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Can you hear Elvis? (girls scream)*Audience enters the space. Elvis Presley – Blue Suede Shoes is playing. Roisin, Courtney, Pip, Charlotte and Chloe are in the space improvising waiting for the band to start*? Greet the audience, go over and make them feel welcome. ? I love your outfit!? Would you like some punch?? What’s your favourite song to dance to? (audience responds) I love…? Who have you come with? Who do you want to dance with? ? Are you excited for tonight?? Are you excited to see Elvis?? Are you ready to feel the rhythm? ? Quiet music on in background, Roisin waiting at tables. Cast dancing, drinking milkshakes ? Courtney: Are you excited to see… doesn’t give the audience chance to answer, won’t stop talking? Save me a dance for later!Ending line: Elvis is here.(CONOR ENTERS. BAND STOPS)Conor: Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your recreational time. Prepare yourself, take a breath, it's one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and now let’s go…go…go… We would like to invite you to a time that has everything you could ever imagine. Everything you hear has a heavy beat and a simple melody, you’ll hear the band jumping and the fans screaming. We invite you to bring something of you in here with us. We want you to grab your blue suede shoes, and then you will feel the rhythm… Your rhythm, your steps, your desire to dance. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you will see boogying, polka dots shimmying, colours of pink, red, blue, black, white and yellow. You will also see Bill Haley and His Comets suited and booted with red dicky bows. Oh, and then we have Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and James Dean! Can you hear the jukebox, the music? Can you hear Elvis? (Promise) Prepare yourself to hear the laughing, flirty giggles from girls, the beat through your feet on the dance floor. Feel the energy of the music, the urge to dance, let the colours amaze you, let US amaze you!(TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT PLAYS. CAST PERFORM BUNNY HOP)Conor: It seems there’s a woman…Courtney: What woman?Conor: …and this woman…what?Courtney: Nothing. Go ahead.Conor: What did you say?Courtney: Nothing, I just said what women? What about her? (Conor pulls Courtney to the side)Conor: The woman.Courtney: Which woman? Is she here?Conor: She’s here, but the band is still playing. So, let’s just keep dancing.Courtney: Okay everyone, we need to stop. Can the music please stop playing? (MUSIC STOPS. CAST LOOKS AROUND CONFUSED) Roisin: Why did you stop the music? We were dancing and having fun.Courtney: Conor has his eye on a woman.All: OOOooooOOOooo!(CONOR EMBARRASSED AND GIRL SWARM HIM) Charlotte: Who? What woman? What colour hair has she got?Conor: She…she’s dark haired.Roisin: What about her eyes? What colour are they?Conor: I think she has… brown eyes?Chloe: What shoes is she wearing? Are they pink, red, blue, black, white or yellow?Conor: I think…they were black.Pip: What is her favourite food?Courtney: What’s her favourite colour?Charlotte: Does she have a favourite song?Courtney: Does she like Marilyn Monroe?Pip: Does she like Audrey Hepburn?Roisin: And James dean! Chloe: AND ELVIS?!Conor: Right let’s stop this. She’s not just a woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She has this laugh, well it’s more like a giggle, and every time I come here, I hear her before I see her. She always stands out because she wears red lipstick, and this time she’s wearing a red dress too. (PAUSE) And I can’t stop thinking about her.(GIRLS MESMERISED BY CONOR’S TEXT. REALISATION THAT PIP IS THE WOMAN. EVERYONE EXCEPT PIP EXIT. CHLOE AND CONOR COME BACK ON-STAGE SLOW MO DANCE IN RED DRESS. LOVE ME TENDER PLAYS)Pip: It was a Saturday in June 1955. And he was home on leave. So, he decided to head to the local dance. When he arrived, he sat on the window ledge next to some stairs. He was there for a little while until, suddenly, he heard some laughter. There was a laugh in particular that caught his attention, and this group of people were making their way up the stairs. And when they passed him, he spotted who this laugh belonged to. It was a girl, a girl in a red dress. He recognised her because they went to school together since the age of 4. But she’d obviously changed a lot since then! So, he decided to follow them up to the dancefloor and look for her. She was stood in a crowd of people, still giggling – it’s how he spotted her! So, he made his way over and asked her if she’d like to dance. And she accepted!They danced the first song, and the second song, and the third song… and then they lost count. And that’s how my grandparents met. (PAUSE) There was something about that first song. I felt like I needed to do something. I felt like I needed to dance! Can you hear it? Can you hear the music?Flash mob scene (Rock Around the Clock/Jailhouse Rock)(DANCE. DANCE CONTINUES IMPROVISED. CONOR GOES OFF STAGE)Elvis scene – male expectations (CONOR COLLECTS COSTUMES ON STAGE. EXITS)Roisin: Please let’s forget the past, the future looks bright ahead. They say we’re too young to know the meaning, that ever since the world began it’s been the cause of trouble. Pip: Any way you want me, that’s how I will be, a soft-hearted man with a thorn in my side. Courtney: And although it’s always crowded you know I can be found. There’s only one cure for this soul of mine… Conor (backstage): Ladies and gentlemen! We have a big show, a really big show. With the Elvis Presley headlining tonight, (hand up- stops the screams, then 1 finger) promise? And during the show Elvis is going to be appearing through the show, because sometimes people tune in a little late. We got a great all-star show going along with him, but right now, singing a medley of some of the songs that you enjoy to the extent of boosting him over the million mark. Here he is… ELVIS PRESLEY! (CONOR ENTERS AND DANCES) Can you hear that? Can you hear the music? Can you hear the jukebox? Can you hear Elvis? Courtney’s nan’s text – Mesmerised by teens. Courtney: I remember when I first heard Elvis. I was around 7, me and my friends used to play out on the front, playing hopscotch, skipping. The guys made go carts out of old grates and girls made go carts out of pram wheels. We’d race at school, have pints of milk and a cod liver oil tablet around 11 o clock every day. School dinners were really nice, sugar in a newspaper and a stick of rhubarb. (PAUSE) And then there were the teens… wow. I always wanted to be like them. They got to go to diners, and dance halls, and drive in movies, and anywhere they wanted. We couldn’t hang out with them, but wow I wanted to. I wanted to listen and dance to the music they listened to. I wanted to listen and dance (PAUSE) to Elvis…Roisin: That might be what you see. I mean, I don’t like going to diners, I don’t go to dance halls and I’ve never been to a drive-in movie-Courtney: And then imagine seeing Marilyn Monroe on the big screen! She was something else. I could do that, can’t I? I have blonde hair! If I curled my hair, then maybe I’d look like her! Wow, how amazing it must have been. All the dresses, all the boys, all the glitz and glam- Roisin: Hold on, stop, why do you think…Courtney: Imagine being able to do what you wanted. Imagine being able to break the rules. To stay out late, not asking your parents to do things, having the choice to listen to what we want, making our own hair fads and clothing trends. A choice to speak out, a choice to say no. Roisin: What if it’s not all as it seems? What if it’s not just about the glitz and the glam? Why can’t we move forward? Why can’t we look past that, and the corruption and the…FLASHMOB – TUTTI FRUTI (EVERYONE RUNS BACK ON STAGE TO DANCE. ROISIN DOESN’T DANCE – BREAKS THE RULES)Roisin (SHOUTING OVER THE MUSIC):Stop dancing!Listen to me!Focus on the real issue here!This is corruptionRoisin: When you’re a teen, you’re trying to figure out who you are and who you'll be. Such an important time to define who you are, young teens who try to act older, dress older and do things that no young teen should be doing. Life goes so quickly, yet everyone tries to grow up so fast! There is always the envy of looking up to those who are older, thinking you should be doing what they're doing. But really, no one is doing it right.There are certain rules in place that shouldn’t be broken, social norms that have been so prominent for so long that it feels engrained in our brains, like a pre-programmed system that needs rebooting. Can you feel that? Can you hear the speakers? Can you hear the iPhones buzzing? We can’t hear the jukebox anymore. We can’t feel the rock ‘n’ roll rhythm. We can’t see couples dancing, but we can still see the legends of the 50s.Now, imagine looking like Marilyn Monroe or being like Audrey Hepburn (GIRLS IN AWE), would that make you happier? No, I mean, really happier? Acting like them, dressing like them, being like them, being like somebody else. Happiness should come when you dye your hair your favourite colour, putting your best outfit on, or doing your make-up the way you like it. That’s what should make you happy. Now, imagine looking like James Dean or Elvis Presley…(ROISIN PAUSES TO WAIT FOR GIRLS SCREAM, DOESN’T HAPPEN. CONOR ACKNOWLEDGES.) Would you feel cooler if you have your snazzy shoes and denim jackets on? Do you think this is the way to get the attention you desire? Society projects these expectations onto men who agree to adopt these social norms and yet when they do they are penalised for doing so. Conor tried to be Elvis, and yet we laughed and stared. As for James Dean, he is remembered as being a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement…are these the men we really admire?I don’t look like Audrey Hepburn like Pip and Chloe do, and I definitely don’t look like Marilyn Monroe like Courtney and Charlotte do. I clearly don’t fit into these expectations of what women should look like. I have pink short hair but that doesn’t define me, which may surprise you. You may think I have some interesting stories to tell. My life and my lifestyle would culturally suit the 1950’s quite well, I’m more conventional than I would like to admit. It’s now that I don’t fit in, I am not very good at social media, or being social at all. I would have never come to a dance hall, unless, probably, massively encouraged! But that was a thing for young people in the 1950’s, the alternative way to push the boundaries, to break the rules. All the shimmying, boogying, dancing, wearing flashy dresses and being flirty, it’s all a code for sex – now whether you go out or not, you’re judged. Wouldn’t it be great to finally feel comfortable looking how we want and doing what we want? How nice would that feel? Pip: Yeah, yeah…okay…let’s take it back. What is this really about? What are we really saying? We all know we’re not really in a 1950s dance hall, I mean we don’t even have a band. It’s just Liam in the tech box. He’s our jukebox. But that’s just fine! Let’s forget the past, the future looks bright ahead. They say we’re too young to know the meaning, that ever since the world began it’s been the cause of trouble. We don’t need to be pressured to listen to certain music or behave in a specific way. So why can’t we use music and dance to bring us together, rather than divide us? Why can’t we have the choice to listen to the music we want and dance how we want, with who we want. If you like someone you have the choice to walk up to them and ask them to dance or take them home, without feeling pressured to do so. There are too many pressures on us now, buying a house, getting a car, having a good job and having children. But times have changed, not everyone can afford this lifestyle…(REALISATION) and some people might not want this lifestyle anymore. Some men and women don’t want these responsibilities. We want to keep our teenage years alive, our freedom alive, to be ourselves. Why can’t you just be you without the pressures of having to be a certain way? And why can’t we just be us? It’s 2019, and we should celebrate that as a society. We are moving on and becoming more open minded and accepting. (LOOKS AT CAST) Why can’t we move forward?Courtney: But we can move forward, we are moving forward…of course, we still have far to go, but compared to life in the 50s it’s changed. It’s better, we’re better! We can do more of want we want. Don’t get me wrong it’s not perfect, but we’re working on it. Charlotte: Yeah…why can’t we celebrate how far we’ve come? We can dance because we want to, not because we have to.Chloe: Why don’t we dance to celebrate?Pip: (GO TO AUDIENCE MEMBER YOU ASKED TO DANCE) Would you like that dance now?Conor: Why don’t we all dance! All: YEAH!(INVITE THE REST OF THE AUDIENCE TO DANCE IF THEY WANT TO, TEACH THEM JAILHOUSE ROCK. DANCE FINISHES AND AUDIENCE GOES BACK TO SEATS. CONOR COMES TO THE FRONT)Conor: It’s been a night full of show stopping performances, but unfortunately everything must come to an end. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for coming tonight! I hope you all had a great evening and remember, put on your blue suede shoes every once and while and dance! Goodnight! (CLAPS AND WALKS OFF) ................
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