Session 7 Transcript
LORI: Previously in Session Six
MARI: Little Mike out there: “You girls with your laughing!”
KACEY: A woman’s laugh is powerful, friends. Don’t forget it. In fact – I think we should think of it as another tool in the tool bag, another thing we can turn to when we’re trying to avoid the Defense.
BRIA: What do you mean?
KACEY: Have you ever tried laughing at one of those douchebags? Just full on, full throated, intense laughter?
BRIA: No. I really don’t find their behavior funny.
KACEY: Not even if they were doll sized, like Mike?
BRIA: Well…it might be funny, then.
KACEY: Listen – I wouldn’t recommend this strategy if you didn’t have the Defense in your back pocket, as laughter can be absolutely enraging to these sorts of men but for us…if it enrages them? Fine. You know? They will not be a danger for long. But…for some it confuses them so much, they just wander off.
KACEY: Do we have other ideas for laughter inducing – just in case picturing them small doesn’t work?
MARI: Just add “in bed” to whatever dumb thing they say like they do with fortune cookies.
LEILA: I hate that game.
MARI: In bed.
LEILA: It drives me crazy.
MARI: In bed.
LEILA: Doesn’t anyone else find this irritating?
MARI: In bed?
KACEY: It does seem to be getting the group going.
LEILA: In bed.
KACEY: Ha! Yeah. That’s the way to do it.
Theme music begins
JACKI: Recorded live at Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn
Messenger Theatre Company presents
The Defense
This is Session 7
KACEY: Thank you, Mike. Yes, we know. Of course. Yes. Yes we know. Take care, Mike.
MARI: I’m starting to wish one of the rest of us had Defended against Mike instead.
KACEY: He is very irritating.
LEILA: But he’s so small! It’s funny. It’s like having a puppy yell at you.
LORI: I’m astounded that nothing seems to have changed. He goes on as if nothing happened to him.
MARI: Do not underestimate the power of the male mind to convince himself and everyone around him that nothing is wrong.
LORI: It’s just. He behaves as if he couldn’t be stepped on – as if he’s invulnerable to anything.
MARI: Masculine Magic. I do not know where they get it.
LEILA: They must grow it in their balls at puberty.
BRIA: Leila!
LEILA: What? That’s the only explanation that makes sense.
BRIA: It’s just not like you to be so –
LEILA: Blunt? Crude?
BRIA: I don’t know.
LEILA: Something happened to me last week. I don’t know what did it but – I feel sort of unleashed.
MARI: It must have been that In Bed game. Sorry – Leila – we broke you.
LEILA: I’m not sorry at all.
KACEY: That sounds like a positive development for you, Leila!
LEILA: Oh it is! I’ve been shocking people all week. It’s really something. And I suppose I’m shocking myself the most.
MARI: In bed.
LEILA: Yeah girl.
KACEY: Can you talk to us a little bit more about your transformation process. Like – what’s happened? What shifted?
LEILA: It feels like – my whole life I was afraid to make a dirty joke or maybe more accurately, to be made a dirty joke – and I just realized – well, it’s that thing you were saying about power. Those jokes felt like they were at my expense, you know? They made me just a body – a body to be acted upon, a receptacle, or like, a target. And I feel like a switch got flipped and now I am everything. I’m not just trying to avoid being a victim any more. I’m the arrow now, not the target.
MARI: And – if some asshole says something you don’t like, you can squash him.
LEILA: Exactly. But I also don’t have to. I can feel a sense of power without actually exerting my power if that makes any sense.
KACEY: It makes all kinds of sense and it sounds like real security. Have we talked about shadow selves at all?
BRIA: I don’t think so.
MARI: Is that where we have a weird double out there who has the mirror image of our Defense?
KACEY: No – but that would be pretty cool. I’m trying to imagine what yours would be.
MARI: Maybe like – someone who turns them into fireballs.
KACEY: Oooh showy.
MARI: Yeah – she lights up the night with goodness gracious great balls of fire.
BRIA: So what’s a shadow self?
KACEY: Well – I think this is a Jungian idea that each person has a shadow and the person is the way they are in response to the shadow. For example, a Tyrant’s shadow is a real wimp and he is a Tyrant out of fear of being seen as a wimp.
LORI: Oh yeah! I’ve heard this. Yes. And the wimp is a wimp out of fear of being seen as a Tyrant, Each is the shadow of the other.
KACEY: Exactly.
BRIA: So wait – what does this have to do with us?
KACEY: Not necessarily anything – but I was thinking about Leila not having to use her Defense to feel powerful. She is neither Tyrant nor wimp but balanced in the middle.
LEILA: Yeah. It does feel like a kind of balance. Like I don’t have to REACT so much. I can just….be.
KACEY: Gorgeous.
LEILA: I like it.
KACEY: There are some who think that our Defenses are our shadows manifested.
MARI: Hold up. Hold up. What?
KACEY: There are some theories that explain that our Defenses come from our shadows. So – for example - most of us had acute cases of empathy before our Defenses showed up, we’d always been very nice.
BRIA: Like, very nice.
KACEY: Yeah exactly. Very nice. So because we suppressed our inner tyrants so strongly, the Defense had to push its way into our lives.
MARI: Oh boy.
KACEY: Is this speaking to you, Mari?
MARI: Unfortunately. Do I have to go study Jungian psychology now? Geez.
KACEY: Only if you want to.
MARI: I do not. But I also do a little bit.
BRIA: You don’t seem like someone who suppressed her shadow to me, Mari.
MARI: Why? Because I’m a smart ass?
BRIA: Yeah a little bit.
MARI: Smart assery does not a bold woman make, necessarily.
BRIA: Really?
MARI: Yeah, really. I mean a) I’m a much bigger smart ass in here with you than anywhere else in the world and b) I’m rarely a smart ass TO other people – especially men. I mean, now – now’s different – but, for the most part I’ve been a Grade A side commenter.
BRIA: Side commenter?
MARI: Oh you know when you’re in some class and the teacher yells out “No Side Comments!” She’s yelling at me. I’m making the side comments, But not loud enough for her to hear.
BRIA: Right.
MARI: I’m just as nice as you are, Bria. I’m just a little more salty in here – because I’m comfortable.
BRIA: You ARE salty!
LEILA: In bed!
MARI: Truth, truth, you speak the truth.
BRIA: And are you saltier out there now that you have the Defense?
MARI: A lot saltier! Like, a lot. Some people don’t even recognize me. And some are piles of ash. So.
LORI: In bed?
LEILA: Not quite.
LORI: Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t work.
KACEY: I think it’s also that we appreciate your salt in here. We need it.
MARI: Yeah. You do. And more salt from the rest of you, too!
LORI: In bed!
BRIA: Lori, you are adorably bad at that game.
LORI: I know, right? I need some more salt, I guess.
KACEY: I think most of us do.
MARI: Really?
KACEY: I do. I think a little salt would help almost all of us. I mean – let’s take a little survey. Raise your hand if you almost always followed the rules as a child? That’s almost everyone.
MARI: I subverted them when I knew I wouldn’t get caught – like, I would do secret rule breaking.
KACEY: Salty. Raise your hand if you avoided conflict as much as possible. Yep. That’s all of us.
MARI: You too?
KACEY: Absolutely. Raise your hand if everyone called you “nice.” Again. All of us.
LORI: So nice. Ugh. Nice. Voted Nicest for the Middle School Year Book. So nice.
LEILA: In bed.
LORI: There, too.
KACEY: Raise your hand if you ever just went along with things because it seemed easier than making a fuss. Again everyone. You see the pattern, my friends?
BRIA: That’s just human stuff, though. Almost everyone would agree.
KACEY: I don’t think so, actually. Try this survey out in the world. Not everyone was Voted Nicest as part of their school superlative lists.
BRIA: I was voted Nicest 7th Grader both semesters.
LORI: Seriously.
BRIA: Seriously.
KACEY: We’re a type, my friends. There is great variety among us, of course – but there is a type.
LORI: Crazy.
MARI: So crazy.
KACEY: I only raise it because I think it may be helpful in your own reckoning with your experience, It also might help us spot our sisters out in the world, either before the Defense kicks in for them - or after.
LEILA: Should we be out there recruiting or something?
KACEY: God no. No. Not at all. But think how much it might have helped you to have someone step in and support you when the Defense kicked in. My thinking is that if we keep an eye out for potentials, we can be there for them when they snap.
MARI: If they snap.
KACEY: Of course. Some won’t. I’m just thinking if I’d had my eye on Lori, say at our jobs or something, and she came in one day looking rattled, I might have been able to talk with her about what happened at the library right away.
LORI: That would have been amazing.
KACEY: That’s all. For that little breath of relief we might be able to offer someone meeting their own Defense for the first time.
LEILA: Makes sense.
BRIA: I don’t think I could be a fairy godmother for the Defense.
KACEY: You don’t have to be – not at all.
LEILA: Just point me in the right direction and I’ll go full on fairy godmother.
MARI: Oh wow, Leila, you would be an amazing fairy godmother.
LORI: In bed!
LEILA: You did it, Lori! That one worked!
MARI: Look at her, she’s doing it already. Leila Lady Godmother Extraordinaire.
LEILA: It’s good to have a purpose.
KACEY: You have lots of purpose, don’t you think?
LEILA: Absolutely. I have a basket of purposes and as a fairy godmother, I will organize them all into alphabetical order and hand some out when I’m feeling generous.
KACEY: This seems like kind of breakthrough week for you, Leila. Is that true?
LEILA: It is. Absolutely. In bed.
LORI: I think it’s a breakthrough week for me, too.
KACEY: How so?
LORI: Well, it’s weird to keep seeing Mike like that – but it’s becoming normal and it’s weirdly helpful to know that he’s as big of a jerk now he’s small as he was when he was big. And the fact that he’s not, like, troubled by his transformation makes me …. Feel a little better.
KACEY: I’m so glad. Also, I think it might actually be good for all of us.
LORI: How so?
KACEY: Well, none of us have had the opportunity to continue to see the men our Defenses have impacted. I don’t want to speak for everyone but his relentlessness in maintaining his power and his pride, well it does do a rather good job of minimizing the guilt I have felt over the years.
LEILA: Well said.
LORI: Minimizing. Ha.
KACEY: So, thank you.
MARI: What do you think happened at his house?
LORI: What do you mean?
MARI: Sorry. Maybe you don’t want to think about him.
LORI: No – it’s fine.
MARI: Well, he’s just so clearly in amazing denial and I’m just imagining him coming home and his wife being like, “What happened to you?” And he’s like, “What are you talking about?”
BRIA: And she’s like, “Well – your size?”
MARI: And he’s like, “Size? There’s nothing wrong with my size.”
BRIA: And she’s like, “No, no, of course not. It’s just – you’re a lot smaller than you were.”
MARI: “How dare you?”
BRIA: “I’m just wondering what happened.”
MARI: “Nothing happened. What’s for dinner?”
LORI: On the plus side, she’ll have more dinner for herself!
LEILA: And if he’s a pain in the ass, she can put him in a drawer.
MARI: IF he’s a pain in the ass? WHEN he’s a pain in the ass.
BRIA: Good point.
MARI: She’ll probably have to make a little nest in there for him.
LEILA: He’s like Tom Thumb!
LORI: What?
LEILA: It’s a children’s story about this boy who was thumb sized. I loved it. It always made me think of having a real live doll.
BRIA: I remember this story. Yeah – it’s like – really about all the cute stuff they give him.
LEILA: Like he uses a sewing needle for a sword.
BRIA: And an acorn for a cap! Right? It was an acorn?
LEILA: I think so.
LORI: What happened to Tom Thumb?
LEILA: Does he die? I think he might die. But that’s not the point of the story.
BRIA: Yeah, the point of the story is the cute stuff.
LEILA: Right! And Mike isn’t as small as Tom Thumb – like, he couldn’t wear an acorn cap
BRIA: Or use a sewing needle for a sword.
LEILA: Anyway – maybe his wife read Tom Thumb too and is having a marvelous time thinking of tiny stuff for him.
LORI: Does he have a wife?
KACEY: No idea.
LEILA: But if he does, she has a Tom Thumb type husband now!
LORI: Eeesh.
LEILA: Imagine you were married to Mike.
LORI: No thank you.
LEILA: Exactly. But imagine you were and then one day he came home small. How do you think you would feel?
LORI: Horrified. But also a little relieved.
LEILA: I was thinking that too.
LORI: You guys. This is all so weird!
MARI: What do you mean?
LORI: All of it! We’re sitting here discussing the guy that I turned small a few weeks ago. And he’s not the first one I’ve smalled. What is going on? You know? This is all so WEIRD.
KACEY: It IS weird. You’re right.
LORI: I mean. Don’t any of you just ever look around and go, “This is WEIRD!”
MARI: Often. Though less now than at the beginning.
KACEY: This is a pretty usual stop on a journey with the Defense.
LORI: This weird journey?
KACEY: Yep. Usually folks have a few weeks where the trauma response prevents them from really acknowledging the wildness of what they’re experiencing. Then the weirdness kicks in.
LORI: You’re saying this feeling that everything is super weird is just a normal phase? The weirdness is normal?
KACEY: That is what I am saying though I acknowledge that the knowledge that the weirdness is normal doesn’t make it any less weird. It probably makes it more weird.
LORI: It does, yes!
KACEY: Here’s what I suggest. When you get home, do some super normal stuff. Watch movies you’ve seen before. TV shows that are familiar. They’ll probably seem a little weird too – because you’re looking with a weird filter right now but it will help your brain deal with the reality that it is currently allowing in and doesn’t know what to do with.
LORI: Go home?!? Just go home?! We’re here in a group together because we all have some kind of weird power.
KACEY: That’s right. But we are also all just more or less normal women underneath the fact.
LORI: You WERE normal women before you developed super powers.
KACEY: Yes. And so were –and are – you.
BRIA: This is such a fun one, I want some popcorn.
LORI: What are you talking about Bria?! I
BRIA: Your This Is Weird freak out is one of the best I’ve seen and I’ve seen a few.
LEILA: Are you trying to calm her down with that?
BRIA: No, no. To the contrary. I’m hoping this show goes on for a while.
LORI: I may be a freak but I don’t want to be putting on a show for you.
BRIA: You don’t have to put on a show. Right now you ARE a show.
LORI: You’re so weird!
BRIA: Agreed.
LORI: This whole situation is so WEIRD!
BRIA: Yep.
MARI: I don’t know, Lori. Seems pretty normal to me.
LORI: You’re weird, too!
MARI: Am not.
LORI: Are too.
MARI: Am not.
LORI: Are too! Wait, what are we talking about?
MARI: You were saying that I’m weird.
LORI: Do you not think this whole thing is super weird?
MARI: Of course I do. And I am weird. You were right. But sometimes a little dumb argument can shake the weird loose. Maybe hold the weird phase at bay.
LEILA: It had to happen sooner or later.
LORI: You all really also had this freak out?
LEILA: Totally.
MARI: Yep.
BRIA: Multiple Times.
LORI: So this weirdness is normal?
KACEY: Very.
LORI: And the way to deal with it is to go watch some super normal something.
KACEY: That’d be my suggestion, yes. Maybe one of us can escort you home just so you don’t get overwhelmed by all the weirdness on the street.
LORI: What’s weird on the street?
KACEY: I imagine everything would be in the state you’re in. Anyone up for escorting Lori?
MARI: I’m going that way, I’ll be happy to.
BRIA: Dang it. I was going to volunteer.
LORI: Just so you could keep watching my weird show?
BRIA: Exactly.
LORI: No thanks. Also that’s super weird.
BRIA: I know. Isn’t it?
LORI: Is there anything that is not insanely weird right now?
KACEY: Did you ever watch the sitcom Cheers?
LORI: Sure.
KACEY: I don’t think you’ll find it too weird. But if, for some reason, it’s not on, anything in that vein will do the trick.
LEILA: Is there a movie you’ve seen a bunch of times?
LORI: Hocus Pocus.
LEILA: Hmmm. Wouldn’t be my first choice. Any others?
LORI: I did go through a Sleepless in Seattle phase.
LEILA: Much better idea. Do you have a copy of Sleepless in Seattle on hand?
LORI: No.
LEILA: Anyone else have it, by chance?
BRIA: I do. I’ll bring it over.
LEILA: Miracle.
BRIA: My roommate left behind her whole shelf of romantic comedies so I’m stocked.
LEILA: Bring over a bunch. Mari will walk you home and you’ll settle her in, right, Mari?
MARI: Totally.
LEILA: Then Bria will bring you the movie and things will start to seem slightly less weird in time.
LORI: You all really went through this phase?
MARI: 100%
BRIA: Believe it.
LEILA: You bet.
KACEY: Brutally.
LORI: Okay. I guess it’s a thing, huh?
BRIA: Weird, right?
LORI: So WEIRD!
BRIA: I know!
KACEY: I think we ought to wrap up and just make sure Lori gets what she needs tonight. Make sense to everyone?
LORI: It’s so weird!
KACEY: You’re right. it’s the weirdest.
ALL: I am safe. But I’m not safe for everyone.
KACEY: Take good care of her, friends.
MARI: We will.
BRIA: You know we will.
LEILA: You know - I have a hankering to watch Sleepless in Seattle and I make excellent popcorn. If you don’t mind my inviting myself over, Lori.
LORI: You’re welcome, of course – though I can’t say I don’t find the whole thing super weird.
LEILA: Good enough for me.
KACEY: See you all next week.
LEILA: Thanks, Kacey. Let’s get this party started!
LORI: So weird.
Theme music begins
JACKI:
The Defense is a production of Messenger Theatre Company.
It is performed by Marcella Adams as Leila, Amber Jessie as Mari, Cosmic Kitty as Bria, Kristen Vaughan as Kacey and Toni Watterson as Lori.
The writer/director is Emily Rainbow Davis.
Sound Design by Matt Powell
Sound Engineering by Daniel Massey
Sound Assistance by Angela Santillo
Stage Management by Ella Lieberman
The Producer is Melvin Yen.
The Defense theme is by Scott Ethier.
I’m Jacki Jing
I am safe but I’m not safe for everyone.