Hindsight: an Ashe Jukebox Musical Script

THE SHOW

[a YOUNG WOMAN is existing within a room. The room is just four yellow walls. This is her world, it's all she knows. She should be there from when the audience enters the theatre. She doesn't leave this room. When the shows begins, the YOUNG WOMAN goes to her record player, picks out a record, and starts it.]

SONG 1: WE GET HIGH

"I know I shouldn't drink as much as I do. But it's the only bit of solace I get these days. My brain exists in a constant battle between severe anxiety and an over-active imagination. Either I'm stuck in what ifs or I have my head in the clouds; it's a cacophony of thought. But when I drink, my brain gets quiet. It shuts down for a few hours. At my age of uncertainty about my life, those few hours are more than a gift. They are my survival.

I have no money. I have no job. I have no future. Simple as that. But when I drink, my brain just lets me exist. -ab"

[as the songs begins, pictures of music notes, clouds of smoke, and tally's of the bad days get doodled across the walls by an invisible force. They grow from the record player and expand until they decorate all of the walls. The YOUNG WOMAN stands in the middle of it all.]

Screen Legend: days go bad.

YOUNG WOMAN

Sit back and watch how I let it roll off. Days go bad, that's just how they get. Now add them all up...

[she moves towards her liquor cabinet to get a smoke.]

Screen Legend: Sometimes Nothing's Right.

Feel good now—chin up and move by! Sometimes is nothing right? So when we get low, we get high.

And we don't know how it goes—no one at our shows. Our money's been getting tight, but when we get low, we get high!

[she lights her cigarette and looks at the match for a second before putting it out.]

Screen Legend: light a match and watch it all burn down.

I'm looking for the light at the end of the night; I light a match and watch it all burn down. Can't always be a good one. Everyone knows one where everything starts going south.

Feel good now—chin up and move by! Sometimes is nothing right? So when we get low, we get high. And we don't know how it goes—no one at our shows. Our money's been getting tight, but when we get low, we get high!

[as she starts feeling calmer, she begins to dance around and generally vibe to the music. Before singing again, she flops down in the yellow chair.]

Screen Legend: let it roll off.

Sit back and watch how I let it roll off. Days go bad, that's just how they get. Now add them all up. Feel good now—chin up and move by! Sometimes is nothing right? So when we get low, we get high!

Yeah We Get High!

[the next song on the record comes on.]

SONG 2: CHOIRS

"I'm so sick of people treating me like I'm a fool for wanting a non-traditional career path. I'm sick of people laughing. I don't want to have the job that people secretly snicker at. But I have such a full feeling that this is what I'm meant to do. My whole life, my head has been filling with stories. I need to let them out. The world needs to hear them. And I can see my dreams coming on the horizon. I know that there are good things waiting for me. But no one believes me. No one takes anything I say seriously and it feels like shit. I just want to be creative. I have to be creative. I will prove them wrong. I will not give up. -ab"