Dramedy · 3 min
The Passenger.
On a long drive home, a mother and teenage daughter turn a simple conversation into a full-speed collision of love, class, and ambition.
The roles
WREN GUTIERREZ
Seventeen. Dramatic, impulsive, wants out of her town like it's on fire. Works a weekend job at a frozen yogurt shop. Overshoots every emotion by about forty percent.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Late 40s. Nurse. Double shifts. Holds the family together with duct tape and sarcasm. Loves her daughter in a way that comes out as correction, logistics, and occasional cruelty.
The Passenger · Dramedy side · memorlined.app
(The front seats of a ten-year-old Honda Accord. Highway, late afternoon. The windshield has a crack running across the bottom. SONIA GUTIERREZ drives. WREN GUTIERREZ, seventeen, has her feet on the dashboard.)
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Feet down.
WREN GUTIERREZ
They're fine.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
If I stop short, the airbag snaps both your ankles. Feet down.
(WREN puts her feet down.)
(The radio is on low. A song ends. Neither of them changes it.)
(wiping her eyes)
WREN GUTIERREZ
That book was really good.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
It was. That last chapter.
WREN GUTIERREZ
When she gets the letter from her dad? I was done.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I know. I could hear you.
WREN GUTIERREZ
You were crying too.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I was not.
WREN GUTIERREZ
Mom. I could literally see the—
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I had something in my eye. The window was open.
WREN GUTIERREZ
The window is closed.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
It was open earlier.
(WREN smiles.)
WREN GUTIERREZ
We should get another one. Another audiobook. Something long.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
We just finished this one.
WREN GUTIERREZ
So? There's a sequel.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
We'll see.
WREN GUTIERREZ
"We'll see" means no.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
"We'll see" means we'll see. Do you have gas money?
WREN GUTIERREZ
I have like twelve dollars.
(looking at the gauge)
SONIA GUTIERREZ
That's not going to cover it.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I get paid Friday.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
And you're putting all of that toward—
WREN GUTIERREZ
Application fees. I know.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Do you? Because last week it was boots.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I needed boots.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
You needed forty-dollar boots?
WREN GUTIERREZ
They were on sale. They were originally like eighty.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Oh, great. A bargain.
WREN GUTIERREZ
Mom.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
You have four applications left and they're thirty-five dollars each. That's a hundred and forty dollars.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I know. I can do math.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Then do it.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I am doing it! I work, I go to school, I fill out the stupid forms—
SONIA GUTIERREZ
They're not stupid. They're your future.
WREN GUTIERREZ
They feel pretty stupid when you can't even afford the fee to tell them you exist.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Which is why we don't buy boots.
WREN GUTIERREZ
Oh my God. It was one pair of boots.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
It's never one thing with you. It's boots and coffee and rides with Sara and—
WREN GUTIERREZ
I'm seventeen. What am I supposed to do, sit in the house?
SONIA GUTIERREZ
You could help more.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I do help.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
You could help more than you do.
WREN GUTIERREZ
Like you? Working doubles until you can't stand up? That's the plan?
(Silence. Too far.)
(very level)
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I work doubles so you can fill out those forms.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I know.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I don't think you do.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I said I know.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
You say a lot of things.
WREN GUTIERREZ
What does that mean?
SONIA GUTIERREZ
It means I've been driving since before the sun came up and I don't need a lecture about my choices from someone who spent forty dollars on shoes.
(WREN stares straight ahead. The windshield crack catches the light.)
WREN GUTIERREZ
I hate this car.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Me too. We're stuck with it.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I hate this town.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Wren—
WREN GUTIERREZ
You don't believe I'm going to get in anywhere.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
I never said that.
WREN GUTIERREZ
You don't have to say it. You keep talking about fees like you're hoping I'll quit so we can save the money.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
That is the most—
WREN GUTIERREZ
Am I wrong?
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Yes! You're wrong! I'm trying to keep us—
(WREN opens the car door at a red light. Steps out into the crosswalk.)
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Wren!
(WREN slams the door. Walks toward the sidewalk.)
(through the window)
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Get back in the car.
WREN GUTIERREZ
No.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
Wren Gutierrez, get in this car.
WREN GUTIERREZ
I'm walking.
SONIA GUTIERREZ
It's four miles!
WREN GUTIERREZ
Good!
(A car behind them honks. SONIA pulls through the intersection. Pulls over twenty feet ahead. Puts the car in park. Leaves it running.)
(WREN walks past without looking.)
Print it for class, or open it in the app: every role in this side is playable, and the other side of the scene gets a reader. Cast a voice against your part in the Audition Room, then run it until the lines are yours.
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