Behind The Mask

Behind The Mask

TWO CHARACTERS (MALE/FEMALE) SIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE WEARING WHITE MASKS. THEY SIT BACK TO BACK WITH THEIR KNEES AT A 90 DEGREE ANGLE. “BARBIE GIRL” COMES ON SOFTLY IN THE BACKGROUND. FIVE CHARACTERS (three girls in pink masks, and two boys in blue masks) COME OUT AND START CIRCLING (CLOCKWISE) THE TWO CHARACTERS IN THE MIDDLE, CHANTING.

Chanters: Make your face a mask. A mask that hides your face. A face that hides the pain. A pain that eats your heart. A heart that nobody knows. (MALE AND FEMALE GET BOMBARDED BY IMAGES OF HETEROSEXISM.)
MALE/FEMALE: STAND UP AND SCREAM, MUSIC GOES QUIET, AND CHANTERS SCATTER TO ALL CORNERS OF THE STAGE.

Both: Ever since I was little, I knew I was different.
Female: I mean,
Male: I’d always feel comfortable around the girls in my grade when I was in elementary school, where as the boys would make me blush.
Female: and, I pictured living in a house with my best friend instead of getting married and having a husband.
Male: I saw myself getting married and stuff. But, it never really felt like it would be right.
Female: Almost as if it was something I had to force myself to do…
Male: I just didn’t understand
Both: the concept of having a crush on a boy/girl!

Male: While the boys were chasing the girls they had crushes on,
Female: and while all the girls were running around giggling about boys they liked,
Male: I just thought it was a game of tag. I was chasing the boys chasing the girls!
Female: And, then, in middle school,
Male: everyone would talk about who they liked.
Female: I wanted to be best friends with a pretty girl named Laura, but had no interest in any of the boys.
Male: And, I wanted to be close friends with a handsome boy named Tim.
Both: I didn’t understand why I didn’t like any of the boys/girls.

Female: But, of course, I couldn’t tell anybody that,
Male: because I’d be called…
Chanters: ( run in, screaming) GAY. FAGGOT. DYKE. LEZZIE. TOMBOY. FAIRY. HOMO. CUNT. WEIRD. (Run off.)
Both: So, I invented crushes on people of the opposite gender.

Male: I’d spend
Female: Late nights laying awake
Male: wondering if I was all those foul names they called me,
Both: and what would happen if I actually was.
Male: I even dated someone of the opposite gender,
Female: but I knew it just wasn’t right.
Female: Then, when I was fifteen, I fell head over heels for a stunningly beautiful dancer named Jessica.
(ONE OF THE FEMALE CHANTERS ACTS PRETTY)
Male: And, when I was sixteen, I met an amazingly hot swimmer named Marc.
(ONE OF THE MALE CHANTERS STRUTS HIS STUFF)
Both: There was no mistaking it: I liked a girl/boy.
(“MARC” AND “JESSICA” ARE TAKEN ABACK WITH SHOCK AND DISGUST)

Female: With Jessica, I suppose I felt what everyone had been feeling for guys since kindergarten. I fell in love, and she broke my heart.
Male: But from there,
Female: I realized who I was.
Male: and I began to explore that
Female: by looking for like-minded people.
Male: I began to realize that
Both: we were not alone.
Male: but being in those fake relationships just left me confused.
Female: not that same-sex relationships were any less confusing
Male: I had to rely on the internet to find most of my dates, but those relationships didn’t last long.
Female: I was lucky enough to find love without going online,
Both: As fate would have it, things happened to cause a lot of hurt.
Male: I met a guy named Larry, and he won my heart. Things were great, until I found out that he was seeing two other guys at the same time. It felt like a freight train had just run over me.
Male Chanters: Aww, muffin!
Female: I had a girlfriend named Robin, and I loved her with every fibre of my being. But one time, my younger sister walked in on us, and had a nervous breakdown. My sister’s reaction drove Robin to break up with me, and crush my spirits.

MALE AND FEMALE TURN TO FACE EACHOTHER.
Male: But I found
Female: A group of friends.
Male: They helped me to realize that I’m not so different.
Female: And even if I was, at least I wasn’t alone.
Male: Anyone else I had come out to had always advised me to keep it a secret.
Female: I remember trying to hide it,
Male: wondering if anyone could tell.
Female: The hardest thing was coming out to my parents
Male: and my best guy friend.
(ONE MALE CHANTER, NOT “MARC” REMOVES HIS MASK)
Both: It was mortifying.
Male: My best friend was OK with it
Female: My parents weren’t.
Male: It’s so hard when everyone hates you.
Female: You almost start to hate yourself
Male: It gets hard to cope
Female: and hard to live.
Male: I wanted to die
Female And I (PAUSE) even tried to.
Male: (WALKS OVER TO FEMALE, PUTS HIS HANDS ON HER SHOULDERS) Without the support of some of my friends,
Both: (LOOK TO EACH OTHER) I might not be here today.

Female: It’s been a long journey; one that will never end.
Male: I’ve lost a few friends along the way. But that doesn’t matter, because there’s always the future on the horizon.
(ALL CHANTERS EXCEPT THE BEST FRIEND AND ONE FEMALE EXIT)
Female: A future that might just be full of acceptance.
Both: After all, love is love.
Male: It just takes some people longer to realize that.
Female: They can drag us down; hurt us, but they’ll never stop us completely.
Male: In the end, we’re all different, but who cares?
(THE BEST FRIEND APPROACHES MALE, AND THEY EMBRACE IN A MANLY WAY)
Female: If they can put an end to slavery, they can end homophobia. It’s all about basic human rights. And when that day comes, I will rejoice.
Both: But for now, all I can do is stop hiding who I am.

MALE AND FEMALE TAKE OFF THEIR MASKS. REMAINING CHANTERS EXIT, EXCEPT FOR ONE. HE/SHE HESITATES, THEN CAUTIOUSLY APPROACHES MALE/FEMALE . SHE THEN TAPS HIM/HER ON THE SHOULDER, REMOVES THEIR MASK, AND THEY KISS. FADE TO BLACK WHILE SOFTLY PLAYING KISS ME.