Enconters

[MARK walks backwards and puts his hands on his head, not a crying
sad, but a defeated sad]
LUCY Sulking like a child isn't going to help M-
MARK (No longer relaxed} You haven't a clue do you? (He walks up
to LUCY, short pause} Don't you dare try to replace me, alrigh?
Fair enough, maybe I overreacted tonight, maybe I should've made
more of an effort to keep calm, maybe I should've kept my critiques
to a later date, but don't you dare replace me. This is a
just a little slip up, a minor inconvenience, the unfortunate result
of the kind of stress your-pretend-troubled-latte-drinkingwriter-self
couldn't even dream of -you, you couldn't possibly imagine
how much I've had to work to even get to here (He lifts up
the script) Have you read this at all lately? It's unbelievable.
Unbelievably shit. You act like you're a modern day Dickens, or
Orwell, or Shakespeare but you are so shit ... For example, the dialogue
is cringe-worthy and sentimental, the characters are so underdeveloped,
and the scenario or the plot or whatever is completely
unrealistic. You're a shit writer. So get off your high
horse and face reality. You're shit.
[The lights dimmer low, there is a long silence, they stand looking
at each other for a while, MARK runs his hands through his
fingers, exhales, walks over to upstage right, LUCY crosses her
arms and looks at the ground and occasionally the audience, Exit
MARK, the lights come back up]
LUCY (looking out at audience) He's one to talk. (pause) I may not
be a perfect writer but oh my god is he an horrendous actor. (Enter
MARK, LUCY doesn't see him, continues talking) He honestly
doesn't bring anything to the performance, he's too cold and detached,
he can't express emotion whatsoever. He does one antidandruff
shampoo ad and suddenly he thinks he's ... Robert DeNiro ! Oh.
My. Wait until you hear this just yesterday I was making sure he
was ready to start, the door to his dressing room was open and