Tally Ho!

 

This ten-minute experimental play explores the dark side of gift-giving.  As the play opens, Denise brings Jill into their hotel suite, and admits two college-age strippers, Kayleigh and her more shy (and economically-needy) friend Jasmine, whom she has hired to help celebrate Jill’s birthday – and to spice up Denise and Jill’s multi-year relationship.

 

As Denise and Jill enjoy the strippers’ dancing, the Fluffer enters and serves magical liquor from a trio of flasks or decanters on her gift tray.  While Denise and Jill assume the Fluffer arrived as a helper to Kayleigh and Jasmine, the strippers conversely drink of the Fluffer’s liquor and assume that the Fluffer is the servant of the lesbian couple.  Triangles form under the spell of the Fluffer – and jealousy, guilt, and a sense of obligation follow close behind, for both pairs of women  – until the Fluffer’s process of elimination leaves the gift-givers Denise and Kayleigh dead of magical drink, and a final triumvirate of poison-gift miracle-workers is formed under the Fluffer’s leadership.

 

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Cast size:

5

 

Gender:

all female

Period:

The present.

Location:

A hotel suite that Denise has rented for Jill’s birthday.

Set:

A chair set centerstage for Jill; small tables for the Fluffer’s gift tray.

 

Costume:

Denise and Jill wear a casual fun-loving gay-girl aesthetic, perhaps with a little leather or other accessories to denote the special occasion.  Kayleigh and Jasmine wear the usual layers and undergarments of strippers, though perhaps with their choices more tastefully targeted to the knowledge of having female clients.  The Fluffer wears a hot black power-suit or some similarly dignified yet delicious and dominant outfit.

 

Blocking:

The blocking and movements of the Fluffer, and the stage pictures created or influenced by her, should lean toward the unconventional or surreal.  The other characters move in the realm of realism, except when heavily under the Fluffer’s spell.

 

 

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Production History

 

Tally Ho! received its premiere production as part of 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival, produced by 3-Card Monty and One World Theatre at the Capitol Hill Arts Center in Seattle, Washington, on July 14, 2006.  The play was directed by Meghan Arnette, with Costume Design by Stacey Bush, Props Design by Heather Mayhew, and Music by the 14/48 Band; and was performed by the following cast:

 

 

Denise

Deanna Mustard

Jill

Therese Henning

Kayleigh

Amanda Lee Williams

Jasmine

Samara Lerman

The Fluffer

Jennifer Pratt