Excerpt from Cora: Streetwalker
Kate: Rosie, remember when we met? We were auditioning for that cruise ship and the heel of my shoe broke and you helped me tape it back together.
Diane: We got Mother Teresa in stilettos over here.
Kate: Do you remember?
Roslyn: Yes, of course.
Kate: We were what? 19? 20?
Roslyn: 20.
Kate: We vowed to spend the next 10 years busting our asses to try and make it. We were going to go to every audition. Every casting call. Knock on every door. Do whatever it took to make it. Whatever it took. You remember?
Roslyn: Yeah. Yes.
Kate: We were going to do this until we were 30. We were going to give ourselves until we were 30 to reach for the dream.
Claire: And what happened at 30?
Kate: We never figured that one out. I guess at the time it just seemed so far away.
Roslyn: But here we are now.
Tess: I think it's great. I think Kate is being entirely realistic and responsible and I applaud her wishes to make a quick and graceful exeunt from the acting world. (to Kate) Just for the sake of efficiency, I am going to scratch a line through your name. I hope you don't mind.
(Tess picks up the clipboard.)
Diane: Leave her name on that list.
Kate: She can take it off.
Diane: Leave it, Tess.
Tess: But she's not auditioning.
Diane: You touch her name and I will punch you in your bulimic belly.
Tess: I was just trying to keep things tidy and accurate.
Diane: You want accurate? (pointing to the clipboard) Read your name.
Tess: Pardon?
Diane: Your name. It's the first one on the list.
Tess: I know where my name is.
Diane: Read it. Aloud.
Tess: Tess Dwyer.
Diane: And?
Tess: That's it. That's all it says.
Diane: But what should it say?
Tess: What's your point?
Diane: My point is there's some pretty lawyer boy in Westchester playing golf in a popped collar and loafers wondering why his little lady in the city drops his last name every time she goes on an audition.
Roslyn: You're married?
Tess: Yes.
Roslyn: I'm shocked. Who would marry you?!
Tess: So what?
Diane: I was going to ask you the same thing. Why keep it a secret?
Tess: It's my personal life. It's private. I believe in privacy.
(Amber bursts into laughter.)
Tess: What are you laughing at?
Amber: I just saw you rifle through someone else's purse!
Claire: You went through my purse?
Tess: I dropped it.
Claire: Why were you going through my purse?
Tess: Diane did, too.
Roslyn: I've bumped into you six times in six months. I've seen you probably two dozen times over the past three years. You never mentioned anything about having a husband.
Tess: It's not good for business. Who wants to hire a Mrs. when they can have a Ms.?
Kate: And you're right. You're smart. You get it. You know how to play the game, Tess. No one wants to hire someone with family obligations and potential baggage. The same as no one wants to work with a rich bitch from Westchester. No one wants to know about your pedigree or your Ivy league. It's much more romantic of an idea that you were born between two cement slabs of sidewalk, like some kind of wild flower. Hungry and scrappy and strong. Who wants to be a pansy when they can be a dandelion?
Tess: I'm not embarrassed of who I am.
Kate: I never said you were.
Tess: I'm not hiding who I am.
Kate: You're just changing the perception of who you are.
Tess: I love theater.
Kate: And you fear it. Right, Diane? Isn't that how it works? You fear giving up. You fear what your life is without theater, without acting, without your art. And for that reason, you have Plan B. And your Plan B is your MFA in arts education and your MRS in happy house wife.
Tess: (to Diane) What did I do to you?