Scribd
Upload
69 views3 pages

Play # 4 Orbit

This 3 sentence summary provides the essential information about the document: The document is a play titled "Orbit" where a man stands on a chair in a small room and makes four turns to the right, facing different directions each time. Between turns, the man reflects on the concept of orbiting one body around another through attraction and momentum. At the end, the man steps down from the chair, leans against the door when it opens, and blocks it from opening further while reflecting on a "shallow orbit."

Uploaded by

Joe Frost
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
69 views3 pages

Play # 4 Orbit

This 3 sentence summary provides the essential information about the document: The document is a play titled "Orbit" where a man stands on a chair in a small room and makes four turns to the right, facing different directions each time. Between turns, the man reflects on the concept of orbiting one body around another through attraction and momentum. At the end, the man steps down from the chair, leans against the door when it opens, and blocks it from opening further while reflecting on a "shallow orbit."

Uploaded by

Joe Frost
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
You are on page 1/ 3

Play # 4

Orbit

__________________________

By Joseph Frost

Originally written for the 2019 "31 Plays in 31 Days" challenge

Contact:
Joseph Frost
710 Newland St
Jackson MS 39211
[email protected]
A guy stands on a wooden chair in the center of
a small, crooked room. He faces the audience.

The door is closed.

He turns to his right.

He turns to his right again, now facing upstage.

Once more, he now faces left.

He turns again, now facing the audience.

GUY
Orbit. The turning of an object around another. Rotational and regular. Maintaining an
overall average distance, otherwise the outer tension on the longest end of the rotation
risks breaking the force that maintains the orbit. One body, circling another. Both
pushed and pulled, away and toward. And yet.
(beat)
And yet.

The door opens.

The guy makes four turns again, same direction,


lasting for the same amount of time.

The door closes.

GUY
What makes it stay is attraction. Attraction to another body. Within the vast eternity of
space, two bodies, who, by mass, by proximity, by unseen forces, find themselves flung
together. Perhaps one creates a field that ensnares the smaller, the weaker, and refuses to
let it go. Perhaps they balance one another perfectly. Perhaps.
(beat)
Perhaps.

The door opens.

Again, the guy makes four turns. Same as


before.

The door closes.


2.

GUY
But it is the attraction, the orbit, the rotation, that gives it the momentum that pulls it
away. The force that works against that same attraction. Given strength, given speed and
power, it is pushed away. It has gathered its own potential, in motion, in trajectory, that
on any tangent in the rotational circle, it can, it could, it would, escape. Escape.
(beat)
Escape.

The door opens.

The guy does not rotate.

He looks at the door.

He steps down from the chair.

He walks to the door.

He grabs ahold of the door.

He closes the door.

He leans against the door.

He slides to the floor and sits, back to the door.

GUY
A shallow orbit. When the rotation collapses, as the weaker, smaller, body... succumbs...
is brought too close, by irresistible forces, and cannot... maintain... orbit. Cannot...
maintain... orbit.
(beat)
Orbit.

The door tries to open, but cannot.

The guy falls over, blocking the door.

The door stops trying.

Lights down.

End.

You might also like