Little Nothing Us

By Tom Horan

“There are as many stars in the sky as

there are cells in the human body.”

Tom Horan
4807 N. Bell #2S
Chicago, IL 60625
thomashenning@gmail.com
925.768.4141
LITTLE NOTHING US synopsis

Little Nothing Us begins at the series of fragments. We see different fragments of

three different stories with three characters each. We have young Mark who hides in a
refrigerator acting out fantasies while his father climbs Mount Everest. Meanwhile post
college Marcel, Clowie, toss around words in heady discussion without really saying
anything, while Lucas tries to watch cartoons. And the voracious Dee cursed and spits
on the name Jack T. Conner to her best friend Disaster Dave.

Little Nothing Us is about the search for meaning in a tide of information. There is
more data than we can synthesis. What can we really know? For as much as the Earth
pulls at the moon, the moon pulls back. The stakes here are the same as they’ve always
been, Life and Death.

CAST: 6 men, 3 women

THE STAGE: The stage is divided into three levels: Bottom, Middle and Top. Behind this
is drywall. There are splotches of spackle covering nail holes. The walls have been cut in
with a bold blue paint. There are a couple of doors for entrances. There is a electrical
socket that has also been cut in. For this first part. There is a bike rack on the bottom
level. A refrigerator on the top level. And a table on one side of the middle level, and a
bed on the other side.

STYLE: Set and props are few and iconic. The colors are mostly black, white, or bluish
gray. Occasionally there are objects that are fiercely red. The sound of waves and surf
music are heard after a series of scenes.

SETTINGS: Various locations around a beach town, including: the bike racks at a high
school, an apartment near a local state college, a refrigerator. Some scenes are set on
Everest.

TIME: Present.
 PROLOGUE
SETTING: Nebulous.
AT RISE: Mark in front of refrigerator. Lucas standing in front of couch. Jack in front of
bike.

MARK
My Dad used to tell me a story before I went to sleep.
Once upon a time, Billions and billions of years ago, there was no time and there was no
space.

LUCAS
Nothing.

MARK
Then, suddenly, there was a point.

JACK
The tip of god’s finger.

MARK
A touch.

LUCAS
Something.

MARK
Time began moving, space began forming.

LUCAS
Existence reached out stretching in all four dimensions.

JACK
Tiny atoms of Hydrogen formed burning spheres of light.

LUCAS
In the spheres bellies new atoms formed, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen.

JACK
When these stars exploded they released something wonderful into the universe.

LUCAS
The building blocks of the great accident of life.

JACK
Only through these occurrences could life exist at all, from stardust.

MARK
This is magic.

LUCAS
Life formed on earth,
 JACK
mostly of plants that lived underneath the water.

MARK
The atmosphere was carbon poison and the temperatures were to hot for life.

JACK
But then the plants changed the atmosphere, spewing oxygen into the environment,

MARK
making it possible to live on land.

LUCAS
Through divine chance single celled organisms appeared.

MARK
The organisms evolved into animals,

JACK
each with different attributes for survival.

MARK
Over a period of a long time many variations of animals appeared.

JACK
One day an animal appeared with a peculiar attribute.

LUCAS
Life saw itself.

MARK
This is magic.

END OF SCENE
 SCENE 1: MARKTIC
SETTING: The refrigerator. Top level.
AT RISE: Surf Music Plays. Mark enters in a parka and begins to take everything out of
the refrigerator including the shelves. Surf Music dies and Waves are heard as Mark
climbs into the refrigerator.

MARK
I, Mark brave the tumultuous tundra. Staving off ravenous polar bears and penguins. I
embark on journeys over high peaks and vast valleys. I scour all of Alaska and the
Antarctic. What I could tell you about icebergs would chill your bones. My dog team and I
mush across this frozen beauty in search of… in search of… something important!
Mush, I say. Mush! We will make it I tell my dogs. We will find what we are looking for.
Mush! We will not be distracted by the cold or by hunger. We must go on. Yet, the dogs
sense something. I too, can smell it in the air. A storm… A storm is coming! There is no
sign of it the sky, but as an Arctic veteran, I have trained myself to perceive the slightest
change in the whether. I am a human barometer. We must find shelter quickly…Look!
There! Up ahead. A cave! I, Mark pull my sled team to a halt. Whoa! I must explore this
cave by myself. I cannot risk injury to my Huskies. Sneaking in quietly I look around, this
would be quite a nice home for a polar bear. And I hear it. A lowly growling behind me.
Suddenly I spin and meet the beast directly in the eye. This is no polar bear, I think to
myself; this is none other than the abdominal snowman. I don’t let down from my gaze
for a second, yet this creature is not scared by the presence of a human. There will end
in conflict. In a blink he is on me. Thank god I have studied martial arts. A counter into a
roundhouse is enough to subdue the beast. The day is won. Looks like my dogs and I
will eat meat tonight. Just another day for Mark, fearless polar explorer.

END OF SCENE
 SCENE 2: ON WOMEN IN ART
SETTING: In the kitchen of the apartment shared by Marcel and Lucas. Middle level.
AT RISE: Clowie and Marcel in fierce “discussion.”

MARCEL
All I'm saying is woman have a certain place in society.

CLOWIE
And what is that?

MARCEL
They are the nurturers. The mothers, daughters, sisters-

CLOWIE
What if I don't want to be a nurturer.

MARCEL
What do you want to be?

CLOWIE
It doesn't matter. Anything but a nurturer.

MARCEL
It does matter.

CLOWIE
How does this relate to “women have no place in art.”

MARCEL
That's not what I'm saying.

CLOWIE
What are you saying?

MARCEL
In art, women perform a specific role. A role which society has given them.

CLOWIE
Society. Woman make up half the people on the planet. We are society.

MARCEL
And in that there is a role you must play.

CLOWIE
I'm not playing a role.

MARCEL
Yes you are. You just don't know it.

CLOWIE
Why? What would happen if I weren't playing a role? Then what?
 MARCEL
If society stopped playing roles, civilization would cease to be able to function.

CLOWIE
So men have a role too?

MARCEL
Of course.

CLOWIE
And what is that?

MARCEL
The conqueror, the hunter, the protector, the provider, the stabilizing force.

CLOWIE
Women get one role and men get five.

MARCEL
No, It's only one role. It's just too complicated to explain in one word.

LUCAS
(enters in a bathrobe and proceeds to get a bowl of cheerios, mumbles)
Morning.

CLOWIE
So your saying men have more depth?

MARCEL
Essentially, Yes.

CLOWIE
That's a crock of shit. I know plenty of men who are as deep as a baby pool.

MARCEL
I meant depth of positions not of character. Wouldn't you say men are given countless
more opportunities than women?

CLOWIE
Yeah, but I don't think it has any relevance to art.

MARCEL
It's right there in front of you. Anyone could see it.

CLOWIE
We'll just have to see. Lucas.
(stops Lucas who is going back to his room)
Come here.

MARCEL
Oh, good. A guinea pig.

CLOWIE
Just sit right here. We need you to settle a debate for us.

MARCEL
Would you agree that because of the role women play in society they are unable to
establish individualism in art?

CLOWIE
Or would you say everyone including women, are individuals and take on art in their own
terms?

LUCAS
What?

MARCEL
Let's start all over. Me and Clowie were having a discussion-

LUCAS
Good. You two don't talk enough.

MARCEL
I wasn't finished.

LUCAS
Sorry, please continue.

MARCEL
Thank you, I will. As I was saying me and Clowie were having a discussion-

CLOWIE
Get to the point.

MARCEL
I'm trying to.

CLOWIE
Try harder.

MARCEL
We're having this discussion-

CLOWIE
Argument.

MARCEL
Whatever.

CLOWIE
And we need you to decide who’s right.
 LUCAS
You already know who is right.

CLOWIE AND MARCEL

(simultaneous)
I am.

LUCAS
Exactly. Now if you’ll excuse me. I have to get back to my cartoons.

END OF SCENE
 SCENE 3: THE INCREDIBLE LUCK OF JACK T. CONNER
SETTING: Bike racks, after school, the last day of class of spring quarter. Bottom level.
AT RISE: Dee sits smoking. Dee is a skinny fireball. She has short spiky, dirty hair. She
wears a black T-shirt and jeans and black boots and a metal necklace and leather belt
with studs.

DEE
Fuck Jack T. Conner.

Disaster Dave enters. Dave wears a red

baseball hat pulled low over his eyes. Dave
trips.

VOICES OFF STAGE:

Watch what your doing, Disaster Dave!

DISASTER DAVE
(Entering)
Yeah.
(trips)

VOICES OFF STAGE:

Way to go! Disaster Dave does it again!

DEE
Fuck Jack T. Conner.

DISASTER DAVE
(Picking up his books.)
Ah, He’s not that bad.

DEE
Not that bad? Not that- Fuck, Dave!

DISASTER DAVE
(Sits by Dee.)
He’s always nice to me.

DEE
Fuck him and his goons. You shouldn’t have to put up with that Disaster Dave shit.

DISASTER DAVE
I don’t mind.

DEE
He needs a little pay back.

DISASTER DAVE
Who?
 DEE
Jack T. Conner.

DISASTER DAVE
Graduation is tonight.

DEE
Until then he’s mine.

DISASTER DAVE
Yeah. Okay.

DEE
I’m fucking serious about this.

DISASTER DAVE
Sure, I believe you.

DEE
Of course you believe me. I’m fucking serious.

DISASTER DAVE
Class starts in five.

DEE
You know he only lives a few blocks from here? He lives so close he bikes home. Mr.
Football star bikes it home.

DISASTER DAVE
Let’s just go okay.

DEE
He’s not here yet.

DISASTER DAVE
Who?

DEE
Jack T. Conner.

DISASTER DAVE
What’s your deal?

DEE
He is the bane of my existence.

DISASTER DAVE
Just because he’s the Quarterback doesn’t make him the enemy.

DEE
That’s just the beginning.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Jack T. Conner has got every fucking thing he has ever wanted.
Star Quarterback, taking the team to state four years in a row, four years in a row,
Varsity track, Varsity swimming, Varsity wrestling, Straight A’s, Deans list, four years in a
row, 4.5 average, Honor English, Honors Chemistry, Biology, French and Spanish.
President of the chess club, the drama club, and the music club.
Founder of the ecological club, the international club and the god-save-the-fucking little-
fluffy-bunnies club.
He was senior class president, valedictorian and got a full ride to every college he
applied.
And he’s Rich!
Perfect clothes, perfect hair! Perfect smile!
–you don’t get looks like that, you buy them!
He got every fucking thing in the world!
And I got nothing.
No one is that good.
No one is that smart.
He’s just lucky.
And look at his fucking bike.
I deserve that bike.

END OF SCENE