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SHOWSTOPPER!
SCRIPT SAMPLE
copyright 2006 by Gino Caputi & Guy J. Jackson
FADE IN:
INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE - DAY
MEL HARDWIG, a large, lusty man with a salt-and-pepper 'flat top' leans his head back in a leather chair, his eyes dancing as he recounts his past.
A MAN IN A SUIT, 40, sits across from Mel, listening.
MEL
I was born for the theatre. My father started as a rigger for Stratford-On-Avon then moved stateside after the war to seek his fortune. It was here he met my mother, the late Pearl Haughton, then an actress of considerable note in her home state of Mississippi. Theirs was a union of fire and duelling wits, love-making and vase-throwing, stormy departures and tawdry affairs. Certainly talk existed that Mother passed through the cross-hairs of old Kip Wallington! Glowing re-marriage followed bitter divorce and there I was in the second act of their romanza, a bouncing pigskin, born to the boards and the footlights, soaking in and, I must admit, relishing every adrenaline-fueled sunburst of excitement...
MONTAGE OF MEL'S LIFE IN THEATRE
FLASHBACK: INT. THEATRE - 30 YEARS AGO
CHEERS from the crowd as a chubby YOUNG MEL, 10, wearing a SAILOR'S CAP, finishes 'AIN'T NOTHING LIKE A DAME' from 'SOUTH PACIFIC'.
He is surrounded by A CHORUS OF SAILORS, all in their teens.
YOUNG MEL & CHORUS
(singing)
There is nothing like a dame! Nothing in the world!
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame!
FLASHBACK: A GREEN ROOM - 30 YEARS AGO
MEL (V.O.)
Growing up, my playgrounds didn't have asphalt or swing sets but green walls and green chairs and the merry din of rehearsing thespians.
YOUNG MEL dashes among a forest of ACTORS doing vocal exercises, stretching, and practicing stage combat.
An OLD HAM ACTOR, 60, IN TUDOR COSTUME, stops Young Mel and begins to coach him.
OLD HAM ACTORMelvin, your vocal warm ups: one, one two one, one two three two one, one two three four three two one!
Young Mel nods, distracted, trying to keep up in mouthing the words.