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Generation Gap: A Drama
Characters (In order of appearance)
Alexandria Vestal: A 17-year-old junior in at a suburban high school. Very well versed in regards to technology.
Christine Stuart: Alexandria’s neighbor and best friend. Equally as well-versed in technology, and has strong modern views.
Mary Beth Stuart: A 50-year-old stay at home mother of three, including Christine. Always trying to be “hip and cool” with her kids, but never quite achieves it. Very traditional and dated.
Trisha Vestal: A 54-year-old mother with a successful career as a lawyer. Best friends with her neighbor Mary Beth, but is far more “with” the modern technology and ideas.
Mr. Stuart: A totally hipster dad of Christine and husband of Mary Beth. Rides a rip-stick through the house and drives a Prius.
(Scene opens, Mary Beth and Trisha are sitting having coffee and scones in the Stuart’s breakfast room. Mary Beth is writing out her grocery list while Trisha is preparing her notes for court. Alexandria and Christine enter room.)
Christine: Alex…what you wrote on Jimmy’s wall was so funny…I literally like LOL’d
Alexandria: OMG I…
Mary Beth: Excuse me, vandalism to your peers’ homes? Are you girls kidding me? I play paddle tennis with Mrs. Riley. I cannot believe you guys would do such a thing I need to grab my rolodex and… (Shuffles over to her desk off the kitchen, grabs landline phone off its base…)
Trisha: Mar- they're talking about the Face Book. The kids write little messages to each other on these computer walls. It’s like us passing notes to each other back in the day.
Mary Beth: O Lord! (gasps) I can still remember to this day—Sister Josephine smacking Patrick Owens with her yard stick after she saw him sneaking a note over to me in the fourth grade! I will never forget that squeal and the tomato red his knuckles became!
Christine: Mom—two things. A: Did you really think Alex went over to the Riley’s house and physically wrote on their walls? I mean, they so obvi have cameras in that house! and B: like that’s literally child abuse. I’m surprised his parents didn't sue that nun.
Alexandria: I know, he obviously suffered some emotional distress from the incident!
Mary Beth: Girls please, there was no suing back then! We all just got along. And when someone made a mistake, it was paid for. No questions asked!
Trisha: (Looking up from her documents) Well, they could sue now…It’s called a retroactive emotional distress suit. I’ve been very successful with this type of claim with those priests…I should get in touch with him—I do free consultations now.
Alexandria: Mom stop!
Mary Beth: This reminds me…I have not seen good Jimmy Riley in a while, we should all hook-up sometime.
Christine: Mom! Are you literally joking me? That may be the most repulsive thing I have ever heard you say.
Mary Beth: What?…Does Jimmy have lice again? You know…I was watching Kathy Lee and Hoda yesterday and they have this new lice treatment where…
Trisha: Mar—I think what the girls find to be so amusing is that (hand gesture quotations) “hooking up” means playing the hanky spanky with the opposite gender.
Mary Beth: (raising voice) You girls better not be (hand gesture quotations) “hooking up” with any boys. Is it time we revisit our old friends from 8th grade…?
Christine: (Terrified, Trembling) No mom! please! No Mom!
Mary Beth:…because it appears that we have forgotten about the birds and the bees. You must not remember Father Hynes’ talk with you girls. Or the video. Good thing I bought an extra copy on BlueRa….
Alexandria, Christine: Not the movie!
Alexandria: Okay…on that note: Mom, my hard drive crashed last night.
Trisha: O honey…I’m sorry. Is all your stuff okay? We will get it brought into the shop tonight.
Mary Beth: I don’t care about your stuff! I am more concerned about you! Are you okay!
(Everyone with confused facial expressions)
Mary Beth: You know…they were saying on the news how teen driving accidents are on the rise due to you kids and your cellular telephones. Were you chatting on your car phone when you crashed, Alexandria?
Trisha: Mar—Alex is talking about the hard drive on her computer! I was concerned about all of the documents for school!
(Mary Beth Very Confused)
Christine: Did you seriously not know what a hard drive was, Mom?
Mary Beth: (Condescending tone) Do I know what a hard drive is? Do not tell me what a hard drive is until you have driven, through a blizzard, from Michigan back down to Hinsdale. While out of windshield fluid. With a 7’ Balsam Fir strapped to the top of your car.
Trisha: No…she’s talking about the…
Christine: Save it, she’s a lost cause at this point.
Alexandria: Christine, do we have to know the pop, lock and drop it for the dance test later?
Christine: I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure Mr. Bel…..
Mary Beth: Oh! That is interesting! I did not know that they still had the schools practicing nuclear bomb drills. Tell me: Is the plan still to drop underneath the desk when the alarm sounds? Or it there some “modern” way of doing it?
Trisha: Mar—the girls are talking about the latest teen dance by Huey. See: look (Shows Mary Beth the “Pop, Lock and Drop It” music video on her iPad)
Mary Beth: (Extremely concerned) What are those girls wearing? With clothes on like that, it is as if they are asking to be taken advantage of by those boys!
Christine: Mom! What the heck! Are you saying that just because they dress a certain way, that they are therefore asking to be raped!
Mary Beth: That is not what I meant, honey. All I am saying is that boys will be boys! …And these girls are leaving little to imagination!
Trisha: Actually…What your mother is saying is not too far off base. I recently represented a girl who was raped at the University. The boys got off with no consequence because she made the decision to dress provocatively and get very drunk. Something is wrong with that, if you're asking me!
Mary Beth: Well why did she get so drunk in the first place?
Christine: Mom! That’s beyond the issue. Why is the victim suddenly at fault here? When someone gets murdered, do we blame the dead person for walking outside at night?
Mary Beth: Well, I just want to make sure that you girls never…
(Mr. Stuart enters skating in on a rip stick.)
Mr. Stuart: alright girls, are you guys ready to bounce? Let’s snag some Bux on our way.
Christine: Thank God! I need a macchiato after this chat with Mom…
Mr. Stuart: Hey hey hey…this is no space for negative vibes!
(Mr. Stuart rip sticks out the back door, and puts his board in the back of his Prius. Alexandria and Christine get in and they drive off)
(Mary Beth and Trisha go back to drinking coffee and eating scones.)
Scene Closes
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Analysis
Generation Gap is a dramatic skit designed to highlight the stark differences from the previous generation and today’s youth. This includes two main components: technology, and the roles and rights of the modern woman. These messages are achieved through conversation, in which character foils are present.
The structure of Generation Gap is designed to be casual conversation in which the opposing views are intertwined just about every-other-line. This allowed me to incorporate heavy emphasis on the contrast between the various characters.
The activities of the two mothers at the beginning of the scene is meant to be a foreshadow of their views and understanding later in the skit. Trisha is a modern working mother, earning a good living as a successful lawyer. Therefore, she is prepping her notes for a court later that day. In contrast, Mary Beth is writing a grocery list because her role in life is a stay at home mother. Being a contemporary career woman, Trisha is aware of modern technology and the injustice of campus assaults on women. Unlike Trisha, Mary Beth is a far more traditional woman. This extends beyond her stay-at home occupation and into her beliefs of the roles and rights of women.
The inciting incident in Generation Gap is when Christine begins talking about “writing on Jimmy’s wall.” Obviously, the high school girl meant Facebook, not physical vandalism. Mary Beth does not recognize this social media terminology, so she immediately thinks it is physical vandalism. This is the first instance of technology conflicting with what Mary Beth is familiar with. Trisha, as the modern foil of Mary Beth, knows right away that Alex wrote on the virtual wall. However, a slight disconnect between Trisha and the girls occurs when she refers to Facebook as “the Face Book.” I designed this to be a subtle difference, as I wanted to make sure that there still remained a slight separation between the teenagers and their mothers.
In addition to the Facebook disconnect, the series of flashbacks to the 1960’s that Mary Beth has are designed to symbolize the fact that she is emotionally stuck in the era before the American Feminist Movement in the mid 60’s and 70’s. Before the feminist movement, the life of the American woman was very limited. There were few employment opportunities and most women got married early and stayed at home to take care of the home. These flashbacks included a school room in which a nun hit another student, as well as the nuclear bomb drills. These were common practices in the 1960’s, as my parents often tell stories like this from their early childhoods. Another difference between Mary Beth and Trisha is that Mary Beth is younger. This is meant to symbolize again the pre-feminist era in which women did not pursue a higher education, for the most part, and got married early to have children. Trisha, on the other hand, is a few years older to recognize her time spent in law school and further exemplifies her as the modern woman.
The rights of women are directly argued upon in regards to a rap video called “Pop, Lock, and Drop It.” I decided to incorporate this scene because I feel like it is especially relevant today, in wake of the University of Virginia’s attempts to cover-up rape on its campus. This has led to a national debate as to who is at fault in these types of situations. Is it the drunk, inappropriately dressed girl? Or is it the boy who takes advantage of her impaired state? I expressed these two viewpoints through the foil of Trisha and Mary Beth.
I used comic relief throughout the piece in order to keep the reader’s attention, as well as to prevent the piece from sounding too serious. Some examples of comic relief include the general misunderstandings of Mary Beth, as well as Mr. Stuart who rides into the room on a rip stick and is a total hipster. My goal in writing this piece was not only to be funny, but to also expose a major injustice occurring today.