Overview
- Female: 2
- Male: 0
Context
This is the beginning of the show where Missy is working on her mnemonic device while Claudine is looking at her photo album. Claudine spots a photo and remembers a story of her son, Missy’s uncle. They are talking to the audience as if they were friends invited in for some ice tea in the summer.
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MISSY: Memory is a tricky thing. You need a system to remember things, especially if you're going to be deliberate about it - if you're going to hold onto it long term.
CLAUDINE spots a picture and laughs. She speaks to MISSY and the audience as if they’re a friend.
MISSY only nods and smiles in response, as she works with her note cards.
CLAUDINE: Oh Lord, look at that hair! He always had that hair on him.
MISSY's objective is the memory game. She constantly turns the cards as she speaks.
MISSY: A system. A story. A mnemonic device.
CLAUDINE: You couldn't get scissors near that hair, I tell you.
MISSY: The more outlandish the story or the device, the better.
CLAUDINE: One time, he hid an entire bag of Swedish fish in that hair.
CLAUDINE laughs some more as she looks through the photos.
MISSY: Good fish belong to ambitious arborist. Do you hear that? Outlandish. Outlandish things are easy to remember because they spur our imagination. The story flows off the tongue.
CLAUDINE: Oh, and that smile! That was a party smile. It was half full of mischief and half full of sunshine.
MISSY: Good fish belong to ambitious arborist. Good fish belong to ambitious arborist. Good fish belong to ambitious arborist. Repetition is important. Very important.
CLAUDINE: Here he is trying to be a rock star. Aaron had quite the voice on him. Boy, could he sing up a storm! Not always on key, mind you, but loud. Loud as could be. I loved his voice. Especially when he laughed.
MISSY: Good fish belong to ambitious arborist. To make trout methodically, take rice precisely cooked above standard.
CLAUDINE: I love these old pictures.
MISSY: To make trout methodically take rice precisely cooked...
(Pauses and works with the cards.)
Now, if you separate some pieces to remember a list, you have to start putting the pieces back together. Separate. Put together. Repeat. Separate. Put together. Repeat.
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