From The Glass Menagerie (http://shows.vtheatre.net/menagerie/2.html)

 [ "Mother & Daughter" scene 2 ]

...

AMANDA. Laura, where have you been going when you've gone out pretending that you were going to business college?

LAURA. I've just been going out walking.

AMANDA. That's not true.

LAURA. It is. I just went walking.

AMANDA. Walking? Walking? In winter? Deliberately courting pneumonia in that light coat? Where did you walk to, Laura?

LAURA. All sorts of places--mostly in the park.

AMANDA. Even after you'd started catching that cold?

LAURA. It was the lesser of two evils, Mother.

[IMAGE: WINTER SCENE IN PARK.]

I couldn't go back up. I--threw up--on the floor!

AMANDA. From half past seven till after five every day you mean to tell me you walked around in the park, because you wanted to make me think that you were still going to Rubicam's Business College?

LAURA. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I went inside places to get warmed up.

AMANDA. Inside where?

LAURA. I went in the art museum and the bird-houses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and

went to the movies. Lately I've been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.

AMANDA. You did all this to deceive me, just for deception? [ LAURA looks down.] Why?

LAURA. Mother, when you're disappointed, you get that awful suffering look on your face, like the picture of Jesus' mother in the museum!

AMANDA. Hush!

LAURA. I couldn't face it.

[Pause. A whisper of strings

[LEGEND: "THE CRUST OF HUMILITY."]

AMANDA [hopelessly fingering the huge pocketbook]. So what are we going to do the rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the parades go by? Amuse ourselves with the glass menagerie, darling? Eternally play those worn-out phonograph records your father left as a painful reminder of him?

We won't have a business career--we've given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion! [Laughs wearily] What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South--barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife!--stuck away in some little mouse-trap of a room--encouraged by one in-law to visit another-little birdlike women without any nest--eating the crust of humility all their life!

Is that the future that we've mapped out for ourselves? I swear it's the only alternative I can think of! It isn't a very pleasant alternative, is it? Of course--some girls do marry.

[ LAURAtwists her hands nervously.]

Haven't you ever liked some boy?

LAURA. Yes. I liked one once. [Rises] I came across his picture a while ago.

AMANDA [with some interest. He gave you his picture?

LAURA. No, it's in the year-book.

AMANDA [disappointed]. Oh--a high-school boy.

[SCREEN IMAGE: JIM AS HIGH-SCHOOL HERO BEARING A SILVER CUP.]

LAURA. Yes. His name was Jim. [ LAURAlifts the heavy annual from the claw-foot table.] Here he is in The Pirates of Penzance.

AMANDA [absently]. The what?

LAURA. The operetta the senior class put on. He had a wonderful voice and we sat across the aisle from each other Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the Aud. Here he is with the silver cup for debating. See his grin?

AMANDA [absently]. He must have had a jolly disposition.

LAURA. He used to call me--Blue Roses.

[IMAGE: BLUE ROSES.]

AMANDA. Why did he call you such a name as that?

LAURA. When I had that attack of pleurosis--he asked me what was the matter when I came back. I said pleurosis--he thought that I said Blue Roses! So that's what he always called me after that. Whenever he saw me, he'd holler, "Hello, Blue Roses!" I didn't care for the girl that he went out with. Emily Meisenbach. Emily was the best-dressed girl at Soldan. She never struck me, though, as being sincere . . . It says in the Personal Section--they're engaged. That's--six years ago! They must be married by now.

AMANDA. Girls that aren't cut out for business careers usually wind up married to some nice man. [Gets up with a spark of revival] Sister, that's what you'll do!

[ LAURAutters a startled, doubtful laugh. She reaches quickly for a piece of glass.]

LAURA. But, Mother--

AMANDA. Yes? [Crossing to photograph.]

LAURA [in a tone of frightened apology]. I'm--crippled!

[IMAGE: SCREEN.]

AMANDA. Nonsense! Laura, I've told you never, never to use that word. Why, you're not crippled, you just have a little defect--hardly noticeable, even! When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it--develop charm--and vivacity--and--charm! That's all you have to do!

[She turns again to the photograph.]

One thing your father had plenty of--was charm!

[ TOMmotions to the fiddle in the wings.]

THE SCENE FADES OUT WITH MUSIC

http://script.vtheatre.net/amdrama.html 

Arthur Miller

THE PLACE: Willy Loman's house and yard and various places he visits in the New York and Boston of today.

 http://filmplus.org/thr/amdrama2.html

directing class -- http://direct.vtheatre.net/finals.html

[ more scenes ]

 from directing class archives -- http://direct.vtheatre.net/forum.html notes

THE LINE THAT PICKED UP 1000 BABES
(AND HOW IT CAN WORK FOR YOU)
by eric berlin

Alan: This place is ameat market
(perhaps hanging sign on female form "meat")
Benny: People meet people that's all
(timidly struggling with moving a maniquin onstage)
Alan: That's all.(helping him)
Benny: They have to.  You're here, too, dont forget.
(watching Alan manhandle manequin moving it from up stage right to 
down stage left)
Alan: I'm here being me.
Benny: What's that mean?
Alan: Being me.  You're here being whoever happens to be popular at 
the time.  What that book says.
(stairing at the women not at Benny)
Benny: Man, forget the book, cant you?
Alan: No.  I cant.  It's too stupid to just forget.
Benny: Well try... Man (weakly)
Alan: I have a couple of questions.(lights but doesnt cigarette)
Benny: About the book?
Alan: Yes.  Okay?  Then I'll back off.(manly shruggs and gestures)
Benny: Bull
Alan: Just listen.
Benny: What?
Alan:  Okay.  Question Number one.  If there's one line that's picked 
up a thousand babes, like it says, then why is that book 200 pages 
long? (ostracizing)
Benny: Well hell.  What you dont know.  There's more to all than just 
the line, there's more.  You have to say it the right way.  There's 
ways to say the line.  You have to say it to the right girl  You-
Alan: The right girl? (interested)
Benny: Yes
Alan: Okay. (pause Alan grins) No, go on, what?
Benny: What's the matter with that?  Stop putting down what you dont 
know about, huh?  You cant say the line to just anybody.  You cant 
try and pick up some ninety-year-old lady.(actually standing up for 
himself)
Alan: Is that what the book said or did you figure that out by 
yourself?
Benny: There's a long chapter as to who the right girl is.
Alan: You mean "babe".
Benny: Yeah, girl, babe, whatever.(frustrated)
Alan: Which leads me to my second question.  I've always wanted to 
ask this.  What the hell is a "babe"?
Benny: A girl you moron.
Alan: You see?  When was that book written?  Nobody calls girls babes 
anymore.
Benny: Oh no?
Alan: Do they?
Benny: You dont call them babes to their faces.  Unless you're trying 
to make some point -
Alan: Oh, behind their backs! I get it.
Benny: Alan!  It's just the same thing.  Babes are girls.  The 
guidlines in this book -
Alan: Are time tested.  I know you told me.
Benny: It was written in the seventies.  Babes are girls now.
Alan: But not every girl is a babe.
Benny: No
Alan: The book says that.
Benny: Right
Alan: A very specific type of girl.  Less than ninety, for one thing.
Benny: Yes.
Alan: Say, eighty-six, eighty-seven
Benny: Now, look
Alan: So where do you draw the line?  Are there Forty-year-old babes 
out there?
Benny: Dont use the book, Okay?  Dont even listen to me.  All right?  
But what Im saying  This book has been time tested.  It works.
Alan: Actually, I hear that some girls dont even like to be called 
girls now.  They're women.
Benny: That's the worst kind of girl.
Alan: You mean, girls who think, Girls who think are automatically 
out. 
Benny: They can think, I dont care.
Alan: They just cant think a lot.  Does that book give you tips on 
how to talk about current events?
Benny:  Current events?  Who talks about current events in a place 
like this?
Alan: How'd the authors of that book know you'd be coming to a place 
like this?
Benny: They said to
Alan: Which brings me to my third question: Why would you take a 
handbook for picking up girls to the bar you plan on patronizing?  
Wouldnt it be better idea to just read it and leave it at home?  You 
dont want the girls here to know you're using a book, now, do you?
Benny: I have it in my coat pocket.  It's a pocket sized book.  
They'll never know I have it.  If I have to read it I will go into 
the mens room.
Alan: What if it falls out?  You're having a drink with this girl - 
this babe - and you've used the great "line" and a couple of pretty 
good back-up lines, and then she tells a really funny joke.  And you 
laugh so hard that you almost fall over backwards, but you get your 
balance back, but out of your coat pocket falls this book.  Naturally 
it falls face up, so the title is readable by everyone in the room, 
so everyone knows you're using a handbook to pick up girls.  And once 
they know that, no girl on the planet will ever speak to you again.
Benny: That wont happen.
Alan: Why's that, babes cant tell jokes, either?
Benny: I mean, the book wont fall out.
Alan: Oooooooookay. Now about this babe business.  Show me a babe.
Benny: Lets see- her over there. (nodding unclearly in direction of 
manequin)
(manequin he was struggling with earlier)
Alan: Where?
Benny: By the jukebox
Alan: Looking in at it?
Benny: Yeah
Alan: How can you tell?  She's not even facing this direction.  You 
dont even know what she looks like.
Benny: You dont need to know what see looks like.
Alan: Then what the hell are you going by?
Benny: Look at the way she's dressed.  Tight blue jeans is the first 
thing talked about in Chapter Three
Alan: Chapter Three?
Benny: Chapter Three: "what is a babe?"
Alan: There- wait.  There she is.  Okay, now you see what she looks 
like.  Is she a babe?
(can see her face because Alan has grabbed the manequin and turned it 
around and is pointing at it)
Benny: Yes Definitely (cant make eye contact with manequin)
Alan: Why? What seals it?
(manhandling manequin)
Benny: The make-up.
Alan: She's wearing too much.  I see her face and I still dont know 
what she looks like.(funny)
Benny: That's just it.  Too much make-up is a sure sign.
Alan: A sure sign of... babeness
Benny: Call them what you will
Alan: But, now, wait, do you like girls with too much make-up?
Benny: I can take them or leave them
Alan: Or take them and leave them.(jabing for real now)
Benny: Now that's not fair.
Alan: Okay sorry... so are you going to do something about her?
Benny: I dont know maybe... Maybe.
(Benny repeats "maybe" until it is clear that he never will do 
anything about her, Alan carries her off back stage, Benny orders 
another drink from imaginary bartender)