Love Luv by Dennis Moritz

Daralyse Lyons is a classically trained actor who has become an avid improvisational artist, regularly performing in two nationally recognized improv troupes. She finds working with Moritz’ poetic style inspiring.  

William J. Rittweger is a 20-year-old up-and-coming actor, screenwriter, director, and poet residing in Glassboro, N.J. This is his stage debut.

​The world Dennis Moritz creates can be summarized by a pull quote from our iMPeRFeCT Gallery shows (January 2019).

The following play will premiere at the Boog City 13.5 Arts Festival on Sunday, February 16, 2020. It is the first installment of Dennis’ “Muncie, USA” series which I will film without a script (interviews, locations, situations); then Dennis will script the stage play (also to be filmed); then I will write the screenplay based on his stage play and return to Muncie, IN to start the process all over again.

Love Luv  by Dennis Moritz

SHELLI

how many how many pills/
if you spent on what the pills cost/
if you/
did they did they/
every man who works here can you name one who said no/
i i we here/we/
are you here look at me can you look/
how many pills how much drink how would you could you did they all at one time/

did they run a train/
did you say to them come over come over to where you live all at the same time/
we have customers that depend on us to do their food in sanitary/
how can they depend/
what do you/
does income or morality does choosing health/
why why why why did you do you have it on with all these guys/
all these guys where you sometimes work/

2.  (actress next to henry moore sculpture.)

knocked up seventeen he hit my eye black yellow eye my baby boy ok /
my mother my/she barely looked never did see me/
my elder brother we were step kids one then another five of us steps/ 
year then next year then next came along like that/ 
my eldest my brother then my older sister raised us they were that/
i preborn one pound six in the incubator three months why i’m short and a redneck/
knocked me up knocked me in the eye showed my mother/the hospital said/
then he took me and my son to fort lauderdale florida/
at the ocean i was afraid saw the water there whoosh/
sure it would suck me in/
from the ocean right then left onto the bus/me my baby boy onto muncie/
never looked back will never leave muncie indianna

3. (actress next to picture of artaud.)

​people know. not about one person.   nights where my mind went to war with my heart.   fight between what i knew, what i felt, what i had to do.   decisions made under moon. i do not want potential. never beg.  lied to. disrespected. cheated on. swear they know. loved in private played in public.   magic. holly holly christmas. if you want sugar coated eat a donut. another sleepless night.   freaky goals. strong women keep their lives together. tears in their eyes. continue their day with a smile.   shitty childhood. shitty experiences. shitty person. not me.

TWO DOLLAHS 

Judah

​(towel, spray bottle, squeegee, washing car windows as cars are forced to stop at light. actor mimes wildly. supplemented by video. traffic sounds. video on then shuts off. Judah eats from mcdonalds bag.)

wake up in the morning. eggs coffee. coffee eggs. eggs.

Philippines. 7000 islands. one of our dollars 253 of theirs. 253 to one. live there ten dollars a day. rent a house four bedrooms two and a half baths, 350 a month.
(pulls out cellphone)

if you want to know someone there correspond with someone there verify the picture. call them up tap tap call them up. visual recognition facial recognition ask them questions. tap tap. same as a meeting in the flesh same as meeting in the skin, bone and bone and bone an. music of one individual another individual. same as the meeting right here one heated biology and another heated biology.

i ask her questions. honey. sweatheart. what’s it like today. clear and sunny gray day iky high humidity day is it rain chilly/need a coat? sweater? something. hear their music. listen to their music. here. there. rub dub dub. check out the weather report on the screen. is it the same. does it match. what they say what she says. does it match the weather called up on this screen. check it. check it out./

Phillipines that’s the place. moto scoot the island. moto scoot off the island. moto scoot onto a go-to, onto a floating go-to the flat wooden boat/moto scoot down a ramp onto the go-to boat. float onto island number any number 1 to 7000. float out to a island right there. see the hump of earth hump of rock putt putt then you’re there. any Phillipine island. Ahh. Ahh. Shangri La. 

i tell her hold up your phone let the picture breath show me where you are dear honey pie. have the camera turn full panorama. will yah. sweet honey pie. show me where’s the sky clouds where’s the water where’s the house in which you live. show me. show me where you at.

(using squeegie and cloth.washing and polishing.)
same thing exact same thing look through your window window-shield/ tap tap/window-shield of the car.  look through that phone windoh screen. we’re here. we are here. everywhere. ev/ery/where. you and me and you altogether all together. now. 

flow. it’s all a flow. here to there. there. putt putt. she’s a nurse see her on my screen wow 5 feet 1. see her. my screen kinda small can you see her. there. wow. we’re all there. everyone in the world right here. she dressed in white. is it light white right. she dressed in blue/green blue/turquoise blue. greeny blue. bluey. round and soft. look at those eyes. huh. what a warm and friendly love anybody once she once she. love anyboy. those lovely brown deep brown eyes wanting to love any/bod/y.

two dollars from you would help my blessed day. two dollars from you would help my blessed day. two dollahs.

Birthday Wishes

Shel


(dolls. hanging colorful jackets, tight jeans, high heeled shoes scattered. birthday cake. candles are lit by actor during the following. candle shadows flicker as piece evolves.)

universe not in a rush. i am. anxious. stressed. devastated. share what you have.

call me crazy. call me/bitch/call me batshit. he stuffed my love in a sack/said no to me. right. said no. no to me.

armed and dangerous. weapon of choice. cold hearted love.(sings) cold hearted love.(stops singing) lah lah lah yah yah yah. (sings) cold hearted love. (stops singing) i’m armed and dangerous.

did you ever. turn over. i did. turned myself over. bright in the morning. bright in the evening. empty. gone. waterfall. off a cliff. 

(who wants to talk. who. you. do you. I'll spend time with you.) 

he blocked me. i begged. he blocked me. i begged. all day night. him. walking in dreams. vision as i walked streets. if it was a drug pill injection. an old man seventeen years older than me. first there was kindness. years of kindness. things. seventeen years older than me. 
male voice: buy those tight jeans sweet girl. buy yourself a pretty painted car. red. show yourself red. 

shel: silver stars pasted to the walls in the bedroom. flicker lights. soft yellow walls. 

male voice:  keep money in your pocket sweet girl. at least some twenties. nick nacks in the house. get some clocks. birds. what are those things. statues made of white and gold glass. solid old looking statues of folks. old women statues. 

shel: i like those statues. ceramic things.

male voice: peaceful. farm animals. everything so at peace. 

shel: poor. dirt poor. dirty poor. before that. i was and am poor. time passed went on. then he blocked me. said no. seventeen years older divorced me. 

male voice: don’t want to be married anymore, shell. we’ll work out what you have and what i have.

shel: when people wave you away wave me off. to never have had. then to have. then he said. don’t want to be married anymore. 

don’t be lied to, cheated and disrespected. do yourself up. for yourself not him. any him. 
(musical sound, lights candle. begins ritual.)
i pray you heal from things no one ever apologized for. when you see a person’s soul.
(musical sound)
she no longer settles for potential. the potential to have her heart cared for.
(musical sound)
there’s strength within you even when you feel weak.
(musical sound)
think about how you were able to give love.
(musical sound)
are you dreaming dreaming of me.
(musical sound)
don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. ask yourself why you keep going to see the same show.
(musical sound
happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday. 
 (pause. actor blows out the candles.)

ABOUT DENNIS MORITZ
​Dennis Moritz's work appears on mainstage and in improvised spaces. Producers include the Public, Painted Bride, Freedom Theater, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, St. Marks Poetry Center, Annenberg, Bowery Poetry Club, Sticky, Theater Double, N1, Theatre Ariel, HERE.  He prefers to work in bars and art galleries. Currently he's in partnership of Robert Baum, pushing N1 theatre up the hill and down the road. His theater work has been published in theater magazines and poetry magazines. Angel Hair/United Artists, the longtime poetry press, published two collections of his theater works, the only plays in that catalogue. His work has been supported by NEA and Pennsylvania Council grants. In 2010 he completed an M.F.A. in playwriting at Temple University.

ABOUT  Robert Craig Baum
Robert Craig Baum has managed, directed, and produced Dennis Moritz plays since 2011. His forthcoming book, They Fade, The Words Fade: On the Metabolic Theatre of Dennis Moritz, will be published in 2020. Since 1995, Dr. Baum has provided dramaturgy, stage management, design, and educational support for some of the top black theatre talent of the past two generations, including Michael Henry Brown, Judi Ann Mason, Carl Hancock Rux, Pearl Cleage, ntozake shange, Rita Dove, August Wilson, Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity, Leslie Lee, Gus Edwards, Paul Carter Harrison, Marsha L. Leslie, and Harry “The Blacklist” Lennix. He is also a screenwriter, philosopher, executive producer, documentarian, and musician who currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and four boys.