English Dramatic Reading

THE WORLD IS AN APPLE
By: Alberto S. Florentino
Mario: (rises, annoyed) Gloria! Wait a minute!

Gloria: (surprised) Hey, what's the matter? Why are you suddenly so touchy?
Mario: Who wouldn't be? I'm talking to you about the child and you bother me
by searching my pockets! I wish you'd think more of our daughter!
Gloria: (crosses to center) My God! Wasn't I think of her? Why do you think I
need some money? To buy me a pretty dress? Or see a movie?
Mario: Lower your voice. You'll wake the child up.
Gloria: (low, but intense) All I want is a little money to buy her something to
eat! She hasn't eaten anything all day! That's why I was “bothering” you!
Mario: (apologetic) I'm sorry, Gloria…(Grips her arm and turns away.)
Gloria: It's all right, Mario. Now, may I have some of the money?
Mario: (turns to her) Money? I…I don't have any, not right now.
Gloria: Today is payday, Mario.
Mario: Yes, but-
Gloria: But what? Where's your pay for the week?
Mario: I don't have it.
Gloria: What? I waited for you the whole day and you tell me—
Mario: (angry) —that I have nothing! Nothing! What do you want me to do,
steal?
Gloria: I'm not asking you to do a thing like that! All I want to know is what
you did with your pay.
Mario: (sits on the bench) Nothing is left of it.
The Necklace
By Guy de Maupassant
Husband: "What's the matter with you?"

(She turned towards him in the utmost distress.)
Wife: "I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace. . . ."
(He started with astonishment.)
Husband: "What! . . . Impossible!"
(They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets,
everywhere. They could not find it.)
Husband: "Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the
ball?"
Wife: "Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry."
Husband: "But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall."
Wife: "Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?"
Husband: "No. You didn't notice it, did you?"
Wife: "No." (They stared at one another, dumbfounded.)
Husband: "I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't
find it."
My Father Goes To Court
(Carlos Bulusan)
After the courtroom preliminaries, the judge looked at the Father.

Judge: “Do you have a lawyer?”
Father: “I don’t need any lawyer, Judge”.
Judge: “Proceed.”
(The rich man’s lawyer jumped up and pointed his finger at Father.)
Laywer: “Do you or you do not agree that you have been stealing the spirit of
the complaint’s wealth and food?”
Father: “I do not!”
Laywer: “Do you or do you not agree that while the complaint’s servants
cooked and fried fat legs of lamb or young chicken breast you and your family
hung outside his windows and inhaled the heavenly spirit of the food?”
Father: “I agree.”
Laywer: “Do you or do you not agree that while the complaint and his children
grew sickly and tubercular you and your family became strong of limb and fair
in complexion?”
Father: “I agree.” Father said.
Laywer: “How do you account for that?”
Father got up and paced around, scratching his head thoughtfully. Then he
said,
Father: “I would like to see the children of complaint, Judge.”
Judge: “Bring in the children of the complaint.”

Summer Solstice
by Nick Joaquin
Señora: “Tell me, Entoy: has she been to the Tadtarin?”
Entoy: “Yes, senora. Last night.”
Señora: “But I forbade her to go! And I forbade you to let her go!”
Entoy: “I could do nothing.”
Señora: “Why, you beat her at the least pretext!”
Entoy: “But now I dare not touch her.”
Señora: “Oh, and why not?”
Entoy: “It is the day of St. John: the spirit is in her.”
Señora: “But man—”
Entoy: “It is true, senora. The spirit in her.”
Señora: “But, man—”
Entoy: “It is true, señora. The spirit is in her. She is the Tadtarin. She must
do as she pleases. Otherwise, the grain would not grow, the trees would bear
no fruit, the rivers would give no fish, and the animals would die.”
Señora: “Naku, I did not know your wife was so powerful, Entoy.”
Entoy: “At such times she is not my wife: She is the wife of the river, she is
the wife of the crocodile, and she is the wife of the moon.”
The Story of the Aged Mother
by Matsuo Basho
The trembling mother’s voice was full of unselfish love as she gave her last
injunction.
Mother: “Let not thine eyes be blinded, my son. The mountain road is full of
dangers. LOOK carefully and follow the path which holds the piles of twigs.
They will guide you to the familiar path farther down”.
The son’s surprised eyes looked back over the path, then at the poor old,
shriveled hands all scratched and soiled by their work of love.
His heart broke within and bowing to the ground, he cried aloud.
Son: “Oh, Honorable mother, your kindness breaks my heart! I will not leave
you. Together we will follow the path of twigs, and together we will die!”
One night, in great distress, the son whispered the news to his hidden mother.
Mother: “Wait!” “I will think. I will think”
On the second day she told him what to do.

Mother: “Make rope of twisted straw. Then stretch it upon a row of flat stones
and burn it on a windless night.”
The governor was pleased at the wit of the youth and praised greatly, but he
demanded to know where he had obtained his wisdom.
Son: “Alas! Alas!, “the truth must be told!”
The governor listened and then meditated in silence. Finally he lifted his head.
Governor: “Shining needs more than strength of youth. “Ah, that I should
have forgotten the well-known saying, “with the crown of snow, there cometh
wisdom!”
That very hour the cruel law was abolished.

Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare
ROMEO
[To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
JULIET
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
JULIET
You kiss by the book.

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THE WORLD IS AN APPLE

By: Alberto S. Florentino

Mario: (rises, annoyed) Gloria! Wait a minute!

Husband: "What's the matter with you?"

After the courtroom preliminaries, the judge looked at the Father.

Father: “I don’t need any lawyer, Judge”.

Father: “I agree.” Father said.

Laywer: “How do you account for that?”

Judge: “Bring in the children of the complaint.”

Señora: “Tell me, Entoy: has she been to the Tadtarin?”

Entoy: “Yes, senora. Last night.”

Entoy: “I could do nothing.”

Señora: “Why, you beat her at the least pretext!”

Entoy: “But now I dare not touch her.”

Señora: “Oh, and why not?”

Entoy: “It is the day of St. John: the spirit is in her.”

Señora: “But man—”

Entoy: “It is true, senora. The spirit in her.”

Señora: “But, man—”

On the second day she told him what to do.

That very hour the cruel law was abolished.

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