Dialogue sample for The Melting Pot
by Carol S. Lashof
Contact: <clashof@gmail.com>
THE MELTING POT
CHARACTERS
This play is intended to be presented by a diverse ensemble of 6 actors, with all actors
stepping out of the CHORUS to play specific roles. DAVID should be played by a
young man and VERA should be played by a young woman. Otherwise, it is not
particularly desirable for the age, sex, race, or ethnicity of the actors to correspond to the
attributes of the characters they are playing. The more the cast reflects the diversity of
the U.S. population the better.
DAVID QUIXANO, a Russian Jewish emigré
VERA REVENDAL, a Russian Christian emigrée
A RED CROSS NURSE
FRAU QUIXANO, David’s grandmother/ THE BARON, Vera’s father
MENDEL QUIXANO, David’s uncle
KATHLEEN, a maidservant/ QUINCY DAVENPORT
CHORUS (All members of the cast double as members of the CHORUS when they are
not playing other roles.)
Author’s Note:
This script incorporates material from the following primary sources, all in the public
domain:
Fairchild, Henry Pratt. The Melting Pot Mistake, 1926.
Public Health, Nurses’ Quarterly, Cleveland, Ohio, October 1913 (published in
the 1994 reprint edition of The Melting Pot, Ayer Publishing Inc.).
Weiss, Feri Felix. The Sieve or Revelations of the Man Mill Being the Truth
About American Immigration, 1921
Zangwill, Israel. “Afterword to The Melting Pot,” (published in the 1994 reprint
edition of The Melting Pot).
Zangwill, Israel. The Melting Pot, 1908.
2
THE MELTING POT
(A RED CROSS NURSE stands alone on stage. The house is still lit.)
NURSE
I was a Red Cross nurse on the battlefield.
The words still ring in my ears.
“The ghetto is running in blood;
send nurses and doctors.”
This meant the pogrom
was under way.
(Other cast members enter, some from the wings, some from the house. They
converge on the audience. Individual cast members address individual members
of the audience.)
CHORUS
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Are you an American?
(DAVID unrolls a painted backdrop of New York City, circa 1908. He plants
himself center stage in front of the backdrop and speaks to the audience. Note:
in Act One, DAVID always wears either a hat or a yarmulke. In Act Two, he is
bare-headed.)
DAVID
I am DAYvid.
I am from New York.
I am an American.
(FRAU QUIXANO, David’s grandmother, addresses him from one side of the
stage.)
FRAU QUIXANO
DahVEED? Dovidel? Wu is’ du? Dovidel?
DAVID
Hier, Grosmutter. Hier. Ich bin hier.
3
FRAU QUIXANO
Mein kind, mein kind. Dovidel.
(She holds out her arms to him. He goes to her. She embraces him as one afraid
for his life.)
DAVID
It’s all right, Grosmutter. It’s all right.
Du traumst. You’re dreaming.
It’s all right now.
We’re in America now.
CHORUS
(Indicating DAVID.) He has bad dreams.
(VERA stands on the opposite side of the stage from DAVID and his grandmother.
She extends her hand towards DAVID.)
VERA
David!
(He makes a movement towards her but without quite breaking away from FRAU
QUIXANO’S embrace.)
DAVID
No, no. I am an American now.
I will dream only of the future.
Of the future emerging
CHORUS
He has bad dreams.
DAVID
Of the future emerging
from the fires of God’s Crucible.
Here in America.
CHORUS
Here in America
Here, as everywhere,
the Jew is hated.
VERA
Come to me.
4
(DAVID pulls away from FRAU QUIXANO, who cries out in pain at his
departure. VERA reaches towards him and DAVID moves slowly, dreamily to the
circle of her open arms.)
FRAU QUIXANO
Komm’ zurick!
CHORUS
Come to me.
Komm’ zurick
VERA
My people shall be thy people.
CHORUS
David looks back at his grandmother. He freezes.
(During the following lines, which are spoken by individual members of the
CHORUS—as if handing off a baton in a relay—the minimum necessary stage
properties are brought on in order to establish the scene described below.)
CHORUS
On the fifth of October, 1908, Israel Zangwill’s play “The Melting Pot” opened in
Washington, DC.
As the curtain came down, Teddy Roosevelt
leaned over the edge of his box and called out:
“That’s a great play, Mr. Zangwill, that’s a great play.”
(One member of the CHORUS stands center stage and announces the scene.)
CHORUS MEMBER
“The Melting Pot” by Israel Zangwill.
(The speaker reads from Zangwill’s text and points out the features of the set. The
features he points to—for example, the mezuzah—need not actually be
represented on stage. As the actor speaks, house lights dim and conventional
stage lighting comes up. Shortly before his name is mentioned, MENDEL takes
his place in the scene.)
CHORUS MEMBER (CONT’D)
The scene is laid in the living-room of the small home of the Quixanos in the Richmond
or non-Jewish borough of New York, about five o’clock of a February afternoon. Nailed
on the right-hand door-post gleams a Mezuzah, a tiny metal case containing a Biblical
passage.
5
CHORUS MEMBER (CONT’D)
Over the street door is pinned the Stars-and-Stripes.
The whole effect is a curious blend of shabbiness, Americanism, Jewishness, and music,
all four being combined in the figure of Mendel Quixano.
MENDEL
(Calling out the door.) Good-bye, Johnny . . .
and don’t forget to practice your scales!
(Closes the door.) Brainless, earless, thumb-fingered Gentile!
(He drops dejectedly into the armchair. After an instant an irate Irish voice is
heard from behind the kitchen door.)
KATHLEEN
Devil take the butter!
Pots and pans and plates and knives!
MENDEL/CHORUS
Ach, Gott! Mother and Kathleen.
KATHLEEN/CHORUS
No meat on the butter plate.
No butter on the meat plate.
(Kathleen bangs the door as she enters excitedly, carrying a folded white tablecloth.)
KATHLEEN
Sure, the Pope himself couldn’t remember it all.
FRAU QUIXANO
Gott in Himmel, dieses Amerika!
(Interweaving with KATHLEEN’S next lines, a part of the CHORUS murmurs
“Gott in Himmel, dieses Amerika” while the rest whispers “If you don’t like
America, God’s own country.”)
KATHLEEN
What’s that you’re after?
Jabbering about America?
If you don’t like God’s own country,
6
KATHLEEN (CONT’D)
you can go back to your own Jerusalem.
Sure, you can!
Bad luck to me if ever I take service again with heathen Jews!
(KATHLEEN perceives MENDEL and jumps back, startled. She drops her cloth.
MENDEL glares at her. Hastily, KATHLEEN picks up the cloth and brushes it
off.)
MENDEL
One’s very servants are anti-Semites!
(There is a knock at the door. MENDEL exits.)
NURSE
The doctor came to us with these words:
“Sisters, there is no time for weeping.
God knows how many are already killed.”
He hung silver crosses around our necks
so the Hooligans would not know we were Jewish.
(The knocking continues. KATHLEEN enters and throws open the door angrily.
VERA enters.)
VERA
Is Mr. Quixano at home?
KATHLEEN
Which Mr. Quixano?
VERA
Are there two Mr. Quixanos?
KATHLEEN
Didn’t I say there was?
VERA
Then I want the one who plays.
KATHLEEN
There isn’t a one who plays.
VERA
Oh, surely!
7
KATHLEEN
You’re wrong entirely. They both play.
VERA
Oh, dear! And do they both play the violin?
KATHLEEN
You’re wrong again. One plays the piano—
only the young gentleman plays the fiddle—
Mr. David!
CHORUS
Ah, Mr. David!
VERA
(Overlapping with the CHORUS)
Ah, Mr. David—that’s the one I want to see.
KATHLEEN/CHORUS
He’s out.
(She abruptly shuts the door. Vera stops it from closing. KATHLEEN proceeds
with laying the cloth on the table.)
VERA
Don’t shut the door!
I want to leave a message.
Will you please say that Miss Revendal
called from the Settlement . . .
(VERA perceives that KATHLEEN is not paying attention.)
VERA
Perhaps I should write the message?
KATHLEEN
If you’re quick about it—
look at the clock—
it’s almost Shabbos.
VERA
almost what . . . ?
KATHLEEN/CHORUS
Almost Shabbos!
8
(VERA looks at her quizzically.)
KATHLEEN/CHORUS
You, a Jewess,
not know your own Sabbath!
(The CHORUS murmurs, almost a hiss: “Jewess.”)
VERA
I, a Jewess! How dare you?
KATHLEEN
Asking your pardon, miss,
you looked a bit foreign.
VERA
I am a Russian.
KATHLEEN
Begging your pardon, miss.
(Pause.)
VERA
But then he is a Jew?
Mr. Quixano is a Jew?
KATHLEEN
Two Jews, miss, both of them.
And the old woman also.
She wears a black wig—
she’s that holy.
VERA
(To herself) That wonderful boy a Jew?
His manners were so charming.
(To Kathleen.) Are you sure he is a Jew?
The name sounds Spanish.
KATHLEEN
Spanish! Look at the old lady’s book.
Is that Spanish?
And that holy picture
(The CHORUS joins KATHLEEN, echoing her lines and transforming them
almost into a prayer. VERA recoils, moving towards the door.)
9
CHORUS/KATHLEEN
And only on Shabbos
this holy white tablecloth
And only on Shabbos
this pair of silver candlesticks.
VERA
Thank you. Don’t say I called at all.
(The following is performed silently while the CHORUS addresses the audience:
MENDEL enters as VERA is about to leave. They converse briefly. MENDEL
opens the door courteously. She hesitates, decides not to leave. MENDEL closes
the door. Meanwhile KATHLEEN finishes setting the table for the Sabbath meal
and then exits. MENDEL and VERA converse more warmly.)
CHORUS
(Handing the lines from one to another)
Israel Zangwill, a British Jew,
was raised in the London ghetto.
He never lived in America.
But he helped to settle thousands
of Russian Jews
who sought refuge
in the United States.
(MENDEL exits, leaving VERA alone on stage. VERA looks around the room.)
VERA/CHORUS
That wonderful boy a Jew!
But then so was David,
the sweet singer in Israel—
the shepherd youth,
with his harp and his psalms.
(MENDEL re-enters triumphantly with a large sealed letter. The following
exchange is very rapid with VERA and MENDEL stepping on the ends of each
other’s lines. The CHORUS occasionally adds punctuation by repeating a word
or phrase, e.g. “we hope” or “a letter.”)
MENDEL
Here it is!
10
VERA
The letter from the Settlement
We hope he’ll play . . .
but we can’t pay him.
MENDEL
If you offer to pay him,
he will refuse to play.
CHORUS/VERA
We hope he’ll play.
MENDEL
As the letter came on a Saturday,
As it came on the Sabbath,
my mother was afraid
he would open it—
so she hid it from him.
VERA
Open it? What else can one do
with a letter—like an oyster—
but open it!
MENDEL
Letters and oysters are alike forbidden
to a pious Jew—
at least we may not open our letters
on the day of rest.
(Enter from the kitchen FRAU QUIXANO.)
VERA
I’m sure I could not rest ‘till I’d opened mine.
FRAU QUIXANO
Wos will die Shikseh?
CHORUS
What does the Shikseh want?
VERA
What does your mother say?
MENDEL
She is only asking what your heathen Ladyship desires.
11
VERA
Tell her I hope she is well.
MENDEL/CHORUS
Das Fraulein hofft dass es geht gut—
The Fraulein hopes you are well.
FRAU QUIXANO
Gut? Un’ wie soll es gut gehen—in Amerika!
CHORUS
(Joining in.) Wie soll es gut gehen—in Amerika!
Well? And how should I be well—in America!
VERA
I understood that last word.
MENDEL
She asks how can anything possibly go well in America!
VERA
Ah, she doesn’t like America.
MENDEL
Her favorite expression is “A Klog zu Columbessen!”
MENDEL/CHORUS
“Cursed be Columbus!”
VERA
And your nephew?
Does he curse Columbus too?
(The CHORUS begins a murmured, intermittent chant in both English and
Yiddish: “A Klog zu Columbessen!” “Cursed be Columbus.” This chant is
punctuated by other lines as indicated. FRAU QUIXANO begins to cry softly.)
MENDEL
Ah, no. But what is there here for him?
In the Russian Pale, he was a wonder-child.
CHORUS
Ein wunder-kind.
12
MENDEL
Here in this great grinding America
there is only the terrible struggle
to make a living.
CHORUS
In this great grinding America.
MENDEL
Music-lessons and dance-halls, beer-halls and weddings.
Even on the Sabbath, a pack of giggling schoolgirls
is waiting to waltz.
But why do I burden you with our troubles.
You are too young to know—
VERA
I? Trouble and I are not such strangers.
MENDEL
What terrible things that Settlement work must hold.
VERA
Yes, sometimes one sees
only the tragedy of things,
even in free America.
(FRAU QUIXANO’s sobbing grows slightly louder. To the chant of “A Klog zu
Columbessen” the CHORUS now adds “Even in free America” and fragments
thereof with varying emphasis and intonation so that “free America” is
sometimes a simple description, sometimes a question, other times ironic, and still
other times an imperative, i.e. “Free America!” Their voices alternate, overlap,
repeat, and sometimes sound in unison, building to a climax and then ceasing
abruptly.)
CHORUS
Vera looks towards the window.
Mendel’s eyes follow her gaze.
Outside the window, the snow falls thickly.
VERA
How pitilessly it falls.
CHORUS
Like fate.
Icy and inexorable.
13
(There is a moment or two given over to the sobbing of FRAU QUIXANO and the
roar of the wind shaking the windows. Suddenly a happy voice singing “My
Country ‘tis of Thee” is heard from without.)
CHORUS
Frau Quixano pricks up her ears, joyously. Do ist Dovidel!
Mendel springs up. That’s David!
Vera murmurs in relief. Ah!
The whole atmosphere is changed to one of joyous expectation.
(The song breaks off abruptly as DAVID throws open the door and appears on the
threshold, a buoyant snow-covered figure in a cloak and a broad-brimmed hat
carrying a violin case.)
DAVID
Isn’t it a beautiful world, uncle? Snow,
the divine white snow—
(Seeing Vera) Miss Revendal here!
MENDEL
(Handing DAVID the letter.) Miss Revendal came to inquire—
DAVID
A letter for me?
VERA
Oh, you may open it. Quickly—
or it will be Shabbos!
(Startled, DAVID hesitates a moment longer, gazing at VERA in wonder, then
hastens to read his letter.)
DAVID
Oh, Miss Revendal! To play again at your Settlement.
VERA
But we cannot offer you a fee.
DAVID
A fee! I’d pay a fee to see all those immigrants you gather together—
Dutchmen and Greeks,
Poles and Norwegians,
14
DAVID (CONT’D)
Welsh and Armenians.
If you only had Jews,
it would be as good as Ellis Island.
VERA
As Ellis Island?
DAVID/CHORUS
Where the ships come in from Europe.
And all those weary wanderers
are feeling what I felt
when I came to America.
Here you stand, good folk, think I,
here you stand in your fifty groups,
with your fifty languages
and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries.
But you won’t be long like that, brothers,
for these are the fires of God you’ve come to—
these are the fires of God.
(The scene continues silently: DAVID becomes increasingly excited as he speaks.
His uncle tries to calm him down but DAVID continues. VERA is clearly
enthralled.)
CHORUS
“He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners,
receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced,”
Wrote Hector Saint-John de Crevecoeur in his Letters from an American Farmer
in 1782.
“Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men.”
NURSE
The blood was already up to our ankles.
The uproar was deafening. On all sides
we could hear the Hooligans’ fierce cries:
NURSE/CHORUS
“Bey Zhida!” “Kill the Jews.”
DAVID
A fig for your feuds and vendettas!
Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen,
Jews and Russians—
15
DAVID (CONT’D)
into the Crucible with you all!
God is making the American.
Ah, what a glorious Finale
for my symphony—
if I can only write it.
VERA
But you have written some of it already! May I not see it?
(DAVID and VERA continue to converse inaudibly.)
CHORUS
“Romantic claptrap!”
Wrote The London Times,
“All this rhapsodizing over music
and crucibles
and statues of Liberty.”
VERA
Naturally, I was trained in Petersburg.
There’s not much music to be had at Kishineff—
DAVID
(Trembling.) Kishineff!
VERA
My birthplace.
MENDEL
(Protectively.) Calm yourself, David.
DAVID
Not much music in Kishineff!
No, only the Death-March!
And you! You, looking on
with your cold butcher’s face!
(He bursts into hysterical sobs and runs, shamefacedly, through the door to his
room.)
VERA
What have I said? What have I done?
16
(FRAU QUIXANO who has fallen asleep over her book now awakens with a sense
of horror and looks around.)
FRAU QUIXANO
Dovidel? Wu is’ Dovidel!
MENDEL
(Pressing her back to her slumbers.) Du traumst, Mutter! Schlaf!
VERA
What have I said? What have I done?
MENDEL
You? Nothing. But they—
before his eyes—father, mother, sisters,
down to the youngest babe, whose skull
was battered in by a hooligan’s heel.
He was shot in the shoulder.
They left him for dead
—since he wasn’t a girl—
and hurried on to fresh sport.
VERA
Terrible. Terrible.
MENDEL
He is a pogrom orphan.
They arrive in the States by almost every ship.
VERA
He looked so happy . . .
MENDEL
And so he is, most of the time.
But when he hears the name . . .
MENDEL/CHORUS
Kishineff . . .
VERA
I won’t speak of my wretched birthplace ever again.
MENDEL
Or when the newspapers tell of another pogrom—
VERA/CHORUS
17
But perhaps—perhaps—all the terrible memory
will pass peacefully away in his music.
(The scene continues silently: a fervent conversation between VERA and
MENDEL, after which VERA exits.)
NURSE
The procession of the pogrom was led
by ten Catholic Sisters
with forty or fifty of their school children.
They carried pictures of Jesus and sang
“God save the Tsar.”
(MENDEL glances at the clock.)
MENDEL
Gott in Himmel—my dancing class!
(MENDEL hurries into the overcoat hanging on the hat rack. Re-enter DAVID,
calmer, but still somewhat dazed.)
DAVID
She’s gone!
I’ve driven her away.
MENDEL
No, no, she wants you to play at her concert
and what is more—
DAVID
(Overlapping MENDEL’S line.)
And she understood! She understood my music!
She understood my Crucible of God!
Oh, uncle, you don’t know what it means to me—
MENDEL
She has friends who might help you—
DAVID
Even you have never understood—
MENDEL
Nonsense! How can she understand you better than I do?
What true understanding can there be—
18
DAVID
I can’t explain it—I can feel it.
MENDEL/CHORUS
What understanding can there be
between a Russian Christian
and a Jew?
DAVID
But aren’t we both Americans?
CHORUS
Romantic claptrap!
All this rhapsodizing
over music and crucibles
and statues of Liberty.
Claptrap?
The statue of Liberty stands,
a large visible object,
at the mouth of the New York harbor.
And though you may see the Crucible
only through the eye of imagination,
it is, nonetheless,
a roaring
and a flaming
actuality.
MENDEL
Well, I don’t have time to discuss it now.
(He winds his muffler around his throat and moves towards the door.)
DAVID
Where are you going?
MENDEL
(Bitterly sarcastic)
Where do you suppose I am going
on the eve of the Sabbath?
To the synagogue?
(As MENDEL goes out, he touches and kisses the Mezuzah on the door-post with
a meaningful glance back at DAVID. Oblivious, David opens his desk, takes out
a pile of musical manuscript, sprawls over his chair and, humming to himself,
scribbles feverishly with the quill. After a few moments FRAU QUIXANO yawns,
19
wakes, and stretches herself. Then she looks at the clock. “Shabbos!” she
exclaims with joy. She places the candlesticks on the table, then lights the
candles. The traditional blessing over the Sabbath lights is begun by one cast
member who is joined after four or five syllables by the rest of the cast, including
DAVID and MENDEL. The blessing is sung in Hebrew and recited in English.)
CHORUS
Baruch atto Adenoi elloheinu melech ha’olam assher kiddishonu b’mitzv’sov vettzivonu
l’hadlik ner shel Shabbot.
Blessed art Thou, Lord, our God, Creator of the universe, who commandeth us to light
the Sabbath lights.
(At the conclusion of the prayer, a CHORUS member leads DAVID to his desk
and another positions MENDEL as indicated. A third CHORUS member
describes the scene. Other cast members remain on stage.)
CHORUS
It is the same scene on an afternoon a month later. David is discovered at his desk,
scribbling music in a fever of enthusiasm. Mendel, dressed in his best, is playing softly
on the piano, watching David. After an instant or two of indecision, he puts down the
piano-lid with a bang and rises decisively.
MENDEL
David!
(DAVID does not hear him. He continues writing.)
MENDEL
David!
(DAVID gestures to indicate that he does not want to be disturbed. MENDEL
shrugs his shoulders and paces the floor. He looks at his watch impatiently.)
MENDEL
David, I must talk to you!
David, I’ve got wonderful news for you!
DAVID
Please, Uncle, hush,
I must write down the music
while the glorious impression is fresh.
20
MENDEL
What impression? You have only been
to the People’s Alliance.
(He throws down his quill and jumps up. The CHORUS joins in with him.)
CHORUS/DAVID
Yes, and imagine!
The Stars and Stripes unfurled,
and a thousand Jewish children,
fresh from the lands of oppression . . .
MENDEL
Yes, yes, but David . . .
DAVID
A thousand childish voices,
piping and foreign . . .
MENDEL
I want to talk to you of your affairs.
DAVID
These are my affairs!
Just think, uncle . . . all those Jewish children
will grow up to be Americans!
MENDEL
Miss Revendal is bringing someone here.
DAVID
Miss Revendal?
MENDEL
She is bringing a Mr. Davenport—
DAVID
(With barely disguised distaste)
Mr. Quincy Davenport?
The heir to the lord of corn and oil?
(DAVID sits back down and deliberately picks up his quill again.)
MENDEL
Yes, to talk to you about your career.