Black and White

One-Acts 20

By: Forrest Musselman
Cast: 3 M, 2 F
Performance Time: Approximately 30 minutes, 25 pgs.

SPOOF. Chock full of the “latest” catchphrases like “spiffy,” “keen,” “neat-o,” and “gee willikers,” audiences will love this spoof of 1950s TV sitcoms like “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best.” After school, Mother greets Bobby and Susie with some fresh-baked cookies, and Bobby eagerly tells Mother about how he touched a sample of asbestos and played with some mercury in science class, passed around his gun in speech class, and learned about the benefits of aerosol cans. When Father arrives home, Mother greets him with a martini and Bobby begs Father to go fishing after dinner. Father reminds Bobby that he needs to pick up some more lead-based paint, spray the yard with DDT, burn the old tires, and reinforce the bomb shelter. However, Father suggests the family could go for a leisurely drive in the country in their Buick, which gets 12 miles to the gallon, but not before he gently reminds Susie that she’ll never have a career and that college is just a place for young women to find husbands.

Freeviews: To read play excerpts click here.

Forrest Musselman has published nearly two dozen plays. Mr. Musselman teaches English and Theatre Arts at Rushford-Peterson High School in Rushford, MN, and lives in southeastern Minnesota with his wife and two children.