Teacup Tipsy Prologue

It was two years ago that rehearsals began for my Teacup Tipsy.  The Driftwood Players saw enough in the play to mount it on their Alternative Stages.  A salute, then, to those happy memories.  Here is the prologue...

Catherine Bailey as Lyla in
Jeff Stilwell's Teacup Tipsy.
 Photo by Wendy Enden.

MAN IN THE BOX
(to audience, adjusting hearing aid)
Come, O gentle hearts, and turn up your ears
For I've a fable to tell this fine morn.
'Twill reduce some to tears, others to cheers
On this day like all too many, save one:
The day our loveless Lyla loved anew.

(Lyla enters dancing, sadly.)

This morn she danced in as usual, wiping
Drops from her sorrow stainèd cheeks that on
Fertile ground might have blossomed forth flowers
Of any hue, scent, or wondrous beauty!
But not this ground.  Nay.  For lo! dreaded Starbucks
Cast its dark shadow on the rosy dawns
Of her younger years, dooming her mother's
Pride and joy, the most charming wee tea shop,
Vibrant center of life and love to a
Bustling and grateful neighborhood.
Dispenser of delightful teas and talk
St. Teresa's Teacup Tipsy, shattered.
No blade of lush grass, nor dew-dropped petal
To adorn this benighted vale of pain since.
Woe follows woe, then, unstemmed.  Luckless Lyla's
Mama passes from this sorry, sore place
To join her gentle Papa, far long gone,
Leaving lonely Lyla sweeping up fragments.

(Reginald enters.)

Enter the unlikely hero, a man
With much to say about a better world
If only this tim’d soul could find his voice.