Thursday, December 17, 2009

Week 48, Day 333 - "At The Starbucks"

“At The Starbucks”

Written by Joe Janes

12/17/09

333 of 365

CAST

Joe, 30s

Rachel, 20s

Ben, 40s

Bernie, 40s

Hanna, 30s

Alexis, 20s

(Lights up on Joe at the counter of a Starbucks. Rachel is waiting on him. Ben, the manager, is cleaning a counter. Bernie sits at a table with his laptop open. Hanna sits at another table, reading a book. Alexis is at a station adding cream and sugar to her coffee drink.)

RACHEL

Another Grande Earl Grey with one tea bag. Anything else?

JOE (puts two dollars down)

That’ll do it.

RACHEL (gives him change.)

$1.98 Here you go.

JOE

Keep it.

RACHEL

Thanks.

(We see her drop two coins, one at a time, into her tip jar.)

RACHEL (continuing)

Thanks, a lot. Who are these people? They come here every day and spend hours upon hours here.

BEN

So do we.

RACHEL

We get paid for it.

BEN

Barely.

RACHEL

What’s their deal?

(Joe looks around the room and sees the other people all in their own worlds, but checking him out slyly. He finds a chair and sits. He begins to sing.)

JOE

At the Starbucks

At the Starbucks

My life is in flux

At the Starbucks

HANNA

I come here cuz

My house is a mess

And drinking coffee’s

Less than cigarettes

BERNIE

I’m sitting here

Cuz I’m a writer

Staring at nothing

Hope to look brighter

JOE, BERNIE AND HANNA

At the Starbucks

At the Starbucks

My life is in flux

At the Starbucks

RACHEL

Missed an audition

Cuz I had to work

No one will cover

Manager’s a jerk

BEN

I’m working here

Cuz I lost my job

Everyone here thinks

I’m such a knob (Rachel - me, too)

JOE, BERNIE, HANNA, RACHEL AND BEN

At the Starbucks

At the Starbucks

My life is in flux

At the Starbucks

ALEXIS (the Bridge, a little samba-y shift in the music)

I don’t go to bars

I promised my mom

JOE

Starbucks is cheaper

Than Match-dot-com

ALEXIS

Drink so much coffee

Makes me want to dance

JOE

I’m not dancing

I’m peeing my pants

ALL

At the Starbucks

At the Starbucks

Life just plain sucks

At the Starbucks.

(Blackout)

2 comments:

Alisa said...

I like this one, but don't see enough comic tension. What if some corporate person from Starbucks came in to say that they are announcing a 45 minute maximum time for free wi-fi, and people have to get a buzzer to wear on their wrist, and when the buzzer buzzes you're out, kind of like a cattle prod?

Maybe it's possible some of the other people sitting thee can be cattle prodded to the wrist as Joe is getting his coffee, and he is not sure he wants to go there anymore? Also, what are all those people in the Starbucks doing? Is one person working on a MLM Internet scheme, another a writer, a salesperson, etc.?

Just ideas, feel free to disregard. Happy holidays!

Chris Othic said...

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like a scene:

1) set on a space station
2) with robots and maybe aliens
3) and also hot women
4) and it also has an explosion
5) and maybe some dancing
6) but it makes sense not like that Dada stuff.

I have been a good boy all year.

Please also give my friend Joe Janes whatever he wants for Christmas, too. He has worked really hard this year writing 365 scenes, but none that were on a space station with robots and aliens and hot women and dancing and explosions.

Thanks,

Chris

P.S. Say hi to the little dentist elf from the Rudolph show for me.