Walls Actone

8/10/2019 Walls Actone

1/17

W A L L S

J E A N N I E B A R R O G A

Copyright 1989byJeannie Barroga. All rights reserved.Inspired by Jan Scruggs's

bookTo Heal a Nation.

A

nation thanks you.Wallswas premiered at the Asian

American Theater Company, San Francisco, directed by Marian Li with original

cast members Geneva B askerville, Eric Cazenave, Janis Chow, Ron D orn, Sharon

Iwai,DavidKudler,William Hammond, Michael Racela, James Reese, Charles

Robinson,

Lewis Sims,

Maura

Vaughn,

April-June

1989.


2/17

208

Walls

Time:198210 1984

Place: The Wall , Vietnam Veterans ' Mem orial Fund

office, press conferences, various settings

CHARACTERS

TERRY, vet, white, remains onstage throughout the play as lone

color-bearer

DAVE, African American, Stu's buddy, never served

STU, Asian American, post t raumatic shock syndrome

JULIE, white (or any), protested in the 1 960s

SARAH, African Am erican , former nurs e

MORRIS, African American, paraplegic

vi , Asian American, news reporter

RICH, any race, Vietnam Veterans ' Memo rial Fund representat ive

MAYA, Asian American, twenties, architect

SCRUGGS, white, foremost p rom oter for mem orial to veterans

CARHART, any race, vet opposing the Wall

DAN, Asian American, twenties, a ghost in fatigues

JERRY, any race, twenties, also a ghost in fatigues

v a r i o u s O F F S T A G E V O I C E S , S O L D I E R S

I

a n d 2 , M A N , W O M A N ,

WWII VET, HIPPIE

ACT ONE SceneI

(VOICE: ) They shall not grow old

As we, that are left, grow old

Age shall not worry them

Nor years condemn.

At the going down of the sun

and in the

morning

We shal l remem ber them .

Scene 2

TERRY: For J immy-boy, for Ma rk, for Stevie, and Jo e. . . . Here w e

go boys. (He hoists flag into place.)

DAVE: Come on,

AI,v


3/17

WWII VET: Soldiers aren't murderers. Soldiers do their job.

HIPPIE:YOUgo fight if you want a war.

WWII VET: I don't have to fight, I fought my wars. And I'll fight

you, you

lazyhippie

punk .

I'll

fight you

HippiE:|Hell rjQj we won't gni\fc\] no , we won ' t go

#" 1 C ' 11VOICE: Nomatter-how many-monuments^oxstatues. or s tones . . .

y*fir>M [| the wars go

on.

0

* * . #

Ut

ST ^ ^

4

-

DAVE :

Aw, man, do n 't be s tart ing that again. We here so we can get

back to the way we were, hear what I 'm saying? You lost some

years I don 't know n othing about . And I want to know. Cause I 'm

your buddy. Not l ike that dude holding the flag back there. He ain 't

been through shit with you like I have.

Andrf~Tost_some yeats,

too.

So it 's time we both get back on track.

STU: What , we're gonna be punks again? Dream on, Dave.

We're

r

lobodii

^

* 4 L

^

DAVE: Don't you be calling me a nobody, Stu. Nobodies

lc

.yaiu

You the nobody. Know why? You lost your bi te, man . You lost

every bit of that street tough I pounded into you. Where is it, man?

Here, in your pocket? Or your jacket , huh? O r here, in your shoe,

huh? Tha t where i t is? Cause i t sure ain 't in your head. A nd i t ain ' t

hereneither, (grabs his crotch) i

^

*>{.

STU: Fuckyou. /

DAVE: No, it ain't anywhere now.jrsgon^Andyou gone. Cal l me

a nobody, I 'm not a nobody, cause I 'm here. And you as gone as

they can be. Nothing left of that street punk I used to know. Uh-uh,

ain 't nobody there.

STU: Grow up, Dave. Street punks are dead , they 're nothing. Being

a punk d idn 't help me one bi t .

DAVE: Yeah? Well, it did you just fine when you were some cow-

licked ten year old scuttling down some back alley. I'm the punk

that saved your yel low ass , remember?

STU : You gonna lord that over me the rest of your life, aren't you?

DAVE: Ain't much to it if that's all I do. I'm trying to do more, Stu.

What'd you do over there, man, you come back like this? You kill

kids? Women? You shoot at other Chinese, what? Just say it, man.

I'm not gonna judge you. Me? Hell, I didn't even go. You survived

the s t reets and you come out of the war, that 's twice more tha n m e,

now what's that say? You even survived that one time I coulda beat

you to a pulp pushing me off the

mountainthat

garbage pile we

cal led a mountain. 'Member that? /

What 's i t gonna take, Stu? Another five years of running? An

other bout in rehab? Another war? What? You tel l me. Cause I 'm

getting tired of running my mouth off to somebody who ain't lis

tening. And we s tay here t il l that somebody tells me what I wanna

know. You ain 't the Stu you we re before, dig what I 'm saying? You

%*

J ^

ty*****-

W>

211

j^*jW\

Jeannie

Barroga


4/17

Us

ti

M

f^* ain't the buddy I knew back then.I-w^ntjny.buddv-hack-r4 wan t tn

V

_knowjf.,heliS with

r W ' ' * * 4C

rYAsfenwar ,an&sianinterpretat ion in art form.

MAYA: My name is Maya Ying Lin.

vi : Ironic, isn't it?

MAYA :I' mfronyA*tnens,

J

,OhioZ^

>

&- 'Jxoffe^

vi :

A midwesterner? I didn 't think they knew anything a bout a rt .

MAYA:

I graduate in June.

RICH: She's studying architecture at Yale.

vi :Ah, so that 's why i t 's so modern. ^ _ .

RICH: Very modern.

TworfjIacTnineST / ^ " ^ ^ r

vi :

Pretty controversial stuff. Maybe she had a brother over there,

or some other relative.

MAYA: I was too young to know anybody there. My dad did, a

friend of his.

vi : Fraught with p h


7/17

I F

iJ\

* hbf'* >~>~W

MAYA: Read ing the nam es, like a bell, tolling in your head .

RICH: Again, as I have said, we have not yet made a final decision

on that . Next .

PRESS 2: What's construction on the monument going to cost?

I

*

V

* .

MAYA: The memorial , no matter what , is that it


17/17

238

Walk

and as Secretary of the Depa rtment of the Interior, I , James Watt ,

hereby declare the execut ion of such monument on hold unt i l a

sui table compromise is reached o r unt i l furthernotice.'|On hole }

R I C H :

All

o u r w o r k .

SCRUGGS:till further notice.

Carhart enters.

CARHART: I warned you. I warned all of you.Humbersl Jan. You

forget we always had the numbers . We'l l get more, too.

We'll

al

ways outnumber you.

SOLDIER B: He's starting up again.

tujoins in, singing.

ACT TWO SceneI

Puff the Magic Dragon pl^ys-rEventuTdiy^S

SOLDIER A: Chrissakes,\folksongs in Hawaii? Hey, turn that

down . Do Hendr ix o r t he

StonesT

Smar myk id ' s song . Come on ,

put on something we can al l enjoy. Hey

(to Soldier B)

What ' s

wrong with him?

SOLDIER B: He's high. He's a little . . . you know/spookyj

DAVE: Spooky? Why'd they cal l you that? Hey, man, I knew you

smoked ,but

SOLDIER A:How spooky is he? If he jumps me, I ' l l whip him good.

SOLDIER B: Listen, this guy can't whip cream.

DAVE: You let them talk about you like that, man? You could hear

them, and you did n 't do nothing to defend yourself?

SOLDIER A: This job sucks.

SOLDIER B: Yeah? Wait till the sho w starts.

STU:(reading dog tag) Staff sarge, first nam e William . . . Bill.

SOLDIER B:

YepCpl'

Stu's seen 'em

alp

STU: My dad 's name was Wil l iam. I 've found my two uncles '

names, m y cousin 's , I even found yours , Dave.

D A VE : ^ii_aJj&aysJiiisjup43edj_then?

SOLDIER B: Yep. OI' Stu's notjong for this world himself. Are

you? Gone,mangcjnnalose itsoorh^

STU: Private First Class .. . Jeffrey . . . Jeff. . . . M y middle name's

Jeff.

D A VE : Igo^many names^man.

STU: Sorry, sarge, but it looks like you're on the bottom for this

ride.

DAVE: I'm not feeling too well.

SOLDIER

B:ffiuasked

for i t, man. You wanted

toTcno\

DAVE: Okay, okay. I know I did.

SOLDIER A: How long has he been here?

SOLDIER B : To o long.

DAVE: Ten months. I rem ember.

STU:

Knew i t al l back then, didn 't I? Thought I had i t made (He

begins to laugh.)

D A V E : G o o n , m a n .

STU: Yeah, got it made Hono lulu. Blue ocean, grass skirts ,nakedJ

women. Got i t

made,

(t oSoldier A and Soldier B)Let's get a

moveU

on here Chop ,chop Get i t? Chop,chop? y

DAVE: N o one's laughing, m an.

STU:Come on, thro w 'em on. Planes to fi ll , boys. Lots of planes to

send home. It 's okay, they're light, see? Sorry, Jeff, old buddy. This

won't hurt . But I got ta dump you on the sarge over there.

OI'

Bill

won't mind, will you, Bill?

SOLDIER B: He's working up to a real good one this time.

An agonized scream is heard offstage.

SOLDIER B: They must be

moving

the live ones to the

hospital^)

STU: They're all the same, those here and there. These don't cry,

that's all.

*/ / UafUnf

Scene 2

SARAH: H o w g o es i t?

JULIE: I feel I'm b ack in '69.

SARAH: I hear you. Stubborn, huh?

JULIE: It 's not him, it 's me. JASSi~Ptj)alw^.

Walls Actone

Documents

Transcript of Walls Actone