4 people:

• Flute
• Oboe
• Tuba
• Violin

(Three people are standing in a row, facing the audience.)

FLUTE (To OBOE.) Morning.

OBOE (To FLUTE.) Morning.

FLUTE (To TUBA.) Morning.

TUBA (To FLUTE.) Morning.

OBOE (To TUBA.) Morning.

TUBA (To OBOE.) Morning.

(Pause.)

OBOE Nice day.

(Pause.)

FLUTE Yes, it is.

(Pause.)

OBOE Say, where's Timpani?

TUBA He's gone.

FLUTE Really? Did the Great Conductor take him?

OBOE No. I don't think so.

(Pause.)

FLUTE Well?

OBOE Well what?

FLUTE Come on Oboe! Quit playin' games! Who took Timpani?

OBOE How should I know? Boy, you flutes are all alike.

TUBA Probably somebody who just wants to pound something.

OBOE Hey, Tuba, how would you know?

TUBA Well that's the way it is, isn't it? Most people just want us to make a loud noise.

FLUTE Don't you just hate that? I just hate that! The last person who had me blew nothing but hot air. She couldn't play me at all. And then she blamed me for it. Gee whiz! I'm an instrument, not a magician! People have to know how to play me, but most of them don't.

TUBA Is that how you got here?

FLUTE Yeah. She blamed me. She didn't wanna learn how to play me, so she sent me here. She got money for me.

OBOE Yeah, people want money, not music.

(VIOLIN enters and stands by the others.)

TUBA Hey! A violin!

FLUTE Hi!

VIOLIN (Sad.) Hi.

OBOE You look a bit down in the strings.

VIOLIN Yeah.

TUBA You don't wanna be here, do you?

VIOLIN It's . . . it's nothin' against you or anything.

TUBA It's okay. We understand.

FLUTE Sure we do.

VIOLIN I had such dreams, you know?

TUBA Yeah, we know.

OBOE The Great Conductor?

VIOLIN Do you know about the Great Conductor?

TUBA Sure we do!

FLUTE It's our dream, too.

TUBA I think it's the dream of every instrument.

VIOLIN But we need a person who can play us. Mine started to, but I guess things got too difficult. And then he just wouldn't practice, so pretty soon he didn't try at all. And now this. I've been pawned off.

FLUTE Well, I'm not gonna give up hope! There's gotta be people out there who know the Great Conductor and follow him. One of these days we'll be a part of the Great Symphony and we'll all make the most beautiful music there is!

TUBA Yeah! Flute's right! We can't give up hope! The Great Conductor wouldn't want us to give up hope, would he?

OBOE No! He wouldn't! He's waiting for us! I just know he is!

FLUTE Yeah! He wants us to play the Great Symphony! All we need is people who can work us!

TUBA Someday, somebody will come and get us! I just know it! Come on, Violin! You can wait, can't you?

VIOLIN Yeah, you guys are right. I can wait.

Copyright 1990 Debra Bruch