The Rising Class

This ten-minute experimental play opens as the two Firefighters call out for residents trapped in a burning building. Elsewhere onstage, the two Women enter with hastily-packed bags and begin to discuss their individual experiences of the night of the fire in their apartment building. The Firefighters locate and drag onstage the limp body of the Arsonist, a young man who had lost his life while vengefully setting fire to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. Finally, the Undertaker enters and prepares the Arsonist’s funerary makeup, periodically explaining the creative art and science of postmortem restoration.

As the Firefighters turn to describing the rules and regulations of fire safety in apartment buildings, one of the Women informs the other Woman about the details concerning the fire, the Arsonist, and his former girlfriend. But this information-sharing leads to further questioning of this massive upheaval in their lives: extensive safety rules and regulations could not prevent or explain the Arsonist’s violent behavior and the destruction of their homes, so now they too have to “get creative.” Yet, despite the increasing importance of creative thought in solving modern problems, the Women find the lack of answers unsettling – and find themselves in a realm of expanding insecurity.

Play Structure:	1 Act: 10-minute play
Cast size:	6
Gender:	2 female, 1 male, 3 flexible gender
Period:	The present.
Location:	In and near apartment building, and funeral home.
Set:	A mostly bare stage. All locations are commingled onto a single stage, with no furniture or props to separate them.