be screaming in the nook or whatever but all you see is stars. And your husband goes to get the dish towel. He's helping you dry in his hand like graze is your ass, just a little bit. Maybe it's an accident. Maybe he wanted to touch you in front of the kids. You look out that skylight and you go, hey, look at the moon. Or you can get abducted by aliens. Like if they see the top of your head through the thing and then they beam you up and try to experiment on you, put you out with them and take over their ship and then bend them to your will. Yeah, whatever the person wants to see. Bottom line, you want to sell a house? You give it a motherfucking kitchen, bitch. Maybe we can find one of those deep sinks. Bottom house. Oh, we could try about the Amish country for a weekend. And granite. You don't have granite, you're fucked. And one of those big tubs where you lie all the way down. We could read in there. We could sleep in there. If we give up the apartment, use the rent for a fireplace or back splash or whatever, we could just camp. I guess you can do anything for two weeks. It won't be like your camp it'll be fun. We can paint all day and then do whatever we want all night. Make s'mores, tell secrets, be naked under the skylight. You're really good at this. I told you. Yeah, but I didn't. I just, you are. So we just, we paint and get rid of all the walls and maybe like an island or something. You want to know you can move things around. Kyle gets his phone out. What are you doing? Well, you said you wanted a before shot. We should both be in it. Here, go over and stand by the ship. Take the picture. They wait. We could get a dog. People only like dogs on TV. There's room. No, it brings the value down. It makes people think about vacuuming and allergies. I can train it. I can teach it to roll over and fetch and make people love it. We'll see. I mean, we have all that yard. Just keep smiling. Are you sure you said it? Are you sure? Just keep smiling. See you, too. The house is now in process of birthing itself into something else, something new. Not a house exactly, but the idea of one. Light, air, space, granite, edges, steel. Everything is kitchen. There's one internal wall, not wide enough to separate the space into rooms, but wide enough to be in the way and buckling under the strain of holding up the whole house and boxes in the state of packing or unpacking. The house doesn't know if it's coming or going. Babs stands on a counter, digging in cabinets. Mac examines the wall. Reach. So get down. You said you helped me look. Where'd you see it last? Over top the fridge. Okay, where'd you use to keep it? Over top the fridge. So look there. There. Right there. What'd I tell you? It's a crack. Get down and help me find the rubber cement. Mac helps Babs down. She looks at the crack. Well, you're not going to see that once they paint. I'll tell you what you're not going to see. The roof falling on your head middle of the night. You said you got everything we were keeping. It's on the list. In the crossface. It was not in the crossface. Then it wasn't on the list. I wrote it in red sharpie. Remember the headache. We just have to tie it over until they get a buyer. Then we'll have escrow to fix it right. And then you can look for all the casseroles you want. Babs climbs back up on the counter. It's 450. My mom gave me that casserole. I was saving it. Only thing it wasn't broke by the time it came down to me. Save it? He doesn't even have a kitchen. You don't know that. The last time he came home, what did he do? Three days going on and on about how trash bags did save the world. There was more to it. If you would have read his notes. I'm dragging you to every damn Walmart for the ones with the right kind of, what do you call it? Flex. Flex. Bags and bags of flex. Won't take a dollar or toothpaste or a ride to the bus. Just walks out dragging bags and bags of trash. Filled with other bags of trash. There's a lot you can do with a trash bag. If you saw the coat he made me. He's got a mind. No waste. His sentences were so long. I could have used duct tape if he hadn't used it all up. Bab tries to climb on top of the fridge. Wait, what are you, it's 451. You're going to fall. What if you help me? Matt keeps Babs from falling and reluctantly boosts her to reach over the fridge. She pulls down a plate. Happy? That's a plate. 52 now. He never gets back till after five and the mail didn't even come yet. It's probably just Sunday. Last week was Sunday. They're probably just forwarding it to the mail to the new place. They can't buy a new place. They're not even liquid yet. Yes, they got an offer. They're not done fixing up yet. I have time. Babs. I have eight minutes. Look it. Once they get an estro, then we'll have a whole month. I'll fix up the cracks and you'll have the whole kitchen to yourself. Never mind the damn casserole. We could have dinner and TV. I never don't like that plate. She tosses the plate down. He picks it up, puts it on the island. All right, fine. That's what you want. You just do whatever you want. I'm going in. I can't get down by myself. I guess you should have thought of that. I'll fall and my brains will splash all over the linoleum and they'll come and find me and then you'll have to explain. Not if I mop you up first. You don't even know where the mop is. Sure. Over top of the fridge. They'll be shocked, but then they'll get over it and they'll wonder who I was, what I'm like, and then all I'll be is a stain and some plate I didn't like. Mac gets the mop out of the cabinet. Don't worry. I'll always mop you up first. Then suddenly someone's approaching the house, humming something big and romantic. A quarter of a gershwin or Rogers and Hart, Mac hurries to hide them up. Come on. Keys jangle at the door. Babs tries to get down on her own. It's too high. Mac tries to lift her off the counter. She's a little too heavy. He's a little too weak, or both. They giggle. Suddenly teenagers out past curfew. What? You what? Ow! Ow! They fall on the floor, then help each other, close themselves into the wall just as Kyle enters with a package. He locks the door behind him, peeks out to be sure he's not being followed. It's fine. Scene three. Kyle carries the package like a hot potato. He goes to the wall, opens an air vent, throws the package in, slams it shut. Though the wall is opaque to the characters, we might be able to see inside as the package falls at Mac's feet. He warns Babs not to touch it and inspects it elaborately and officially. Outside the wall, Kyle trips over an out of place box and red sharpie. He puts it back where he thinks it goes, isn't sure, tries somewhere else, then back where it was, opens it, pulls out a casserole dish, admires it, tries to find a safe place to store it until he sees the plate on the counter, freezes. Glory? Hey, Glory! Kyle looks for his phone, dials. Glory, driving and already on one phone answers her car phone. I'm driving. I know. And I'm on hold with the insurance lady. Did you do the dishes? You said you were. Yeah, I was. I did. I was just wondering if maybe you... Okay, well then what is exactly the point of you? What? Not you. Okay, because correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the point of paying ass tons and premiums was so that you... How long do you think... It's not mold. Because it's not. Because you can't just get mold. It has to come... There is no water. Anywhere. Just like ballpark. It's like... I don't know. What's the smell like? Kyle! Oh, I don't know. It smells. It smells like a smell. I guess it's kind of... Okay, well I'm looking at your explanation of benefits and it says you offer emergency support and resale services and I'm bringing people in here for an open house tomorrow and I can't take them into a chicken documentary. Is this or is this not the emergency after hours and... Look, we need help, okay? Just send someone, anyone. Your B team up. Hello? She slams on the tree. Shit! An animal cries out as something crunches. Oh, fuck. What happened? Oh, fuck. Did you let the dog out? Me? Yeah. Kyle goes to the door and pretends to let the dog out. Yeah? Glory gets out of the car and looks for the dog. She can't find it. Did you let it back in? Kyle pretends to let the dog back in. Yeah. How long ago? Look, the dog doesn't smell, okay? I specifically got a hypoallergenic... It's fine, it's fine. Just never mind. Wait, it's a good dog. I just have to find something that smells like a mom or a pie or something. Okay. Cool. So yeah. So then the only other thing is there was this plate on the counter when I got home. You can do things too. That's not... I just meant I didn't really eat today. So make a sandwich. And we're out of ham. That's the other thing. Not to... I just mean we had ham and now we don't have ham, so... Kyle? Yeah? Can you please not do this till we get through the open house? I'm not. I'm just... There's a plate on the counter that I didn't put there. Nobody is trying to abduct you. It happened before. That camp doesn't count. Okay, you weren't there. You're right. You're right. I'm sorry. I'll stop at Whole Foods, okay? I'll get ham and something that smells and I'll check on the mouse traps when I get home, okay? What if she knows I'm here? What if she just shows up? We kick her out. Being a grown-up means never having to deal with people you don't like. No, no, I don't. It's just... I mean, she's my mom. You're scared to leave the house. You freak out over a sandwich. But is that really her fault? Look, just because you shit out a baby doesn't make you not a cunt. Yeah? I love you. Okay. If you want me to do something here... I'm there now, so... I want to be able to do things. Okay, um, I guess you could start taking the staging stuff out of the boxes and make sure it works. Just don't break anything. We had to give the rental place a security deposit. And you could get dinner started. Oh, and if the staging people show up, just let them in and do whatever they say, but don't let them ask you questions. About what? Anything. Okay, okay, yeah. So wait, what do you want? I just want to get through this. No, for dinner. Oh, uh, whatever you want. Well, I just want what you want. I really don't care. Binds an old packet of locks. What about, like, salmon? You said you wanted to be vegan. Oh, right, because the only other thing we have is marshmallows. He holds up the marshmallows. He tries to read the ingredients. Oh, but those were for the s'mores. Oh, my God. We never did the s'mores. We will. When? Just make a decision, okay? Okay. Yeah, okay. So how long do you think? You too. She's gone. Kyle peeks into the two high cabinets. He starts opening boxes and pulling out bright plastic things. Two beautiful and two sharp, brand new cooking equipment. It's real estate porn. Meanwhile, scene four, Mac and Babs are packed into the wall's hidden crawl space. It's long and narrow with no room for passing and it's packed with boxes which someone has tried to arrange into a living room. The box living room is cluttered with unopened stained USPS packages. The clutter has reached the ceiling. It's all sticky. Don't touch it. You don't know the crap people try and put through the mail service. Drugs, ransom, bombs. Back in 98, we had some guy tried to mail his soul to Canada. Said God lived there and he could get himself to heaven a little bit at a time. In the back door. Who thinks Canada's heaven? That's not the point of the story. We can't have any more boxes in here. There's no room. We just have to get through the open house. Then once they're in escrow, we'll have all the room we need. There's not enough air in here. See, this is what happens when you don't take your nap. How can I take a nap? There's no place to lay down. Mac looks around for room to lie down. He picks up some packages, holds them, puts them down. All right. Give me your feet. You can't hold my feet for an hour and a half. You can do anything for a while. Just give them your... Mac chases babs, trying to grab at the feet. They knock over a stack of packages. Kyle hears. He finds a hiding place. We're this close. If we could just hang on a couple more days, then once we get in escrow... Then when we have what? A month till the next people come? And what if we don't like him as much? I mean, maybe it's better they don't leave. They have to leave? How else are we going to get our house back? Well, they're not just going to give it away for nothing. We did. We're still here. Exactly. So we save up. I get back to work in a month. But you haven't worked in a year. It's furlough. It's temporary. How long is that? I got seniority. Just as soon as things turn, I'm on top of the list. Anyway, you got a better idea? Yeah. Maybe I do. Great. What's your brilliant plan? I could get them to live here and let us live with them. What the hell are you talking about? They've got room. They're good kids. And you like his singing. It's loud is what it is. I heard you humming. Just this morning, if we were out there, we wouldn't have to hum. You could sing. Like you used to. We could all sing together. We could have singalongs. You got rocks in your head. If it wasn't for them, they saved us. And they're good kids. Smart. You saw her at the auction. Got a real good deal. On our house. She didn't know. She knew it was someone's. She knew somebody lost. But did she care? No. As long as she got the good in. Well, they didn't make us get poor clothes. But they're glad. That's worth. Well, you don't even know them. I guess you do. Tell the truth. I think they could use a little help. I mean, they're not even sleeping. You went out without me? Just last night for a sandwich. What kind? Ham. I like ham. No, it doesn't matter. Not to you, maybe. Well, she was pacing all around and looking into her phone. And she was chewing on her hair. And he's faking like he's asleep. I really think they need us. What if they don't want us? They don't know what they want. Not really. What if they kick us out? What if he comes back and knocks on the door and we're not even here? Did you think about that? We're already not here. You want to spend the rest of our lives like this? So what are you going to do? Tap them on the shoulder and say, Hi, I'm Babs. I live in your wall. No, no, I'm not on the door. And say I'm a neighbor. Or I'll figure it out. All I have to do is get to know them and get them to know me. And then I can just sort of ease them in. You know, you give that a shot. I would love to see that. Oh, you are not coming. Why not? You're not dressed. And you're not good at people. I'm a carrier. I'm frontline. You just screw it up and I don't want to hate you. It's not going to work. Just so you know, I don't want you to get your hopes up. Babs makes herself look like a neighbor. She picks up the leaking package. What are you doing with that? Well, I can't just show up. I have to bring something and since you lost the casserole. Well, you're not taking that. Here, here, here. He takes the package back from her, looks around for something to replace it. Babs goes out. He turns around. She is gone. Just don't come crying to me. Scene five. Bab steps carefully into the living room. Kyle is hiding in a box. She sneaks to the front door and goes out on the porch. She takes in the neighborhood. It's different. Bab brings the doorbell. It makes a broken sound. Kyle scooches toward the door. Hello? Hello? Anybody? I just wanted to say welcome to the neighborhood. Are you the staging lady? I'm the staging lady. Bab, Barbara. Kyle, thank you so much for coming out on the weekend. I was going to bring something, but this was on your porch, so at least I'm not empty-handed. Kyle, still in the box, shuffles to the air vent and throws the package in. It falls at Max's feet. So, wait, you live here, too? No. No, no! I live just down the street. Oh! The one with the cabed-in roof or the one with the plastic bag windows? It's a couple of blocks over, so it was real easy for me to come out on the weekend. Great. So, yeah, so she said we could take out the staging stuff and make sure it works. I just don't break anything, and then I guess whatever else you think. Great. Kyle realizes he's still in a box. Uh, I was just... Ah! There it is! He pulls out a grapefruit spoon. I was just getting dinner started. I was going to bring something for dinner, but then my husband forgot to put the dish away, so then I couldn't find it, and I was getting late, and, well, you know how it is. Oh, for sure. I mean, we keep talking about doing s'mores for the longest time, you know? Just to do something special in here before we finish the flip. But then it was never a good time, and then, well, you know, it started to feel like more of a thing, and there's just a lot with the open house, and now all I can find is salmon and marshmallows, but I'm trying to be vegan, and there's nothing special, and there's nothing for dinner. We could make a casserole. That's dinner, and it's special, and everyone could sit around the table and get to know each other. I just had my dish. Oh, my God! Wait, I just found the most beautiful dish. You're kidding! In a box, and can you believe they just left it? No. I think... I think it's mid-century. What are the odds? So we'll just make a casserole! Great! What is it added? Italian? But you never had a casserole? Oh, well, my mom wasn't really a mom, so... Well, I mean, I'm sorry. It's fine. She was just about other things. What happened to her? She moved to New York. Well, my nanny used to make casseroles for funerals and Christmas and whenever she'd be out of town, you could never tell what was in them, but they had these gorgeous gobs of marshmallow you just wanted to lay down in. She always said you could stick people together with marshmallow. What's that from? It's Berg. Now, they do make your teeth a little fuzzy, but I'm telling you, it's worth it. Awesome! What can I stir? Ow! Oh, what? Is she okay? I can't do anything. Well, you're fine here. Babs pulls him into the kitchen. She knows the space. Holds his hand under the sink, wraps it in a towel. Better? It's dinner. People make dinner all the time, right? Stupid people make dinner. You want to be stupid? No. There you go. Thanks. How can you do anything in a mess like this? You need a clean kitchen, is all. Nana? No, that's just true. You sit tight. Babs diagnoses the kitchen, which is flooded with two bright plastic things. Everything looks like a toy version of itself. She takes over the space and tighties it till it becomes hers again. My mom used to say, we're on our own for dinner! Like it was super exciting. And then she'd go into the basement and I'd have a yogurt. And then a ho-ho. And then a Twinkie. Kyle did the grapefruit spoon into his hand. Here, how about you just stir the marshmallows? Forget what else was in it, but that's all people remember anyway. Sweet. Oh, there's a recipe on the back. Okay, so first I preheat the oven, and then I stir. You want a light touch with this, like you're tickling a baby chick. We watch a lot of Food Network and Travel Channel and HDTV. I feel like it's easier to do things when you're just demonstrating them. He practices demonstrating turning on the oven. Babs opens the casserole dish. It's filled with old baby clothes. So I just stir all my ingredients beautifully. He demonstrates stirring. It becomes beautiful. Babs folds the baby clothes and packs them safely away. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm-hmm-hmm. Let the time go by. I don't care any second you may suddenly appear. Interimental break together. Through the beauty of the open concept home, becoming some combination of Fran and Ginger, a Nancy Meyers movie, and a commercial for cleaning products. Mac enters in a ratty and stained USPS uniform carrying Kyle's package. Let the time go by. Sign here. But your eye. I can't leave you. I was about to come out and get you. This is my husband, Mac. Hello. His eye. Your eye. That old thing is just plastic. Silicone. I'm so sorry. He's got five more at home. I liked that one. It's nobody's fault. It happens all the time. Even the first was an accident. Staple gun. See, I thought it was a 45. Nobody wants to hear about all that. Was he squeamish? He's not squeamish, are you, son? You know how some people think they're funny, but really they're not funny. Well, don't worry. I'm sure we'll find... Well, it has to be somewhere. Kyle crawls around through the boxes, looking for Mac's eye. You could have changed it. I'm not impressing anybody. You got that right. Well, put on that red sweater I made you and comb your hair. It is. You said you liked it. You said till death do us part. I want to embarrass yourself. Mac goes back into the wall. I'm so sorry. Oh, not at all. It was my fault. Oh, wait. I think I see it. He's a good guy. He's just... I'm sure. He's just not good at people, but that's why we're good together. See, I do the people, and he fixes things. He's real handy. He can fix pertinent or anything you break. Oh, there it is. Mac comes out in a red sweater that's a little too small for him now. His hair has been wet and combed. Kyle comes up with the eye. Signed here. Wait, you're... My assistant. USPS. And my husband. I'm senior carrier, front line. Just part time, but nights and weekends we do this. What? You know. Staging houses. What is he talking about? Don't be rude. I told you he's not good at people. Just here in the business we call it homemaking. Oh, I'm so sorry. You didn't know. Kyle hands Mac his eye. Mac hands Kyle a form and a pen. On the line? Oh, that's okay. What do you mean? Yeah, so I just don't want to sign anything. Yeah, just in case. You refusing delivery, son? No, I just... Just give him the package. Oh, he doesn't want to sign. You're supposed to be helping. I'm trying, but if he's not going to take responsibility... Well, what if I wasn't home? Well, you are. Look, we all have a lot of work to do and we have to get dinner on the table. Can you just tell her I'm not here and you don't know who is here or where I am? Do you ever send it? So you don't live here? No. I mean, yeah. Just till we sell. It's like camping. It's fun. They're going to make s'mores. Mac takes out another form. As of what date will you be vacating the premises? Kyle grabs the package. There. I took it, okay? Will, are you going to open it? What did I tell you? Not good at people, but he's real good at fixing things. Great. Yeah, well, I think there's a smell or something. What smell? Oh, it's just over there. When their backs are turned, Kyle secretly throws the package into the vent. Where? Yeah, I mean, I don't really smell it either, but that's just because I'm used to it. So, so then she, she went to Whole Foods, but she should be back soon, so I guess anything you can do. I'll tell you what your problem is. Just go set the table. You can't even set a table? Hey, he's making a casserole. Kyle picks up the casserole dish and puts marshmallows out of it. Your wall's leaning. You don't think about that, son? No. I'm sure it's fine. It's cracked is what it is. Well, Paige, you won't even see it once we're done, and we haven't even started decorating yet. Matt tests the stability of the wall. Babs pulls things out of boxes to decorate the table. So he fixes things and then you just decorate? Well, we work together, but you know, we both know what we're good at and what we're not. No, yeah, for sure. But what if one of you is good at everything and the other isn't good at anything? Everybody's good at something. I mean, yeah. Kyle eats more marshmallows. What are you good at? Oh, well, I used to be a librarian, but then people stopped reading, so then... Mostly making sure the homeless people don't live in the bathroom. Kids still read, though. I used to read books to the kids, which I guess is me reading, not them, but still. So, yeah. Well, anyone can be decorative. All you have to do is find something good to look at, like here. Babs pulls out a box of fake flowers. We could make the table special for dinner. What's your favorite flower? Well, Glory likes daisies. Me, too. Babs pulls out daisies and looks for something to put them in. There, you see? She likes roses. I can like daisies, too. Sure you can, but you don't. You never ask me. What, I'm supposed to ask you, you like daisies? What about these? You like these, too, now? Oh, that's not even a flower. You smell that and tell me that's not a flower. It's filler, right, Kyle, when you don't have enough? You have to mix them in here. I'll show you. Mac tries to stick the baby's breath in with Babs's daisies. Babs takes out the baby's breath. This goes on. Flowers fall all over the table. Glory enters with grocery bags. Oh, finally! Scene seven. Hey, sweets. So, apparently, they don't sell food at Whole Foods, or else cinnamon isn't a food. They do have the organic stick kind, but that doesn't have any preservatives, which I guess is what keeps the smell in the thing, or I don't know. So unless you want to buy the fresh picked by nuns, which is like $18 a branch, so I just went to Michael's here. She throws a candle at Kyle. So this is... I know, I know, it smells like lighter fluid, but the box says it's supposed to smell like apple pie, and I don't care anymore. Oh, and I got you a surprise. It's graham crackers. Yeah, so this... This is Babs. Right. Sorry. And this is her husband's... Mac. So he does the fixing, and we're more on the decorative side. Fixing? Fix what? I thought you were just staging and getting rid of the smell. Oh, my God, it's mold. Isn't it? Just tell me it's not mold. Oh, it's fine. And he can fix anything, right? Right. I'm still evaluating. You're putting a whole lot of pressure on that wall, you know. But the structure is good, right? I mean, the bones are good. You bet your ass the bones are good. These are good bones. You don't make them like this anymore. Let me tell you. Oh, I know, I know. You see this stud? That's solid English walnut. It's walnut. Lori pulls out the original blueprints and shows them off to Mac. See, Kyle? They used to ship it out from California all over the country, just for the seers' homes. The whole thing came out of the box. But the craftsmanship, I mean, there's no wood pulp, no glue. The design is that precise. And you know how they made it fit together? They cut every piece to fit every piece. And they sanded off the edges so there's no wiggle room, but it still doesn't fall apart either. I mean, and it works. Oh, I'd say, sure, now that you mentioned it. So anyone can just pick it out of a catalog and feel like he made it himself. Well, that's not as simple as... I mean, you gotta know what you're doing. You gotta know how to read a plan so you know where to put the walls. Can't just put them up any place. Oh, I know. We wanted to go full-on open concept, but... What? Sorry, his hearing isn't great. But I love what you've done. How you don't have to have all those walls. I get sick of walls. Well, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. You can't just knock out all the walls because you feel like it. Yeah, we had to leave that one up. I guess it's load bearing. So what? Now, nobody has any space to themselves? No. It's just... It's just so you can always be together even when you're not, right? Right. Right. Well, you can't just put all the pressure on one wall. I mean, that's why it's leaning. We'll paint! I feel like a slate or a stone or gray gardens or wall streets. Oh, that sounds lovely. So it's a problem with the house then. There is nothing wrong with this house. This is a good house, alright? So where does the smell come from? I found it after dinner. Dinner? Kyle and I made a casserole. I thought you were just here to stage. Oh, anybody can paint a house, but to make it a home, you have to make it lived in. I can't sell lived in. I can only sell dreamed of. And what do you think people dream? I know what they dream. They want to be better, have better. You want a good family, you need a good house, and you want a good house, you need a good... A good family? And what does that look like? Clean socks? Sure. And marshmallow casserole? And dinner at a table with your family? I've been doing this a long time. And let me tell you, people can feel if a house has that in it or not. It's like squirrels and earthquakes. Trust me, I know. Paint. I'm going to cut it. You have to live in it. But fill up the space. We've been here six months. But really, it's more like camping. It's fun. I mean... Yeah. Well, camping's not living, is it? So what do we do? Don't worry. We've done a lot more with a lot less. Just go and wash up. Kyle, you see what everybody wants to drink. Glory, you can set the table. Kyle, Glory, and Babs fall into a ballet of pre-dinner ritual. Mac tries to make sense of the wall and the blueprints. And Mac... Mac leaves the wall to join them. They fall into the routines of a family and sit down at the tables. See? Isn't this nice? And who knows, once you spend a little time living here, you might find you don't want to move at all. You want to get out before that wall gives out? You said the bones were good. They are good. But that doesn't mean you're not going to make your own problems. Not getting out of all those walls. And besides that, this neighborhood... What about it? It's a great place to live. Sure, if you like gangs. I do hear something moving at night. I never heard anything. Me either. They live down the street. I might have heard something. Now you mention it. Down the street. But was it somebody's cat or a deer? It was the last time you saw a deer here. No, yeah. Actually, the urban population is growing. Yeah, well, you can't be too careful. Remember when Bonnie got stabbed? Just next door. Stabbed? Just a little bit. You don't know. She had to move out. Picked up and went to Ohio. What'd she get for the house? Wasn't worth the trouble to sell it. The best you can do is just cut your losses. But they are smart. Getting in on the ground floor of this neighborhood is on the way up. All we need is some young families to come in and make something out of it. None of my business. But this house is perfect for a couple just starting out. Starting a family. Oh, we don't... Well, we just thought, you know, if we don't kill the dog, I wouldn't raise a family here. You wouldn't. Well, not now. A lot of it used to be... Oh, it used to be you get stabbed on the street. You can get stabbed any place anymore. The mall. Now all you do is you figure out where not to go and then you just... You don't go there. You get stabbed, you're stupid. Connecticut. Now who the hell wants to live in Connecticut? You don't have to worry. It was years ago and it's all cleared out now. It's quiet. It's too quiet. It's ready. You can really build something. And I'll tell you, this is a good street. They shot a movie here once. It was just a commercial. Batman. Oh, which one? It's a good one. I mean, I guess we don't have to do the open house right away. You don't want to put it off and get stuck here. Don't put words in their mouths. She said she just wants to get out of here tomorrow. You don't know what they want. You want to waste your life. I used to want to be Batman when I was a kid. You said there was a casserole. Kyle opens the dish. Kyle covers the dish. What? Nothing. He needs a spoon. I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's... Glory looks into the casserole. Glory and Kyle tried to find a private place in the open concept house. It's hard. Don't worry about us. We'll just pretend we're not here. I'm here. Bab kicks him. His eye falls out. It's fine. It happens all the time. He pulls Matt under the table to look for the eye. We're working on it. And you said you'd be home soon. We agreed. We talked to them. You agreed. I never agreed. Just like you wouldn't raise a kid here. Would you? I did. We did. Did we? Or did I just waste my life? That's not... When what? He just didn't turn out. End of story. Well, I'm not done yet. But then there was Whole Foods. And there was no ham. And they were fighting. And the flowers. And I was hungry. And now I'm uncomfortably full. And there's been very food in this house. You can go to the store too. You said you were. Why do you always have to be a thing I have to deal with? You know, they do say the first here is the hardest. It's fine. I'll just get a pizza. I can get it. I can just make it nothing. I got it. I'll call. You don't know what you like. Glory takes out a phone. Dials. Kyle takes out a phone. Dials. Everything will be okay. I just need more marshmallows. Marshmallows? For the casserole. I thought you wanted to do s'mores. I thought you didn't. Wait, do you? I got graham crackers. She got graham crackers. And he ate all the marshmallows. Well, he was hungry. What the hell's the matter with him? At least he made the dinner. He ate the dinner. So what do you want then? I just think maybe we could talk about it. On your pizza. I said I'd do it. No, it's really no trouble. Hello? Yeah, it's hello. I'd like to place an order for pickup. Delivery. Takeout. Wait, what's... What's everybody want? Hold on. Cheese would be great. I'm not hungry. What about pepperoni? I'm trying to be vegan. What does that mean? It means he's not. 84 West something. What about mushrooms? I don't like mushrooms. Since when? Since now. What about him? Wait, what street is this? It's West. Really? Cheese is... Pineapple. And ham. Hawaiian. There's something wrong with the wall. Mac can't get it to match up with the blueprint. Mac is trying to measure but doesn't have anything big enough. Hello? Okay, okay, okay. Two mediums, half cheese, half mushroom, half pineapple, half pepperoni. And just whatever you think. Do you have the card? She hangs up, takes his phone. Yeah, hi, what's the total? Okay, what if we put them all on one? What if we just did pineapple? Cheese, just cheese. Okay, do you have any specials? Do you need money? Yeah, no, it's fine, thanks. How long? She said 20 minutes. How do I say that? They wait for the pizza, for kind of a while. We could start writing up. Babs and Kyle go to the kitchen to clean up. Glory and Mac examine the wall separately and in parallel. They try not to get in each other's way. Oh my God, you were right. Thank you. About what? Glory unrolls the blueprints, compares them to the wall. They built it wrong. End of act one. Two, scene one. Glory and Mac lean over the blueprint like it's a car engine. Mac scratches at his sweater. That's why it's leaning. They built the wall wrong. It's supposed to be three feet to the left. No one did anything wrong. Can I file a claim on that? I'll tell you what your problem is. You don't know how to read a plant. See, three inches on the plant. Two feet. No. Wait. Did you measure it? Just a sec. Mac tries to measure the wall without measuring teeth. It's supposed to be right in the middle. I got it. I said. It's supposed to hold everything up. I'll tell you what it's supposed to be. There's supposed to be walls. All right? There's supposed to be walls and a kitchen and a front door that locks and a table to make models of spaceships and other places to put your feet up and listen to the game and smell garlic coming in from the kitchen. What do you mean? To be boxed up like that, I grew up in little rooms. There's so much breathing. What do you care? You're not staying. People. I mean people, the buyer. Let me ask you a question. You ever played Jenga? What does that have to do with it? You get a bunch of blocks, right? And you build the blocks as high as you can and you see how long you can keep building up and up and up. But you have to use all the blocks so to go higher you have to pull from the middle. One time my son got it all the way up to the ceiling. He had a mind. I always said it could have been an engineer. Well, that's not the point. The point is, you know how you win at Jenga? How? You don't. No matter what you do, see there's only so much you could pull out of it before everything comes down on you. Is there maybe somebody else I could speak with, like a manager? I'm the manager. I thought you were the fix-it guy. Only all the weekends. Weekdays of management. She said you were a mailman. Yeah, well, see, I started out in the mail service and I was so good they promoted me up to manager of the whole structural residential inspections and assessments department. It's the kind of country we live in. Dial's her phone anyway. No one picks up. But you're still gonna help us, right? It's really not up to me. See, there's a protocol. Because I have a before picture. So if there's a crack, it was definitely there when we got here. You'll have that. It's a structural flaw. That's life. You can't build something without breaking something else. So what are you gonna do? Knock it down? Give up? No. You make the adjustment. You move the wall a couple of feet. Okay, but there has to be something I can claim. All right, all right. Look, we're not supposed to do this, but, you know, off the record, I'm you. Yeah? I get the hell out of here. Cut my losses. Really try and build something. That's not an option. You don't want to waste your life? Look, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but as soon as that wall goes out, this house isn't gonna be worth 20 bucks. But you can fix it, right? Just till we sell? What a sell-off falling down house to someone. I don't have a choice. You're young. Choice is all you got. I have a short loan. $200 a day every day we don't sell. It was supposed to just be a couple of weeks, but then with the reno and the smell and everything, it just got bigger. What about your dad? My dad sold his house to pay for my college. Well, him and half the world. He can't retire. I'm supposed to be his retirement, but it only got me through two years, so I took my real estate exam in 2007. Anyway, he wanted to come for my graduation. He's safe for a ticket, but I told him to wait. Give it to me. I took this one econ class, and most of it was bullshit, but I remember the thing about how if your money's not working for you, it's working against you. I mean, that makes sense. You don't want to get left behind, right? Anyway, this will work. This has to work. I'll figure it out. Max starts unraveling his sweater and uses it to measure the wall. What are you doing? Maybe we could rebuild it with the boxes in the right place, like it's supposed to be, so there's not so much pressure. Max gives Glory one end of the yarn. Thank you. I'm not making any promises. Right, sure. Just don't say anything to Kyle, okay? Scene two. Babs and Kyle have finished clearing the table. They do the dishes and find a rhythm together. I mean, we've been here for six months, and I don't eat any marshmallows the whole time, and it's not like I didn't want to. She can't just not care about them and then decide she cares about them. Bullshit, what they say the first year is the hardest. We've been together for three. Oh, well, then you know. How bad does it get? Oh, well, it's not bad. It's just, you know... What? Well, just how everything you do, you just feel like you're setting things up for the rest of your life, you know? So whatever this second is, is what your life is going to be all the time, forever. That's terrifying. But it's not like you have to make some big decision. You just look down one day and there it is. There you are. That's all. How do you not kill yourself? No fun ways. Save cereal boxes. Well, we were saving for toys, but I read it's real good for babies if you give them bright colors and shapes. So I give him the cereal boxes to play with. Captain Weigemann tricked the real kind when I could. And he would laugh, he would smart. Even then, I know everyone says her baby's smart, but he used to set up the boxes like dominoes all around the room and then knock them over and he'd laugh and then I'd laugh and some things are worth other things, you know? I bet you were a good mom. I don't know, I tried. He just didn't turn out. Some things don't. You would be though. Me? Money down. I don't know. Babs pulls out some baby clues. Here, smell these. I found them in the box with a casserole. What is that? Coconut? Coconut? This is better than coconut. This is the best smell in the world, coconut. No, no, no, no, you keep them. It's not like they're coming back for them, right? And you never know when you might need them. Yeah. Well, they don't break here. Look, here's the thing. You can see the danger, sure, but just don't let it get in too far and don't give up on those s'mores, okay? Okay. Yeah, okay. Kyle goes back to doing the dishes. Yeah. Kyle has been using the baby clothes as a drying rack. Oh, shit! Shit, shit, shit! It's okay, it could happen to anyone. Babs shows him how to fold them. Here's an idea. We got a while till the pizza comes, right? Why don't you go on and have your s'mores now? That's okay. No, we won't bug you any. If you're not here, just pit your tan under the skylight and you can camp out. Wait. She pulls a box of hot cocoa from the staging stuff. With marshmallows. Wait. Yeah? Babs hands him a daisy. Kyle takes the hot cocoa and daisy and goes up to Glory, who is absorbed in the measuring of the wall with Mac. Hey, Glory. Yeah. Do you want to go camping with me? We're working. Just till the pizza comes, you really need some good experiences in this space for this staging. Don't worry. We can handle the rest out here. You won't even know we're here. And by the time the pizza comes, we'll be just about done. Babs takes over the unraveled sweater and starts cleaning it up. You good with this? Yeah, yeah. You go on. I've got this. I've got everything here. Mac takes over the boxes. Glory follows Kyle to the island where they try to pitch a tent. Scene three. In the kitchen, Glory and Kyle have pitched a little tent. Though opaque to Mac and Babs, we see inside. Inside, they try unsuccessfully to roast the tiny cocoa packet marshmallows. Meanwhile, in the dark outside the tent, Mac and Babs do their staging work and pretend not to be there. Mac builds walls out of boxes. Bab tries to make the unraveled sweater into decorations. So what do you think? They're good. Fireplace? Well, I don't know if there's time. In our house one day, like way down the road. Oh, sure. Ow! Oh, you okay? Here. Oh, let me see. Yeah, yeah, it's hard. You have to make sure you pull it out of the flame before the toothpick burns down. You've done this before. Why, you impressed by my skills? Yeah, I used to sneak marshmallows out of the cereal at breakfast. And then I'd just get up in the middle of the night and grab the counselor's lighter and a toothpick. There must have been some good parts. Ghost stories or songs in caves or whatever. One time they made us run five miles while wearing trash bags. Did you ever sneak out? Once. To find raspberries. Ooh, you never told me you were a rebel. Yeah, but I couldn't see in the dark, so I wasn't sure what I was eating. So then I got sick and they sent me hill early. So I guess it worked out okay. I wish I could go back and be there with you. This is good, right? I mean, this is fun. It's like this is what it was supposed to be. Oh, shit! Shit! What? What? Your marshmallows! Hello! We are not covered for fire! Hey, I got it! Oh, I got it! The chocolate and graham crackers. Are you really still hungry? I just like it here. Yeah, me too. I mean, we put all of this work in and picked out all of these things. Why not stay for a while? And do what? I don't know. We could get a baby or something. You're not gonna kill a baby? You're not gonna kill a baby! I'm gonna have to convince you it's not your fault you left the water running. Well, at least I'd be willing to turn the water off. So, wait. Now you're mad I didn't drown the imaginary baby? No. I wouldn't kill a baby, okay? I just... I think I'd be a good mom. You didn't even train the dog. Yeah, he does that baby thing. I have never seen it do that. You're never here. Here, just smell this. Kyle shoves the baby clothes at her. What is that? Coconut? No. It's the best smell in the world, coconut. Where did you get the... Did you kidnap a baby? I just want to be something, okay? Can we just get through this? And then once we're liquid... Mind. Kyle goes into a sleeping bag. What are you doing? I'm going to sleep. What about them? I have 20 minutes till the pizza gets here. You said you'd help me. We can talk about it, okay? Just not right this second, okay? Do you want me to turn on the heat? No, but I could get you a blanket if you're cold. I'm not cold. Bye. Can you just tuck the blankets around back around me then? You're messing them up. Can you just do it a little bit more like a burrito? Then you won't be able to breathe. Well, don't do it too tight. I'm not your mom. I know. That's not what I am. I know. Okay. Okay, good. Just do it a little bit more like a burrito. You have enough room? Yeah. You? I can't even see it from here anyway. What? The moon. Oh, sure you can. You just have to... Wait, hold on. Kyle gets up to zip open the moon flap in the roof of the tent. He messes up all the covers again. Scene four. Outside the tent, Mack and Babs have reworked the house's interior. Mack has rebuilt not only the original wall, but all of the original walls. Now there is a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. He works with a renewed energy. Babs tries to make decorations out of the staging stuff and to soften the edges of the walls with the red sweaters and trails. But he keeps getting away from her. There. You just try and knock that wall down now. Well, you do have to put edges everywhere. I told her I was going to fix it and that's what I'm doing. I don't want anyone banging their heads. Well, as long as they don't walk into the walls. You're not even fixing it all you're doing is putting it back like it was. Well, it's not finished. I still have to build out there and... She doesn't want it like it was. She's a kid. She doesn't know what she wants. She wants an open concept. Well, you were right, okay? They stay with us for just a little while just till they get their feet under. Then we can save and figure out what they really want to build. They want an open concept. I'm telling you, once they see it like it's supposed to be... I want an open concept. You're the one that picked out this floor plan. You said you wanted a living room here and a dining room. Remember? You walked right there and there and there and you drew it on the floor with chalk. I gave you a dining room. I even put in a door because you said you wanted a place you could close. Well, he cried all the time and then he learned to talk and he did that all the time. It was all the time. Maybe if you listen. Well, you got ears too. You weren't hardly here when he was little. You spent the first three years chasing him, trying to keep him alive. Who can listen all the time? You know I used to know Elton John. You did his eyebrows. Let me tell you, you do a person's eyebrows, you know him. He used to call me out to 54. Once. Look, I never made you stop cutting hair. I built you a room. I put mirrors and outlets for the dryers. You said you just wanted to be a mom. Well, you said you were going to make Postmaster. You didn't know what it was going to be. I guess I did. This doesn't have to be what we add up to. Once the baby comes. Whoa, what baby? They're talking about a baby. What the hell did you say to her? But there's room. You have to clean out the crawl space and find the cereal box. That's ours. What's good at doing? It's not a good time right now. It never is. They've got the open house to think about. He needs something. So what? She's supposed to ruin her life? We won't be like us. That's not what I meant. All I mean is they won't be alone. They'll have help. We'll take it for walks down the park and look at the ducks and the petting zoo. I wonder if they still have bison. And in the summer, we'll drive to the lake and to Disney. We can stop and get fresh orange juice, the warm kind. If you hated being a mom so much. I won't be a mom. I'll be a memaw. I'll show it how to make cookies and applesauce. You name three things in applesauce. And you have to stop eating mayo. You want to be around for graduations and walking it down aisles and exercise. That's another thing. Don't give me that. It'll be fun. We can do it together. We can go over the mall in the mornings and get sweat bands and then go to McDonald's for breakfast and make friends. You walk around the mall all you want. She's not having a baby. You just said she doesn't know what she wants. You ask her. Lori comes out from the tent. Ask me what she stares at the remade home. It's not done yet. I still have to. I thought you were just fixing the wall. Yeah, well, you can't just fix the one. This wall is the spine of the house, but it only works if everything else comes off of it. Share the weight. So you need this wall to balance out that wall. But we know you wanted the open concept. You want a concept or you want a home. You're the client. We can take it down if you want it the way you want it. There's no time to reinvent everything ground up. You have to have the structure first. Get the bone solid again. Then you can make things however you want them. That's the advantage of Sears. But you don't have to decide right now. The open house is tomorrow. Well, I'll make a nice cup of cocoa and we can just talk it over. You don't want to ruin your dinner. Pete's gonna be here any minute. Well, it's not here yet, is it? Babs whisks glory into the kitchen. Matt tries to follow them. But Bab uses the new wall to shut him out. You better hurry up if you want to get done by dinner. Matt hurries to finish building the walls. Scene five. Babs puts water on to boil and bustles around her kitchen. She looks for cocoa and tries not to knock over the tent that still contains Kyle. My Nana made the best cocoa she used to let me stir in the milk. Isn't it supposed to look clean? Glory tries to tidy the red sweater string. Well, you don't want anyone banging their heads, do you? What you do is you want to keep the edges soft. Babs takes the cocoa packet out of the trash and empties them into the casserole. Right, but how are people going to see the granite? You said yourself, people get houses to get better families. Well, how do you get that without keeping them safe? Trust me, you don't want all those edges around. How is this morning? Fine. You're gonna have to do better than fine. You want to remake this face. He almost set the tent on fire. I don't know what else to do. Well, there is one more thing, but it would be easier if you had a family. I'm trying to get my dad here. No, no, no. I mean, well, okay, you want to get rid of the smell, right? What smells better than a baby? I don't want to be a mom. No, you don't have to be a mom to have kids. Okay, but I don't like kids. Well, that's just stupid. Not everybody has to like kids. What, you like adults? There you go, stupid. Kids are like cats. You love them one at a time, or you don't. You know what I mean? What did I say? No, no, I was, I mean, is this different when they're yours? I know. I just put dog. Kyle said he wanted a dog, but I mean, he's not really good at things. So I thought if we just rent one for the staging, then we could see how it goes, and then if we don't kill the dog, then maybe we could have a family. No, we could get a real dog. I just thought he'd forget to feed it or whatever. I mean, he's not good at food, but then today I had to go to Whole Foods, and I was trying to get back so we could stage, and I felt the car go over something. Oh, but you're not sure? I don't think it went over something. Well, maybe it was just a rock. It wasn't a rock. Maybe it was just a cat or a squirrel. I got out and I looked, but it was dark, and I couldn't see it. I had to get home soon. So you just left it. I'm not a good... See, it was just hurt, and then it just crawled off. Looking in boxes and cabinets. Oh, you want to make this house a home? Do you know how easy it is to kill a baby? I mean, we're just... Touch it and take it down to see the bison. Maybe we could just use that for the open house. Raw material. I mean, look at your hair. Thick. You can do a lot with thick hair. Not much you can do with skinny, scrotty hair like mine, but you... Here, let me see. Yeah. See, I do a cut and a wave, not too much, just so it wasn't so puffy on the ends. I get back from the park. Baby goes down for a nap. I could cut your hair here at the kitchen table. I used to cut hair out of the house. I really don't care about my hair. Oh, bullshit. Everybody cares about their hair. I don't. So what do you care about? File. My dad. Not working at the call center with my dad. Let me ask you something. You flip this house, right? Yeah. You get liquid. Right? Then what? We do it again. But we start with a better house next time. You know why they put lather, rinse, repeat on shampoo? It's so they can sell more shampoo. People think they got to wash their hair all the time, but you wash your hair too much is not going to hold a curl. Well, it's just until I get things set up. No such thing. Okay. It's like my son. He always wanted a dog, right? Every Christmas, he used to beg. We always said, no, too much hair, too much mess. But he's 31 now, so you don't need me. You know, if he's done, he goes out, he gets this little dog for protection, he says. He's going to train it, he says. And I can't see how this little dog is going to protect no one from nothing. But I think, well, if it gets him out of the house. So one morning I come out for the paper. I look down at the park and my son, he's got the dog up on his hip so it can drink out of the fountain. For a second I can see how he'd be with a baby on his hip. Try not to hope too much, you know. And then I hear this screaming, this bloody murder. There's this little old lady and she's got this yippy little dog. You know the kind. And she's holding it up like it's a baby Christ. And she's screaming, that water is for people. That water is for people, right in my son's face. You can't have that thing in here. This man has a bowl. This man has a pit bowl and he's slobbering. My son goes up close to the lady. You want it back, he says. And he holds up his dog and he squeezes it like a pack of ketchup. And it makes water all over the lady and her little dog. I pick up the phone. I dial 911. What kind of mother calls on her own son? But I tell you, I'm afraid what they'll do. I'm afraid of him. And I'm trying to think when the lady, she grabs my son's dog by the neck. Hard, you know. And I hang up. I watch. I wait for his little dog to decide the game. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I should have hit the one. But I'll tell you what. I'd have bit her face too. You know what I mean? Anyway, that's kids. That's it. And it catches fire. Mac! See? It's just like the dog. From waking Kyle in the tent. They rented a dog and they said that they didn't kill the dog. But we didn't find a way. Raise your fire extinguisher. Into the boxes. Switch boxes. You'll wake him. Fire extinguisher out of the box and tries to put out the fire. It doesn't work. Look, it happens. It just happens. It's not working. Oh, that's just the staging one. What the hell do you have a fake fire extinguisher? And then whether it got hit by a car or arrested or whatever that doesn't mean it was nobody's fault. People like to feel safe during a walkthrough. Let me tell you something. This is not the way you do things. Well, we have a real one too. Where? In the boxes. It's alright. We got one. But it's... The oven catches fire. It's fine. You just left the oven on again. It's alright. It's alright. I just have to find it. Mac looks in the boxes and tries not to pull the walls down too much. The more he searches, the more fragile they become. Maybe if you paid a little attention to what you were doing. Maybe if he didn't feel so alone then nobody would have attacked anybody or run away or anything and nobody would have thrown anybody out. He said he was going to kill the president. At least he thinks big. You know what? Maybe some people just should not have dogs. The fire grows. The fire alarm goes off. It sounds like a doorbell. A little bit broken. Oh my God. She's here. I told you. Who's here? No one. Everything's fine. The house is on fire. Fire? Oh my God. Oh my God. What? Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. It's walls over. He's going to knock the place down. Babs and Glory try to get Kyle out of the tent. Mac tries to keep the walls up but his hand keeps coming off. Nobody seems to notice. He keeps putting it back on. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. Glory tries to pull the tent off of Kyle while Kyle tries to squeeze out through the moon flap opening. Babs. Babs. Babs goes to the fire alarm and tries to turn it off. Never mind that. Just get him out of here. The back of Kyle's tent has caught fire. Babs tries to pull it off him. Babs, Glory, and Kyle tug a war over the burning tent until Kyle unzips it and emerges wielding the baby clothes. Everybody stay calm. I got this. He goes to the burning stove and tries to beat the fire out with the baby clothes. They catch fire, too. He drops them. Oh, shit. Shit. Oh, sorry. Oh, for crying out loud. Mac throws open the door to Mac and Babs' crosses. He goes into it, makes a mess of the homemade living room as he is looking for something. He comes out with a fire extinguisher. He fights the fire and wins but in the process his hand comes off. Again. He puts it back on. Awkward silence. Scene seven. Mac and Babs' crawl space living room lies exposed. The smell permeates the house. The cardboard box wall sags under the wet. Oh, that smell. You've been living in our walls. Wait, what? We can explain. You said you were our neighbors. We are, if you think about it. I thought we were friends. All this time you've been lying to my face. You've been living in our walls. I built this wall with these hands. He pushes them back on. Everybody builds something they know it or not. It smells like dead feet. I don't smell anything. Wait, that's because you're used to it. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. There's the smell. Don't you talk to her like that. Have you been using our shower? Oh, my God. And our toothbrushes? All right. I don't use anybody's toothbrush. All right. I see your floor. Really? My son helped me finish that floor. So let me smell your breath then. Smell your own breath. You're not even homemakers, are you? That's not even a thing, is it? It's a thing, all right? You're not even the manager. I'm calling your boss. Kyle, call the police. Great. What's the number? Glory dials. Now just hear us for each other's lives together. We have a dog. We'll talk about it later. I'll put you on hold. You don't even know who you are. And this is Mac. And the rest is a lie? Well, I am a carrier. Front line? What's your route? At this point in time, it's temporarily on furlough. But it's just temporary. How can you be a carrier? You don't even have hands. Well, that's just paper cuts. Show them, Mac. Mac tries to pick up and handle that last package that Kyle had received. His hand falls off. He drops it. That's a lot of paper cuts. Well, you start with just the one and then the paper just keeps binding your skin. Then they get infected. They thought I was looking for workman's comp. I wasn't. I just wanted a desk job. What are you talking about? You love walking. You can get tired of something you love. Well, why the hell didn't you say? I'll tell you what that smell is. It's all these packages. I mean, look at them. They're not even packed right, leaking all over. You can't just leave an unopened package in a damp place for months. Let me see that. No, he can only give it to the addressee. Well, who's the addressee? Let me see it. It's against regulation to open another person's mail. We can't just leave it there. All right, all right, all right. Just here. Kyle opens the package. He dumps something small and bloody on the ground. Is that an ear? Ew. So, you have to know my mother. She sent you an ear? Yeah, but it's not... She just has this very sort of dark sense of humor. So whose ear is it then? It's just an ear. She just wants me to call her. It doesn't know we're here. I mean, it doesn't smell that bad. Well, you think that just because you're used to it. Wait, wait, wait. How did she get our address? Why don't you just call her? We don't talk. At what point in time did you become aware that you were receiving undocumented body parts through the United States Postal Service without a permit? It's just an ear. Look, son. I'll stack that size. Now, you either got a whole lot of ears or it's more than just ears. Look, don't worry. We'll get them out of here. Wait. We have to get the smell out. Well, maybe if we just get more cinnamon. There is no more cinnamon. Will you give us... There's any more. Nowhere is way into the crawl space. I can't just throw them out. Well, they can't stay here. I know, but I mean, she's my mom. You hate her. I know. You do. Only because you told me to hate her. I know. I hate this. I hate what she does to you. No. She makes you afraid of plates. I know. So why are you trying to hold on to this shit? It's what I have. This house is all we have. What do you want? No, I just... Yeah. I'm going to slam. She opens the wall, goes out and slams it. The cardboard box wall sway dangerously. What happened? Watch. I don't know. I think maybe I'm leaving. Well, you can't. She can't. Mac, tell her. What are you going to do? Just let it fall. I can't hold it. We'll help. Right, Beth? What about him? What if we're not enough? I'll tell you where it's going to be. You don't grab a line is nothing. Now, come on. There are stories to gather the red sweater decorations that are connected to the walls. They sway and buckle. Babs. I'm not leaving him alone in there. You said we could help them. Bab goes into the cross face as she closes the wall behind her. The cardboard walls buckle. Watch. Lori grabs a line saving Mac from being crushed. The cardboard walls fall, vomiting the staging stuff, Kyle and Glory's camping stuff, body parts, the cardboard boxes, bags of stuff that they had saved in one sludge that covers the floor. And all that's left is Mac and Glory holding up the real wall with the red sweater string. They stand back to back holding on with all their strength. Kyle stares at the pile of packaged body parts. It's not really our anniversary. We're not married. We just say that when somebody does something shitty. It's like, happy anniversary. It's supposed to be like a joke. Babs reaches into the rubble and pulls out a hand. If we can just find the rubber cement. Babs realizes that Mac is in the living room. She pulls burnt marshmallows out of the charred pots and tries to make them sticky again. See that scar? She fell asleep with a cigarette. She'd noticed the checkout kid looking when she handed her card and she'd lean in and whisper. She was like that, you know. Funny sometimes. There! See, there it still works. She waves the hand around and tries to cheer Kyle up. At breakfast she... She was funny at breakfast. I tried to wake her up to take me to school and she wouldn't even open her eyes. She'd just say, coffee. She liked it light, so I pour the milk right to the brim. I could carry it upstairs without spilling. I was pretty good at that. She'd gasped like she'd been swimming underwater all night looking around, you know. But then she'd blow across the top and take a sip in her eyes with Subtle and she'd say, No doubt about it. I gotta get another hat. But she could actually do the voice. And not just boldwinkle. I mean all the voices. Mel Block, Don Butler and Nancy Cartwright. She said the key was letting your real voice be the trampoline the characters could bounce off of. Just solid enough to hold them. I'd lie next to her and we'd put on the TV and watch Rocky and Bullwinkle and Flimmy Toons and we'd do the bits, you know, or not. Sometimes we'd just watch and not have to talk. Sometimes I'd tell her it was Saturday. I'd make cereal and pancakes and waffles and banana bread and bowls of Lucky Charms. Just the marshmallows. I'd pile them. She had these little Chinese trays. She said we'd go to Disney World when I was little. And the more we'd eat, the lighter her voice would get. Until inevitably the school would call and I'd have to go. But the early part of the day was better. More than better. It was good. You learn to weigh voices. Last time I called it was thin but sticky. That's uppers and percocet. I just wanted to tell her about the new house but she kept threatening to get into crafting and when I laughed she said how nobody calls and I said well that's because when we do you just threaten to kill yourself. Then she threatened to kill herself. And I said great call me back when you do. And I hung up on her. Babs has found marshmallow and stuck the wrist together with the hand. She puppets the hand and uses it to stroke Kyle's face. We can't hold it. You can hold anything for a while. Max hands are coming apart under the strain. Wanna be okay, sweets? What's your name? What? That's what you'd call me. Oh, okay. What's your name? No, it's more like a joke. Oh, hey. Hey, what's your name? Lighten up. Is that supposed to be funny? I was just trying to help. Why do you always have to make everything about you? I wasn't, I'm not, but some things are about me. Oh, here we go. What? I can't be that person? You're too much person. You take up too much space. You suck up all the air so there's no room for anyone else in any room that you're in. Look, I'm not saying it's your fault. It's just... Well, maybe I was just trying to keep you from breaking but maybe it was right. Maybe you were broken from the beginning. Maybe you just came out wrong or maybe I gave you something that just caved in and sucked all the brightness out of you. I don't know. I stood there at the airport for five hours with two coffees letting them get cold. I didn't even call nobody because I just stood there. As long as I stood there waiting, there was still a chance you'd show up. I'm sorry. No, you're not. You know. You're sorry you'd have called or written or something. There wouldn't be just as silence. I just know what to say. Not going to get a damn card. Babs pulls out a Christmas card and throws it on the floor. He used to write more. Your sentences are so long. Maybe that was all I could do right then. Maybe I just wanted you to know I was okay. Outside, Max Hand is coming apart as he loses his grip on the reg sweater strings. The wall starts to sway. Here, just give me your lines. No, I got it. A little help. Babs looks out to see them holding the strings. They need us out there. I can't just leave her. I don't think we can carry all that. Kyle! I know. I just... Look, we took our son to the Grand Canyon one time. He cried the whole way and when we got there he wouldn't even look. All he wanted was a balloon from this tourist trap. He just cried and cried and he wouldn't stop crying. So finally I tell him he can get one. Just one. But when he gets up there, he can't pick. He says if he takes one, he's not taking all the others. And I can see he's going to cry again. So I says, all right, fine. I says, go ahead and just get them all. And his eyes got so big and he smiled. But he couldn't hold them all. They kept lifting them off the ground. You know, all the helium. So I told him, you can't hold them all. You can just hold what you can hold. Kyle picks up the arm Babs made out of his mom. Kyle takes Babs' hand and together they come out and take some of the red string from Matt and Glory. Kyle gives his mom's hand to Matt to replace his paper cut hand. Everyone leans to hold the house together, together. We did it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You sure they said 20 minutes? They always say that. Why can't they just say the real time? Well, then no one would wait. They should say the real time. At least you'd know what you signed up for. Well, you never know. No one ever knows. The broken doorbell rings. Where's the pizza? It came. You're late. I know. I'm so sorry. Oh, that's fine. So it's just $39.95. If you're late, it's free, right? Yeah, we don't really do that anymore. Look, I'm so sorry. I really am. I'm so sorry. If it was up to me, I'd... Is he crying? No. If it was up to me, I'd give you all the pizzas in the world. I'd go to Naples and find a dude that's like, all he's been doing is just tossing pizzas since he was five. He'd have like a mustache. And he's like fanatical about his ingredients. I mean, he grows his own cheese and everything. I can't get to Italy. And I can't grow a mustache. And I can't give you these pizzas. If I give you these pizzas, then I won't have a signature on the order slip. And then they'll think I didn't do my job and that the pizzas never got to you. And I just hate them all myself or something. And I just... I can't. I cannot get fired right now. My daughter died last year. She was just a baby. But still, see, my girlfriend had postpartum and she kept leaving the water running. So I said I'd bring her along in my deliveries, the baby. And I know you don't leave babies in cars even if you're just running in for like a minute. And I didn't. I would never do that. But somebody has to do the errands right and somebody has to get the money for the errands. So I timed everything out. I got the groceries at the end so the milk wouldn't spill. I got the dry cleaning first before they closed at six. And in between I went to the Humane Society and got my girlfriend a cat. So maybe she'd get off the couch. She always liked cats. She watches a lot of internet. Pajama pants. They have cats on them. She got them as a joke but also she really liked them. But anyway, so the baby was in the back seat with all the stuff from the errands and the cat sitting on top of the dry cleaning and she's doing that kneading thing. But I think maybe she won't get through the plastic. Home's just a couple more blocks. But then she coughs and she keeps coughing. Not just coughing. Hairball coughing. Like where their whole body goes and she's on my khakis. And I have an interview tomorrow at the start-up. And so I stopped the car and I hang out the dry cleaning and I open the window so she won't do the hairball with all my khakis. And the window blew the dry cleaning. You know, the plastic. When I saw it, I reached back and pulled it away. But it was already blue. I don't know. I named her Sarah for the baby. Her name was Sarah too. I just wanted someone... Sorry, we're really not supposed to... There's a script we're supposed to follow on the list. I just... I couldn't find your house. All the order slip said was 84 West. So I put it on my GPS and it gave me like every West street in the city and I didn't know which one. I'm trying to tell it just to pick one. But then it starts talking French and I'm yelling at it and I'm like hitting it, you know? But also trying to look in the windows so people look like they're waiting for something. All the windows are dark so I wasn't looking. I mean, I was looking for the windows but when I felt something go under the tires it wasn't sidewalk or glass. It was soft. I got out. I don't know if I killed it or I mean, he was already in the street so maybe he was already sick. I don't know. I just thought someone has to be missing it, you know? So I started going door to door but nobody was anywhere and it's like does anybody live anywhere anymore? Anyway. And then it was late. It is late. What does it look like? The dog? Sort of like Brown. That's our dog. Oh my god, he killed our dog. No, no, no, it was probably already. If I can make this delivery then maybe I can still talk them into a warning or a reprimand or something, like a teachable moment or whatever. I can't get fired right now. Not yet. I think so, I'll fill the way home. Like if we just let go maybe there's a chance it'll fall out. Isn't there also a chance it'll fall on our heads? It's a chance. Maybe if we all let go at the exact same time. One, two... Wait, wait, wait, on three or after three? After. Everybody counts together and then we'll all go on three. After three. Fine after. Thank you. One, two, three. They let go. Some walls fall away and some fall in. Kyle's mom's pieces and the crawl space are crushed. The pizza guy is saved. Like Buster Keaton when the house falls and Steamboat bill. They stand in the open looking at each other. Glory, Kyle, Babs and Max scrounge in their pockets and the rubble for enough to pay the pizza guy. Kyle pays him and takes the pizza. They go and sit down with it. The pizza guy just stands there lost. Hey Are you hungry? The pizza guy joins them. They all gather together around the pizza box picnic style. Sounds of a neighborhood appear in the distance. Through them, big, beautiful, romantic music might swell. It might be on the street where you live or something like that. End of play. That was great. I kept waiting for the walls to fall. She's one six puppy. There was a lot going on. There was a lot going on. Thank you for that. What else? Let's play makes me think about my mom. Oh no. Not in the ear way. Not in the ear way. You'll take it. I see a lot of thinking going on right in here. What can you share at this point? I kept thinking rhinoceros and the bald soprano. Who came up with the stairs house? I remember hearing about those but never heard of the faces of the play. Interesting idea. Thank you for that. That was real a long time ago. This is your house? What's the sequel? I'll just say that question for when we bring the play right in. We're going to pretend Tori's not here right now. I'm just going to talk about it. Anything else? I like the meeting of the old and the new. Interesting. Thank you. She got the meeting of the old and the new. Here's a specific question I had. I think it would be fair to say that there are some very interesting images in this play. You agree with that? What I'm interested in finding out from you is if you'll just think about the visual images that are cognitive in your mind from hearing this reading at this point and I realize that once it's actually produced you'll have more health with that so you have to use your imagination if you want but think about the images suggested by this reading and I'm interested if there are any particular images that that strike you that kind of are sticking with you and I'm also interested in how those images evolve over the course of the play for you as well. His hand falls off. Hand falls off? Body parts. Body parts? That's all you could say. Hands falling off. Yeah, we got the hand guys back there. Go ahead. The cardboard boxes, I don't understand what. I went from moving cardboard boxes to like refrigerator boxes to like hard to move more and then I didn't know why there were so many boxes for like a small, like a moving box would be smaller. So I remember like a refrigerator box and you know, so that's... Yeah, so the art through the play was that the shifting around the sizes and the way they piled up eventually over time and all the boxes. Well, and just what the boxes would have been what kind of boxes were they when I was singing I was like I was in and we were making walls out of them and I don't know. That felt awkward. And then that felt even better but then it didn't because they were in there so... Oh thank you, thank you, great. Marshmallows. Burstful marshmallows. What are the various types of marshmallows we had here? The s'mores, the casserole, the glue for the hot chocolate. Hot chocolate. Uh-huh. And the glue for the... Yeah? But it was like a s'more. I mean that was kind of a thing you noticed over through the play. Thank you for that. What else? The red string made me think of kind of the anatomy images where you see sort of the base of the body or holding things together. Yeah. That's interesting. So track with me the the story of the string, the beginning for you. So the beginning is the sweater, right? The sweater, which is something uncomfortable or not, I don't know, negative in some way. And then the unraveling of the sweater and then the holding together of everything. Interesting. Well, actually I'll call for another question later. You had your hand up. I had an image arriving of... I've already had it in my book, Crawl Spaces in a moment. The story, I really tried to although it's an absurd tone comedy to the story I was really trying to figure out how over a course of 6 or 7 months the older couple got away with it. Yeah. You know, it's like I want to believe it could really happen and I know we don't have a set built so I can't see the physical space. Right. But my mind was veering off into wondering how is this really working? How is a new couple flipping a house, building a house, knocking out walls, not go in or go into the crawl space or into this area where they're hiding. I just wanted to believe that they really were able to get away with it. What I understand a crawl space to be in the Sears and Robot houses I just was wanting to eventually maybe hear of an image of how that question could be answered. She was so fixated on the kitchen. She just wanted the kitchen to look nice. She just wanted the kitchen to look nice. But yeah, that's an interesting through line that the image of how that crawl space can be manifest and how does it change as the story goes on to the point that it gets sort of burst open, you know, eventually. The tent was something and camping in the kitchen was something that changed through the play. And that kind of hard to Well, it did and then it caught a fire, right? Living in denial. You know, avoiding the fact that there were these people living in their wall and the other people were in denial that they didn't have a house anymore. So they stayed there. These two were pretending they were married. They really weren't. Is there any visual image that connects to that for you that helps you feel that sense of denial at all? Well, what this gentleman was saying about how do they get away with hearing? Yeah, each other. They just were, they heard it, but they were not there. Right, right. Did you have something from the interweb? Yeah, so Amanda Carr is watching from the right. She says that Daisy Swords and Hot Chocolate have secrets at. She also says that Iris and Denise can live in her walls anymore. And we do. We show that. She's such a car. Simple and ultimately like definitely complex things are. So there's this image that is repeated about maybe he just wasn't a good kid. Like maybe he just was bad. And then she has that amazing line where she says when they go to Grand Canyon and he wants one balloon but he cries if he grabs this balloon he can't have those balloons. And when you think about mental illness like that, right, it's like people who have those mental sensitivities they hear like all the noises rather than one noise. So that notion of like I love this balloon and I want it but I can't have those balloons from like a mom's perspective that's just like so much you know. And then it mirrors for me in the I stopped I didn't dial the final one in the 911 it's like that moment of watching your kid like mine. It's heavy. Yes, we got balloons, we got body parts we got a crawl space yarn anything else? We don't know who killed the dog. It's the mystery of who killed the dog. Yeah. Or did someone kill the dog? Well, I mean the song is a perfect theme it threads through like yeah. And it's only a riffle. I know kind of makes you wish for one, doesn't it? Yeah. Every set of characters everything kind of they have a they have a facade that you really fill in. Yeah. So for you it's like all these images kind of help sort of enhance that context. I just sketched as well. Yeah. Oh, thank you for that very much. Yes. I actually like kind of related to that. I like that everyone pretty much had like some sort of fantasy about how things were going to be. Yeah. Denise had this huge fantasy about taking this hypothetical child and go see the bison and Megan had this huge, huge plan of just like flipping the house like that and it'll be fine and kind of in denial about what the hell's going on with his mother and just don't think every time. Yeah. No, because I'm really interested in that idea that there's this sort of super-real dream-like imagery, right, this sort of heightened down real, you know, hands falling off all that kind of stuff. But what does that what stories that connect to you? I mean, how does seeing the yarn being stretched all over the place what does that relate to you about a story or about the story or about one of the characters or anything? Anybody want to talk about that, like the connection of an image to something about the place that makes sense for you? Well, I think it's charming. I mean, the vagrants work their way in and these totally absurd things and suddenly they break out in song and they get under their skin and they bond and they do all this crazy stuff and that part's really very charming. Oh, yeah. Thank you. A living body with the veins or the muscles connecting and how it's people living on top of people. It makes me think of family history and how we recreate the ghosts of the people who came before us and how it's all it felt like this is weird, but it felt like all the layers of things that I'm learning about my life and my family all at once if I could put it all the layers, all at once up there that's what it felt like. That's body parts and that's not my skin, but it felt like like that. All the ghosts together. Yeah. That's interesting. Yes, ma'am. Well, everyone, every character in the play had a family member that was absent that they were disappointed in or felt guilty and responsible for and I'm wondering if that is a strain of these absent relationships with people who aren't there anymore whether they're dead or nailing pieces of themselves or can't retire because it just seemed like they were all under pressure because of people who weren't there or the son who was a failure. And they let them down and failed. Can somebody tell me the story of the son of that absent person? What do you know about it? What do you understand about the story of the son? I see a hand in the area. Well, what I understood about him is that he had promised as a kid but he ended up sort of crazy and homeless it sounded like. And they had sort of had to wash their hands of it but they felt bad about it and it seemed like falling up on what somebody was missing. It's all about parent-child relationships even though nobody who's into this play is a parent or child of anybody else who's in the play. But the key is this always like feeling guilt or attachment of what the parents have to give to the child, what the parent-child owes to the parent and the two Babs ones to create a surrogate family with these people who are not her children and want them to have a child even though hers turned out to be this big to turn out disappointment. And then this sending of the body parts remind me of like the giving tree like the parent who gives everything and makes you feel guilty because they're like I sacrifice everything for you put that cut off my trunk for you and my limbs and hear them you know this stomp when you owe me now. So I like having to do any parents like that. Yeah. That's actually really cool. Does anybody else have anything you want to throw in about what you know about the son or Kyle's mom? There's a lot of depression going on. A lot of depression. His Kyle's mom was depressed. Wasn't she on drugs? In the wall. And then the pizza guy's wife had heart and depression. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, sir. The mother didn't have that address but all these packages keep coming from the mother. And then there's the elephant in the room which is how could the mother still be alive if all these body parts are in their house? I'm happy you missed it. No, it's a great question. I think definitely. You should ask it yourself. I love it. That's what I think is so awesome about this play, right? Is that like it is a living room play but instead of like if Sam Shepherd wrote it on the log about if I could cut off my ear to get you to call me, I would. And this play, she actually cuts off her ear and sends it to me. You can't avoid the M-Trail sort of semiotics of these red strings everywhere. It's literalizing and theatricalizing something that we all know very well. And in this, it's a parent and child play without actual parent and children. I think it's a really special piece in the sense that it's giving us something that we really know really well. We all know who these people are. But we're seeing it and hearing it in a very different way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I thought that seeing that kind of like that is between the mom or between dad and Kyle in the cross-base was interesting when they both talked to, like he talked to his mom and she talked to his son, but now they're one of them addressed the fact that because both of them knew there's like they knew what role they were playing and they just needed to talk what they needed to talk out I don't know if they would recognize but like it was interesting so I'm like, wow, is he her son? No. Well, what do we think about these relationships? I mean, just in terms of you know, some people have referred to it that we've got the people aren't biologically posthumous and children and yet I mean, do we have an opinion about what's going on between the couple whichever one you're going to comment on is between Babs and Mack or Gloria and Kyle. I was kind of struck by the sort of surrogacy I mean, I think that happens in everybody's life the people that you're near kind of take the place of people that aren't near you, even if they're blood or people that you know or so I think that that was something that struck me about each one of the relationships Right, right, right, that surrogacy kind of call you I felt like there were kind of mirror images as well, you know like Babs and Mack, you know Mack is like the smart one or whatever he spends up with one and then the other one you know there was definitely the opposite way and I felt like at the beginning like Mack was trying to talk into into not getting into like the life that Mack ended up into and that Babs was trying to fix it so that Kyle could move his life into the way that she wanted her life to be with the fact that there was no Mack in his hand so they just were opposites, you know Right, right, right. Do we think this play has anything to say about the generational differences? You know are we under the older couple in any way or do you think? Interesting because in both relationships it seems to me that the woman is holding the main part of it she's like, alright, I'll do this for you, I'll cook your dinner, I'll do this you calm down, I'll take care of the baby, I'll improvise toys you know that seems to be very similar Yeah, yeah I thought it was a very good character studying what I would call like creative survivalism because every one of them is this close to some disaster every one of them Cool So how do you think this ends up with them in terms of the relationships? How do you feel this it ends in terms of this moment forward what do you think is going on with these guys? You're going to talk about body parts again, aren't you? It sounds weird, but like don't we see the four of them realizing that somehow some way that sort of interesting of them work I feel like they both have issues that they help address I don't know where the hell the pizza guy gets in What do you think Yeah, I mean the pizza guy probably has his own issues that maybe are being addressed Oh god I could totally say that somehow working like not like common kind of thing, but like yeah, the world works and it's weird as hell The new family obviously they can't that couple can't make a family work and that couple can't make a family work but maybe if there's two daddies and two momies, the guy is the new baby I just want to give you some brand new things I just want to know about things would end up for them, but there's that feeling that everything's going to be okay The walls can fall on you, the walls can fall away from you it doesn't matter that together everybody will be okay whether that means they end up together or the other way Yeah? Did anybody feel like that or different from that, do you want to say? What I found so satisfying is that I feel bad right, it feels like one of those perverse collisions of so many things that one cell at the next morning the peaceman and they're all gonna like feel better for a second of life I can't believe that happened and then there's gonna be like that moment of like self-revaluation or what whatever happens so it's like the play feels very feverish and then there's that like exhale of like let's think about this I think it's time we bring the play right up on the stage. What was this an idea you pitched to us last summer? So the idea that I pitched to them is not this play. It was going to be a story about San Francisco and neighborhood change and gentrification and the impact of tech companies on neighborhoods. And so I actually went to San Francisco like last September and I interviewed people in one neighborhood lots of different kinds of people and I very quickly realized that I was more interested in what was happening with them individually that was causing their emotional reaction to change in the space around them. So for people who had been there for years some of that was grief about the things that they had built evaporating or being destroyed and for the techies the 30-somethings a lot of them are kind of my peers it was anxiety about how do we set up the world that we want to live in personally like what kind when do I know that I'm ready to have my life and I relate to that you know just because of where I am in my life and then as I started writing the draft I for a few months was staying with my in-laws temporarily and I feel like maybe that blood in his tail but it's not I mean not in a character way I mean in a concept way like you're sharing this space kind of awkwardly with people who are at a different point in their life and thinking about different but kind of the same things you know yeah Alright so floors open you're free to ask any questions you like just a wonderful playwright or any of the actors and they can have questions for you so yeah I would absolutely love to know how you envision it actually being staged like with hands falling off someone catching on fire on stage the see-through walls like like what do you in your brain what is actually how does that practically happen yeah so I do have practical ideas about all of those things I also want to say one of the fun things about being a playwright is that you can write impossible things right and then the designers like you have a conversation with them really you know and so it's sometimes it's about how do I describe it in a way that they can see what I see and then we can figure out a way you know we can figure out what they see and figure out a way to make it happen you know so for example the the tent I see as I'd like to see Gloria and Kyle put it together on stage and like that be a problem a little bit because putting up a tent is really hard and then I imagine you do have like psych material or something like that or scrim right and you could see into it it could glow that could be great the fire fire on stage is terrible right there's a yeah in my head there's a version of that scene in which it's just smoke like they can't even see the fire it's just like everything is smoking that could be cool I'm excited about this conversation yeah there's definitely not a dog oh well unless he walks in with it I don't know that's a good question I love the absurdity but I have a question is there a level of absurdity that is over the top that you've ever encountered and if so you know yeah so in a previous draft Kyle's mom was put together fully and it was too much and that's over the top that's over the top that's the line right there actually you know should we leave it to our imagination she's all far to the body parts go or do you think they're all there and they just haven't been assembled I think they're all there I think she's dead I think Kyle realizes that when he realizes that they're all there but honestly in that scene where he's talking to Babs and Babs has the hand I wanted that to be weird and gross and funny but I also wanted the audience I wanted us to be able to see through that to what's happening between them emotionally and I think you know the more I worked through different versions of it if the if the grossness takes over that scene too much you won't be able to see the rest of it so that's kind of how I find you had confidence? did your seers house come from a Broadway empire? I don't know what is Broadway empire then it didn't come it's a series on HBO a boardwalk empire there's a scene in a yeah I know the episode the episode is over a series where the guy is building the house and it doesn't fit I know that episode the idea didn't come from that I watched it after I got the idea undergrad I studied American History and Literature and I loved mid-century pop culture domesticity that was kind of my area so I got really excited about the idea of pulling a house out of a box so having it pull up in a truck and you can just wrap it up so where did the pizza guy come from? everything I was like alright and then so I actually and this is not because I'm the pizza guy but I think he's actually one of the most important symbols in the play and so here's why everybody else everybody else is for the whole time about them and they are all about no this is what I want I want to have this family I want to have this family unit no I don't want to have a family family it's all about me we have to sell the house no I want this marriage to work then everything crumbles and the first thing they do as a unit now that everything is falling down is make sure another person is okay we found him I guess in February so I had done a whole draft of it and the ending was never quite right and I needed to see what would happen with them if there were a stranger who had a lot of need and it was just like carrying it like what do I do with all of this yeah and I started writing I figured the pizza guy they've been waiting for him for 20 minutes for 2 hours or like all night whatever which is very accurate I think it was brilliant that he ran over the dog why marshmallows? you say casserole and I'm thinking something that my grandma put together that is meat and vegetables sweet potatoes right I get the imagery of the sweet potato but I don't think of yeah marshmallows as a meal why marshmallows? yeah well for me so I'm from Pittsburgh and my mom's a pastor and we go to a lot of like cover dish dinners and stuff like that and so yes sweet potato casserole aspic gosh my nana used to make like a jello salad and that would be our salad so I was really attracted to something that was fake but feels to me like comfort food could feel to Kyle like comfort food and to Babs and also not be sustaining not actually nutritious yeah yeah what else? yes ma'am how long were you off your medicine? okay okay you're all health nerfers she needs to be on that the sending of body parts sounds like something a Jewish mother would do to create guilt does that? specialize in guilt that's what I hear thank you for that did you have a hand? well did you write as given the pizza man's speech because he delivered it so ad-lib and it was so great thank you yeah it was for me and I met me and I met they're awesome it was funny as hell because you know the idea that there is some that the actor's job is to perceive it on the page the way you would want it to be done do you have we talked with Don Martin last time about how he puts it on the page to help communicate rhythm do you find yourself thinking about that to help the actors know what you're hoping their delivery might be? oh yeah that has a lot to do with characterization but also the way a scene and the whole play build kind of like music I mean people talk about that do you guys want to talk about dealing with the language especially the dialect stuff or different registers anything that monologue that monologue is very precisely and well written I mean it is pretty easy to interpret it I hope in the way that you are wanting but but it's just it it does a it's kind of like a microcosm version of the whole play to me too because it arcs in that way and then it's like this exhale at the end that he shares with everybody but it's like everybody things they've been dealing with you know children and relationships but it's so well paced like I feel like you did such a wonderful job pacing the play and for me just in that one little bit it was so much fun to read her words so yeah question? you said dialect now the only dialect that I caught was when you said read up the room but I'm from Pennsylvania so maybe I just didn't perceive the dialect was it written in there? yeah did I like to be the wrong word I guess what I mean is speech patterns like kind of I'm going to speak very differently from Mac and perhaps yeah yeah and there are some regionalisms that's kind of what I meant and I think you know like working with the script and being able to stick really close to the page at a table for a long time it helps me hear where they're wrong know it's really quickly especially with wonderful actors who can pull everything out right oh yeah there's some really brilliant writing in the stage directions but the audience won't hear that so is that just for well you know you do so many readings before you get to production um you kind of have to I at least have to learn how to write for a stage reading also and like figure out how to tell the story especially when there's so many visual elements that you know I don't want it to be distracting that you're trying to picture and they help I can't say us they help me as an actor even if this we're being presented as a full blown production you know the first time I read through a script you read all of that as well and stage directions like these to me would inform me tremendously this is the kind of play we're in so yeah so I appreciate how literary these are they fill in a lot of life it's just not too sad that the actor except for a stage reading no one will get to hear that stage in the process of the lab was there an aha moment in the time of October three there were a lot yeah um what about getting the Babs and Mack into the wall because they weren't always so oh my gosh that's right I know how did I turned to figure out how we made sense of that before because we lived next door in the first couple of versions and then when Denise came on to read I saw an email went out to Denise for the reading so we were working together and I said oh you're reading airspace she goes yeah I haven't read the whole thing so so we live in the walls no no we live next door we live in the walls so the other day I was like how did that make any sense like one day because there was there was one point where I finally came in and I said it's not weird to me that we live in the walls yeah that was early that was in I'd say November after I got through maybe the first act and we yeah we tried it with them as next door neighbors and Kyle Mack and Babs Babs's life was kind of falling apart and they'd come to their neighbors for help but it's not really a story about friends it's a story about a family a weird family that gets constructed or broken things like a lot of ours too yeah and a lot so a lot of these actors that have been with you in terms of the lab process yeah has that had an influence to you I mean can you describe what that's like oh have sort of a long term relationship with the actors you're working with how does that help yeah well I hear their voices in my head when I'm writing now that happened very quickly um and gosh and in the rehearsal room um they they can see small adjustments and we can talk about them in shorthand you know in a way that you can't unless you're actually in a rehearsal process yeah um I never get to work with actors at the beginning of a process like that it's usually once you have a you know okay drop to do a round table then you go and do it again and um not all the way along yeah and then you guys get to follow up the play over the long term um alright I know that it's almost it's really late I need to let you go but do you have any burning last question now's your last chance check your walls when you go home check your walls what's the name of our stage there was a man in here said man or something oh it's Nate oh Nate directed just reading no the stage manager so it's Matt Parker oh the stage manager is in the stage manager the stage manager is Matt Parker who actually has does that say correct hello I'm Carrie Pajetta that's Carrie doesn't she have the best voice yeah thank you so much oh hello Scott yeah congratulations congratulations thank you so much congratulations thank you congratulations