A series of mini-dramas based on public conversations, as overheard and rewritten by local playwright/director Aurora Stewart de Peña.
Overheard on the Sweaty Betty’s patio
Dan, 33, in athletic cargo shorts and a t-shirt, kicks a leg up on the table.
He leans back, he takes a sip of beer.
Ryan, in stiff jeans, a button up shirt, and a James Dean haircut, glares at him.
Dan: I mean, I make more money in a year than most people will in a lifetime. And I’ve worked for that.
Ryan: I’m not saying you haven’t, man.
Dan: Like, I’m not trying to brag, and it’s not even a thing or whatever, but it’s the truth.
Ryan: Right.
Dan: So I feel like, I don’t know. We all make our own beds, as it were.
Ryan: Right, but you have to think, the reason you make so much money, or the reason that even I’m able to make the money I do is because we got born, very luckily, into families that could send us to school so that we could get the kind of jobs that make us money.
Dan: Yeah, but if you work hard enough, you can put yourself through school. You don’t need money, you just need drive.
Ryan: Right, but some people have money and no drive, and they have families that can take care of them and get them good jobs for life, they don’t have to work for anything. Is that fair?
Dan: It’s not fair, but neither is life. And also like, their fathers worked for it at some point down the road. It didn’t come free at some point in history.
Ryan: I’m just saying, a mandated minimum wage for everybody, that’s at least going to guarantee that people have got a shot.
Dan: And I’m not against that, I’m not. You have to give people enough to live.
Pause.
But honestly, I think you should be able to make a pretty good go off ten bucks an hour.
Pause.
You just have to be smart with your money.
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Aurora Stewart de Peña is half of the theatre company Birdtown & Swanville (the other half is Nika Mistruzzi). You can follow her on Twitter at @Aurorahhh.
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