Gerald Nicosia

JACK IN GHOST-TOWN

ACT ONE (cont'd)

STELLA: You don't?

OLD JACK: You ought to know.

(STELLA pulls a rag from her apron and stoops to wipe up the coffee he's spilled. MEMERE's bell tinkles. YOUNG JACK looks about, as if confused by the sound.)

STELLA: Your mother's awake.

OLD JACK (to YOUNG JACK): I made a promise to my father, when he was dying--he said,"Take care of my wife." I said, "OK, Leo." Then he died in my arms.

STELLA: He said, "Beware of the niggers and the Jews."

OLD JACK: You're darn-tootin'! My old man knew what was going on.

YOUNG JACK: He called the Irish a bunch of stinkin' micks!

STELLA: He called us "maudits grecs"--damned Greeks.

YOUNG JACK: I wonder if there was anybody my old man liked.

OLD JACK: He liked my mother while they were making me. It hurt like hell.

YOUNG JACK: Who got hurt? Him or her?

OLD JACK: Me, you dummy. Do I have to explain everything to you?

YOUNG JACK: Stop acting like a martyr.

STELLA: Jack, nobody wants to hurt you.

(OLD JACK drinks off the last inch of whiskey.)

OLD JACK: Why don't you go to the store and buy me some more whiskey?

STELLA: That damned stuff is ruining your life. I haven't seen you without a bottle nearby since we got married.

OLD JACK: Please, don't remind me.

STELLA: Oh, you're a real funny man.

(OLD JACK tosses the empty bottle, or dumps an ashtray filled with butts, onto the floor.)

OLD JACK: And you're a lousy housekeeper.

(STELLA reaches for a broom and begins to sweep up the glass fragments--or butts. MEMERE'S bell tinkles again, more insistently.)

STELLA: I can't do everything! If I had just your mother, all well and good. If I had just you, all well and good. But both of you...

OLD JACK (interrupting): I am not an idiot who needs to be cared for! I am the world-famous writer Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac, descendant of French barons, Iroquois maidens, and independent milltown corner cowboys...

STELLA: You were so strong and handsome when you were young.

OLD JACK: And you were so ugly.

STELLA: You really know how to hurt me.

OLD JACK: I don't want to hurt anyone ... I just want to talk to my friends.

STELLA: You don't have any anymore.

OLD JACK: Oh yeah?
(OLD JACK goes to the telephone, picks it up, but has trouble remembering the number he wants to dial.)
Where's my address book?

STELLA (pulling the address book out of her dress): Right here.

(She quickly rips it into shreds.)

OLD JACK: I'll get Neal's number from information.

STELLA: Neal's dead.

(There is a strong pause).

OLD JACK: He just led Carolyn to think that so he wouldn't have to pay alimony. But she found out the truth, that he's hiding out in Mexico. I'll call her now and show you.

STELLA: We can't afford any more long-distance calls.
(OLD JACK goes to the phone and starts dialing again. STELLA rushes to stop him; they wrestle, but he succeeds in keeping the receiver away from her. She quits struggling and pulls away from him.)
Okay, have it your way--we'll all go to the poorhouse!
(Suddenly she pivots and reaches down to tear the phone cord out of the wall).
There! Now try calling Carolyn.

OLD JACK: Go get a repair man right now.

STELLA: Why should I?

OLD JACK: Because I'm working on a new novel about Neal ... I've got to get certain information.

STELLA: A new novel? Where is it?

OLD JACK: In my head, but not for long.

STELLA: I knew it, Jackie. There's method to your madness. I knew it.

(MEMERE'S bell tinkles again, now angrily. STELLA exits. YOUNG JACK picks up a "Genius At Work" sign off the coffee table and hands it to OLD JACK. YOUNG JACK puts his arm around OLD JACK, and they exit together.)

END OF ACT ONE

- - - - - - -

JACK IN GHOST-TOWN was developed in 1985 at the suggestion of director John DiFusco (TRACERS) who was then quite interested in doing a play on Kerouac. We did a reading at the Los Angeles Theater Center late that year; but afterwards DiFusco, suffering from problems in his own life and various production troubles with TRACERS, lost interest in following up on the Kerouac play. Still living in Chicago at that time, I brought the play to Paul Barrosse of the Practical Theater, and a staged reading was held with Del Close, the famed Second City director, playing the role of Old Jack. The reading got a lot of attention in the local press, but no one came forward to produce the play. Other readings were held in different parts of the country, including one at Project 3 in Soho, directed by Charlie Otte. Then the play was again picked up in Chicago for a workshop production by the American Blues Theatre, directed by Ed Blatchford (in 1987). Again, no backer appeared for a full production. Later there were still other readings, one by the Florida Project in New York City in 1994, and even a recent one in Chicago, yet again, by the Prop Theatre, directed by Scott Vehill. Despite all this, the play has never received an actual production anywhere.

Gerald Nicosia is universally recognized as the definitive biographer of Jack Kerouac. His book MEMORY BABE has been translated into several languages, received over 250 reviews worldwide, and has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as William S. Burroughs, John Rechy, Irving Stone, Anne Waldman, and Bruce Cook. A biographer, historian, poet, novelist, and literary critic as well as playwright, Nicosia has taught Beat literature all over the United States and in other countries including Italy, England, Wales, Canada, and the People's Republic of China. Born in Chicago, he has lived for more than 30 years in the Bay Area, and has remained close to the Beat world all that time. A frequent reader of his own work in public, he is esteemed as a post-Beat poet himself.

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