———–<.thom.>———–

THE GREAT WORKS PROJECT

a puppet play in many parts

Season Two, Episode Four

By Thomas Typewriter

(c) 2020

———–<:type:>———–

 

FADE IN TO BLACK

From the bottom of the screen scrolls up the following text: 02-04. It moves upwards, pausing a moment in the center of the frame, then continues upward, exiting the frame at the top edge.

FADE OUT

FADE IN

INT. UNROOM NOT.SEVEN

A disc of wood sits surrounded by rows of grey carpet squares in a cavernous room. The light cast by spindly metallic lamps barely reaches out beyond the center of the unroom. A lone occupant, THE OUTER ONE, sits on one of the darker grey carpet squares observing the nearest lamp.

POV OF THE OUTER ONE LOOKING AT A METALLIC LAMP AT THE END OF THEIR ROW OF CARPET SQUARES.

The sound of TYPEWRITER KEYS CLICK CLACKING rings out from the wooden disc.

THE POV OF THE OUTER ONE TURNS TO LOOK AT THE WOODEN DISC.

Unseen lamps over the wooden disc flip on illuminating THE TYPEWRITER ABSTRACT PUPPET STAGE mid-disc.

PAN IN ON THE TYPEWRITER ABSTRACT PUPPET STAGE

TRANSITION FROM THE UNROOM TO THE TYPEWRITER ABSTRACT PUPPET STAGE.

PAN IN ON THE MID-STAGE AREA OF THE TYPEWRITER ABSTRACT PUPPET STAGE.

MID-STAGE: CURTAINS CLOSED

The curtains part and the stage lights turn on, with the sound of A LIGHT SWITCH CLICKING ON, revealing…

MID-STAGE: INT. THOMAS TYPEWRITER’S STUDIO, MID-DAY

Open on THOMAS TYPEWRITER sitting at his desk in the center of the stage. The lamp, to one side, illuminates the nearby wastebasket, desk, and typewriter. Thomas’ fingers feverishly move over the keys as his head bobs to the music from his headphones.

THOMAS TYPEWRITER
(voice-over) “Fade in from black. EXTERIOR SHOT – A realm outside time and space. Multiple colors dance across the screen in a kaleidoscopic intensity. Far shot of the Space Egg hurtling through this higher realm, chromatic waves left in its wake. Cut to medium shot of the SPACE EGG, allowing us to see the high speeds compressing and stretching its form. Cut to INTERIOR OF SPACE EGG. The INNER-SPACE MAN sits in a padded futuristic style astronaut’s chair. In front of him rests a curved console and curved view screen.”

TRANSITION FROM MID-STAGE TO HIGH-STAGE

THE CAMERA PANS UPWARD. IT MOVES UP OVER THE TOP OF THE MID-STAGE SETS TO THE CURTAIN OF CLOUDS BEHIND. IT CONTINUES UPWARD ALONG THE CURTAIN OF CLOUDS TILL REACHING THE HIGH-STAGE AT THE TOP. THE CAMERA STOPS ONCE HIGH-STAGE IS PROPERLY FRAMED.

HIGH-STAGE: CURTAINS CLOSED

The Narrator’s Door opens and out walks Y-Mouse. He is dressed in an evening robe and carrying a newspaper under one arm, a cup of coffee in the other.

Y-MOUSE
“When monsters attack, every commute becomes rush hour. (takes a sip of coffee. Rereads the line back to himself.) When monsters attack every commute becomes rush hour. (makes a sour face) Ohh that is awful. Just awful. (looks into the camera) Give me one moment will you. (Looks down into the High-stage) Writer’s Room please.”

A HELPING HAND emerges from the stage and picks up Y-Mouse. It carries him off-stage.

TRANSITION FROM HIGH-STAGE TO THE WRITER’S ROOM
CUT TO

INT. THE WRITER’S ROOM

A large room similar to a college lecture hall, the writers room is four rows of tables and chairs flanked by stairs on either side. Each row is a long table where the writers sit. Stairs run along the stage-left and stage-right side. The bottom row is shorter than the other three rows, to allow room for a door on the stage-left and a motivational poster on the stage-right. The poster reads: A Happy Writer is a Writer with a Deathline.

Seated in the rows are THE ALPHABET MICE, the writers responsible for the dialogue Y-Mouse reads. Sitting in the top row is A-MOUSE, B-MOUSE, D-MOUSE, E-MOUSE, F-MOUSE, G-MOUSE, H-MOUSE, and I-MOUSE. Sitting in the second row is J-MOUSE, C-MOUSE and K-MOUSE sharing a typewriter, M-MOUSE, N-MOUSE, O-MOUSE, and P-MOUSE. The third rows finds an empty chair then R-MOUSE, S-MOUSE, T-MOUSE, Q-MOUSE sharing notes with U-MOUSE, V-MOUSE, and lastly W-MOUSE. The bottom row finds X-MOUSE busily writing, an empty desk, and then Z-MOUSE asleep at his desk.

Every writer, has a typewriter and cup of coffee, except C-Mouse, P-Mouse, T-Mouse, and W-Mouse. P-Mouse prefers pen and paper to typewriters. T-Mouse prefers tea to coffee. C-Mouse prefers cola to coffee. W-Mouse prefers water.

As we join the Alphabet Mice, the room is filled with a cacophony of TYPEWRITER KEYS CLICK CLACKING and VOICES MURMURING. A-Mouse stands and knocks his coffee cup on the desk. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKS. Everyone quiets and looks his way.

A-MOUSE
(pulling out the paper in her typewriter to read) “Okay Okay how about this. Y-Mouse comes out and says “Sometimes when somebody says that’s the way I found it, that is the way they found it.”

Everyone boos and throws wadded pieces of paper at her. P-Mouse stands and knocks his coffee mug. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKS. Everyone quiets down and turns his way.

P-MOUSE
“How about this. Y-Mouse comes out and says “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the best of traffic. It was the worst of traffic.”

Everyone boos and throws waded paper at him. X-Mouse stands and KNOCKS, KNOCKS, KNOCKS his coffee cup drawing everyone’s attention.

X-MOUSE
“What about this: Moving through our lives, we believe we grow older, grow wiser, and grow kinder, but what hidden hurts, what buried frustrations, lurk like monsters in the dark waiting for the moment to strike again.”

Everyone nods their heads and murmurs approval. The Helping Hand carrying Y-Mouse emerges from the ceiling lowering Y-Mouse to the floor. It lets go and retreats off screen.

Y-MOUSE
“Guys what are you doing? That last script was horrible.”

B-MOUSE
“Sorry. We know. We’ve been working on a replacement.”

X-MOUSE
“What do you think of this?”

He hands his dialogue to Y-Mouse. He reads it and nods his head.

Y-MOUSE
“Not perfect, a little akward but definitely shows promise. Put a little more polish on it and I think we’ve got something here. Send it up to my apartment when finished.”

THE ALPHABET MICE (EXCEPT Z-MOUSE)
“Will do.”

Y-Mouse snaps his fingers and the Helping Hand returns. It picks him up and carries him off-stage. The Alphabet Mice return to typing.

TRANSITION FROM THE WRITER’S ROOM TO THE HIGH-STAGE
CUT TO

HIGH-STAGE: CURTAINS CLOSED

The Narrator’s Door opens and out walks Y-Mouse.

Y-MOUSE
“We grow older. We mature. We believe that our kindnesses, our loves, our experiences have made us a better person. But what hidden hurts, what discarded disappointments, lurk like monsters in our shadows.”

Y-Mouse exits through the Narrator’s Door which closes behind him. The curtains part, and the stage lights turn on with the sound of A COMPUTER TURNING ON, revealing…

THE HIGH-STAGE: EXT. THE INNER HIGHWAY SECTION 4, DAYTIME

An elevated section of concrete and steel, Inner Highway Section 4 is filled with cars. Seed-like glide ships, horse-headed hot-rods, buccaneer balloons, and wind-up wagons are waiting for GRAND DAYPASS JONES, mostly bio-goblin, to turn his sign from STOP to GO. Behind, him the construction crew works on trimming the tree tops. A large robotic Mecha-crane lifts DENSITY DOUBLEDIP, mostly clockwork elf, up to trim the branches, while FORNAXITE SEAHAVEN, Administrator, supervises from the ground.

As the tree limbs are cut, we can see the driver of the horse-headed hot-rod, KRINKLE CANDYWRAPPER, becoming agitated. His anger grows and grows till he explodes. Literally explodes in light and JET TURBINE ROARING. Everyone pauses and turns towards the noise and light. The light and noise fade leaving behind THE FYRE GIANT in the place of Krinkle Candywrapper and his horse-headed hot-rod. Head ablaze, clothed in smoldering metal, he runs towards the construction crew.
The construction workers yell and run away. The other drivers follow suit driving away. A rainbow descends from the sky, stage-left, bringing COLORI PASTELLI into the scene. A humanoid box of crayons, he currently has red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, white, and black stripes. The grey stripe is missing, instead replaced with yellow. COLORI is holding his four faithful hounds: BRAWN, BRAINS, BEAUTY, and BONGO. The hounds hop away and bark at the monster drawing his attention. The monster grips his ears in pain. He picks up the Mecha-crane and and throws it at them.

SWITCH TO SLOW-MOTION…

Colori Pastelli holds up his hands, shining green, and shimmers and then ROSSO COLORI is standing next to him. The red stripe on Colori has turned yellow. Rosso leaps at the flying car. He kicks it away, knocking it into The Fyre Giant’s head. It flies off-stage stage-right as The Fyre Giant falls down. He bounces off the ground with a THUNDEROUS THUD. Rosso Colori lands on his chest.

SWITCH OUT OF SLOW-MOTION, AND BACK TO REGULAR SPEED

COLORI PASTELLI
“Hounds, take this monster to the Forgiving Place. I’ll be along shortly.”

Brains, Brawn, and Beauty grab the Fyre Giant’s feet and drag the monster stage-left and off-stage. Bongo ignores them currently being distracted by a butterfly that flew out of some grasses nearby.Colori and Rosso shimmer, leaving only Colori on the stage. His red stripe has returned.

COLORI PASTELLI
“Bongo.”

BONGO
(snapping out of daze and looking around)”Oh…yeah, sorry.”

Bongo exits stage-left. OTHO MERCUTIAN, a coyote man wearing a plaid suit and thick glasses enters from stage-right. Colori notices him and waves.

COLORI PASTELLI
“Didn’t expect to see you here.”

OTHO MERCUTIAN
“I wanted to talk, so I followed the trail of destruction.”

COLORI PASTELLI
“True. I do leave my mark wherever I go. So, What brings you out of Universitytown.”

OTHO MERCUTIAN
“My son is in trouble.”

Colori’s face grows serious.

OTHO MERCUTIAN
“Can you help?”

COLORI PASTELLI
“I’ll try.”

OTHO MERCUTIAN
“Good. To the Music Hall.”

He grabs hold of Otho’s shoulder and they exit the stage in a rainbow. The High-stage curtains start to close while the stage-lights turn off to the sound of A COMPUTER POWERING OFF.

TRANSITION FROM HIGH-STAGE TO LOW-STAGE ALONG THE CURTAIN OF CLOUDS.
THE CAMERA PANS DOWNWARD FROM THE HIGH-STAGE. IT MOVES ONTO THE CURTAIN OF CLOUDS, FOLLOWING IT DOWN TO THE TOPS OF THE MID-STAGE SETS. IT SLIDES OVER THE TOPS SETTLING PROPERLY FRAMING MID-STAGE.

MID-STAGE: INT. THOMAS TYPEWRITER’S STUDIO MID-DAY

Thomas Typewriter continues typing at his desk.

THOMAS TYPEWRITER
(narration) “Cut to INTERIOR OF SPACE EGG. The INNER-SPACE MAN sits in a padded futuristic style astronaut’s chair. In front of him rests a curved console and curved view screen. Various sized glowing hexagonal buttons are spaced around the input/output screen on the console. The curved view screen displays a vast swirling colorscape only made more abstract by the Space Egg’s velocity. “

The PHONE RINGS, startling Thomas. He stops typing and picks up the phone checking to see who could be calling him. Seeing it is Ophidia Operahouse, he smiles deeply. Thomas slides his headphones off and answers the phone.

THOMAS TYPEWRITER
“Hi, no you didn’t wake me? Sure, I can talk. For you I’d make time. Just writing. Might be onto something. Don’t know. The ideas are so slippery lately. (pause as he listens) Maybe I do need to get out, but I’d rather stay in. Stay in with you. (pause) Sure I could do that. I love to cook. I’ll cook you dinner. (pause) You will. Awesome. (stands and starts to walk off-stage) So how’s your day going?”

The stage-lights turn off, with the sound of A LIGHT SWITCH CLICKING OFF, and the curtains close.

FADE OUT