No Time for Sergeants and Other Plays (Scope Play Series)

IRA LEVIN

Douglas Taylor

Bruce King

Jill Infiorati

Scholastic. Inc.

THE STORY: Sal, a writer, and Jenny, an aspiring actress, dream and work for the day when their talents will be recognized and rewarded. Sharing a cold water flat, they have devised an agreement by which their love and their careers remain separate. But then, one day, Jenny comes home during Sal's writing time, and he senses that a change has come over her-a change which threatens to challenge and disrupt their carefully arranged understanding. She seems strangely elated-yet quarrelsome too-as she announces that she is quitting her acting class. With growing apprehension Sal draws out the reason for her behavior: she is pregnant, and wants them to marry. At first it appears that he will do as she wishes, but gradually he makes his feelings all too clear to her. He cannot accept the life that marriage and parenthood would entail. It would mean the destruction of the comfortable cocoon he has escaped into, and the loss is one that Sal cannot face. But for Jenny life is something that must go on, and she will find the courage to move with it-alone if this must be. Sadly she packs her few things and leaves, while Sal turns to the solace of his typewriter and to the hollow comfort of a life that he can only write about but never truly know.

The Agreement.

Literature & Fiction

TAYLOR, DOUGLAS

Dramas & Plays

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

THE STORY: The story is set in a roadside diner in the Midwest. A storm is going on outside while two farmers complain of the hardships of farming. Bill and Sally, who work at the diner, are somewhat happier about their lot in life. Mack and Danny, two boys hitchhiking to California, enter the diner. The farmers, Roy and Paul, are immediately suspicious and resentful of the newcomers, calling them bums and telling them to eat and be on their way. The tension in the diner has reached fever pitch when a news announcement is heard on the radio-the sixteen-year-old daughter of a nearby farmer has been found murdered and an alarm has been issued for the arrest of two boys, whose descriptions fit those of Mack and Danny. The two boys realize they're in trouble and dash for the door, but the others grab them and tie them up. All Mack's and Danny's frantic protestations of innocence are met with scorn and derision. The men are arguing among themselves, some of them ready to hang the boys. Sally begs that they wait for the sheriff. As the men are about to beat Mack and Danny, Paul leaps in to protect the boys. This so enrages Roy that he hits Paul with a violence that kills him. Sally manages to get the Sheriff's office on the phone and is told that the murderer has been found. Mack and Danny are released, as Roy stands aghast, realizing the enormity of what he has done.

Five in Judgement. (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

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Books by Douglas Taylor