From The Rainmaker (ACT I), by Richard Nash

LIZZIE
Noah, use your head! I knew what I was there forand the whole family knew it too. And I
couldnt stand the way they were looking me over. So Id go downstairs for my mealsand rush
right back to my room. I packedI unpackedI washed my hear a dozen timesI read the
Sears, Roebuck catalog from cover to cover. And finally I said to myself, Lizzie Curry, snap out
of this! Well, it was a Saturday nightand they were all going to a rodeo dance. So I got myself
all decked out in my highest heels and my lowest cut dress. And I walked down to that supper
table and all those boys looked at me as if I was stark naked. And then for the longest time there
wasnt a sound at the table except for Uncle Ned slopping his soup. And suddenlylike a
gunshotI heard Ned Junior say: Lizzie, how much do you weigh? [] I said, I weigh a
hundred and nineteen pounds, my teeth are all my own and I stand seventeen hands high. []
He was just tryin to open the conversation. Well, I guess I closed it.
From The Member of the Wedding (ACT I), by Carson McCullers
FRANKIE
I wonder when that Papa of mine is coming home. He always comes home by dark. I dont want
to go into that empty, ugly house all by myself. [] I think something is wrong. It is too quiet. I
have a peculiar warning in my bones. I bet you a hundred dollars its going to storm. [] A
terrible, terrible dog-day storm. Or maybe even a cyclone. [] I bet Jarvis and Janice are at
Winter Hill. I see them just plain as I see you. Plainer. Something is wrong, It is too quiet. [] I
told Berenice that I was leavin town for good and she did not believe me. Sometimes I honestly
think she is the biggest fool that ever drew breath. You try to impress something on a big fool
like that, and its just like talking to a block of cement. I kept on telling and telling and telling
her. I told her I had to leave this town for good because it is inevitable. Inevitable.
From Angel Street (ACT I), by Patrick Hamilton
MRS. MANNINGHAM
Jack, I may be going mad, like my poor motherbut if I am mad, you have got to treat me
gently. Jackbefore GodI never lie to you knowingly. If I have taken down that picture from
its place I have not known it. I have not known it. If I took it down on those other occasions I
didnt not know it, either. Jack, if I steal your thingsyour ringsyour pencils and your
handkerchiefs, and you find them later at the bottom of my box, as indeed you do, then I do not
know that I have done itJack, if I commit these fantastic, meaningless mischiefsso
meaninglesswhy should I take a picture down from its place? (Pause) If I do all these things,
then I am certainly going off my head, and must be treated kindly and gently so that I may get
well. You must bear with me, Jack, bear with menot storm and rage. God knows Im trying.
Jack, Im trying! Oh, for Gods sake believe me that Im trying and be kind to m e.

From Summer and Smoke, by Tennessee Williams

ALMA
To be a doctor! And deal with these mysteries under the microscope lens . . . I think it is more
religious than being a priest! There is so much suffering in the world it actually makes one sick
to think about it, and most of us are so helpless to relieve it. . . . But a physician! Oh my! With
his magnificent gifts and training what a joy it must be to know that he is equipped and
appointed to bring relieve to all of this fearful sufferingand fear! And its an expanding
profession, its a profession that is continually widening its horizons. So many diseases have
already come under scientific control but the commencement is justbeginning! I mean there is
so much more that is yet to be done, such as mental afflictions to be brought under control. . . .
And with your fathers example to inspire you! Oh, my!
ALMA
Mrs. Ewells the merry widow of Glorious Hill. They say that she goes to the depot to meet
every train in order to make the acquaintance of traveling salesmen. Of course she is ostracized
by all but a few of her own type of women in town, which is terribly hard for Nellie. It isnt fair
to the child. Father didnt want me to take her as a pupil because of her mothers reputation, but I
feel that one has a duty to perform toward children in suchcircumstances. . . . And I always say
that life is such a mysteriously complicated thing that no one should really presume to judge and
condemn the behavior of anyone else. . . . There goes the first skyrocket! Oh, look at it burst into
a million stars!
From The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
ABIGAIL
Why, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire you walked me through, and
all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John, we lay in fire. And from that night no
woman dare call me wicked anymore but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the
wind lifted up my skirts; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called me loose. And
then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December treeI saw them all, walking
like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me
strength to call them liars, and God made men to listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world
clean for the love of Him! Oh, John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again!
You will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house, aWhy are you cold?

From The Odd Couple, by Neil Simon

OSCAR
Its nothing you said. Its nothing you did. Its you! [] Ill tell you exactly what it is. Its the
cooking, cleaning and crying. Its the talking in your sleep, its the moose calls that open you ears
at two oclock in the morning. I cant take it anymore, Felix. Im crackin up. Everything you do
irritates me. And when youre not here, the things I know youre gonna do when you come in
irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. I told you a hundred times, I cant stand little
notes on my pillow. Were all out of cornflakes. F.U. It took me three hours to figure out that
F.U. was Felix Unger. Its not your fault, Felix. Its a rotten combination. [] I got a typewritten
list in my office of the Ten Most Aggravating Things You Do That Drive Me Berserk. But last
night was the topper. Oh, that was the ever-loving lulu of all times. [] I had it all set up with
that English Betty Boop and her sister, and I wind up drinking tea all night and telling them your
life story. [] After the mood you put them in, Im surprised they didnt go out to Rockaway and
swim back to England.
From The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
JOHN PROCTOR
You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on
Abigail, and I will think on it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge
your husband any more. I have forgot Abigail, and [] Spare me! You forget nothing and
forgive nothing. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she
is gone; I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still aan
everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted; every moment
judged for lies as though I come into a court when I come into this house! [] Ill plead my
honesty no more, Elizabeth. [] No more! I should have roared you down when first you told
me your suspicion. But I wilted, and like a Christian, I confessed. Some dream I had must have
mistaken you for God that day, but youre not, youre not. Let you remember it. Let you look
sometimes for the goodness in me and nudge me not.
From Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
BIFF
No! Nobodys hanging himself, Willy! I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today
and suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in the middle of that office buildingI sawdo you
hear this!I stopped in the middle of that building and I sawthe sky. I saw the things that I
love in this world; the work and the food and time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and
said to myself what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I dont
want to be? What am I doing in an office building making a contemptuous, begging fool of
myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why cant
I say that, Willy!
[Willy: The door of your life is wide open!]
Pop! Im a dime a dozen and so are you!

[Willy: I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!]
Im one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldnt raise it. A buck an hour, do you
gather my meaning? I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you; you were never
anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ashcan like all the rest of them! Im not
bringing home any prizes any more and youre going to stop waiting for me to bring them home!
[Willy: You vengeful, spiteful mutt!]
Im nothing, Pop! Cant you understand that? Theres n o spite in it any more. Im just what I
am, thats all.
[Willy: What are you doing? What are you doing? (to Linda) Why is he crying?]
Will you let me go, for Christs sake? Will you take that phoney dream and burn it before
something happens?