SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT MUSIC
(An A Cappella Musical)




(NOTE: As this is a musical without instrumentation, actors are encouraged to perform their songs to whatever tune they like, rapping or singing or sing-talking according to their ability and preference. Be creative. Suggestions for performance are listed at the end of the play.)



CAST: TEX
            LITTLE BIRD
            SHORTY
            DON
            CO1
            CO2

SET: A table with three chairs is placed left of center stage. On either side of the stage a "cell" is marked off with tape, two benches in each serve as bunks. One more chair sits facing the back of the stage beside a phone. Steps lead off stage R into the house.)

Tex & Little Bird (left cell) and Shorty (w/Don in right cell) are asleep. Don is sitting up in his bed facing the audience.
DON: Maybe eighteen is my lucky number. Maybe the circumstances of my disenfranchisement have been altered since last I met the brooding council charged with my parole. Fool me once, fool me seventeen times. I know their answer. Denied due to the serious nature of the crime. Ten years now they haven't even seen the need to add a glittering fringe of justification to the unalterable fabric of my bondage. Though I was promised consideration, no amount of cogitation will change the nature of what I have done. I killed someone, and he isn't coming back even if I serve a hundred years. Those board members have no idea what a year means. They don’t  know what they do.

"Sentenced to Life Without Music" (Don)

I been sentenced to life without music
not a note - not a song

It's been 30 years to the day we say
since they popped my top, now the play button's gone
But years are just a number for old numbers like me
with a strobe light
for a skylight
will my days run dry
I been sentenced to life without color
except - black and white
you can guess which side I'm on
what the dawn might bring
what the nightingale sings
tell me about it cause it's gone
I've been sentenced to life without music
these hollow chambers echo me
why not send me song
while you string me along
I'd like to hear another note before I die

(Two COs climb the stage blowing whistles)

COs: Lights on, both feet on the floor, stand for count!

(The lights go up and the prisoners rise. The officers count "1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2" as they go by the cells and complete the circuit by taking the stairs down off the stage.)

CO: Thank you, gentlemen.

(Don, Shorty, and Little Bird all gravitate toward the table while Tex rushes to the phone.)

SHORTY: Good morning, Little Bird.

LB: Hey, Don. Don! This is your day, isn't it.

DON: Not my day.

LB: But you got a parole hearing, right?

DON: That's right.

SHORTY: You'll jinx it, Little Bird.

DON: I've had almost as many turn downs as you've had birthdays.

LB: We could make you a cake.

(Shorty likes to keep one hand touching Little Bird at all times, on his hand, arm, or leg, any excuse will do. LB pretends not to notice.)

DON: Don't make a thing of it.

SHORTY: How are you and Tex doing? (Looking toward the phone.)

LB: We talked about it. He apologized.

DON: Nothing a lock in a sock won't fix.

LB: All he cares about is that phone, lying to those girls.

DON: That's how some guys do their time. I couldn't take it myself. The stress, worrying all damn day ‘bout what they’re doing.

SHORTY: You can hear him now.

"Baby Can You Hear Me" (Tex, calling three girls) )

Baby, can you hear me?
How is the weather over there?
How are your dreams, are they still shining
Do you miss me, are you lying?
Love, this is more than I can bear

Baby can you hear me?
I've got no stories left to tell
No I ain't been talking to
No other girls, there's only you
What'd you say, that isn't fair?

Baby can you hear me?
Can I try you back again?
Another time, another place
we'll be standing face to face
and we'll both be laughing then

Baby can you hear me?
Is it true you're seeing him?
Well I guess I can't say no,
if you've got to, you can go
but my heart is growing dim

Baby can you hear me?
When I say your name at night
I'll chalk it up to lessons learned
Love unopened and returned
Next time I'm sure to get it right

Baby can you hear me?
How is the weather over there?
How are your dreams, are they still shining
Do you miss me, are you lying?
Love, this is more than I can bear 




LB: He's full of it.

(COs whistle, climb the stage with meal trays.)

COs: Chow time! (Prisoners echo.)

(Trays are distributed and officers exit. The men go to their benches to eat, all facing the audience.)

The Chow Hall Chant (All)

Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)

According to the state we've got salisbury steak (solo)
Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)
Is that cheese? Did they put cheese in this?(solo)
Lord, give me cheese.
Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)

Don't eat the vegetables (solo)
they are very bad for you
Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)

The menu says it's taco casserole (solo)

Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)
The menu says we've got meatloaf (solo)
Meat rock, meat rock, meat rock (all)
The menu says its chicken burger (solo)
Meat rock, meat rock (all)

ALL OF IT IS MEAT ROCK
Let us not complain.



LB: We get random good desserts.




SHORTY: I like hot dogs...

(COs return to retrieve the trays)

TEX: I need to talk to you! Hey officer!

DON: This shit again.

SHORTY: What is it this time?

DON: Not a good mouth feel.

(COs cross to Tex.)

CO: What's up?

TEX: I'm supposed to get a no soy tray.

CO: (checks chart) You're not on the list.

TEX: I requested one.

CO: Are you allergic to soy?

TEX: Well, I can't eat it. I've got a hernia, and it gives me gas and presses on my hernia.

CO: Talk to the doctor.

TEX: I did. He wants me to take acid reflux medicine. That would weaken my immune system. I shouldn't have to weaken my immune system when all he has to do is put me on a special diet.

CO: If you're not on the list, we can't give you a different tray.

TEX: What's the difference? People can get a bean tray whenever they want, why can't I get a no bean alternative?

SHORTY: What's he talking about?

DON: Guys like him, it doesn't matter what he says, what he means is only one thing.










"I'M IMPORTANT" (Tex)


I'm important

I am important

Don't you know who I am?

Bum- badum, badum, badum

badum, badum, badumbadumbadum

I've got honeybuns and sausages 

and bookoo bags of chips

I work out like Olympians

I do 500 dips (does a few)

the COs, they all know my name

how is it you do not?

the nurses, they all turn their heads

and say, "ooh, ain't he hot"

Cause I'm important

I am important

Don't you know who I am


I'm persecuted daily by

these governmental swine

and yet they overlook the nights

I'm caught with cups of wine

Why?

cause I'm important

I am important

Don't you know who I am


Everything I do is for my fellow countrymen

I taught myself some legalese

and trading stocks and then

I should remind you

I'm important

I am important

Don't you know who I am

Bum- badum, badum, badum

badum, badum, badumbadumbadum


CO: You're not on the list.


TEX: Man, bullshit. You racist.


(COs leave. Prisoner's go back to their places at the table and the phone. Shorty, Little Bird, and Don play cards.)


LB: I can't stand him.


DON: He doesn't steal from you, or try to run your life. That's about all you can ask for from most cellies.


LB: He's always masturbating. Every time I turn around he's trying to gun down the woman in the booth.


SHORTY: I don't understand that at all.


DON: Well, you see, most men find women attractive.


SHORTY: Asshole.


DON: Yeah, but their other parts too.


LB: He does that shit on the phone too, doesn't care who's around him. And then he goes and talks about us on the rec yard. I've told him I'm not gay.


SHORTY: I know, it's not fair. (Rubbing LB's shoulder.) 


LB: It's like I'm back in high school.


"GOSSIP" (All)


Gossip gossip gossip (all - even Tex from the phone)

Gossip gossip gossip

Did you hear that old man leaning there rubbed his shit on all the walls (LB)

Did you hear the young man over there caught kids in bathroom stalls

Gossip gossip gossip

Gossip gossip gossip

Did you hear that he's in debt again, for chicken, strip, and wine (Shorty)

Gossip gossip gossip

Gossip gossip gossip

Did you hear that they’re together now, the big one and the fag (Don)

They better keep it quiet, our lieutenant's on the rag

Gossip gossip gossip

Gossip gossip gossip

I just want to say, I don't participate in slander (all three)

opinions, may shift and sway

we mustn't gerrymander

Oh, yes, and by the way, in the interest of candor

Gossip gossip gossip

Gossip gossip gossip


LB: He's doing it again.


SHORTY: What?


LB: He's jerking it on the phone right now.


DON: That leg is just a-shaking.


LB: I'm gonna kick his ass.


DON: On the bright side, maybe he'll be out of juice before he gets back to your cell.(x to cell)


LB: It's disrespectful.


SHORTY: You've been doing good. Don't get yourself into trouble.


LB: I'm my own man. Why do you even care?






DUET (Shorty and Little Bird)


S: Don't you know I love you?

How many times, how many ways, I have to say...

LB: Too close, you've been.

S: Don't you know I love you?

I don't care about the games you love to play.

LB: They'll see our sin.

S: Don't you know I love you?

LB: Slow down, begin.

S: You don't have to hide with me,

it doesn't matter what they say.

LB: Too close, you've been.

S: Why do you pull away from me,

no matter what I say?

LB: We can't, they'll win.

S: Why do you pull away from me,

I hate all the games you play.

LB: Slow down, begin.

S: Don't you know I love you?


LB: Hey Tex, put your dick away!


TEX: Why don't you do it for me, faggot?


(LB stalks over to Tex and they begin fighting to a general outcry. Soon the COs whistle and ascend the stage.)


CO: Lockdown! Lockdown! Everybody in their cells!


(Shorty and Don go to their cell while Tex and LB are escorted off stage with their hands behind their backs.)


DON: He's still a kid, more nuts than brains.


SHORTY: I hope they bring him back.


DON: Might be better for you if they didn't.


SHORTY: What?


DON: This thing you've got going with him, it's no good.


SHORTY: It's nobody's business.


DON: He's short-time. You think he's going to wait out there for you?


SHORTY: I think there's more to him than that.


DON: He's twenty. Are you kidding?


(Shorty goes to the end of the cell.)


Baby... (Refrain by Shorty)


Baby can you hear me?

When I say your name at night?

I'll chalk it up to lessons learned

Love unopened and returned

Next time I'm sure to get it right


(Shorty lies down on his bench. CO comes on stage to talk to Don.)


CO: Offender Don.


DON: Yeah?


CO: They've pushed your hearing to tomorrow morning.


DON: Are you serious?


CO: Something's wrong with the monitor. They've got to hook up another one.


DON: There was a time the parole board would do you the courtesy of appearing in person.


CO: Everything's digital now.


DON: Yeah, I know it.


CO: Good luck tomorrow.


(Don sits down. Shorty sings from where he lies. While he sings, Don goes through the motions of getting ready for bed.)


"I HATE MYSELF" (Shorty)


Look into the mirror and I ask him what it was

that wound up turning me to him

I'll ask him this because

I hate myself

I hate myself

I hate myself

I'd like to scrub this skin away

I'd like to peel it free

I'd like to separate this wasted shell from him and me

I hate myself

I hate myself


I keep falling falling down

I can't hear you, not a sound

how dare you show your face here

even when that face is mine

I'd rather own a mirror that was

empty all the time

I keep falling falling down

I can't hear you, not a sound


They took away my razors but I've got a quaint idea

I'll climb up to the second tier and say

so long I'll see yah

I hate myself

I hate myself


I keep falling falling down

I can't hear you, not a sound

how dare you show your face here

even when that face is mine

I'd rather own a mirror that was

empty all the time

I keep falling falling down

I can't hear you not a sound


What if the stars I see tonight were the last I ever

The last I'd ever see…(Looks out the window slit as lights go down, then slowly rise)



(COs whistle after a pause)


"LET ME HEAR THAT WHISTLE" (DON)


Let me hear that whistle one more time

I swear that I'll commit another crime

stand up for count, you think I will?

you've got me ready set to kill

Good morning, sir

Good morning, sir

Good morning


Every day is just the same

Every meal and every game

Every television show

Every half an hour or so

Good morning, sir

Good morning, sir

Good morning


I haven't got an axe to grind

I've barely got my health

My best friend's name is boredom

And I wish he'd kill himself

You won't catch me crying

I've dried all my tears away

You won't catch me dreaming

I’ll tell you where your dreams can stay

Good morning, sir

Good morning, sir

Good morning


(COs finish the count)


SHORTY: (To the CO) Is Little Bird coming back? 


CO: He's cooling off.


(COs leave.)


DON: I don't even know if they'll call me today.


SHORTY: Remember when I put in to get my teeth cleaned? Three months later I got the request back saying I needed to be more specific.


DON: That's not the same.


SHORTY: To them it is. Paperwork, request forms, parole hearings. You're somebody's teeth cleaning.


DON: When I got my music player, it was broken, and they took two months to replace it. That one was busted too, so I put in a trouble ticket. After twenty one days they respond just to say I'm out of warranty.


SHORTY: I tried to get glasses. Every appointment something would come up. The eye doctor didn't show, or they skipped me. One time, a guy walks into medical after I've been waiting for an hour and he says "I've got priority," and somehow he gets to go in and they send me back cause they're out of time. After eight months I gave up. I don't need glasses that bad. What the hell is "priority?"


DON: I forgot about that. You’re always squinting.


SHORTY: I hope Little Bird is okay.


(Don goes out into the "pod")


"I LIVE INSIDE THE DMV" (Don)


I live inside the DMV

Just one endless day for me

You take a ticket, I take three

Wait your turn just wait and see


I wait for breakfast

I wait for lunch

I stand in line outside for meds

and call it brunch

I'm never nervous about the clock

I'll be here tomorrow still taking stock


If I've got a problem

I file out a form

Wait fourteen days

And get another form

If I've got a problem

I ask around

The guy who knows whose job it is

lives in another town


I live inside the DMV

Just one endless day for me

You take a ticket, I take three

Wait your turn, just wait and see

I live inside the DMV

One day for eternity

I live inside the DMV

I live inside the DMV


I wait to see movies, I wait for the phone

I'll wait for freedom until I'm bones

Been taking classes, last fifteen years

Haven't got one degree

or chugged any beers


I wait for doors to open

I wait for doors to close

I wait to defecate

And to get new clothes

Paperwork is progress

I keep all my receipts

This place is built on ink

And man, it cheats


I live inside the DMV

Just one endless day for me

You take a ticket, I take three

Wait your turn just wait and see

I live inside the DMV

One day for eternity

I live inside the DMV

I live inside the DMV


CO: Offender Don, are you ready for your hearing?


(Don is escorted off the stage, Tex and LB come back. The prisoners are now parole board members. They arrange the tables and chairs center stage. Don re-enters from the opposite side, escorted by a CO and takes a seat facing out for the virtual conference.)


SHORTY: Good morning, Mr. Don, can you hear us all right?


DON: Yes, sir.


TEX: I'm going to spend a quarter hour talking about things we all know don't make a difference, things I've said ten times today.


DON: I understand.


LB: I'm going to flip through your file like I give a damn, ignore anything positive you've done, and question you extensively about the fight you got into two decades ago as if it happened yesterday.


DON: Yep.


SHORTY: What was that?


DON: Yes, sir.


SHORTY: You were convicted of armed robbery and murder in the second degree, sentenced to life plus eighty years. I'm actually on your side, but I'm the only one. You're fortunate parole is a possibility at all.


DON: I am very fortunate.


SHORTY: Do you have anything to say for yourself?


"CONFESSION" (Don)


I been sentenced to life without music

Not a note - not a song

It's been 30 years to the day, we say,

since they popped my top, now the play button’s gone.

So what do you want from me?

Honesty, haunting me

should I show my remorse

but of course if I could abracadabra the source

of all this grief, you see, theirs and mine are intertwined, 

but I don't think so much about it anymore

Remember his face, it's a chore

To remember the cases of those that I've harmed

I admit, the arrest, it was warranted

but I was a moron kid

what I done can't be fixed and all justice is nixed 

when you don't even know what you're looking for


there's nothing I say that could change you today

there's nothing I do that could mollify you

or this museum display

where you tell all these families

that their justice ends when we all go free

what if some of the money that warehouses humans 

could go to grief counseling, 

but you say I lack empathy.

You say don't be bitter, don't talk like a victim

you lay down your dictum like you're so high to me

like your kids don't do drugs

like your words don't end lives

when I have been robbed

and I have been beaten

this ain't no garden of eden

but you say I lack empathy.

What have you shown to me?

Not since the arraignment, containment

have I been real, real to you

like they weren't real to me

when I walked through that door

with a gun in one hand

just a quick in and out

it could have been him or me 

I wanted what he had

He wanted what's mine

And his face is a mystery

after three decades in purgatory

and maybe I'm sorry

but it's not you that I owe an apology.


I knew his mother

we ran the same streets

You call this humanity

this termless confinement

farming this factory - utter barbarity

I'd rather you plucked out the eye that offended thee

or cut off my hand

or gave me a brand

a scar for them all to see

Now that would be honesty

instead of this pretense at impartiality.

He pulled when I pulled

like when we were kids

playing robbers and robbers

except this time the bullets were real.

(pause)

I wish that he'd murdered me.


Shorty: Well, we'll get back to you.


(Lights out)      THE END



Suggestions for performance: If space is available and more actors willing to join the cast, background/tableaux inmates can silently expand the pod population and sing/rap on the group songs, The Chowhall Chant and Gossip, even taking solo lines. If only six are cast, that works too. Rap/Singing is big now, thanks to Lin-Manuel, so the actors and director are free to find their own rhythm. 

However, some actual tunes could work, too. Baby, Can You Hear Me could be sung to Papa, Can You Hear Me from Yentl or Can You Build a Snowman from Frozen. The Hallelujah Chorus seems a natural for Tex’s song, I’m Important. Oh, What a Beautiful Morning! fits the lyrics to Sentenced to Life Without Music, but actors may have favorite songs of their own that fit the lyrics. Go for it.
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2021 PRISON WRITING DRAMA AWARD

Sentenced to Life Without Music