HALFTIME BY JEFFREY LO
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A high school basketball gym locker room.
COACH TURNER looks at his team.
He paces back and forth.
He stops.
He looks at his team.
He paces back and forth again.
COACH TURNER: Um…
He clears his through.
COACH TURNER: Ladies…
He thinks about what words to use.
COACH TURNER: Good news – I think we could have done better than that…
Pause.
COACH TURNER: Bad news – we only scored two points.
Pause.
COACH TURNER: And we’re playing basketball. If we were playing, I don’t know, Hockey we’d be in good shape but hoops… not so much. Look, I know that we’re playing in front of an empty gym and at this point the probability of us winning are scarily close to zero but… let’s just give it our best ok? Because… well look it would make me feel a whole lot better, alright ladies?
Beat.
COACH TURNER: I can’t believe I’m going to..
Pause.
COACH TURNER: My wife left last night. And I know that is way more information than any of you want or need… or is appropriate to tell high school students but I’m out of things to tell you guys to get you to do better and basically I’m resorting to… do this for me… Please?
COACH TURNER takes a deep breath.
COACH TURNER: I’m sure I’m going to regret all of that by… tonight. But here we are. Alright. Let’s all huddle up, put your hands in the middle… Four Points on three, alright? One… two… three.
Lights fade.
END OF PLAY.