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WOMAN WHO SPEAKS IN THE SECOND PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka KATE)
Now that the Prologue’s done let’s start scene one shall we?

Listen: we hear the voice of the MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT – a.k.a. Ezra. Note his measured, self-assured, yet humble tone, reassuring you that everything, yes, everything’s going to be okay.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Thanks, Kate.
Why don’t we step over here and meet Shawn.

That’s her lying on the bed.

You’ll notice it’s one of eleven twin beds sandwiched into a dormitory room of an artist’s colony in Southern California. You’ll notice the dorm’s ramshackle charm -
(the retreat house originally catered to Christian youth groups – Methodists to be precise)
Writers, artists, composers, academics from all over the world come to the colony to
retreat
from the pressures of day to day existence –
It’s a place for
contemplation.
Regeneration.
Creation.
And because the colony welcomes folks of various disciplines:
cross-pollination.
All of which enables the colonists to “think outside the box”….

Shawn is here attempting to finish a book
She’d been writing on for three and a half years.
She came to the colony explicitly to write the seventh chapter
The chapter she needed to complete in order to finish the book.

SHAWN
The middle chapter
The keystone.
The magic shard of kryptonite.
The cat burglar’s pick that once turned will drop the tumblers in place
Opening a door…

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
If you look closely at the woman in the bed
you might see a resemblance to the Shawn from the film –
remember the Charlie Rose segment?
From the film you watched in the prologue?
Though no one would hold it against you if you didn’t recognize her.
Because the Shawn you see here is a very different Shawn
From the one in the film:
Whereas in the film’s Charlie Rose sequence she radiated
movie star glamour, a naughty wit, a towering intelligence,
the picture you see here is more a
badly lit candid, an
unflattering Polaroid
A
“Before”
picture of her, if you will.

Shawn might appear to you like she’s dead
Or near death
The way she stares up at the ceiling.
Chestnut hair wild and spread out over the pillow.
Pale.
Faraway look in her eyes.
Arms in a tangle around her head.
And the little black tape recorder she holds in her left hand.
Oh wait: she’s raising the tape recorder to her mouth.

SHAWN
Notes on Chapter Seven:
“Bullet Through a Disguise
(colon)
(subtitle)
Chung Ling Soo and the Bullet Catch Effect”

Though many variations of the Bullet Catch Effect have been performed over the years, the basic idea is the same:
a loaded rifle is fired directly at the illusionist by an assistant.
The illusionist, in the split second after the gun shot,
catches the bullet either in his teeth or on a plate (why a plate, I wonder?).

According to Ben Robinson, magician and author of Twelve Have Died (Ray Goulet’s Magic Art Book Co. 1986 – out of print), at least twelve recorded deaths have been attributed to this Effect.

The first reference to the Bullet Catch, according to Robinson, appears in the 1597 volume, Theatre of God’s Judgments by Reverend Thomas Beard. (Subsequent editions 1612, 1631, 1648.)

Note to self: Beard’s account of Coulen must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. In spite of Beard’s zealous Puritanism, he was not above baroque narrative embroidery, wild historical revisionism, gruesome and lurid embellishment, half-truths and outright lies, in his chronicle of history’s spectacular examples of divine vengeance.

Anyway: The reference concerns Coulen, a French illusionist who attempted the Effect in 1550. His attempt was successful. However, one spectator, horrified by the illusionist’s Luciferian defiance of God’s will to give and take life, tore the gun from Coulen’s assistant, and proceeded to beat Coulen to death with it.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Wait: she’s clicked off the recorder.

SHAWN
Yeah…that’s all well and good but…
That’s just the exposition.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Let me clarify: the Shawn you see here, of course is not the real Shawn
No more than the Shawn you saw in the movie was the real Shawn
The real Shawn is…
Well
since her mysterious disappearance…
no one really knows for sure where she is…

Ah! Meet Shawn’s mother
Beth.

Now: the real Beth couldn’t be with us today so…
Kate?

WOMAN WHO SPEAKS IN THE SECOND PERSON OMNISCIENT (a.k.a. KATE)
Yes Ezra.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Would you do the honors?

WOMAN WHO SPEAKS IN THE SECOND PERSON OMNISCIENT (a.k.a. KATE)
Of course.

BETH
That’s Shawn
My daughter
Lying on the bed.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
I realize how
difficult this must be for you.

BETH
It is. It really, really is.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
We appreciate you traveling so far to be with us.

BETH
Thank you for having me I -

My God. She looks just like Shawn how did you –

Why is she pale?
Why does she look dead?

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Care to tell us a little bit about your daughter?

BETH
Shawn and I
We
Don’t talk much maybe
Once twice in
Ohhh
Probably the uhhh
Last five years?

But Shawn’s very busy so I understand her
Um
Not staying in touch
and as her mother I will say that uhhh
despite the estrangement
maybe estrangement is too strong a word but
despite our not talking or seeing one another too often
I
Am
Proud.
Of her.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Anyway:
In the months prior to arriving at the colony
Shawn was suffering a severe case of writer’s block
She came to the colony explicitly to write the seventh chapter
of a book she’d been working on for three and a half years.
The chapter she needed to complete in order to finish the book.

SHAWN
The middle chapter
The keystone.
The magic shard of kryptonite.
The cat burglar’s pick that once turned will drop the tumblers in place
Opening a door…

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON (aka EZRA)
Completing the seventh chapter however
Was the source of terror for Shawn.
She procrastinated.
Made excuses.
Engaged in redundant research.

Which was completely unnecessary –
she’d already written her dissertation on the same subject.
See: even though this was Shawn’s first book,
She was battling a severe case of Mimesophobia
Which means
For those of you who don’t know
“The morbid fear of slavish imitation”

So in the midst of her procrastination, redundant research,
Shawn woke up one morning –
Hung over from drinking heavily,
And bit the bullet, as it were,
By accepting a residency at the artist’s colony.

BETH
She called me out of the blue one day to tell me she was going away
I said “But Sandy, you’re always away. Why the call?”

She gets mad
Really.
Mad.
when I call her that. Sandy.
But what can I do?
That’s her real name.
She made up Shawn her sophomore year in high school.
I remember the day it happened.
She came home from school,
Walked into the kitchen
Put her briefcase down
(she wanted a leather briefcase to differentiate herself from all the kids with backpacks)
I said “Hi Sandy, how was your – ”

SHAWN
Mother…
You are no longer to address me as Sandy.
Henceforth you will address me by my name. Shawn.
Ess-aitch-ay-double u-en. Shawn.

BETH
That’s what she said
“Address me by my name.”
She even spelled it for me.
I didn’t give her that name.
I would never have given her that name.
I generally dislike women with boy’s names.
And I have to say I was pretty insulted and
hurt.
What was wrong with the name I gave her?
I mean… it was my first gift to her, you know?
To have her throw it back in my face like that just…

But she was always a peculiar child.
From that day forward our
relationship was never quite the same.

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Okay….

BETH
Anyhow: She called me out of the blue and said she was going away

SHAWN
Mother I’m going away.

BETH
“But sweetie, I don’t know where you are now,
why are you calling me to tell me you’re going away?”
And she said:

SHAWN
Fine. You don’t want to talk to me. I’ll hang up. That’s fine.

BETH
And I said, “No no no no sweetie. I’m so happy to hear your voice.
But seeing as you never call I just…
Is something wrong?”

SHAWN
No
nothing’s wrong.
Why are you always so negative?!?!?
I’m just telling you that I’m going away.

BETH
That’s nice darling.

SHAWN
I’m going away to finish my book.

BETH
A book! I didn’t know you were writing a book, that’s wonderful dear.

SHAWN
It’s got a title.

BETH
That’s wonderful.

SHAWN
Don’t you want to know what the title is?

BETH
Of course dear. Tell me the title.

SHAWN
One Night Only

BETH
That’s a wonderful title what’s the book // about

SHAWN
I’m. Not. Finished.

(Long pause)

That’s only part of the title. The title is followed by a colon
followed by a subtitle.
Do you want to know what the title after the colon is?

BETH
Of course dear.

SHAWN
Or are you just going to pretend that you’re listening.

BETH
I’m listening sweetie. I assure you. Mama’s all ears.

SHAWN
Okay.
Here goes.
Are you sure you’re listening?

(Long silence.)

One Night Only
(colon)
(subtitle)
Actual Death
and the Future
of American

Entertainment.

(Silence.)

BETH
That’s

im
pressive

dear.

(Long pause.)

SHAWN
I’m calling you
Because I wanted to tell you
That I’m almost done.

BETH
That’s….

SHAWN
I have one more chapter to go.

BETH
Oh, that’s that’s…

SHAWN
Chapter seven.
The keystone.
The magic shard of kryptonite.
The cat burglar’s pick that once turned will drop the tumblers in place
Opening a door….

BETH
Does it have a title?

SHAWN
Yes,
Beth
In fact it also has a title.

BETH
Tell me.
What
is it?

SHAWN
Well,
Beth

BETH
Sweetie –

SHAWN
The title of the chapter is:
Bullet Through a Disguise

BETH
I see.

SHAWN
I’m not finished
Beth.

BETH
Does it also have a colon and a subtitle?

SHAWN
Yes,
Beth
In fact it does and if you paid attention to anything other than your own neuroses
I might tell you.

BETH
I’m all ears.

SHAWN
Yeah, well fuck you Beth if you think // I’m gonna tell you.

BETH
SANDY STOP CALLING ME BETH I AM YOUR MOTHER I NEVER ALLOWED YOU TO CALL ME BY MY FIRST NAME I NEVER ALLOWED ANY OF MY CHILDREN TO CALL ME BY MY FIRST NAME!!!!

SHAWN
(laughing)
You are so pathetic

Mom.

BETH
She hung up…
That’s the last I heard of her until….

MAN WHO SPEAKS SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT (aka EZRA)
Until…?

BETH
I mean I really didn’t think about it at the time but
Her calling me?
Out of the blue like that I…?
Was she…
Maybe…?
Maybe she was
trying to tell me something…
who knew she would just….
Vanish into thin air like that.