Cast of Characters: 

​

Dierdre: 30s. Female. 

Joanie: 20. Female. 

Legend: 50s. Female. 

Mother: Late 40s-early 50s. Female. 

Father: Late 40s-early 50s. Male. 

 

Setting:

A stage, as well as a therapy office in a psychiatric ward, a rooftop, etc. 

 

Time:

Here and Now. 

 

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​

Scene 1

 

A white room with white chairs and a white table. 

 

Joanie and Deirdre sit at the table across from each other. 

 

JOANIE 

Where are my wings? 

 

DEIRDRE 

We don’t have them. 

 

JOANIE 

You took them from me so you have to. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Joanie, you can’t start every session asking me that. 

 

JOANIE 

I wouldn’t if you’d answer my question. 

 

DEIRDRE 

You aren’t unintelligent. 

 

JOANIE 

Thank you. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Graduated top of your class. Got a full ride on academic scholarship. 

 

JOANIE 

Thank you.

Where are they? 

 

DEIRDRE 

That’s what I’m talking about. If I haven’t told you before, why would I now? 

 

JOANIE 

I’ve been praying you would. 

​

DEIRDRE 

And why would that make me tell you? 

 

JOANIE 

Why wouldn’t it? 

 

DEIRDRE 

You don’t answer my questions either. 

 

JOANIE 

I don’t like it when people make fun of me. 

 

DEIRDRE 

I’m not making fun. It was an honest question. 

 

JOANIE 

I don’t know what you want me to say. 

 

DEIRDRE 

I just want you to tell me the truth. 

 

JOANIE 

I’ve been telling everyone the truth. No one believes me. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Let me rephrase the question.

When you’ve prayed for things in the past. Have they...all...come true? 

 

JOANIE 

Not all of them. 

 

DEIRDRE 

So why did you think this time would work? 

 

JOANIE 

I hoped it would. It’s different.

I don’t expect everything I pray for to come true.

Sometimes what I want doesn’t fit into the plan. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Oh right. The plan. 

​

JOANIE 

Yes... 

 

DEIRDRE 

You’ve mentioned a plan a couple of times in our sessions.

Can you explain what that means to you? 

 

JOANIE 

The plan is what orders the universe. 

​

DEIRDRE 

Okay, but... Okay. Can you get a little more specific? 

​

JOANIE 

The plan is pretty big picture. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Alright. You being here. Is that part of the plan? 

 

JOANIE 

I don’t know. I imagine it’d have to be. But I haven’t been told yet. 

 

DEIRDRE 

So it hasn’t been talking to you...lately? 

 

JOANIE 

Not it. 

 

DEIRDRE 

She. 

Alright, she then. 

 

Joanie shrugs. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Was your attempt at harming yourself part of the plan? 

 

JOANIE 

I wouldn’t have been hurt. That wasn’t why- 

​

DEIRDRE 

How would you not get hurt? 

 

JOANIE 

Give me back my wings and I’ll show you. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Good try. You’re getting more creative now.

Weren’t you afraid? 

 

JOANIE 

Of...? 

 

DEIRDRE 

When we found you, you were ready to step off a twenty-story building.

Looking down. Weren’t you afraid? 

 

JOANIE 

I had wings. 

 

DEIRDRE 

But what if they didn’t work? You weren’t afraid at all? 

 

JOANIE 

I’m not afraid of heights. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Twenty stories though.

I’m not afraid of heights either, but I think that would make me a bit nervous. 

 

JOANIE 

No. 

 

DEIRDRE 

If that didn’t scare you, then...what does? 

 

JOANIE 

Nothing. I don’t think. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Now that’s just not true. 

​

JOANIE 

When you believe, you can’t be scared.

You’re not supposed to be, anyway.

There’s a purpose to everything.

You have to have faith that everything will turn out as it was meant to be. 

 

DEIRDRE 

But everybody slips up sometimes. No one’s perfect. 

 

JOANIE 

We can try. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Sure we can.

But when we don’t.

When fear creeps in...as it does...what is it?

For you? 

 

JOANIE 

Just...the usual things. 

 

DEIRDRE 

Like? Bugs, death, enclosed spaces, loneliness, water, clowns, intimacy, needles, commitment, bridges, snakes, cats, darkness. Any of those strike you? 

 

Silence. 

​

DEIRDRE 

I’m allowed a sense of humor.

Sometimes. 

​

JOANIE 

If it helps you with your fear. 

 

DEIRDRE 

What about the plan? 

 

JOANIE 

What about it? 

​

DEIRDRE 

Does it ever scare you? 

 

Shift to another scene, another place, another sphere of existence maybe? 

​

​

​

Interlude 1

​

Legend sits. She is sewing a quilt. 

 

She stabs through the fabric with her needle and pulls an impossibly long thread through it. Then she pushes the needle back through, and pulls the thread again. 

 

She pulls on it again to make sure it is tight. 

 

She sees the audience for the first time. 

​

Oh, hello there...

Back again I see. 

You want another story? 

Well...as long as it’s alright that I tell you something true.

Or as true as I can tell it. 

Oh no, I lost it! 

 

The thread has crept out of the eye of the needle. 

 

She wets the thread and threads it back through. 

 

Once there was a girl. 

She lived in a place much like this one. 

With the same kinda people, with the same kinda human problems I figure we all got.

And this little girl, she wanted nothing more than to be an angel. 

She had a little voice, you see, a little voice inside of her. 

It spoke to her and told her she loved angels for a reason.  

And she loved them a lot. 

She loved their wings and their halos and the light that shone from their eyes.

She loved everything about them. 

But she never prayed to a guardian angel to keep her safe. 

Or to make sure she would wake up in the morning.

She prayed to become a guardian angel. 

So when her teacher told the class to write a report about what they wanted to be when they grew up, the little girl, she wrote about being a seraphim. 

And she stood up in front of the class

and showed them her drawings 

and told them about her dreams

and then, they laughed at her. 

Her teacher said ‘You can't be an angel, you have to be a lawyer or a firefighter or a surgeon or a turnip farmer. Being an angel isn't the right answer at all. What kind of job do you want to do when you get bigger?’ 

She stood and she thought and then she said...An Angel.

She got sent home early that day. 

Her parents were very worried. She couldn’t be an angel, they said. If she wanted to fly, she could be a pilot. 

She sat and she waited as they talked.

She said she didn’t want to be a pilot. And she didn’t just want to fly. 

She wanted to save people. 

So they kept going, maybe she could be a doctor then.

You see, they said, angels were more...metaphorical. 

Not a real thing. Just a nice idea to think about. 

When they stopped, she told them I'm gonna get some wings, just you wait and see,

and then I’m gonna be an angel. 

But they didn't believe her. 

So every day she went up to her room to sew herself some wings, but it took longer than she thought it would. She still had to do homework, you see, and help her parents with the dishes and make her bed. 

But each night she just added on a little bit

and as she got bigger the wings grew with her. 

 

As it turns out Legend isn’t just sewing any old quilt. She holds up her sewing to show she’s quilting a pair of patchwork wings. 

 

She stands up and flaps the quilted wings as if shaking the dust from them, then releases. They float and are suspended in midair. 

 

Eventually, when the girl was pretty much grown. 

She got an apartment, the kind that stacks people one on top of the other. 

And the little voice said, “You got this. It’s time.” 

She had been working and working on the wings until they reached so wide.

She knew the little voice wouldn’t steer her wrong. 

She was ready to fly. 

 

Joanie appears in front of the patchwork wings, perhaps right at the edge of the stage. She looks down, then steps one leg out, holding it like it is over a ledge. 

 

We hear voices. 

 

VOICES 

Oh God. There’s a person up there.

I think she’s going to jump. 

Somebody call 911.

It’s too late. 

Oh God, oh God.

Don’t look. 

Put your phones down.

She’s going to do it. 

She’s going to- 

 

Sirens. Blackout. 

​

​

Scene 2

​

Spotlight on Joanie’s parents. They stand together, looking out at the audience. They speak in a continuous stream of thought. The following dialogue should be spoken as fast as possible.  

 

MOTHER 

It’s just 

 

FATHER 

Sometimes 

 

MOTHER 

Sometimes 

​

FATHER 

We don’t know what 

 

MOTHER 

What to 

 

FATHER 

What to do 

 

MOTHER 

With you 

 

FATHER 

You just 

 

MOTHER 

Aren’t what 

 

FATHER 

What we expected 

 

MOTHER 

We expected you to be more... 

 

FATHER 

More like 

 

MOTHER 

Me 

 

FATHER 

Like us 

 

MOTHER 

Specifically 

 

FATHER 

Not like 

 

MOTHER 

This 

​

FATHER 

Not like this 

 

MOTHER 

You were so normal 

 

FATHER 

Before this 

 

MOTHER 

Such a beautiful girl 

 

FATHER 

Before 

 

MOTHER 

You started 

 

FATHER 

Thinking 

 

MOTHER 

... 

 

FATHER 

... 

​

MOTHER [In unison]

You can’t fly.

You just can’t.

You aren’t an angel.

Trust me, you aren’t.

I’m your mother.

I know.

You can’t fly.

People can’t fly.

No one can fly.

We just can’t.

You Can’t. 

​

FATHER [In unison]

You can’t fly.

You just can’t.

You aren’t an angel.

Trust me, you aren’t.

I’m your father. 

I know. 

You can’t fly.

You can’t.

People can’t fly.

They just can’t.

They can’t. 

​

Lights up on the rest of the room. 

 

Joanie and her parents are in a session with Dierdre. 

​

JOANIE 

I don’t know why you can’t believe in me.

Even if you don’t believe in anything else. 

 

MOTHER 

It’s not about believing in you. 

 

FATHER 

This is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. 

(To Dierdre) She’s still being ridiculous. 

 

DIERDRE 

Please, if you could refrain from that kind of language.

We aren’t here to make judgments, 

I think it’s more important to address why Joanie feels you don’t believe in her. 

 

FATHER 

Because we don’t think she can fly. 

I don’t know what you expect us to do differently. 

 

MOTHER 

It’s like you think we haven’t been good parents.

Like this is our fault. 

 

DIERDRE 

This isn’t about placing blame on anyone. 

It’s about trying to understand where Joanie is coming from.

And where these feelings started.

Joanie? 

 

MOTHER 

She’s always been like this.

Difficult. 

We couldn’t do anything. 

​

FATHER 

When she said she wanted to go to church. 

 

MOTHER 

We said no, but we explained why. 

 

FATHER 

But then, she kept asking. 

 

MOTHER 

So we took her. 

We’re not unreasonable. 

 

FATHER 

We never should have taken her there.

All that mumbo-jumbo got in her brain. 

​

MOTHER

We didn’t think it would last.

We thought it was a phase. 

​

FATHER

A phase that lasted ten years.

We should have put a stop to it.

But we didn’t... 

​

MOTHER 

And that’s why we’re here. 

 

DIERDRE 

I want to make something clear. Joanie didn’t want you to come. 

It was only because I thought it was important that she talk to you... 

And that we have a session together, so I can get a better sense of her situation.

That’s why you’re here. 

Joanie? 

​

jOANIE

(To her parents) You can leave now.

(To Dierdre) There's nothing else to say.

​

MOTHER

Fine.

If you don't want us here.

​

FATHER

I'm sure you have a busy schedule.

All the finger-painting and yoga and whatever else you do.

​

JOANIE

Just go!

​

They leave.

​

Blackout.