Huff - A Steady Rain

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with any collaborative undertaking, many, many people generously lent time and talent to the development of A Steady Rain. To them my heartfelt thanks:

Fred Zollo, Barbara Broccoli, and Michael G. Wilson.

Robert Cole.

Michael Rose and Jeffrey Sine.

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman.

John Crowley.

Randy Steinmeyer, Peter DeFaria, Russ Tutterow, Brian Loevner, Troy West, and everyone at Chicago Dramatists.

Josh Stamberg, Adam Rothenberg, Trip Cullman, Liz Timperman, Leslie Urdang, Max Mayer, Mark Linn-Baker, Beth Fargis Lancaster, Johanna Pfaelzer, and everyone at New York Stage and Film.

Larry Mitchell, Brant Spencer, K. Lorrel Manning, Lee Brock, Seth Barrish, and everyone at the Barrow Group Theater.

John Buzzetti, Barry Kotler, Frank Wuliger, Eric Garfinkel, and John Bauman.

Bob Freedman and Marta Praeger.

Richard Hoover.

Harold C. Hieber.

John Buzzetti again because some people deserve to be thanked twice.

Most of all, Gigi and Robin for their love and support.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

A Steady Rain was originally developed in a series of table readings and staged readings at Chicago Dramatists (Russ Tutterow, Artistic Director; Brian Loevner, Managing Director).

The play was first presented by New York Stage and Film (Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Johanna Pfaelzer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors; Elizabeth Timperman, Executive Director) and the Powerhouse Theater Program (Beth Fargis Lancaster, Executive Producer) at Vassar, July 2006. The production was directed by Trip Cullman.

A Steady Rain received a workshop production at the Barrow Group Theater (Seth Barrish and Lee Brock, CoArtistic Directors), February 2007. The production was directed by K. Lorrel Manning.

A Steady Rain had its professional world premiere at Chicago Dramatists in fall 2007. The production was directed by Russ Tutterow.

The Chicago Dramatists production was remounted at the Royal George Theater in 2008 and received Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best New Work, Best Production, and Best Actor (Randy Steinmeyer).

A Steady Rain opened on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theater (produced by Frederick Zollo, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Raymond L. Gaspard, Frank Gero, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jeffrey Sine, Michael Rose Ltd, The Shubert Organization, Inc., and Robert Cole) on September 29, 2009. The production was directed by John Crowley.

CHARACTERS

Joey, a Chicago cop

Denny, his partner

THE TIME AND PLACE

The not-too-distant past. Chicago.

THE SET

Minimalism is called for the suggestion of an interview room.

NOTES

A Steady Rain is a duologue. Joey and Denny speak directly to the audience and tell their story, which, from time to time, is not exactly the same story. At times they are testifying before an internal affairs review board. At times they are vying with each other for credibility. Both characters have Chicago accents. They also habitually drop words and occasionally make words up and speak in redundancies (sometimes a typo is not a typo). Please, trust the script as written. Joey and Denny also occasionally address each other, in which instance a formal scene occurs. Parenthetical shifts in address are not always indicated in the text. It should be obvious from the context whether Joey and Denny are addressing the audience or each other. The light changes noted throughout also indicate movement changes.

Lights rise on DENNY and JOEY .

DENNY We just signed on as a Nielsen family, yunno, the ratings guys? They come into your home and attach this, the fuck, this box to your TV. And when you watch, all you do you pass around this remote and whoevers watching what, they punch in theyre watching, right? They hooked a box up to the TV in Noels room. Theres even one buttoned up to the black-and-white kitchen set and the 38-inch boober me and Connie got in the boudoir. So the first night we got it, Connie and the kids and me, were lounging around in the family room figuring out how we can push all these buttons at once. Yunno, really screw up the Nielsen guys? And my partner, Joey, hes over, I explain to him whats the deal. And he tells me

JOEY You go pushing more than one button at a time, Den, youre not screwing anybody. Youre just canceling yourself out.

DENNY The fuck do you know, you fuckin mick? Are you screwing anybody presently?

JOEY Same thing you vote Democrat and Republican the same election. And besides

DENNY Einstein continues

JOEY Them Nielsen guys pay more attention to toilets flushing during commercials than to any frigging box.

DENNY And I tell Joey hes fulla shit. Which he is usually. Cause, I mean, is he a Nielsen family? The elbow-bender still lives in this one-room chinch pad looking over an alley. Never married, not even dating, for Chrissake, so his chances of even having a family let alone being lucky enough to get the call from Mr. Nielsen and enlisted into the privileged ranks are pretty slim, yunno what I mean? So, of course, he puts down the value of being a Nielsen family cause people, friend or foe, they do this all the time consistently. They put down what you got cause they dont got it cause they wish they had it but they dont. Even shits like Joey. I known the guy since kinnygarten. He puts down marriage, kids, big-screen TVs, everything that has value that he dont got cause if it has value that makes him a very poor man by comparison.