CCP CLASSICS: “RAINS COMIN’ IN!“

Published Nov 23, 2023, 10:00 AM

As a holiday gift, we offer you this classic CCP dramatic play excerpt reading, which many callers claim is a family holiday listening tradition. Written by Chelsea Peretti. With Kate Berlant, John Early, Yassir Lester, Esther Povitsky, Xosha Roquemore, Emily Spivey and narration by Dave King. Q&A follows.

 

Subscribe to Big Money Players Diamond on Apple Podcasts to get this episode ad-free and early access to bonus content: https://apple.co/callchelseaperetti

Hello, Hi, Hi, Hi, how are you? You know, maybe you're home with your family for the holidays, and maybe you're not because your family sucks and they don't give you what you need and you're doing your own thing. You know, I celebrate you, whatever your circumstance.

I thank you for being a part of the reboot of Call Chelsea Peretti CCP. Now, when I did reboot the pod, I did take down my back catalog, and some callers said, hey, wait, hold on, there's a few episodes we particularly cherish, so what are we doing. We're going to release one of them. Many people said they liked to listen to it around the holidays with their family.

So here you go.

Rain's Coming in a southern rural family drama written by Chelsea.

We're ready.

With an incredible cast. I was originally recorded at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles on Franklin. Maybe you're familiar with.

The Gilson's in the area.

A La pu Belle, or maybe you're an out of towner. Either which way, here's a dramatic play that we did as a live show, followed by a Q and A.

I hope you'll enjoy it.

If it's your first time, and if it's not.

I hope you'll also enjoy it because you asked for it.

You were asking for it.

Without fither Ado, I present to you rains coming.

Yeah.

Please, gentlemen, thanks for coming to the uc Franklin there.

Please belong to the stage Playwrights Horizons there.

Thank you guys so much for being here. I'm really honored that so many people are I'm sorry, I'm a little winded, are able to participate in this reading tonight. There's a few people that I do.

Need to think.

I'm honored to be selected by UCB Theater's La Playwrights Horizons program. Over eight thousand established playwrights smit they're working year and UCB and PHPs panel of judges select only one winner, and I was that winner. So I feel incredibly fortunate. This program's connected me with funding from a variety of grants. I have to mention the PBS True American Visionary Grant, the kq ED singularly Brilliant Mind Grant Program, the Scientology Celebrity Center Celebrity Advancement Grant, and the icing on the cake was I actually got a Yale School of Drama honorary degrees. I'm just based off my submission and it's just it's truly humbling, and you know, without these grants and funds, it would have been incredibly hard to write this play. So I'm very excited to share with you tonight a piece of this play, which is a drama and idled brains coming in. It's about a family in a small town, but it's about all of us. It's about dreams, goals, love, resentment, adolation, bitterness, jealousy, addiction, boredom, intimacy, and of course thanksgiving. I hope you'll see yourself in this play and that it will hold a mirror up to your own faults, and that's any artist's humble hope.

I think.

This is a work in progress, so I want to thank you in advance for being part of its genesis and hopefully evolution. And we're still taking critiques on the play and listening to feedback. Actually part of the deal with my Interlock grants and it is that I'm lucky enough to receive almost weekly critiques. You know, have been anything ranging from this is a master work, but pace it up.

To.

This play is tirelessly meandering, and there's also been some negative ones. People have said, what's the point. I don't get any message from this. It feels endless, et cetera. So if you have any kinds of thoughts, you know, kind of lock them in, hold on to them. There's gonna be a Q and A after the reading with myself and my talented group of actors. So please, you know, just during the whole play, just be thinking about your own questions and know that the Q and A is not eliminated to writing. My actors will welcome any questions about their process, how they approach a scene, how they interpret text and subtext, uh, how they build a character, how they warm up, how they cool down right on down, just to like a favorite snack, and do they get along with their parents. So, without further ado, I'd like to bring out my actors. It's a wonderful group of people, incredible talents that I am so lucky to have gotten. Please applaud after each name equally, and actually before I bring them out. I hope this is an embarrassing but we're very exciting, very excited tonight that Tennessee William's granddaughter is here. You're dishonored that you're able to make it, And originally this was kind of written and conceived as a one woman show, but.

I decided.

So without further ado. In the part of Terry Inn Kate Berlant reading the part of Cooper actor John Early. Evangeline will be played by Zosha Rokamore. A part of Lily may Esther Povitsky Ladies and Gentlemen c B will be played by Emily Spivee. Buck will be played by Yasser Lester, and the part of Daddy's ghost will be played by Mosha Kasher than You and of course Dave King. We'll be reading all the stage directions tonight.

Are we ready? Yes, Rain's Coming? In a rural family Drama by Chelsea Peretti. Yes. We open on Mama Jean's family home in a rural suburb. Warn cafe curtains hang from the windows. There's a screen door with a hole in the screen. There's a couch with a messy blanket on it. There's a dining table with a bouquet of old flowers. A mug of steaming hot tea sits on the table. The room is empty. There is a sound of thunder and a flash of lightning through the windows, footsteps of slippers. Mama Jean enters, shivering in a robe, smoking a skinny cigarette. She sits at the table and opens the newspaper and thumps it with her hand.

Humph.

She turns the page, then thumps the next page. She turns the page, then thumps the next page. Mama Cooper emerges from the messy blanket on the couch with a faux hawk that would have been cool ten years ago and stiff bedazzled jeans.

Hum.

She thumps another page.

Not take you humping through another paper's headlines today? Just what exactly are you always searching for in there?

Let me alone, Cooper, I'll.

Tell you what. You're looking for, a new way to be miserable.

My god, Mama clinging to the morbidity of the news day in and day out.

And you're sitting right there watching me. Now, which is worse? Humph? Cooper, Leave your mama alone and let me read my paper. You can instruct me on how to live. Once you get off that couch and out from under that blanket you've been living in the last eight years since the accident, Take a bath and put some clothes on. Cooper.

Mama, you yourself aware in a sleeping robe.

In this very instance, it's French, a French robe, a sill a robe, Mama, the frenchness.

Don't make it outawere, Cooper, you're drunk.

You are too, Mama, So don't you dare.

She is?

They are? They make drunk eye contact for a moment. Little Lily May enters from the kitchen.

You leave mom alone. She's doing her best.

Cooper, Listen to you, Lily May. Mama's little lap dog.

Now just because she's small, don't make her a lap dog.

That's right.

It sounded like you just went yep, yep, crash.

The sound of thunder and lightning causes them all to look towards the windows. Sky is dark, the lights flicker.

Rains coming in.

All you ever do is pick on everyone, Cooper, because you got the hard heart. It ain't our fault. You got a drink to get through the day. An hour, a minute, a second.

Wow, Lily May, you've really memorized your units of time measurement.

Congrats, kudos.

Would you listen all you squeaking and squawking, just like old times.

Terry Ah in glamorous city clothes, standing on the other side of the screen door, holding a newspaper over her head. They all rush over to open the screen door.

Huh sounds like a cartoon in here. Well, let me help you with the door. Now starting to rain here, really big out there, big big old drops the size of gumballs.

Terry Anne, Oh my goodness, you look incredible.

My first child. Come in here, sit down beside me. Let someone get you a water. Well, put your bags down, Terry Anne, cat gut your tongue.

Talk to us.

How's New York City advertising?

What the city folk acts like? Why have been gone so long? You don't think you're better than us? Now? Do you?

No? No?

Not better? Just different?

Oh?

Different?

Like hell?

Like?

How do you mean, Terry inne? Like in a good way or a bad way?

What's different?

Yeah?

How do you mean, Terry Ane?

Oh I don't know. Y'all will put me on the spot.

Lord, I've been traveling all day and I'm not ready to make a speech. Okay, I do enough of that in my advertising company. I need to lay down a minute and put a hot washcloth on my face for a good, solid twenty minutes.

Take some of this rain chill out of me.

Hey, I bought you all an espresso machine.

She pulls a small espresso machine out of her.

Back plug it in, Mama, can she plug it in?

I don't see why not.

Maybe because she's gonna blast out all the electrical with this an espresso when we have a perfectly good coffee maker that's worked just fine for the last fourteen years.

Oh just wait, Cooper.

Wait.

You see how fast it makes a cup of java, and.

It's quiet as hell. You'll never want to brew up a pot again.

It can make big cups or small cups or medium cups too. You choose the size by pressing a button. You can tell how big the cup is by how big the cup.

Is on the button.

You haven't mentioned the taste, not even once.

Because it tastes like saving time, Coop. That's important in New York City and other big cities as well. It tastes like not standing over a stove every morning, or wa eating on a coffee maker from an entire pot of coffee when all you want is the one cup you pick me up, shandrain.

You have energy. Cooper, Okay, defeats the whole point.

Well, Daddy would be rolling in his grave as much as he loved coffee if we knew where his body was and have been able to bury him.

That is, Daddy's ghost is projected onto a wall above everyone's heads. No one can see him.

I'm over in the cornfield, over by the shutdown mine. You can find my body there, fell into a mine. Chef looking for a place to fish. Oh, I miss y'all that crazy, but Terry Ann. You need to ditch that new fangle and espresso and keep coffee how it's supposed to be aromatic, dark and rich. If you want to get that kind of flavor, it takes time, plain and simple.

Yep, Daddy would be rolling in here.

Cooper, you take your daddy's damn name out of this. I'm sick of it.

Mama. Jean slaps Cooper across the face. Mama, what the fuck? She slaps him again.

And don't you dare swear on top of blaspheming your father.

You can't blaspheme your daddy. You can only blaspheme God, God, damn it.

Daddy's ghost slaps Cooper, but he can't feel it. Cooper stumps to the couch and crawls back under his blanket, disappearing.

Gosh, Cooper why do you have to go and start something a silence?

Terry Anne plugs in an espresso, fills it with water, inserts a pod, and presses a button. A whirring mechanical sound fills the house.

And Terry Anne, you get that goddamn contraption out of here. It isn't that quiet, because I can hear it. It is.

It is quiet, Mama, No, it.

Isn't, Mama. Jean hers an espresso through a window. The window breaks, but then espresso falls back into the house on the floor, in a pile of glass.

And this is why we can't have anything nice for ourselves or make any kind of progress in this world. Fear of mama's tantrums. Why do you think I left this place.

It's okay, Mama, don't have one of your fits. It's all gonna be okay. Let me rub your temples with hot oil.

Mama, that sounds like that would be all right, of course it does.

She's gonna rub your temples with oil like your damn Cleopatra.

The screen door squeaks open, and there stands Evangeline, dressed practically soaked in rain, standing on broken window glass, carrying bags of groceries. Which she sets just inside the door, staring at then espresso machine.

What in the hell is going on here, Oh, Evangeline, Same old, same old. I'm afraid mama's in the midst of having one of her fits.

Well, Mama, can you please have it later in the year.

I just carry this turkey four and am miles from the grocery the last half mile and the rain to boot That rain really came in. The mud is three feet deep. We're all gonna eat this food together tomorrow, just like you told me, Mama when you asked me to go pick it up.

Now.

I don't want to be sweeping up glass and taping up a window on top of it, but you know I will be the one to do it because no one else slifts a hand around here.

Let me help you. Come on, give me a hug. I missed you, of Angeline.

They hug.

It's a fancy smelling perfume.

Oh, I can get you some.

I get samples through that advertising agency that I work out. You deserve something pretty?

Will that be nice?

Plus when it's free, it smells extra good.

They share a warm, excited laugh.

Hey, you know, maybe you could come out there too. We could be rooming. Why not?

I mean it, they might have another job for you at the advertising agency where I work. You're a hard worker and it's huge. Plus those men have more money than they know what to do with.

We all hate ads.

Don't kid yourself, Terry In, you're doing the demons bidding.

Cooper stop it. It's such a nice idea, the two of them in New York City taking on the world together, pair of sisters with their heads on straight and their hearts in the right place. Can't you just let anyone have anything?

Cooper?

What has anyone ever let me have?

I could have died on this couch years ago, and knowing what I've ever noticed.

And maybe you should die, you old sack of shit. Whoo is it ever?

Coming down?

Rain?

Driper hitting my hat like two by fours.

Their neighbor Buck enters in a ten gallon hat and a big belt buckle. He shakes his hat off outside the door.

Buck as I live and breathe. Okay, I thought you were staying up country forever. Thought you were gonna get trampled by a horse or fall.

Into a well of some shit. But now here you are, falling alive.

I told you all, I had the gumption to make it anywhere. Listen.

If you love the wild, the wild loves you back. It's a formula, that's all there is to it. And I got a bunch of real nice venison curing in the trunk.

I'll give you some. It's got a magnificent shoewe to it.

The real question is is there a seat for old Buck at your Thanksgiving table?

I sure would appreciate it.

My mama ain't feeling good and she'd like to rest up the next couple of days.

I'm sorry, but no, there isn't Buck. We don't have enough food, and we don't have enough plates, and I refuse to eat on paper plates. Always having I always will. It's a class thing, nothing personal.

Hey, don't mind her. Mama's in one of her moods. Mama, stop listening to us, and go on and smoke your cigarettes out on the window. You know how that calms you down. Go on and.

Smoke, mama, that'll calm you. You've been home two minutes and already trying to run the place, speaking in that condescending city voice like you pity me. Don't forget I birthed you out of the dead center of my vagina. Mama, Mama, Oh, don't act scandalized, Lily. May we all come from the same damn place. But I want y'all to listen and listen good. This old house, as many footsteps as y'all have taken in it from when you was little tops on up to now, this house is my house. It was before you were ever born. I worked for it, Your daddy worked for it. As many bites of food as your greedy mouths have eaten in the kitchen or at this here table. It don't make it your kitchen, and it don't make it your table. You see, it's all mine. So when someone waltzes in here asking for a seat at my table, I'll be the one to answer, and y'all should fall silent. You don't even know what when it's feeding y'all, keeping y'all clothed, drying your tears, putting band aids on your cuts. It took a lot. It took a lot. It took a lot.

Mama Jean shuffles off in her slippers and it sends a staircase that leads to off stage as everyone watches her entire shuffling ascent.

I do feel bad she had to feed us.

You kind of have to admire her.

She just managed to create a home where there's never a dull moment, even in a town as dull as this one.

Will I'll best be pushing off toward home, but.

Don't feel unwelcome on mama's account. She's had a hard life, but she don't mean nothing by it. We'd love for you to be here with us.

Ah, well, that's awful nice, but I don't want to ruffle any feathers.

You won't be We all love your company, promise.

Lily May sounds like you're sweet.

Armed Buck.

Having decency may be a foreign to you, but not. Everyone's hearts are directly connected to their genitals.

Whooh, she shoots, She scores.

L O l.

Buck and Lily May laugh for a long time.

Very damn funny.

All this intrigue and drowmly all bring into the house is special, and I must admit I'm quite entertained. It's a nice break from the simple life. Live here out of my respectful devotion to our mama. But can someone help me with these groceries? I've been standing here just inside the door, surrounded by the food. You'll all be eating tomorrow, hoping it would occur to someone, but it didn't.

Sorry about the head trip you're on.

I was just getting ready to vomit watching Lily may make fuck eyes.

At my friend Buck.

No, I wasn't fucking fucking fuck y.

All right, I really best be heading out, all.

Right, Well, do come back tomorrow though. Okay, I know we seemed like a mess, so we'll have ourselves together by then.

Feed you some turkey.

There's a lot of love here, regardless of other hate.

Any of turkey to go around.

Buck, Well, I'll think about it.

You know.

Sometimes Mama says she's under the weather, but then she feels better the next day.

Plus, I don't want to inconvenience, y'all.

Oh, you should join us, but we want you. I'll FaceTime you tonight and check in.

Well, all right, i'd like that.

Buck tips his hat and exits.

Oh, the idea of y'all facetiming is disgusted.

FaceTime is so boring.

It is if too bores are talking.

Terry Anne's phone ringers.

Oh, I'm sorry, I have to take this.

It's the advertising company that I work for back in the city. Yo, Terry Anne here, how are you, and happy holidays to you as well.

Oh, I can't.

I can't wait to get back to work. If I'm being honest, Okay, yeah, no, just hit me with it.

What's up? Okay?

Right?

Yes, okay, Well, I can't say I understand because I don't.

I don't. I really don't, and I'm a smart person. I'm sorry.

I can accept your compliment about the situation, Greg, right.

Right.

I know you do, but in the circumstance, it's just meaningless to hear it from you.

Greg.

Your voice sounds so smug and detached.

It's the holidays, Greg, and I spent so much money on my flats and I got in new apartment, and I'm just trying not to curse. Okay, that's all I'm doing right now. I'm trying really hard not to curse Greg, and I'm trying not to scream.

Greg.

I'm sure you have to go. I would too if I were you.

No, I can come back in a week and clear out my things. No, I don't want them shipped, Greg, I want to come in and get them.

I don't want them shipped.

I don't have a doorman like you do, Greg. Things get stolen in new York City without a doorman.

Okay, well, I.

Hope you never have the misfortune of getting fired or robbed. This isn't a threat, Greg, I'm saying, I hope you don't get robbed.

Okay, well, cool beans. Okay, you motherfucking asshole. Okay, catch you on the flip gee rereg.

Blackout. Connie Brenda Akacb enters in a very highly patterned floral dress. She is carrying bouquets of flowers.

You you hello, hello, hello, hello.

Hello, gobble gobble gobble. Y'all y'all Happy Turkey days? Anybody here?

Hello?

Did y'all leave.

Silence? Adore slams in the direction of the kitchen. Cbe smiles and hides behind a couch. Evangeline enters, clapping flower off her hands and wiping them on an apron. When she gets close, Cebe bursts up from behind the couch.

Oh my goodness, Connie Brenda, you devil, always scaring people.

Way I got you, sweet of Angeline.

I cannot tell you how happy it made me to see you thinking you were all alone in this house.

You jump up in the air like a dang old fairy.

Shame on, UCB.

You devil. I thought I was alone.

They all left to go buy some last minute groceries, napkins and such.

You bought the flowers.

They're on the table, sweet thing, picked them all morning. My garden's empty. Now the whole field looks like a scourge swept through the things I do for this family. Cut Oh my god, damn flowers.

Well it looks like you drop some on your dress.

Looks down at her extremely floral dress and laughs.

Oh, you stinker.

Come on, let's have us a drink before these hellions get back in here and ruin everything.

Well, I can't be drinking.

Cebee, got too much cooking to do.

Oh come on, let's sit out on the porch or on this here couch, put our feet up, and have us a few drinks.

A couple laughs.

We deserve it for putting up with your mama's shit all the time, especially you, Evangeline.

It's too much.

You ought to just up.

And leave her someday, not in a cruel way, but just go live your life. Let her and Cooper sit around in their chosen doom and gloom.

Come on, take a load off.

I'll help you cook after, And you know my cooking blows you're cooking out of the water.

Oh okay, the drink does sound.

Nice, Evangeline starts pouring drinks.

You know, you're the only person in this family that I ever really sit back and talk to, laugh with. You're the only one in this family that asks me questions about myself instead of asking for favors. Lord knows, I love when you come for Thanksgiving.

It's the only good part for me.

Well, you know you were always my favorite niece, Evangeline, always have been since you were small. You can tell a baby's personality.

You know, she SIPs her drink.

Your story can't in here in this old house, that's for sure.

You ought to go to New York with Terry Ann. She did offer.

Then it's settled. She can support you till you find your sea legs, so to speak. Met a sea captain once who said that all the time about finding your sea legs, and I just love that phrase. You'll come alive in New York.

Well, well what.

Well, Terry Ann didn't want me to say nothing to anyone, just wanted to pretend everything's all right. But she got fired yesterday, lost her big advertising job. Oh so there goes my new York.

Plenty of jobs in NY. That's what a city is, a place full of jobs. Jobs you can't even imagine, Like restaurants where they hire pretty girls like yourself to stand inside the door and welcome people and write down their names. You don't even have to wait tables as long as you do your makeup real nice.

There's voices approaching from out on the front porch. Terry Anne, Lily May and Cooper enter, with a glum Mama Jean behind them.

Ah, well would you look with the cat drug in CB?

How are you?

Auntie? You look outstanding? And I love that dress? Is that from a pattern or is it storebop? Because it looks store bought?

Hell, it should look store bought.

I paint enough for the damn pattern.

They share a laugh.

House, New York City.

I love it. Yeah, No, I just love it. Found My people love my job. It's perfect.

Well, that's great, very.

Lucky, very lucky.

I love being a working woman and making my own money, the independence. She starts to cry, excuse me, I have to go check on the turkey.

She runs off to the kitchen.

She cries when she's happy.

Y'all, I'm sorry, I told Ceb she got fired.

Oh why would you do that? Really?

He storms off the kitchen after Tarry Ane Cooper's right.

It may have been a silly secret, but it was her secret, and it made her feel like things were going to be okay.

She storms off to the kitchen after Terry A.

Well, Genie, say what you want about your kids, but they sure stick together in times of crisis.

Did you bring the flowers? I did, go on and put them in several vases, real nice and set out some dip.

Good to see you too, sis.

Are we in one of our moods?

You know, my old bone's hurting. The ring.

Rain's coming in pretty good now.

Too, mm hmm, okay, I'll go get a vase.

CB heads off to the kitchen. Mama Jene finds herself alone in the living room. She sees the flowers on the table, curls her face up in disgust.

Daisies.

She walks over to the door, throws it open, staring at the rain pours down relentlessly. She is deeping some ancient memory. Buck appears carrying flowers and almost walks into her.

Oh, Mama Jean, my apologies, I didn't know.

You was never mind what I was doing.

Now, Buck, why.

Are you here?

Oh right?

I suspect I shouldn't have come, and I've made a real embarrassing mistake.

Didn't I tell you we don't have enough plates?

I suppose you did, yes, and not enough meat? You did also say that, yes, And.

Yet here you are looking to come eat up all my meat.

No meat will be had by me.

I'll just be dropping off these flowers for Lily May and and then I'll be on my way.

Nothing personal, Buck, you're older. You'll understand when you've earned every plank of wood and every floorboard in your house. But people treat you like a nuisance in your own damn house. So thank you for the flowers, but we already have some from my sister's garden.

Don't waste yours here?

Well, okay, miss Jean, I did hope Lily May would have liked them, you know, she's just such a great gal.

Buck turns on his boot heel and heads out of sight. The rain pours down as Mama Jean stares out again in silence. CB enters with her arm around Terry Ann's shoulder, each of them carrying vases.

All right, we're.

These flowers, We've had our heart to heart and we're ready to get to work flowers and cook him.

Hey, maybe I'll become a florists here in town, open up my own shop.

Don't be silly. You're going straight back to n Y with your head held hut, and you're gonna get a new job.

Derry Ann. Yes, beg for your job back. What when I was pregnant with you, I got laid off.

I went back in the morning.

Next morning, I begged for a second chance, got my job back. And that's how we have this roof over our heads today.

Mama, No way I'm doing that.

Course not.

You'll get a new job.

Cooper enters, licking a large spoon.

What lighthearted chat is going down in here? Now?

Your sister just got herself fired, and I told her how to get her job back. Now her and c B are coming after me, same old, same old.

Oh hush, Mama, no one is coming after you.

Nothing's chasing any of us, but rain.

Lily May enters holding her phone, very upset.

All day long, I try to think, how does Mama feel? Why does Mama act the way she acts, Why does Mama say the thing she says? Why does Mama, do the thing she does. What made her this way? What's her logic? What we're all the different chains of events from her childhood up on now that led her to be the woman she is today. I defend your every move with all the love in my heart. But Mama, you never think one thought about me, do you? You never even for an instant thing, how Lily may might feel. Well, if you don't ever care about how I feel, then I have to care how I feel, don't I, Mama? And how I feel is in love with Buck, the man you just turned away from our home while I was in the kitchen help and cook our holiday dinner. He's a kind hearted person, Mama. He's not cold and reptilian like this entire sick family. His mom was the same way. They say nice things to me, but cares how my day went, how I felt, And that's why we got married, and that is why I got pregnant. And I'm gonna tell him tonight that we're gonna have a baby. Don't worry about smiling at my news, Mama, I know you don't have it in your heart to care. Before long, I'll be moving out to finally start my own life. My own family and have your house back just how you want it, all to yourself, with no meat to defend your indefensible behavior, out of the acre pity I feel for you, with no Evangeline to cook for you and shot for you. We all know Terrian was the smartest one of us. All we all knew wasn't her passion for advertising that took her.

To New York City.

She's smart.

She hot tail it out of here as soon as she had a chance to get away from you.

And what about me?

You're all gonna leave me here alone, all alone.

I have no friends.

I haven't touched someone in years, haven't been touched.

You think I like drinking this much?

You think I want to live on my mama's couch under a ratty blanket that smells like moth balls and liquor, eating pizza and Ramen noodles like a college student.

Who ever went to college? No future? You think I want to be living dark.

You think I want to be a living dark shadow of Mama's dark life. Some days I feel myself making the exact same foul faces as Mama, grimacing at every excited story you all tell, finding fault with your lives. Your words. I'm identical to Mama.

I'm a twin, and I hate myself for it.

I drink because I can't stand to be in myself, in my own body.

I need escape.

I need to be somewhere else.

He takes a swig of his drink.

I feel responsible for the accident. It was my fault. If I had stay with Daddy that day, he'd still be here.

And we all know it.

Come up there. I know that land like the back of my hand. We shouldn't have split up that day. We shouldn't have been drinking. I knew it, and I did it anyway, went to buy a pack of cigarettes and some beef turkey, and that's why Daddy is gone.

And we have no Daddy in our lives because of me.

You finally admitted it, son, years of excuses, but you knew it was your fault. You've always been careless since you was a little boy. Well now your chickens have come home to roost, and I'm sorry if your worst fear is acting like your mama. Some children loved their mama.

Mine don't.

So you took my husband away to punish me.

That's enough, Jane. You've become a tyrant, a dictator. I remember the day years ago when you killed that stray cat with a shovel.

You turned a corner.

The things you're capable of.

I don't know how you sleep.

You're a self centered woman, Jeannie. You were a kind girl once, but you're a hard woman now. Too many cold acts piled up on top of each other by your hand like a stone wall.

Uh, save me the theatric CB. We all have secrets, don't we. At least I put that cat out of its misery. But you're fining to let a baby go along, Jeane. Don't. If tonight is the night our secrets all come out, then so be it. Lily May here's a secret that may interest you. You know how we always laughed because your mannerisms favored your auntie c B. How you carried yourself like her, You talked like her, cried like her. Well, you may share more blood with your beloved CB than you think. I get all the crap in the world for how I raised you children. But at least I raised you. I never turned my back on you. I never let you go hungry, even when one of you was given to me by a sister who didn't have any instinct to raise her own child.

A defenseless baby.

I held that baby, took her to my own breast, gave her a home. I didn't do it perfect, but I did it, and that is love.

CB sinks to the floor.

No, no, Genie, why would you?

You've gone too far?

Is this true?

You may as well know now you're grown, and you should know who you are before you go out and start.

Your new life.

Blackout. When the lights come back up, everyone is in our same positions, frozen in soft light. Buck enters through the screen door. He's glowing. No one in the room can hear him.

Love doesn't come but once in a lifetime for most folks, and for some, hell not at all. I knew I love Lily May as soon as she looked at me. She's the sweetest creature of all creatures walking earth.

Mama loves her too, like her own. We're kindred souls.

We've been facetiming every night for hours, propping our phones against our bedroom walls and sharing stories, dreams, some frustrations.

It's so easy to share my life with her, and so right. But when I saw how her mama looked at me today, the disgust on her face as she stared into the purity of my love. I knew I wasn't good enough for her.

I knew our families would never melt together as one.

She would never love me or let me.

Love her child.

So I took out my hunting gun and I shot myself in The.

Head lights go out. When they come back up, everyone in the room unfreezes.

Well, now I know who I am. I'm born again, new life, new blood. Excuse me, I'm going to see Buck now, y'all have a good Thanksgiving.

Lily May opens a screen door, opens an umbrella, and runs out into the hard driving rain.

Well that was a nice, thoughtful surprise, Mama.

Really, I've done yourself this time.

And for the record, I didn't leave just to get away from you. That's given you way too much credit.

And though I may be fired this moment, I do love advertising. I love advertising passionately. I love discovering how to connect with the consumer and figuring out the best way to represent that brand, meeting everyone's needs. No one can go ignored and the transaction or the whole thing fails. It's about balance, something I never had here. I love sitting round.

A table with my colleagues and talking about ideas.

Mama, ideas, ideas not about our past, for the love of God, but about brand.

New, sparkly ideas.

Wonderfully abstract and perfectly specific ideas. It's not about me or my coworkers' personal lives. It's about the product. For once it's the product's turned to shining. We are all merely facilitators to guide it into the hand of the consumer, where it belongs by divine preordained right.

Hell, I even love the buildings we work in, clean, bright, shiny buildings with new furniture, furniture that doesn't hold any dark secrets. Chairs my daddy has never sat in, and tables that he has never laid his eyes on.

Silence.

I feel him missing everywhere here. Oh, I've replaced my eyelands. I see a place where my daddy used to be.

Well, I'm still here, baby. I see now that I left you all in ruins. The lights flicker every time the rain comes in. I would have fixed that. I see my wife as a broken woman, unable to mother as she should. My son racked with guilt. He didn't kill me, Cooper. I took a false step the mining company should.

Have covered that hole.

Offence the entire area.

Terry Anne makes a cup of espresso, and the mechanical industrial sound obliterates the words Daddy's ghost is saying as he mounts them silently unnoticed. In the background, Evangeline enters brightly from the kitchen holding a wooden spoon.

Dinner is served.

The potatoes came out best they ever have looked, whipped high like mountains. I couldn't have done it all without CB and Cooper and Terry Anne and Lily May helping me out.

Now. I know I give you all a hard time, but I do.

Love you, and I love Thanksgiving when we all come together in spite of it all.

So let's see.

I set it all up buffet style in the kitchen. You just grab you a plate and a fork and help yourselves cleaning to go around mama.

I think we ought to call Buck and his mama and see if they want to join us. They're sweet people.

I found some extra china in the pantry, and there's enough food to feed a firehouse.

Well, come on, everybody, Lily May screams in the distance.

Fucked my husband, the father of my child.

Buck The light stem, the rain sounds increase in volume until the stage is black the end.

Thank you, Thank you so much.

I know that you know, people could be feeling a lot of feelings right now, and I don't want to. You know, it can be jarring to rush straight into a Q and A, but we really do need your feedback and help. You know, I have some questions for you. I'm hoping you have some questions for us. You know, as a playwright, this kind of information is just invaluable.

Like if anyone when did you cry?

That that's something that would help me. Like which parts did you cry during.

Chelsea Peretti?

Ladies and gentlemen? Huh wow both?

Did you relate to one character mostly or was it constantly shifting who you related to?

Other things you could.

Share with us as just is there a character you would cut?

Did the pace feel good? Did it?

Did it ever feel like it was dragging? Do you feel like the story came through clearly? These are the kinds of things even if you want to, you know, let me know after the show was would you see it again? And if anyone has any questions for us or wants to answer any of those questions, well we'll start the Q and A now, and first of all, just a hand for my wonderful actors.

I mean, what a.

What a beautiful read?

Anything at all?

Where do you find.

That's a great one for the table.

Let?

Me start with motion head my way.

Oh, I find the power is in the words. I mean it was. It was from the play right down.

I mean, we're just vessels, and she's definitely she's the water for the rain. Water if you will, it fills that vessel.

I've just recently lost a friend of suicide, and when when I read the part of Buck, it wasn't so much about me playing someone. It's about me channeling that friend and making sure that pain is conveyed to you guys properly.

Right.

And the guy's name was Buck, right, that was the crazy coincidence.

Yeah, he was my uncle.

I think for me, when you read a when you read a role like Lily May, I mean, this is a this is a role that can define someone's career. And all I wanted to do was honor the writing and honor her truth, and honor this person and make her a person. So I think Chelsea for that opportunity.

Thank you.

Yeah, I too find most of my inspiration from the text, and.

I feel really, yeah, i'm text based worker.

I related to Evangeline a lot though, because I too often feel ignored, like there's a foot on my neck.

As a POC.

So yeah, it was just easy to relate to.

Me too.

Christ You know, I am actually Southern. I'm from North Carolina, and when Chelsea first told me she was writing a Southern piece, you know she's from being from the Bay Area, I was a little incredulous, But when I read it, I was like, boy, fuck, you nailed it. Did It's just a testament to her ear and her compassion and and just thank you. I really felt like I was going back to my hometown and thank you.

I need that, I needed this.

Thank you.

I'm actually shy, so I don't really know.

I know, I know it's really embarrassing, but I am I I can't really I will say, I will say I can't really speak to inspiration.

I don't know.

I believe inspiration is for amateurs. I think you do the work, and I think that I think it's really clear that Chelsea did the work and we all just kind of followed.

So thank you, Chelsea, Thank you.

You know, I think in thinking about the question that you asked is a beautiful question, I think for me, I think that this sort of origin of this for me was the rain. And there's there's such a duality to rain, right because it can flood us and overwhelm us, it can cleanse us, it can be dirty, it can be clean, and you know, to me, that is that's life, and that is family. You know, family, Family can cleanse and family can.

And ruin your life. So it's.

It's just something that I thought it was the perfect symbol. And you know, I was sitting here in l A and these rains were coming down. I thought, God, the rain is coming in, you know, and I have to do something with this, you know. And I'm just so honored that that people went out on this, you know, limb with me. Is there any other questions? Yes, in the front? How did you pass the roles?

How did you know?

Well, it's funny, it's such a it's been such a long journey because initially I had you know, eight other actors in mind, and and it was this whole you know, sort of evolution where you go, Okay, this person can't, this person can't, and like and then the people that you wind up with wind up being the right ones for the role. I wouldn't have would have been happy with the kind of high goals I was going with. The people that wound up coming into this project were born to do this project. So you know, it's just nature and Nate once again. Nature kind of you know, plays a role here. So yeah, I don't know if if any of you want to talk about the audition process, but I had.

I had originally auditioned for the role of Tyranne and I'm sorry, sorry, oh.

I didn't say anything, Oh okay.

And that it's funny because that's how I saw myself. And you know, when I got the call that I was cast as Ali May, I thought like, this doesn't make sense to me, and then I realized. Then I realized, wait a second, Chelsea is a genius because a real Lily May when you think of who she is, this person, deep down to her core, she wants to be Tyryanne, but she's not.

And it's so funny because to us the cast you are such a Lily May. No, we totally feel that that's.

That's Chelsea being a genius.

But one idea that has come up and we tend to work, you know, in non traditional ways. And one idea that's come up is, you know, we rewrite this based on your notes and we restage it and mix up all the casting, so you know, I would be Buck and you know, maybe you would still be Lily May, but.

Like people would switch, a lot of people would switch.

So that's one direction.

Yeah.

During my audition, you actually made me read the entire play alone, and.

That's when I was still kind of shaping it as a woman.

Yeah.

I wanted to see, like if you had any good impros, right, right.

And then I threw it up on Vimeo, sent that to you. Yeah, and you said you're not in this, and then later on you said.

I brought you back in.

Yeah, I brought you in and then I was I'm off for only so I didn't I didn't audition.

Yeah, And I remember Mosha asking me, you know, when I said you're gonna play Daddy's ghost. I remember him saying, like, do you want a traditional ghost voice? And I thought, that's amazing that you have that in your arsenal and I said, you know, just play it, just play it real.

It was it was originally going to.

Be I'm still in the corfield, and.

Then she threw the power of for directing really dialed that down to the character that that became Daddy's ghost.

I'll just say people don't know that about Chelsea, that Chelsea's a director.

Right, Yeah, you know, yeah.

That that's not clear. Chelsea directed this whole reading.

So once again, any other questions there?

Oh?

Yes, the other area?

Wow?

She The question was, can you talk about the other areas of symbolism in the play besides rain?

Sorry?

Is that what you mean?

Okay, but you got the part about the rain, because that's bad if you didn't.

I mean a lot of stuff ties into the rain. I mean there is flowers and what makes a flower grow.

I'm sorry, I almost find that question disrespectful to her vision. Yeah.

I wasn't gonna say it, but I just kind of feel like sometimes like, and of course we're open to feedback, but it's like sometimes the feedback is like what are the symbols? It's like, I don't know, like, can you do some of the footwork? Yeah, can you name a symbol and then we'll we'll talk about that symbol that you yourself noted.

Next question, it's like, can you talk about the other symbolism and death of a salesman other than selling stuff.

It's like, I mean, I guess there is an espresso machine for me, Like I mean, I would have loved.

For you, you know, to come from you. But for me, that was about the industrialization and the mining you know, company that didn't protect Daddy. You know that that his very words are kind of enveloped in an industrial were and and that's where we are right now. We're not protected, we don't have healthcare.

Well, Chelsea, Chelsea, we'll talk a little bit about the symbol of symbolism of Terry Anne being so connected to her phone, being so connected to it.

Well, and it's interesting because Buck and Lily may as well. I mean, their love story unfolds on the phone. So I mean, it's all so just about how no matter where you are, if you're in a rural home, you know, these phones have infiltrated our lives. Then espresso machines. I mean, it's there's no way to get away from it.

I mean, I feel like, if you hear this play and you.

We're not involving you just because you just that is fair, and that is fair.

I'm sorry, No, you're like this stage direction, so it's kind of I feel there's like levels.

So I don't and I am sorry, no, no, I'm sorry.

No, no, I mean, do you want to make one comment?

Well, I was just going to say, I feel like, if you hear this play and you don't understand the connection to what's going on with privacy in the NSSA, uh, maybe you didn't hear the play because it's there.

And that's why we're not involving you. Man, that's that's exactly the kind of stuff we.

Don't And I am gonna leave and I should.

No wait, wait, I don't want you to feel and walk. I mean this is a family, right.

And it is a family, and I am on a lower level.

Right.

Yes, there was someone who had a question over there I thought, or over there you did.

Oh my god, isn't that amazing?

That's so cool. I love that.

I mean, and that's the kind of thing that theater does. So I guess guy, no, I'm sorry, no, no.

No, no, no, no, we're not we're not doing that.

I'm sorry. He doesn't have a name card. So if you want to try that question for someone else.

Your relationship to the family and this.

Is getting Metay, this is getting very meta, and it's something that we're trying to kind of keep it to the page because you know, we're trying to take this all the way.

Any other question, Yes.

As someone who's worked in New York in advertising, I just totally identified with.

I feel like my colleagues would equally relate.

Yeah, wow, thank you.

I mean we're also like open to doing for pay, like at any advertising company.

Like during a lunch break or whatever, just set up.

I don't know if you guys can see, but Kate's crying, Oh yeah, we'll do it in New York.

Yeah, that's really thank you, Thank you.

Sorry. So, yeah, was there any And I know this is hard, but can we go around the room and get one thing you loved and one.

Thing you hated.

Just so we get a little balance, because I know it's hard to kind of critique, but that's what's going to help us grow. Was there anything that didn't didn't make sense? Was there any part where you were like cut this page, you know, like oh in the back, yes, kill himself.

But you know it's interesting.

I mean we may have different thoughts on this, but I think it's partly how he played it.

Yeah, I would.

Say that partly how he played it tonight and then we did a rehearsal it was a little different, and tonight it got.

You're not wrong, yeah.

Yeah, but but did you want to speak on that? Did it feel rushed on the page, because I'm open to also it could be on my end.

I just I just feel like, and this is you can tell me if I'm overstepping my balance.

But any sort of setup would have helped.

I would go as far to say, maybe a second line of setup instead of just me going home, rock going home?

Right right, But that's neither here nor there.

You know, it could have been right right right, right.

Well, it's sort of like the element of surprise where you kind of want people to not go, oh now, he'll probably kill himself, you know, right, And that's.

Like a lot like life. Oh him, he's gone.

Yeah yeah right.

It's almost like you're saying in a way like it would have been nice if you had written a much more hackneyed traditional play instead of a sort of masterpiece of avant garde theater.

Yes, well, yes, machine the window.

Yes, are you an engineer? Okay, I'll change it.

I'll change that.

What what do you think would be like the most logistically accurate, non theatrical try it out?

Yes, I did.

I had ten espresso machines, I ordered window panes. No, but I listen. I you know, and I know I'm asking for feedback. Then I'm getting angry, but it's.

I will change it. I'm change it.

Are you sitting with the person that asked about the symbolism?

Get the fuck out of here?

Are you twins? That's that questions to everyone?

Did anyone cry?

Did anyone cry?

Oh?

Cool?

Yes?

Over there with the watch on.

Who ghosts in it?

And they were represented in different ways.

Choice.

That's a tough one. That's a tough one, you know. I think that I wanted it to be.

An element of surprise that buck.

You don't know, why is he glowing? Why is he walking in in this way? I wanted the final line in his monologue.

Shot myself in the head to be, oh, he's a ghost.

But I didn't want it projected on the wall because that's kind of Daddy's ghosts space in kind of the stage map that I.

Kind of drew.

An espresso through the window. Everyone has their space, and that space, of course will be changed now.

But this is so helpful.

I'm gonna I'm gonna tear this thing apart and kind of redo it. Should it be happier? Do what do you want a happier ending?

Great?

Any final question before we go sign the front page of our script.

Yes, I also know.

More about Cooper's bedazzled jens.

You know, and always of course ask questions about the acting to Cooper's bedazzled jeans.

What was what was.

Like?

How did he Arriet?

You know like that are you familiar with like just like Ed Hardy in my mind, he you know, went to uh, you know, a dollar store or he bought the Ed Hardy jeans when they were kind of a hot item and they just kept being on him, you know, as as.

His life stayed a little bit stagnant.

But he was trying at one point and then it just stayed in that zone.

He's not gay, Yeah, And we we talked about that for like forty minutes at coffee and John it was very.

Important to John that it wasn't a gay character.

And I said, look, I get it, you know, and I think you can play any type of role.

And you know, I'm not into you know.

Boxing people in I want people to play straight. So yes, did you consider you look so nice?

That was a real curveball.

But I mean one thing I was thinking of that is should you know. One idea that I might take things in a rewrite is should everyone be a ghost and they all died at the same accident with Daddy and they don't know what they're fighting it because there it's sort of like the sixth sense.

I don't know if you've seen it. So that was one idea. And also there was an idea like maybe there's.

A dog ghost and and it just barks but no one can hear that. Yes in the glasses. Well, some things it's like lost in translation. It's the whisper, you know, it's I mean Terry Anne lost her job.

I think it's like big city tough.

Breaks, right, I mean you you must have created a backstory.

Yeah, yeah, so, but sometimes just lose a job.

Next question, you.

Said you were curious about that, and there was anything else you asked why c B. Well, I don't think you were fully tuned in. She didn't have to, she chose to.

Did you have a.

I know that most of my actors here tend to create an elaborate backstory on the page I did.

I had so many backstories and as pitched to Chelsea. I don't want to say they were shut down like Chelsea's. Chelsea's way of directing is sort of like through destabilization. I don't know if I'm saying that that's but yeah, I mean which backstory?

I mean?

My favorite one was the one that she really was wanted to go to the big city herself. In her case, it was Los Angeles.

And she just struck out, uh, never quite made.

It and came back and Mama Jean was very defensive because the may was getting a little long in the tooth and and uh she gave up. Chelsea didn't like that one, but.

This was the face that I got.

It's fine.

Well I still don't understand it, but you know, I wanted to go to Los Angeles.

Who did you did?

Seebee? Oh I'm so sorry. This is a touchy I went like that.

Yeah, so there was contact right there.

Yeah, AnyWho, you know, just to speak to Chelsea's directing style for a minute.

She's really do have to wrap up after Yeah.

Yeah, sure, she's strong and she's fierce, and as an actor, that's what you're looking for you know, you want some one who's gonna tell you when you're wrong, to lead you and just tell you when you're wrong you yeah, and push you to push you.

Yeah, sometimes you cry.

Sometimes it's not even about the acting stuff. It's just like personal atteunts on your character that help you feel like you can build your other characters.

Yeah, sort of tear them down and see what rises you. Guys, thank you so much for being a part of this. Thank you to my actors, and write us a letter if you have any thoughts, leave it at the office.

And we'll we'll pore over those letters.

I will thank you so much, and thank you to Dave King as well.

Chelsea Peretti

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