Lorenzo Buford
Scene 1 & 2
SCENE ONE DREAM SEQUENCE
Stage is black.
GERTRUDE
Hello! I need a light here.
Lights slowly comes upon Gertrude sitting in a chair, she is sipping wine. A small table is next to her. A full bottle of wine is on the table. She is very much enjoying her wine.
GERTRUDE
I know I should let it breathe a little more, but it can breathe in me just fine. So, there you are. I hate sitting in the dark. Sometimes I have to yell so loud to get his attention. I know I have a commanding presence (Strikes a pose of greatness), a true artist does. I am not store bought or a hand me down personality.
I am Gertrude. I will admit that name always makes me think of a wise old goose with glasses wearing a shawl, a long brown skirt and wearing a man's brown derby. (She examines herself and realizes she described her appearance.) Oh well, (To the stage manager), we need to talk about this (Pointing to her costume).
I am Gertrude. Did I say that already? I like to think of myself as a channel, a guide, a muse, that voice in the head that inspires one. I am an artist mentor, the voice of reason, the one who decides who is a genius and who is a copy. Most artists emulate the passions of their belly buttons and cannot see beyond that.
I like to address him as P.B. instead of Picasso Blue. Why would anybody choose such a name? Having someone's name does not make you great or able to walk in their shoes. Ah, copies fade eventually don't they? Anyway, P.B. envisions himself as being the next Picasso. (Laughs) I'll decide that, won't I? P.B. needs an audience to witness the endgame in his mind. I'll be your point person as we walk through his mind watching him bring light to his dark rooms.
Picasso! There is only one Mozart, one Neruda, one Einstein, one Whitman, one Baldwin, one Worthington. There is only one Picasso. It is difficult to find a genuine voice these days, to be a true visionary! Most "artists" today lack of a vision, it all seems derivative, a copy! Belly-button-thinking artists do not want to pay the price! Picasso cannot be imitated! To understand him, you must learn to look into the subconscious but let me warn you - the subconscious looks back! And...that's the price.
Alright, here is the dry part but important facts you must know about Picasso. Stay awake!
(PAUSE)GERTRUDE
Picasso's work is often categorized as periods. His Blue Period was from 1901-1904, consisting of blue-tinted paints influenced by the death of a poet friend, Casagemas. The Rose Period, he meets the circus, 1905-1907 featured Harlequins. He used orange and pink colors. The African influenced Period was 1908-1909 and his most famous painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was created. His Analytic Cubism was 1909-1912, a style of painting he developed along with Braque using monochrome brownish colors. His Synthetic Cubism was 1912-1919 involving collage and cut paper. After Picasso synthesized all these periods, he became the artistic voice of the 20th Century.
He was born Pablo, Diego, José, Santiago, Francisco de Paula, Juan Nepomuceno, Crispín Crispiniano de los Remedios, Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso on October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain. He is known throughout the world as Pablo Picasso. Eventually, he used just his mother's name and was simply - Picasso!
The main weeping women in Picasso's life were Fernande Olivier, Olga Koklova, Marie-Therese Walter, and Dora Marr, and Francoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque.
She walks to the edge of the stage. She stands there for a moment, checking out the audience to make sure she has their full attention. She leans into them as if passing on a bit of gossip.
"Forcing yourself to use restricted means - is the sort of restraint - that liberates invention. It obliges you - to make a kind of progress - that you can't - even imagine," so said Picasso.
I'll be back.
BLACKOUT
PICASSO BLUE - ACT ONE
SCENE TWO - HOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON
The hotel room, the furniture, walls and floor have a brownish gray color. A blue light overshadows the room. The room has a single bed, a table with two chairs, a dresser, and a cracked mirror and a closet door. Light comes through a window like a spotlight. The window looks out into the audience.
Tomás and Blue walk in carrying various found objects such as things people sit on the street as junk. Tomás has a red cape draped on his shoulder. Blue places his objects in different parts of the room and attaches things to the walls. Tomás stands there holding his objects until Blue takes them from him and methodically places them around the room while they are talking.
BLUE
You know Tomás, I can make magic with this.
TOMAS
One man's trash is another man's art.
BLUE
Picasso made art from everything. Why shouldn't I?
TOMAS
For now it is junk that's in my way. We don't even have enough room for ourselves Blue.
BLUE
Tomás, appreciate the end result. I will be a genius.
Blue takes the last object out of Tomás' hand as if suggesting a man withdrawing from a sexual penetration. Tomás is aware of the sexual implication and is uncomfortable.
TOMAS
I'd appreciate space. This room is already like a tomb.
BLUE
Here we go again.
TOMAS
So Blue, (Chuckles to himself) did you enjoy last night? (Blue doesn't answer.) So Blue, did you enjoy last night?
BLUE
I couldn't. She was a whore.
TOMAS
That was the point. Blue, we live among the ruined.
BLUE
Too many people give into their bestial nature.
TOMAS
Wait until you meet your own beast.
BLUE
I monitor my preoccupations.
TOMAS
I think you hate women more than death.
BLUE
You don't know me so well, okay. We need a drink.
Blue goes to the cabinet and gets a bottle of wine and two glasses and goes to the table and serves the wine.
TOMAS
I noticed Blue that your last three paintings of women; everyone was distorted. Picasso didn't do that in his Blue Period.
BLUE
I wasn't feeling the Blue...I've also distorted men...Okay, not that many but I will.
TOMAS
Your portraits of men are always in a classical style and women are broken into cubes. You want the Blue Period but you're avoiding the Blue Period.
BLUE
I'm going to draw. (Puts down glass angrily and goes to a canvas that is already set up.) Maybe you should write a poem.
TOMAS
I think men and women are all like Frankenstein monsters.
BLUE
How would you feel if you were made from parts of dead people, tortured by ignorant villagers and couldn't get a date?
Tomás goes and sits on the windowsill and looks out into the audience.
TOMAS
We are all misunderstood Frankensteins. And I don't understand why you picked this dump and the hottest month for your little experiment.
Tomás takes off his shirt. Blue fights quietly with himself to remain calm while he continues to draw on the canvas while taking subtle glances at Tomás.
BLUE
I read in a bio of Picasso that when he was having cash flow problems, and it was the dead of winter, he slept in a museum once to keep warm. I'd rather have the heat than the cold.
TOMAS
This is not a museum and this room is one step from being a tomb.
BLUE
Tomás, you have to understand that Picasso made us look at the dark side of our nature. His work reflects the universe looking at us as well as us looking at our own inner universe. He was a disturbance to tradition. We need this depressing place to get in touch with our dark nature.
TOMAS
Blue, if you want to crack your mind open and spill everything out, fine; but don't expect me to clean up the mess.
BLUE
Everyone works out their own means of salvation. That's what his art was about.
TOMAS
This is the part where I start yawning.
Blue takes off his shirt and goes back to painting.
BLUE
Don't you ever feel like there's a voice in your head guiding you, imposing itself on your work?... Sometimes more than one...
TOMAS
Sometimes I hear my drinking demons. God and I aren't speaking. I refused to be an inmate in his insane asylum. (Tomás pulls a joint out of his pocket and lights up and takes a deep inhale. He offers some to Blue who shakes his head no.) Couldn't we get a loft apartment in a real artist community? You know, live with our own kind.
BLUE
This is all my money and your pocket change can afford.
TOMAS
They rent rooms by the hour here.
BLUE
We're paid up for two months.
TOMAS
This hotel is an alley.
BLUE
It's not an alley. It's just a road with aspirations to being a street.
TOMAS
Well, "this road with aspirations to being a street" will lead to no good.
BLUE
Well, then, you can wallow in decadence without prying eyes.
TOMAS
We are two steps from being homeless.
Blue walks up and puts his hand on Tomás' shoulder.
BLUE
I need this depression for inspiration!
TOMAS
Look at the world Blue. Outside our window there is a cardboard city with drug addicts, homeless people and crack whores who will blow you for five dollars.
Tomás shrugs off Blue's hand. Blue reaches into his pocket and pulls out ten dollar bill and hands it to Tomás.
BLUE
Here is ten, you can have two.
Tomás takes it eagerly and shoves it into his pocket. Blue is a bit surprised but says nothing. Blue goes back to rearranging the objects on the floor into different positions.
TOMAS
At least I have Sally.
BLUE
I know we need to bring different textures into our lives to make our true reality; but Sally, that's a lost cause.
TOMAS
You're just a postal clerk who paints so he will not go postal, and I'm an unemployed exotic dancer and part time video sales clerk who think he's a poet.
BLUE
We're undiscovered artists.
TOMAS
No one will discover our bodies in this hell hole.
BLUE
We both are numb to life. This will wake us up.
TOMAS
You know there's medication for everything.
BLUE
I wish.
TOMAS
Do you know what Sally said?...That you are crazy.
BLUE
Do you know Picasso said once? "I can't have friends if they're not capable of sleeping with me. Not that I require it of the women or want it from the men - but there should at least be that feeling of warmth and intimacy one experiences in sleeping with someone."
TOMAS
In another life, maybe, but this life, we are not happening.
BLUE
Sally didn't offer you a place to sleep.
TOMAS
She's not ready for commitment.
BLUE
Sally is intellectually challenged.
Tomás goes and sits on the bed. There is a writing pad there. He starts writing in the pad as he talks to Blue.
BLUE
I want to be hostile to society like Picasso.
TOMAS
You'll be a fatted calf for sacrifice. Well, maybe not fatted.
BLUE
I want to experience the outcast of society. (Blue goes and sits on the edge of the bed.) Like Picasso, my paintings will be sacred spaces, sacred acts for the profane to ponder.
TOMAS
Ignorance is bliss for the masses.
BLUE
(Tone of bitterness) Did you know, Tomás, that most poets only achieve greatness in death?
Blue goes to the table and pours himself more wine and drinks it quickly.
TOMAS
Well you will not benefit from mine. I'm young, strong, full of 'cum' and going to live a long, looong time.
BLUE
You know, I have been inspired by your poetry. Haven't you seen it in my work?
TOMAS
Yeah. I've seen it.
BLUE
This is working for us, isn't it?
TOMAS
Okay, so I'm not having a dry spell like I was. Your simulated depression has creative potential. Hell, I met Sally and that's been the first time I've have had that much sex. Exploring her...
BLUE
Watch out, way too much information.
TOMAS
Are you afraid of the word...vagina?
BLUE
Sally's whatchamacallit will keep you in servitude.
TOMAS
(Smartly) Somebody is always somebody's slave. You know Blue; maybe you need to go there to understand all aspects of being a man. The whatchamacallit can be
TOMAS (CONTINUED)
frightening but yet, it is a mysterious work of art. You just need to talk to it and make it your friend. It's not to be conquered, but to be loved. It takes you deep and keeps a part of you but what you get back in return my friend - paintings, songs, words cannot begin to express the ecstatic joy.
BLUE
Oh, poet! You're depressing me.
TOMAS
Isn't it just another sacred space for you to explore?
BLUE
(Proclamation) I have defined my sacred spaces. Ah, the world awaits me. So many will be jealous of my impending greatness!
TOMAS
Scientists make experiments. Philosophers build their tombs from dead languages. A poet, a true poet will see what isn't seen but sees what is true: the reality of the Unknown, the subconscious. You need to experience the mystery of a woman. Once you go there, you don't come back a common man.
BLUE
(Defiant and returns to drawing) I am not having sex with a woman. I recognize no Heaven or Earth...only me.
TOMAS
I know what you will recognize.
Tomás goes to the bed and pulls a small plastic bag from underneath a pillow. He takes it to the table, takes a card out of his wallet and prepares a line of coke. After snorting it, wipes off his nose, returns the plastic bag underneath the pillow. His demeanor now changes. He becomes looser, more mischievous. He goes and picks up the red cape that is lying on a chair and pretends he is a Matador. As he dances around with the cape, his movements are sexual, provocative and he starts to taunt Blue with the cape as if Blue is a bull. Blue ignores him at first until Tomás' playing becomes more sexually charged. Blue decides to pretend to be the bull and charges. He makes several passes. He is a very bad imitation of a bull. Tomás pretends he is piercing a bull between the eyes with a sword. Blue falls to the floor. They both have a hearty laugh. Tomás goes to lend Blue a hand. There is an awkward sexual tension between the two.
BLUE
Most men I've encountered have only been objects but you, you are my muse; you are...a subject.
TOMAS
(Walks away and goes to the bed and puts back on his shirt) You need to change the subject.
BLUE
(Puts back on his shirt) I'm...you know...I'm more of a voyeur than a participant.
TOMAS
(Exiting from the room) Stop pretending you have faced your beast. Man and Beast come together within and the battle is still raging. If not, would you be taking your little late night walks down alleys at night looking for a whore who will fuck you with a strap on?
They glare at each other momentarily, Tomás exits.
Blue feeling hurt, goes to the bed and pulls the small plastic bag from underneath the pillow. He takes it to the table, takes a card out of his wallet and prepares a line of coke. He does three lines of coke. After snorting it, wipes off his nose, returns the plastic bag underneath the pillow. His demeanor now changes. He becomes more sullen. He takes the cape and dances around with it as if he is the Matador until he collapses on the bed. He passes out.
BLACKOUT
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