THE MESSAGE BY JEFFREY LO (DOWNLOAD PDF HERE)
WESLEI is visiting home on his college spring break.
WESLEI has his earphones on, he is listening to some rap music.
WESLEI’s mother, PHOEBE enters.
PHOEBE is carrying many bags of groceries.
PHOEBE: Weslei honey, can you give me a hand with these bags?
No response.
PHOEBE: Weslei.
No response.
PHOEBE sees WESLEI bobbing his head to the music.
PHOEBE: WESLEI!
WESLEI jumps, startled.
WESLEI: AHHHH!
PHOEBE: Can you help me with these bags?
WESLEI: Oh. Yeah! Sorry, I didn’t hear you.
PHOEBE: I could tell.
WESLIE grabs half of the bags.
PHOEBE: Thank you.
WESLEI: Yup.
PHOEBE: You were enjoying yourself over there.
WESLEI: Hah, yeah.
PHOEBE: What were you listening to.
WESLIE: Kanye.
PHOEBE: Have you heard the things Kanye’s been saying? That boy has gone crazy.
WESLEI: I know but this is pre-crazy Kanye.
PHOEBE: Mmm hmm…
WESLEI: This is College Dropout Kanye.
PHOEBE: College Dropout Kanye? That sounds like full blown crazy Kanye already.
WESLEI: Ma, that’s the name of the album. Nevermind.
PHOEBE: I don’t understand why you listen to that rap music anyway.
WESLEI: Cause it speaks to me.
PHOEBE: It speaks to you? How?
WESLEI: It speaks to the struggle!
PHOEBE: Son, I worked very hard to keep your life upper to middle class. Them rapping about THE STRUGGLE is not rapping about you.
WESLEI: But here’s the thing mom – so much of it is about all of us. It’s about humanity. About uplifting ourselves as a community and helping one another.
Suddenly WESLEI’S cell phone rings.
His ringtone Big Sean’s song Dance (A$$).
The lyrics to his ringtone starts with the word “ass” twenty one times.
WESLEI looks at PHOEBE, embarrassed.
PHOEBE: You were saying?
Blackout.
END OF PLAY.