Second Year Revolutions
Script
Scene 1 - Intro
(A New Foe)
Dark Stage and Room
Center stage – Advisor in black robe
Center floor – Students kneeling with head down
Advisor: I am the one they seek. I am the one with power. They
come to me with hope in their eyes looking for choice. For them
choice is an illusion.
Begin music
-Advisor Rises
-Lights brighten halfway
-Students rise and begin puppet dance
Music Ends – lights come up, students mill about
Advisor:
Enter Darren.
Come closer.
Darren:
[slightly frightened] Advisor, I’m here looking for a
research group.
I’m not quite sure what choice I have but I’d
like to start somewhere.
Advisor:
You have endless choice!
I see uncertainty lurks in your heart.
Your spirit is strong, but unfocused.
Search the corridors of this institution, tonight, two
hours past midnight.
Let the fire of the trial forge your new knowledge.
Return to me when your spirit is pure.
Lights Off.
Students, Advisor, Darren file out doors.
Scene 3
(Donut I)
Side stage is lit, center stage dark.
- Tristan sitting at desk with a mountain of donuts eating them
one by one.
- Bryan is standing by him playing atonal improvisation on the
clarinet.
All lights off.
Scene 4
(Clark at Dark)
Darren middle of stage.
Bryan and David right side of the stage.
Darren walks in place. Bryan and David sidle from right to left,
off stage, and out door.
……After “Material Girl” scene:
Two students bring table and
“Nanotube maker on to left part of stage.
Bryan explodes into door.
……David walks towards middle of stage:
[Grad 1 and Grad 2 in room. Darren ‘walks by’]
David: Welcome to the McEuen Lab. Let me show you how we make Nanotubes.
David walks to box.
Darren: Is that it?
David pours NO2 onto box. Begins pulling nanothread.
Darren: [pointing to plug] It’s not even plugged in.
David: This tour is over.
Darren walks off to right. David flosses with thread. Darren hits lights.
[End scene.]
Scene 5
(Donut II)
Side stage is lit, center stage dark.
- Tristan sitting at desk with a mountain of donuts eating them
one by one.
- Bryan is standing by him playing atonal improvisation on the
clarinet.
During this scene, 111 & 222 place table on right side of stage,
with three chairs and placards. 333 move chalk board on to left
side.
All lights off.
Scene 6
(Q-Exam)
Mo, Darren, David on right side of stage.
Francois, Bryan, and Gang on left.
Darren: I’m so nervous. I mean, it’s our Q exam.
kicked out of school. Aren’t you nervous?
We could get
David: I’ve got it allll covered.
Mo: [excited] Yeah!
Let’s do this!
Gang comes to chalkboard to ask for Darren.
Gang:
Darren, it’s time for your exam.
Bryan: Alright.
We all know how this works.
Let’s get started.
Francois:
You have an ideal gas of folding proteins, as you
apply an external magnetic field, in which direction do they
radiate?
Darren: [confused]
Uhhh…
Bryan: Let’s make it easy.
field.
Make it an oscillating electric
Darren: [more confused].
Francois: [European Disgust] Darren, come on, we did that one in
class.
Gang: Let’s move on. OK. Grab an electron, drill a hole, thread
a string through it, and let it spin. [wild spin motion]
Darren: [confused] And then?
Gang:
Get ‘er done.
Darren: [goes to board, scribbling] Well…let’s assume an eigenset of states…rotating………and take the length to zero……
Bryan: Okay, we’ve seen enough. Pass [raises green side]
Francois: No [RED side]
Gang:
[Wild Gestation] Pass!
Time Freezes.
Advisor leaves.
Bryan: Darren, Congratulations.
it’s their turn.
Please let the next student know
Darren leaves.
Mo:
How was it?
Darren:
Mo:
[pained] Ohhh…It was horrible.
It’s your turn.
Yeah!
Mo enters.
Bryan: Let’s go about finding the corrections to the anomalous
magnetic moment of the electron?
Mo: [Thrilled] Excellent!
of the corrections.
Here, [scribbles] let me give you all
Francois: [uhhh]
Mo:
[Dances]
Francois: We need more information than that.
Mo: [Points] What do you want to know?!
Bryan: Zeroth Order.
Mo:
[Turns to Bryan] Two! Come On!
Bryan: [Raise intensity] First Order!
Mo: alpha/2pi!
Bryan: Second Order!
Mo: alpha squared over pi squared times -2.973!
hands on table.]
Bryan: [cowering]
Come on! [Puts
[Raises Green Pass Sign]
Gang: [Raises Pass sign]
Francois: [Raises Red Fail Sign]
[Mo swats sign out of hand.]
Francois: [Raises Green Pass Sign]
Mo: [straightens self.]
Well, it’s been a pleasure.
Mo walks over to other students.
Mo: [to David]
David:
No sweat.
[less connotation] I’ve got it all covered.
David walks into exam room, confident, relaxed.
Francois: Calculate the characteristic
diffusion on a conducting sphere.
time
scale
for
charge
David scribbles and pulls down right sleeve.
Gang, Francois, and Bryan mumble to each other.
David:
There.
Bryan: [cautious] That is correct.
Gang: You have a charged, rotating black hole, and a proton at
infinity. How long does it take to fall into the hole?
David: No problem.
David pulls up shirt, scribbles, pulls up shirt, scribble.
Professors murmur.
David: How about that?
Gang: [More cautiously]
electron?
That is correct.
And what if it was an
David: [apprehension, he’s going drop his pants.]:
Uhh.
David turns to board, drops or splits snaps, lifts RIGHT LEG.
David strikes a few minus signs to plus signs.
Bryan: That’s right.
Okay.
[pause]
Astronomy Question.
[pause] In summer, when the moon is in direct opposition to the
Sun, where on Earth does the sun not shine?
David has back to board already, waiting for question.
David: [assured]
This one I’ve got covered!
Mock drop boxers.
Francois cuts lights.
(Thanks!)
[End scene.]
Scene 7
(Donut III)
Side stage is lit, center stage dark.
- Tristan sitting at desk with a mountain of donuts eating them
one by one.
- Bryan is standing by him playing atonal improvisation on the
clarinet.
All lights off.
Scene 8
(Dance of Choice)
In TA Office, Students gathered on RIGHT stage.
Darren, Mo, and David walk in.
Gayan:
Darren:
Mo:
Darren upset, Mo and David happy.
Hey, guys, how was it?!
It was alright, I guess.
It was awesome! [Bam!]
David:
I wish I could have shown them more!
Darren: Ahhhh, What I’m doing here anymore?
physicist? Should I even be here?
Sumiran: Darren, what are you saying?
Am
I really a
Music Starts (Should I Stay or Should I Go?)
Students still sitting or mill about.
Verse 1
Bryan:
CNF or LHC.
Francois: Flanagan or High-Tc.
Tristan:
Michelle Wang or Hoffstaedter.
David:
Find the higgs of Dark Matter.
Gayan:
LASSP or LEPP or Biophys.
Sumiran:
Itai, or Tye, or Anders Ryd.
Verse 2
Bryan:
Sunshine or Recitation.
Francois: Fun or Nanofabrication.
Tristan:
PhD or No More Homework.
David:
Tenure track or office worker.
Gayan:
Choose career or indecision.
Sumiran:
Enlightenment or television.
By this point we are all in position.
Dance!
End of Dance.
David:
dance?
During applause, move to positions on stage.
Isn’t it strange how we spontaneously break out into
Sumiran: Yeah, and that horrible Jackson incident last year that
almost tore us apart.
Tchefor:
David:
apart.
I thought we’d be crushed.
But we stayed together, we stuck together, and we tore it
Gayan: Yeah. And even if the hours are long, and our advisors
are out of touch…
Sumiran:
Even if we don’t earn, or eat, or sleep enough…
Tchefor: We are starting to think like physicists.
David: Nevermind that the only window is the professors parking
lot…
Gayan: …Your office has a window?
Sumiran: Nevermind that my girlfriend says I smell like chalk…
Tchefor: We are starting to think like physicists.
David: And most importantly, inside these rooms, between me and
you and you and all of us, we stick together. There exists a
strong force connecting each of us.
Tchefor: Ohhh.
You mean like QCD?
ALL STUDENTS: No!!
David: Even if we are bound by these confines, we have our
freedom here in physics and new ideas. It is the energetic
exchange of these materials that bind us together!
Tchefor: Yeah, yeah!
David: If that helps.
Like QCD?
We are peons -- I mean pions!
Sumiran: The point is, the paths we take and discoveries we make
are still unknown. We just have to choose where to go!
Darren: That’s right!
I’ve made my decision!
All Students except Darren freeze.
RIGHT.
Lights Dim.
Advisor enters
Advisor: The time has come Darren. Take your place at my side
and leave those around you. I offer you choice, the only choice
you ever had.
Advisor approaches Darren, grabs Darren at climax.
back to center.
Looks at screen.
Stars appear, explode.
Vortex forms.
Darren and Advisor walk towards screen.
Vortex climaxes, Darren and Advisor drop to floor.
Bryan turns off lights.
Applause!
Walk to left,