ACT ONE OF THREE
Scene one.
Full Pan.
Year 2009.
Scene: “Null” on Oxford and Center/Addison street. Just after 3pm, the streets are buzzing with Berkeley students, professors, children, parents, high school students, homeless people, tourists, wanderers. Sounds of drumming emanate from Shattuck.
Zoom in on one man, his arm rummaging around in a trashcan, his face wrinkled, beard and hair two feet long, clothing soiled, shoes torn. He pulls out a piece of the San Francisco Chronicle: the headline reads, “Roger Talkson wins Nobel Prize.”
Flash to year 1973.
Same scene.
Zoom out from same trashcan to a young man (hinting that it may be the same man as in 2009) with horn-rimmed glasses, button up shirt and tie, slacks and briefcase. He has just thrown something away. Area busy with same types of people. Man turns to his friend standing next to him, agitated. They talk as they walk toward campus, through the Oak Grove.
Man: So I told him he would lose his academic standing and he threw the paper across the room and stormed out. I mean, really, he couldn’t have said anything to make me change my mind and he knew that, plus he’s probably frustrated because I’m younger than him or whatever. Honestly—
Friend: Well you told him you would have reported anyone else, right? So he’d realize it wasn’t personal? He takes everything personally for some reason, like everyone’s out to get him all the time. I think he’s got self-confidence issues.
Man: I know he does! That’s why I’m even allowing him to talk to the dean and myself before he leaves. Roger has to forgive himself and us before he can do anything productive at another campus.
Friend: I think that’s expecting a lot of him, but I guess it makes sense.
Man: If I let him stay he wouldn’t fully understand what he did. He’d go on plagiarizing—if not in my class in others’ without even thinking twice.
Friend: Hmm. When are you meeting him and the Dean?
Man: Today. Somehow I still feel like I have to defend myself—
Friend: (appalled) What for? Oh come on! If you defend your decision you’re letting him do exactly what he wants—make you feel like you’re not in charge, right? You’re 22, man. Pull it together. You’re his professor. It’s not your fault he has authority issues because you’re a young genius. You go in there and kick some Endelberg ass. There is no way in hell the dean isn’t going to be on your side. He renounces plagiarism every waking moment of his career—it’s his job to be on your side.
Man: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll try. At least Roger’s officially disenrolled…
Scene two.
In the office of the Dean of Students at UC Berkeley. Mid-conversation the camera captures Roger and The Man sitting across from the Dean who is behind his desk. Roger is extremely agitated and red-faced, at the edge of his seat, looks as if he has just finished yelling at the top of his lungs. Spit gathers in the corners of his mouth.
Dean: (unfazed) Roger. You broke the rules and that is the end of that. Your professor has allowed you to appeal here but there is no way I’m overturning his decision. I shouldn’t need to tell you more than once—you stole someone’s ideas and claimed them as your own. How hard is it to see that you should know better than that? Get out. You no longer attend this university. If you are still here when I count to 5 I will have security escort you out. LEAVE NOW MR. ENDELBERG!!!
Roger: (on the verge of a breakdown) YOU ARE BOTH WRONG! THERE IS NO WAY I’M GOING DOWN FOR THIS!
He storms out of the room and slams the door. The Man and the Dean breathe a sign of relief. Just as The Man stands to shake the Dean’s hand, Roger bursts through the door with a gun. The Man ducks under the desk.
Dean: Roger don’t—
Roger shoots the Dean in the chest as he puts his hands out to protect himself. The Dean falls on top of his desk and Roger, astounded at the lengths his anger has taken him, drops the gun and sees The Man has called the police from the Dean’s phone under the desk. As Roger hears the police running up the stairs he flees the building.
Scene three.
Various newspapers come before the screen with pictures of Roger and various headlines of his crime and subsequent disappearance: “Student kills Dean in cold blood and disappears after escaping from police,” “Young murder may have escaped to Canada,” “UC Berkeley mourns loss of Dean after plagiarism controversy,” “Even with a witness, killer manages to remain missing,” etc.
Scene four.
Two years later.
The Man is lecturing about civil engineering, while students work on a problem with their slide-rules. Someone comes up to the podium and whispers in his ear. He looks weary and uncomfortable but complies and follows the messenger as the TA takes over the class.
Scene five.
The messenger leads The Man to the Dean’s office.
Messenger: The new Dean would like to speak with you, sir.
They enter the office and the Dean looks up from his desk. He sets down his glasses and looks up as The Man sits in the chair adjacent to him.
Dean: Hello Professor, I’m glad you came by.
The Man instantly recognizes Roger. He suddenly stands up to run out the room, terrified, but the messenger stops him. He stands by the door, looking back and forth between Roger and the messenger blocking the door.
Listen Professor; can I still call you Professor? Good. Now I’m going to need you to be really quiet about what’s going to happen here in the next few months. My name is Richard Talkson. That’s what it's been since the day I was born, understand? I am the new Dean of Students and I plan to be here for many years. If you were to try and get in my way, Donnie over here would have to make sure you aren’t able to teach ever again, got it? Donnie’s special. He knows people. So don’t screw this up for yourself, alright? Get out, pack your things. You’re fired.
The Man/Professor: What?!?!? You really think you’re going to get away with this because you’ve dyed your hair, changed your voice, and paid off a few people—
Dean: By the way—don’t think about applying for another job anywhere in this country. Professor you’re now listed as a pedophilic sex offender. Good luck getting a job. Now get out.
The Man scrambles out and tries to get someone, anyone, to believe him—The new Dean is a murderer! He runs to police, administration, many people but no one seems to take him seriously since apparently another person has admitted to the crime under Roger Endelberg’s name and is now in jail. He doesn’t know where to turn as he begins to head home. Or at least what he thought was his home. As he arrives there are thugs waiting, watching menacingly as he silently packs and leaves the house with nowhere to go. He tries a bank; all of his cards are declined. He has no money for a pay phone. He picks a direction and begins to walk, trying to tell his story along the way.
Scene six.
Same as first scene. The homeless man screams about Roger Endelberg, the murderer. In his ragged attire, people dodge him walking down the street. He mumbles to himself.
Homeless Man: He did it! He’s the killer! Roger Endelberg!!!!! Endelberg!!!
Related Articles:
Oblea, Erika. 5 October 2009. “Downtown Berkeley Budget Plan Released” The Daily Californian. http://www.dailycal.org/article/106903/downtown_berkeley_budget_plan_released
Holmberg, David. 17 August 2009. “City Approves Plan to Open Music Club Downtown” The Daily Californian. http://www.dailycal.org/article/106277/city_approves_plan_to_open_music_club_downtown
There is an extreme attention to detail in the stage directions, where the homeless man is described from his “face wrinkled” to his “shoes torn.” The way this description of the homeless man branches off into a possible history of this man as a professor is reminiscent of de Certeau’s “Walking in the City.” Rather than try and map out all the movements of the “students, professors, children, parents, high school students, homeless people, tourists, wanderers” the author zeroes in on the movements of one homeless man who is digging through the trash, an action that is comparable to a “turn of phrase” in language (de Certeau 100). Recalling a possible history of the homeless man as a professor also hints at Kathleen’s borrowed concept of Weak Theory, as the play speculates on the homeless man’s potential past, rather than his actual past.
ReplyDeleteThe play format is completely different than most of the other blog posts, including mine, especially in the fact that it is absent of any first person narrative. This also contrasts with Latour’s very personal experience in “Circulating Reference.” While utilizing observations of a site into a dramatic work is a creative way to portray one’s experiences, it also eliminates the implications of a firsthand experience. Latour’s account of his trip to the Amazon forrest has a very personal feel to it as he includes firsthand accounts of being in the forrest. This firsthand experience is not present in a piece that is in the form of a dramatic work. Even though there were actual firsthand observations behind this play, there are no explicit indications in the play that the author made these observations herself, which makes the piece less personal than Latour’s and other authors’ blog posts and seem almost like a secondary account.