The play I chose for my third and
final show-and-tell posting is Making the
Call by Jane Martin. It was written in 1997, and has been produced at Alma
College in a One Act Play Festival as well as Pensacola State College. It
doesn’t seem to me as though it is produced that often, but when it is it’s
most often with other one acts of a similar nature. I found this Jane Martin
play on the LSU library website at the URL;
Elizabeth is having a lovely
evening, watching TV and eating when a knock at the door surprises her. When
she asks who it is, the reply that comes back is a man claiming to be a member
of the secret service. Being a cautious woman, Elizabeth calls her friend to
ask her advice. She decides to open the door, but has her handgun at the ready
in case something would happen. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that
she made the correct decision, because the secret service agent is there to ask
if she’ll have sex with the president! He saw her at an event earlier, and was
very taken by her. The secret service man, Agent Parker, then offers an
alternative plan, that she rejects the president and gets it on camera, so that
him and her can instead make money and become famous. The play ends with
Elizabeth again calling her friend
for advice so the audience doesn’t know the outcome of the story.
The first dramaturgical choice I
found extremely entertaining was the fact that Martin made the gentleman caller
the president. In that same situation, it would have been funny no matter who
it was…whether it was a movie star, a well-known politician, or a musician of
some sort. Although it’s a short play, making the president the gentleman
caller raises the stakes a whole lot. It’s interesting to watch Elizabeth trying
to decide whether it’s a better option to hook up with the president, or sell
him out. The play raises a hysterical controversy that gets you to think, “What
would I do in this situation?” It’s interesting from an audience perspective as
well, because I think our gut reaction is, “Oh, that would never happen.” But
also knowing how much power the president can have, and that he does have
secret service working at his side, it’s actually feasible that if a president
wanted to behave in this manner he probably would succeed.
The second dramaturgical choice
that I found noteworthy was Martin’s decision to leave the ending ambiguous.
Agent Parker proposes the alternative option, but then Elizabeth doesn’t know
what to do. In fact she cannot decide on her own so she calls her friend
saying, “…Margaret, this is just a theoretical question…” This leaves the
audience thoughtful, wondering if she’ll sleep with the president or if she’ll
sell him. Better yet, because of the recurring theme of her calling Margaret,
it makes you curious as to just how long the conversation is going to continue,
with her stopping to call Margaret and ask for advice every five minutes. The ambiguity
at the end works well with the comic nature of the play.
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