EXT. PRISON
INT. PRISON MEETING ROOM
In a sad, generic meeting room, five prisoners sit in their faded orange jumpsuits, rough characters all. In this California federal prison, they are mostly Latino. A fellow prisoner strides in with heavy energy and a shredded face. His imposing size adds to a sense of his own gravity. He is Placidio, their Director, and he is the big dog in this pack—not to be messed with! They, the prisoners, are in a theater group. What else is there to do—it’s prison!
Placidio unnecessarily silences the already silent group.
PLACIDIO
Okay, motherfuckers, shut the hell up!
(beat)
Now I want to congratulate you all on
an excellent production of Steamboat last
Friday. The reviews are in: you’re the hit
of the whole prison, but before you get
swell heads, I want to tell you your prize:
you have to take on Shakespeare!! The
immortal Bard! Every prisoner’s challenge:
the language, the passions, the intellect!
No reaction from the assembled. They’re not sure how to take this. Some smell a challenge. No one high-fives.
PLACIDIO (CONT’D)
Now, before you go high-fiving, because
you were all so great in the last production,
I’m going to let you pick which play
you get to do.
LUIS
Uhhh, any Shakespeare play?
PLACIDIO
Any one at all. The challenge of a
lifetime…you lifers!
LUIS
Well, I guess it’s hard to choose. There’s
so many…
Suddenly, in the back of the room, ROBERT speaks up. Robert is a white-collar criminal, only here due to spillover at the “country club” prison up the road…
ROBERT
Placidio has issued us a challenge. I have
not been the most vocal of inmates, but if
you’ll allow me to speak as a used-to-be
patron of the arts, I’d say, if I had to vote,
I’d vote for…Shakespeare in the Park.
The other prisoners aren’t sure about Robert, but we can see his suggestion has an immediate attraction to them.
RAFALIO
Sounds good to me.
RANDALL
Yeah, I like that one best.
There is general agreement all around, but before this wildfire can catch wind, Placidio wants to clarify his intent…
PLACIDIO
Okay, well, maybe you don’t understand
the question so good, but which of the
great Shakespeare’s plays would you
choose to do?
ROBERT
I understood you perfectly—I am a
great aficionado of the Bard, and I would
propose we take on In the Park. That one.
Its full name is Shakespeare in the Park.
The other prisoners, who’ve never given a second look to Robert, are suddenly on his side in a big way. Their energy gathers in a restless mummering, but they silence when Placidio puts up his hand—
PLACIDIO
Wait, motherfuckers, wait! There’s no
such thing, man. I don’t think…
Uh, indeed there is. I saw it many years
ago. More than once. It was great. They
performed it outside, just as Shakespeare
intended!
Rafalio, no friend of Robert’s (he tried to kill Robert once…a day, for the past four years), is suddenly on his enemy’s side—
RAFALIO
Yeah, I’ve heard of it. The best play ol’
Bill Shakespeare ever wrote.
EDDIE
I know it, too! Shakespeare in the Park!
They do it every year in my hometown.
New York.
Placidio hesitates, he is not on firm footing here—
PLACIDIO
Okay, slow down, look…you mean, you
saw a Shakespeare play, like Othello, or
Richard the Third, or Hamlet…IN THE
PARK. Right? Yeah?
LUIS
I don’t know about that…it was just
called Shakespeare in the Park when
I saw it.
Charlie, thirty-four and obese, with fine features and extensive facial tattoos, completely out of his league, suddenly butts in—
CHARLIE
(growing more sure of himself as he speaks)
Yeah, me too…I saw that play, too. Yeah.
I loved it. I love Shakespeare, all of him,
but this one…yes, is his best.
LUIS
Yeah, man, it had everything.
PLACIDIO
Like what, then? What happens in it?
LUIS
Well, this kid slept with his mother, the
queen…
PLACIDIO
That’s Hamlet…
RAFALIO
Oh, yeah, and then this Dad-King killed
his sons…
PLACIDIO
Richard the Third…
CHARLIE
…then at the end, the sprite from the
Garden told them all the moral!
PLACIDIO
Well, that’s Midsummer Night’s Dream,
man! You got it wrong—
LUIS
No, YOU got it wrong—it’s
Shakespeare’s greatest play: In the Park!
It’s what we want and we won’t settle for
anything less…right, guys?!
All the prisoners start pounding on their desks…
PRISONERS
In the Park…In the Park…In the Park!
The Director, scarier than the rest of the inmates, begins to back off—a riot is about to begin! Suddenly the door opens and a GUARD and WARDEN DANIELS enter.
WARDEN DANIELS
What the hell? Quiet down! All of you!
The Guard waves his gun and the prisoners quiet down.
WARDEN DANIELS (CONT’D)
The heck is going on in here, Placidio?
PLACIDIO
These motherfuckers, they can’t decide which
play they want to do for the next round.
We did decide! We want to do
SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK!
The prisoners cheer, but the Warden is skeptical, until—
ROBERT
Placidio said it was our choice and we
choose Shakespeare in the Park—what’s
wrong with that? I love that play, it’s
dear to me, it’s dear to all of us, it’s got
everything: romance, betrayal, fresh air,
sunlight! It’s the Bard’s most rewarding
entertainment yet!
Warden Daniels takes this in, then remembers he doesn’t give a shit.
WARDEN DANIELS
Oh…well, go ahead. It’s one of my
favorites.
The prisoners cheer and hug each other!
WARDEN DANIELS (CONT’D)
But I’m warning you! It’s not taking
place in some fake park here in the
prison; if we do it, we do it in a real
park, outside! Theater is already so
fakey, it makes me sick. I want to feel
something—you got me?! Make me see
eternity!
The prisoners nod…hell, yeah. As they celebrate, Placidio throws his hands up in the air—what has he wrought? And we hear the narrator answer his query…
NARRATOR (V.O.)
All of Cell Block Three escaped
during the first on-site rehearsal of the
production.
(beat)
But their understudies from Cell Block
Five went on in their place and made
theater history.