DARIA MIYEKO MARINELLI's s plays include 105, We Are Samurai, Untameable, and 893 | Ya-ku-za. In New York City, her work has been developed and performed at Ensemble Theatre Company, The Flea, Jimmy’s No 43, Access Theatre, WOW CafĂ© Theatre, Standard Toy Kraft, and The 133rd Street Art Center. www.DariaMiyekoMarinelli.com.
Thanks to Daria Miyeko Marinelli for allowing NYCPlaywrights to publish this excerpt from her play FASTER THAN BULLETS.
(The play begins in darkness. If there is sound prior to the show, it should be crickets, the white noise of night. The sound of a bus driving. And then we when begin, the silence, and the darkness. And then, a voice.)
VOICE
You think because we are women we are weak And maybe we are
But only to a certain point
We can no longer remain quiet over these acts that fill us with rage And so, I am an instrument who will take vengeance.
Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers
(And then the sound of a gunshot.)
VOICE
Ustedes se crean muy chingones
(And then the sound of another gunshot. Lights up. Two women stand side by side. They read newspapers, a single page each, held up. We cannot see their faces.)
A
I am not saying I know anything about it Nor that I really have an opinion
But if I did have an opinion If I had an opinion of her
B
It would not be bad
A
No
(They both take the papers they have and fold them in half. (Fold 1.) Folds 1-4 the women will do together. Folds 5-7 only A does. After that, A&B stand side by side. They do a rote task, as if working in factories. Perhaps it is the same fold, over and over again for now.)
A
And you saw the email she sent
B
A poet as well as a hunter
A
A hero
They look at us differently now
B
Yes
But they still are looking at us
A
But it is different It is a little better
She has changed this for us
B
Same bus line twice same exact time of day Bam Bam They may have been innocent
A
And they may have only not done it yet
(A look.)
B
Is it you
A
Of course not Is it you
B
Of course not
A
One if asked can only say of course not