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Johnny Rainbow Act 2.
A Musical Drama by Glen River



END INTERMISSION

Scene 1

Trickster: We have seen the stage of human folly where my arts are sure. Now we've traveled to an enchanted forest where spirits dwell. I have no power in this domain. I am but an onlooker.

(As ETHERA approaches The Trickster shrinks away, almost cowering.)

Song: “Tribe”

ETHERA: I am ETHERA. My power is communication. I am a voice. I am many voices. I speak for the spirits. I speak for you. As I see the unseen beings of spirit, so I also hear the unspoken thoughts of your hearts and mind. With these voices I make a path for you so you may travel safely through the Enchanted Forest. I am your guide. Here comes our weary travelers. Johnny Rainbow hears me well. The Ranger hears me dimly as a whisper on the wind. This is an enchanted day in the Enchanted Forest. By dawn all will hear me clearly. Here they come.

Johnny: Hello there!

Ranger: Hello! Welcome to Enchanted Forest.

Band: Hi!, Hello...

Rita: Don't you get lonely out here all by yourself?

Ranger: I am a simple man. My companions are the creatures of nature and the voices in the wind. These woods are filled with wonder. Every day I learn a lesson of life.

Susie: Poor Ranger, all alone.

Ranger: Don't “poor Ranger” me. Life is an open sea. Your heart is the star, your mind the tiller, and what is a ship without a star or tiller but lost? So don't poor Ranger me. Save your sympathy for yourselves. It's plain to see you are the ones lost. “poor Ranger” indeed.

Johnny: So we are. It's our tiller, not our star.

Susie: We're looking for a campsite. Maybe one with an A.C. outlet, shower, and a porta potty, and...

Ranger: Whoa! There's nothing like that around here. I'm afraid you will have to do some real camping.

Silver: Hi there, big boy. What's your name?

Ranger: Roger.

Silver: Well, Roger, I like roughing it. Is there a good spot to pitch my tent? Maybe by a stream?

Ranger: That we have.

Rita: Oh, I hope this camping business isn't going to give me a rash.

Susie: I hope our spot isn't too far.

Ranger: The stream isn't very far. It's a nice spot. you'll like it.

Bobby: How are we going to rehearse without electricity?

Joe: Yo man, you never heard of unplugged?

Bobby: Yo man? What is this? The intellectual goes ethnic?

Scene 2: Poker

Nathan: Those cards have been awful good to you Billy. You must have a powerful need for money. I never thought I'd see you pull a card with your little finger.

(Billy gives Nathan a sharp look)

Nathan: Isn't that what happened to those big city dandies?

(Billy turns to Nathan as if to challenge him)

Nathan: Take it easy, Billy, I'm a friend. If you need money just say so.

(Nathan puts a big money sack on the table.)

Drench: I don't see this.

Cid: Neither do I.

Drench: Game's over.

Scene 3

Boss D: What do I have to do to get a little cooperation?

Agent: Honest, Boss, I don't know where Johnny is! He just disappeared. You know I'd tell you if I knew.

Boss D: Yeah! I know you would. So much for loyalty! You are a worm.

Agent: He just disappeared!

Boss D: Then you better disappear, too. Your business is now dead. You won't find any friends in this town. If you don't find Johnny Rainbow, then you'll be just like your job. Find Johnny! This is your last and only chance.

(To Jack)

You go with him. If he fails, you know what to do. If you find Johnny Rainbow, you know what to do.

Jacks: Yeah, Boss. I know what to do.

Scene 4:

Agent: How'd you ever get to working for Boss D?

Jack: I was a crook without a plan. Boss D had a good plan, so I got on the program. I am the law where there is no law.

Agent: Nothing more noble than revenge, heh?

Jack: Revenge is nothing. My killing Johnny isn't revenge. It's order. I get paid to maintain order. So what's your story?

Agent: Which story?

Jack: How many stories are there?

Agent: Lots. There is the true story, then the unabridged story, then the scandal about the story, then the story of the cover-up, then the story of the confession, the behind the scenes story, the real story as told by an insider, the uncut story, the untold story, and finally the story edited for television. Stories are my business.

Jack: I thought Johnny Rainbow was your business.

Agent: Telling his story is my business.

Jack: Ok so tell me the story as told by an insider. What is the Johnny Rainbow story?

Agent: Long ago artists like Johnny were doctors, psy chiatrists, priests, and wise men all rolled up in one. They wore their paintings and taught the tribe new songs. They were visionaries who walked among spirits and spoke with the powers of creation. You know Johnny is different. He's not just a singer in a band. I don't know if he is some kind of throwback, or if he is something new. Whether from the past or from the future he's here with us now. I don't know exactly what my job is as his agent. Clearly he does not want to be famous. The rest of the band wants what he wants. They are more like a tribe rather than a rock band. I try to get them enough gigs to pay the bills without screwing up their thing. That's the unabridged, truth, behind the scenes, as told by an insider story.

Jack: I've heard some of those spooky stories about him. Could be it's all a bunch of crap you spin out to cover up the sad fact that he can't cut it in the big time. Maybe he's just a loser, out of excuses.

Agent: I guess you'll find out soon enough.

Jacks: You better hope so.

Agent: You're not big enough to kill Johnny.

Jacks: You're getting brave. Must be this clean country air.

Agent: I'm not brave. You may kill me. I guess you probably will. I'm just getting used to the idea.

Jacks: That's a good goat. You just stay docile.

Agent: Fate has mocked me, so shouldn't I mock fate?

Jacks: Bah!

Scene: 5

( Rita strolling through the wood comes upon Velvet gathering firewood.)

Rita: Aren't you a little far from your corner?

Velvet: The town is in an uproar. It seemed like a good time for a vacation.

Rita: Well since we are here alone, I've been meaning to ask you, what are you?

Velvet: You mean, why am I? It must be obvious what I am.

Rita: Not that obvious. You dress like a woman but you make no effort to act like a woman. In fact you remain very masculine. No one has ever seen you with a lover of any kind. I don't get it.

Velvet: A friend once told me that love was loss of fear. But that never lasted long. It soon turned to insecurity and jealousy. Jealousy is a crime, it's ruthless, brutal blackmail and manipulation. I won't have anything to do with it! Sex is pure confusion. None of it is so simple as it might appear. I wear my confusion for all to see. At least by my willingness to see things for what they are, I may have a chance to someday sort things out.

Rita: You are right about the confusion. I feel a force within me, and it looks a lot like a man.

Velvet: I discovered my inner woman, so I set her free.

Rita: After all, what is a man?

Velvet: What is a woman?

Rita: Love is a cruelty, and yet' I would enjoy that cruelty if I believed that love were lasting and true.

Velvet: Sex: pure confusion!

Rita: Let's be friends

Velvet: All right, friends!

SONG: “Friend”

Scene 6: A Circle of Friends

Bobby: What happens when ETHERA takes you to the spirits?

Johnny: I become very small. I move out of time. My shape drifts apart and I am carried away on tides of energy and light. Somehow I remain whole.

Orlando: What do you mean - move out of time?

Johnny: We live within our time and so we understand time as being all encompassing. The place where we meet the spirits exists outside the vessel of time.

Orlando: So how do we know how long we've been at this place?

Johnny: We don't.

Bobby: major disorientation.

Silver: People could actually have an experience and not remember or understand it?

Johnny: Yes, I think it happens a lot.

Joe: If this is a universal phenomenon commonly experienced, then there would be many different descriptions all talking about the same thing.

Rita: Sort of like one song sung by many different voices.

Susie: Is this what people call visions?

Johnny: Yes

Rita: You know, I've had some strange sensations lately. Sort of like someone else was living inside of me.

Joe: Could be you experienced something in that timeless place and just assumed it was inside of you.

Orlando: So what did ETHERA say we were going to find here?

Johnny: Our place in creation.

Silver: Is that all? I thought it might be something im portant.

Johnny: The universe loves multiplicity. It is filled with everything. Somehow we have developed the idea that the universe is filled with nothingness. Within this nothingness we believe that ourselves and the things we are able to perceive exist. Somehow, anything beyond our field of vision just doesn't exist.

Susie: What do you see?

Johnny: Harmony.

Bobby: Whoa. You mean hear it, don't you?

Johnny: No. I mean experience it. Hear, see, feel, all at the same time. At the speed of light, sound and sensing compressed into a single moment of knowing.

(A quiet moment of reflection)

Silver: Cool. I'm ready. I always did want everything right away.

Johnny: Well, you'll have it, but you might not remember it all.

Joe: You mean the experience of good & evil is a polarized event of a whole? To gain the knowledge of good & evil we have to de-fragment the local phenomena.

Bobby: Dig me! I'm a fragment.

Susie: You're a fool. This is serious stuff Bobby.

Johnny: He's right, Susie. We are all fragments. And we have this urge to be whole again. The experience of being reunited with totality is what we call love.

ETHERA: Here we are, our bold adventurers testing their comprehension by entering the unknown. While the only one who can see me is Johnny, all will soon hear my voices and feel my presence. My voices are simultaneously cast to each individual. Each hears a message suited to each individuals ability and imaging system. There is only one message, but many are experienced. The spirits are the all, the many, and the individual, all at one time. The human experience through the Trickster's spell, is alone. Now through Johnny I undo that spell. They are alone no longer.

( Music )

(ETHERA dances)

Orlando: Did you hear that?

Susie: Ya.

Rita: A beautiful musical voice!

Joe: More like singing.

Silver: A whole chorus!

Joe: I feel like I have been a shadow man, living in an anti-Utopia. The darkness made my cynical outlook seem natural. All the while glorious nature has been overflowing with the music of creation, while I in my dark room have struggled for a few notes. Now I know. The journey is not what you seek but what you find. We are not the masters but the servants of creation.

Susie: Like leaving your child in trusted custody. If the custodians heart is true, they understand the honor; if false then they see only a chore.

Silver: This is no dream, but, I feel that I am dreaming.

Orlando: Strange circles in my mind like orbiting planets offer visions of love and life, more like love and lives. Too many to count, they cling to each other making a spiral of connected lives spanning thousands of years of time.

Joe: Now here in this consciousness, my understanding rests. Which is the dream, which memory, which distorted vision, which is the true perception of sweet reality? Is this the Divine grace of creation or the dark subterfuge of X-Utopia? Surely all things must be. And yet if all things are, then one must be the greater and another the lesser.

Trickster: My spell is discovered.

Rita: What did he say?

Susie: He said he's disoriented.

Rita: No, I mean about the lesser & the greater?

Bobby: Man, I see colors! Beautiful bright colors!

Joe: I felt I was a spinning disk hurtling through space. Captured by an orbit which was life, I was moving in circles but my momentum pushed forward creating time. My whole idea of where I am just got blown into a whole new place. Time is the basket holding together all we know.

Song: “Past Life”

Scene 7: Death of Boss D

Boss D: Doesn't a dog love its master? And if his master is a villain, then isn't a villain loved?

Fido! Say you love me.

Fido: I love you, Boss.

Boss D: I am forced into a villainous role by undisciplined children who will not conform to their fathers wisdom. There must be an example. Playing favorites and letting one undisciplined child have his way will only make trouble for everyone. Wasn't all the trouble in heaven about God's favorite refusing to conform? History repeats itself. So now I am the villain because everyone likes the way Johnny Rainbow sings a song. All right then, I'll play the villain. There will be no more singing. Johnny Rainbow will die! Did you hear that boys!

(From behind the screen Billy steals up to bodyguard 1 putting a gun to his head. With his other hand he gives the bodyguard one of the envelopes. The bodyguard ac cepts the payoff and carefully gives Billy his gun. The bodyguard slinks off.)

Remaining bodyguard: But Boss, ... Billy Diamond.

Boss D: You don't get it boys. Billy Diamond dies too! This is the start of a new age. The age of Boss D's world!

( Billy does the same with bodyguard 2. )

Boss D: This will be a good time. Everyone will conform. Business will be good. Everyone will be better off. Things will run smooth. What's the loss of a song or two, after all were talking about security. Everyone will be taken care of. So that's how it will be. I get to be God, and there will be no more singing.

( Cowering in the corner, Fido starts to gesture toward Boss D but stops. He witnesses the death of Boss D.)

(5 shots deafen the stage. The Boss is dead. Lola runs off stage.)

Billy: No words from or for the villain, just an overdue end.

(Billy turns to the audience.)

Did you think Johnny Rainbow and his spirits would clean up this mess?

(Billy tosses the guns down by Boss D's body. He picks up Boss D's cane. He twirls it as he walks off stage.)

(As Billy is leaving...)

Fido: Oh, you wicked people. You play out your deeds of cruelty and revenge. You make me the accomplice of your ambitions! You burn memories in my mind which will haunt me forever.

(He calls after Billy.) You made me watch the murder of my own master.

(Fido picks up Boss D's body in his arms.) I did your errands. I helped you build your empire of fear and greed. Even in my evil tasks I was the betrayer, warning Johnny Rainbow. Now my betrayal is finished in your death. I did not warn my own master.

( Billy returns, he puts a hand on Fido's shoulder. ) If you want to do something right, go to the Enchanted Forest. Find Flash Eyed Jack. Give him Boss D's Cane and this envelope. Tell him what happened.

Fido: Oh no Billy, Jack will kill you.

Billy: No, he won't Fido. He only kills for money. There's no profit in killing me. Tell him what happened. He'll leave Johnny Rainbow alone.

Fido: O.K., Billy, if you say so.

Scene 8

Rita: Where is your dress?

Velvet: I've discovered my inner woman and she turned out to be a man.

Rita: My God, but you are a gorgeous hunk.

Rita: I think I might like this.

Velvet: Your inner man isn't offended by my re-emerged masculinity?

Rita: No! Not at all. In fact I discovered my inner man is gay.

Velvet: In that case.

(He puts the scarf around Rita's neck, they kiss. Velvet & Rita go off hand in hand.)

SONG: “They Say That Love”

Scene 9: Fido & Jack

( Fido brings Boss D's Cane and Billy's money to Jack. )

Fido: Jack!

Jack: Fido, what are you doing here?

( Fido holds out Boss D's cane. )

Fido: Billy killed him, Jack. I saw it.

( Jack takes Boss D's cane. )

Jack: I never thought it would happen.

( Fido holds out the envelope.)

Fido: Billy told me to give this to you.

( Jack takes out a note while eyeing the money. )

Jack: What happened to Curly & Slim?

Fido: They ran off.

Jack: Before or after?

Fido: Before.

Billy used their guns to kill the Boss.

Jack: Always the poet. And a prophet. I'm out of a job.

( Jack hefts the money. )

Billy pays well. Now what will you do Fido?

Fido: I'll have to find another master.

Jack: How did you ever get that name anyway?

Fido: I have the brains of a dog. The Boss gave me a dog's name. I ain't so smart.

Jack: We're all dogs, Fido.

SONG: “Doggy Brain Blues”

Scene 10 Orlando & Susie

Orlando: I can't take it any more. After hearing the strange music, it's like Johnny said, I feel connected and I can't stand being apart from you any longer.

Susie: Oh, we're going to be in trouble.

Orlando: I don't care. It's wrong for us to be apart.

Susie: I know. It's been getting to me, too.

Orlando: You know I'm crazy about you.

Susie: I know. But I had to be sure.

Orlando: You're sure now, aren't you?

Susie: Yes, I'm sure.

Orlando: Let's go tell Johnny.

SONG: “They Say That Love”

Scene 11: Billy & Jack

Billy: Mr. Flash Eyed Jack.

Jack: Hey, Billy. So it turned out you were right. Thanks for the pension fund. It made it go down a little easier.

Billy: That was the idea.

Fido: Doesn't a dog love it's master?

Jack: You pay well, Billy. Take my hand and call me brother. As far as I'm concerned, you're the Boss now.

Billy: That's not what's happening, Jack. Johnny Rainbow will be running things now.

Jack: Don't make me laugh. Johnny can't run anything. Things will fall apart.

Billy: Maybe they will. But then maybe things need to fall apart.

Jack: What do you expect me to do?

Fido: Didn't I warn Johnny by telling Velvet?

Billy: Swear your loyalty to Johnny, and I'll call you brother.

Jack: Don't be a fool, Billy. You have the power.

Billy: I also have a brain. If yours is too stubborn to show it to you, then borrow mine.

Enter ETHERA

Billy: This is an end to fear.

Jack: You're kidding!

Billy: No. If you want to be part of it, Jack, you'll have to protect everyone's right to be brave.

Jack: Fear is respect.

Billy: When someone helps you in your time of weakness without fear of what you will do when you are strong, that is respect.

Jack: You're saying I should give up my advantage?

Billy: Yes.

Jack: But I'll always be stronger.

Billy: Yes.

Jack: So, what's the difference.

Billy: You won't be a bully. Being strong enough to restrain yourself will win the respect you've never had.

Jack: Boss D respected me.

Billy: Boss D laughed at you behind your back because he could so easily play you.

Jack: Make it simple for me. What does it all come down to?

Billy: One brother.

SONG: “Brother”

Jack: I've offered to be your brother.

Billy: No. We are all one brother.

Jack: You mean, everyone?

Billy: Everyone.

Jack: One brother.

Song: “Brother “ - to the front

Fido: What message shall I take back to town?

Billy: For those who choose love as their star, tell them to celebrate ! The future is governed by Johnny Rainbow!

Music stops for an instant:

Jack: I felt something.

Fido: Yah ... I felt something too.

Jack: No. You don't understand. I've never felt anything before.

Fido: You never felt anything?

Jack: Never.

Fido: How could you ever be sure of anything, if you've never felt anything?

Jack: I just figure it out.

(He turns to Billy.)

Jack: Are you sure of Johnny?

Billy: I am as sure of Johnny's goodness as I am of your darkness. But even in you there is hope.

Jack: What hope could you possibly see in me?

Billy: Your word. The one thing you've never sold is your word. Look into that place where your word lives and bring that light out into your darkness.

Jack: You're sounding like a Johnny Rainbow preacher. You should remember who you're talking to.

Billy: O.K., Jacks.

( Billy puts his gun against Jack's heart. )

Billy: Cleanse your soul. Find the truth in your heart, or my bullet. Does that help?

(Jack smiles.)

Jack: Yah... That helps.

ETHERA: The dawn has begun. The darkest place in the darkest heart is aroused from it's abject aloneness. This dawn is not out of a rotation around the sun. It is out of a wider orbit who's path navigates the soul of creation. Now see the blossom of that dawn in fertile soil.

Scene 12:

Johnny: What has been going through your minds? You thought I'd be angry because you fell in love?

Susie: He's not angry.

Orlando: Why did we think he would be?

Susie: I was afraid. All I could see were obstacles and doubt.

Orlando: I was afraid, too. Afraid I'd be alone... without you.

(They fling into each others arms; Johnny hugs them both.)

Orlando: We were meant to be together.

Susie: We were meant to be together.

(They look at Johnny.)

Johnny: You were meant to be together!

(They fling back in each others arms.)

Orlando: Marry me in spirit

Susie: Marry me in body

Orlando: Marry me in mind.

Susie: Marry me.

Orlando: Marry me.

ETHERA: Make friends with your heart & mind. Serve them faithfully & they will become loyal partners in your life, as in a marriage. Allow spirit to pass through freely. Abandon fear as your star and clarity will usher in your age.

Song: “Your Age”

END

After cast has taken bows, all out front

Last song: “They say that Love”

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