NEW ARRIVALS E-Book

ANDREW OMODIAGBE

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

This drama piece relates to us teenage boys who stumble on one another in a secondary school. They come from different backgrounds on the invitation of the school to sit for a qualifying examination into the First Basic Lower Class. They express their feelings about different issues, as far their imaginative world could conjure, and the one or two observations they are able to make. They make us go through the motion picture of cultivated lines of fragile friendship and frail enemity.

Leseprobe

ANDREW OMODIAGBE

NEW ARRIVALS

Commentary Note of the Playwright: The drama piece: New Arrivals was inspired by the characters in it. They are real people are met in their fairly early stages of their boyhood years in the college. As an educational instructor, I had engaged them in convincingly long conversations, managed to share values with them; and I was able to see through them certain traits that called my immediate attention as a writer. Sometimes, I was seriously turned off by their boyish antics and at another time, I was completely absorbed in their world. They all met different things to me and this I have tried to portray here as far as my imaginative power could take me. It is not meant to make them cut poor figures but to drone into their consciousness, the need to always search that childhood that makes them wish to abandon themselves to all manner of intriguing conversations. They resonate some of my worst fears about whom the real child is and at what stage could such child be labeled the Big Boy heBookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

NEW ARRIVALS

                                                                BACKGROUND

The drama piece: New Arrivals was inspired by the characters in it. They are real people I met in their fairly early stages of their boyhood years in a college. As an educational instructor, I had engaged them in convincingly long conversations, managed to share values with them; and I was able to see through them certain traits that called my immediate attention as a writer. Sometimes, I was seriously turned off by their boyish antics, and at another time, I was completely absorbed in their world. They all met different things to me and this I have tried to portray here as far as my imaginative power could take me. It is not meant to make them cut poor figures but to drone into their consciousness, the need to always search that childhood that makes them wish to abandon themselves to all manner of intriguing conversations. They resonate some of my worst fears about whom the real child is and at what stage could such child be labeled the Big Boy he imagines himself to be.

The New Arrivals; not with the new ideas about what they observe. They suddenly find themselves in a school compound trying to forge companionship, trying to ride rough shod over whom them consider out of place and cultivating the seemingly impossible task of the grownups to forge reconciliation. The sudden appearance of Mr. Noah doesn’t change the manner they had gone about their lives. It is the ability of the children to cast off their damnable egos, to deal with teething fears, accept their circumstances and to create fun among themselves that the playwright Andrew Omodiagbe celebrate.

Cast:

Chima [ He is a faircomplexioned boy with a visibly plum face.He speaks as if something is about to spill out of his mouth]

Toju [He is strong looking and wears a straight face. He is the habit of acting forcefully]

Eze [ He is fairer than Chima, ahd has the gesture of being reminded of his duties. He is bit absented minded.

Princewill [He barely opens his eyes...not out of resentment but a lingering DNA for selfdiscovery and pursuit of new goals]

Jonathan [He is wiry and comes across as no nonsense boy. He has an undying quest for conversation]

Light [ He is deeply attractive and delightul. He simply loves to make up the number]

Tamara [He is naturally playful and jocos to the extreme and would pray you are such too]

Mr. Noah [He is the brainchild of the examination conduct in White Lane College and he proudly carries himself in that light]

School Accountant [ He wears a smile and he is too quick to tell his mind on any issue]

10. Tamara’s Mother [Her calm and cheerful disposition endears her to all and sundry]

11. Jonathan’s Father [He wears curious looks as if there is a lost soul to be saved]

 The lines of cars move into the parking lot of the school. They come in droves in the wake of the dying reving engines of cosy cars hooting at one another in the bid to avoid scratches in the nick of time. Children are seen donning the suite of their dream variegated colours while their apparently journey-lagged parents slouch their way out of the high imposed cars.

Scene One

(AT THE PACKING LOT OF THE WHITE LANE COLLEGE)

Chima :( starring at the young lad stepping out of a car while struggling to push the door back to its locked position. He adjust his well tailored though sun tanned suit in his arms)

I am sure many people could turn up for this examination (he muttered to himself)

Chima’s Mother: (With a hand gesture as if in strict observance of a code of movement) Chima--

Chima: Yes mother

Chima’s Father: ( in an anxious moment to send message home) Chima… move to your mother’s side and walk along. I am sure it won’t be long before the entrance examination begins.

Chima: Please, don’t make me catch the goose pimples. (covering his face as if to cover up his abashment). Dad, you know I don’t get nervous easily over this matter. But the way you go about it makes me believe it would be entirely different from what I have always known examinations to be.

Chima’s Mother :( apparently amused than usual) Wow! How could you have let everyone into your little secret? I trust you son, you have the guts to face this one once and for all. Never mind your father hitting the word just like that. (reaching out her long arm to take Chima by his left shoulders). Keep your suit right back in the car and your writing stuff handy. (drags her hair in obvious indecision) Better still, put it on and get yourself ready for the task ahead.

Chima: (in tight lipped knowing gesture) Yes mother I heard you. I hope you did not forget the car doors have been locked by Dad already?

Chima’s Father: (more of an act of forced submission than paternal love) I could still have opened with just the remote in my own hands. (they all move in echelon while inching towards a sprawling hall within a shooting distance from what was supposed to be the administrative building).

Chima: (stops abruptly while scanning through a maze of young lads donned in different coloured clothes and takes off to examine his now and again) I thought as much.

Chima’s Mother :(in suppressed anxiety triggered by her son’s sudden comment) About what?

Chima: (face lit up in smiles before taking his mother’s hand and not without making her bent over to hear his whispers) Mother, I was thinking seriously about the large number of people that would turn up for today’s entrance examination. Such a huge crowd of students we are going to have here.

Aleke’s Mother: Yes, you are not far from the truth. Besides, this school attracts a lot of them. You and I are going to see so many of them. Don’t forget they have hopes of starting at the junior college next session and your hope should be stronger than theirs. (tightening her lips for emphasis sake)

Chima: (somewhat flattered) I hope my freedom of speech does not get me into scrapes one of these days. Come to think of it Dad (eliciting his father’s attention as if it was a problem he needed him to resolve promptly) Mother is at it again! Hope! Hope! I am going to sit for the written test and if the last one is the verbal test, I will stop at nothing in getting through it. Why would she talk about my hope getting stronger? (feigning disappointment). Dad, have I started losing anything here?

Chima’s Father: (squats to face his son directly while stretching his right fingers to toy with his son’s supple faircomplexioned face) I have not seen anything strange----you have written examinations in the past---remember that Primary Six Leaving Certificate you had way back and you scaled through----no sweat dropped. Your mother was just trying to poke fun at you.

 All eyes raised in anticipation of what the new arrivals are expected to do. They instinctively move towards  a set of tables in front of the administrative block. Each parent takes the hand of his or her ward edging towards the people seated at the tables.

Scene Two

AT THE FRONT PART OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK

(The school accountant sits in company of two other assistants busy writing and attending to parents)

Chima: (dragging himself close to his father and beside himself with wide-eyed curiousity) Dad, is this where it will take place?

Chima’s Father: Not as yet. (turning his full attention on the man before him as it came to his turn to ask) Good morning officer.

School Accountant: (flashing a toothy smile) A very warm morning sir.

Chima’s Father: (heaving a sigh of relief) I am sure we are right at the spur of the moment?