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ACT I, SCENE ONE (Opening)
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CHARACTERS
- VOICE OF LIVING NEWSPAPER
STAGE MANAGER
TWO ELECTRICIANS At theatre switchboard
GIRLS, working at power machines
OLD MAN AT RADIO
OLD WOMAN Listening to radio
POLICE RADIO OPERATOR at a microphone
DOCTOR
THREE NURSES Around an operating table
ELECTRICIAN
FIRST POLICEMAN
SECOND POLICEMAN
OLD MAN
THEATRE MANAGER
IRISH MOTHER
BAKERY PROPRIETOR
AIRPORT RADIO OPERATOR
RESTAURANT PROPRIETOR
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT VICTIM
DRIVER OF CAR
VARIOUS MEN AND WOMEN
Following the overture, projection appears on the front curtain — "The Living Newspaper presents POWER." The word "Power" grows larger, the other words fade out. The curtain rises quickly. The lights come up on two ELECTRICIANS and a STAGE MANAGER at a portable switchboard. The ELECTRICIANS have hands on switches and their eyes on the STAGE MANAGER.
LOUDSPEAKER: This is the switchboard of the Ritz Theatre. Through this board flows the electric power that amplifies my voice, the power that ventilates the theatre, and the power that lights this show.
STAGE MANAGER (picking up a fat cable): It all comes through here.
LOUDSPEAKER: Give us a demonstration of Power!
STAGE MANAGER: Sure, Charlie, take your X-Rays down to the mark and come up slowly on number three spot.
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(The ELECTRICIANS throw their switches, lights dim down on them, and come up on GIRLS working over electric sewing machines in a clothing factory.)
LOUDSPEAKER: There are 4,000 clothing factories in the metropolitan area employing 115,000 persons. [Labor Research Association, 1935 Census of Clothing Manufacturers.]
(The machines hum with increasing volume and the GIRLS work with increasing speed. The hum turns to waltz music from LOUDSPEAKER as the lights dim down and come up on an OLD MAN and an OLD WOMAN sitting at a radio. Over the radio is heard "The Blue Danube Waltz.")
LOUDSPEAKER: ...Power! World communication! The world in your own home.... What would you do without your radio, Pop?
OLD MAN (he hasn't heard): Uh?
LOUDSPEAKER: Never mind.... Don't bother!
(The lights dim down on the OLD MAN and WOMAN. Music over radio stops, as lights pick up POLICE RADIO OPERATOR.)
POLICE RADIO OPERATOR: Calling cars forty-two and eight. Calling cars forty-two and eight. Proceed at once to 331 Belmont Avenue, 331 Belmont Avenue.... Holdup! (Continues ad libbing on "calling cars," etc., until his voice is drowned out by off-stage sound of sirens, and lights dim out.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Call police headquarters and one of these radio patrol cars will be at your home in three minutes. [New York City Police Radio Department.] (Lights come up on hospital group, nurses and doctors standing over form on operating table. One NURSE is sterilizing instruments.)
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LOUDSPEAKER: Oh, Doctor, I believe those electrically sterilized instruments are ready.
(They continue to get ready for the operation.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Electric power has revolutionized modern surgery. The number of lives saved in recent years through the invention and development of electrical equipment is incalculable.
(Huge overhead drop-light lights up over the operation scene, as other lights in that area dim out. Suddenly a shrill police whistle is heard, the overhead light goes out on the hospital scene, and a red traffic light comes on. Again the shrill whistle is heard, and the light changes to green.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Eighty-six hundred of these sentinels in New York City keep us from crashing our autos together, night and day.... [Chief Engineer's Office, New York Police Department.] (The traffic light flashes red and green rapidly, each change accompanied by a blast of the whistle).... you flick lights on in your home with Power.... You heat your iron with Power. You clean with Power.... (Lights come up on the various groups previously lit — the POLICE RADIO OPERATOR, hospital, factory and OLD COUPLE listening to the radio. LOUDSPEAKER continues)... You curl your hair, you cook, you even shave, all with Power! (A loud detonation is heard off stage.)
Blackout
LOUDSPEAKER (excitedly — in the dark): Flash: December 28th, 1936: Newark, New Jersey, and its suburbs were thrown into total darkness tonight when fire in a power plant cut off all electric current. Nearly a million people were affected. [New York World-Telegram, December 28, 1936.]
DOCTOR'S VOICE (comes out of the darkness): Flashlights, quick.
(NURSE comes running with two flashes. One is passed to another NURSE, and they both flash lights over the DOCTOR'S shoulder as he goes on with the operation. His assistant lights up with a third flash. They hold for a second, and all three flashlights go out. All CHARACTERS in remainder of this scene light their own faces for the duration of their speeches, either with telephones having small flashlights in the mouthpieces, or with pocket flashes.)
ELECTRICIAN (into telephone flashlight): Operator, operator, get me Public Service. The power's off.
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FIRST POLICEMAN (at transmitter): Calling all cars... calling all cars... calling all cars.
SECOND POLICEMAN (running on): Callahan, the lights are out. The entire city's dark.
FIRST POLICEMAN (into telephone flashlight): Hello, Brady! Notify all radio cars you can find to proceed to Public Service on the Kearny Meadows. All radio patrols phone in every two minutes. All leaves rescinded. I want every man on the job. (Sound of police siren is heard over LOUDSPEAKER.)
OLD MAN (into telephone flashlight): Operator, operator, operator....
BAKERY PROPRIETOR (greatly agitated): Operator, operator, my electric conveyor is stopped with four thousand dollars' worth of rolls in the oven! They're burning up! Four thousand dollars' worth! [Newark Ledger, December 29, 1936.]
IRISH MOTHER (Irish accent): Operator, operator, the heater's off. My baby's got the flu.
THEATRE MANAGER (Jewish dialect): Operator, operator! By me the theatre is dark. Somebody blowed the fuse — the fuse. Two thousand people want the money back. [Newark Ledger, December 29, 1936.](Groans.)
AIRPORT RADIO OPERATOR: This is the traffic control tower. Light your ground flares and smoke bombs. Call Floyd Bennett Field. Tell them to keep on their floodlights for emergency landings. There's a plane waiting to land and two more due in five minutes. [Based on A.P. dispatch, N. Y. World-Telegram, December 29, 1936.]
RESTAURANT PROPRIETOR (Italian dialect, face lit by the fire of a match which he holds): I wanta de lights — I wanta de lights.... Get the superintendent, I gotta no lights.... (A police whistle is heard, then grinding of brakes followed by a crash. A woman screams. Slight pause, then:)
VOICE—DRIVER OF CAR: My God, I didn't see her, I tell you, it was dark.... I didn't see her.
(The following CHARACTERS speak from different levels on the stage. Their faces are lit up by flashes which they put out immediately after speaking. This gives a zigzag lighting effect. Front traveler curtain starts to close.)
MAN: Operator, operator, light....
WOMAN: Operator, operator, light....
MAN: Lights, lights....
WOMAN: Lights, lights....
MAN: Operator, operator....
MAN: Operator, operator....
WOMAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
MAN: Operator....
MAN: Lights....
MAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
MAN (German dialect): Operator, operator, lights....
MAN: Lights, lights....
WOMAN: Lights, lights....
MAN: Operator, operator....
MAN: Operator....
WOMAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
MAN: Operator....
MAN: Lights....
MAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
MAN: Lights....
MAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
MAN: Lights....
WOMAN: Lights....
ALL (ad libbing): Lights, lights, lights....
Front traveler curtain closes
Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources