DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE Adaptation by Loren Crawford

(Excerpts may be used royalty free for auditions.)

AUDITION -- for 2 m, 2 flex, and soldiers In this scene, the faculty are relaxing in the evening. (AT RISE: Dr. Lanyon's library. POOLE is passing around a tray with glasses of sherry to all the FACULTY. The Misses Livingston try to decline.) MS. LIVINGSTON: Oh, no thank you. MISS LIVINGSTON: No, indeed. DR. LANYON: Ladies, ladies, you must. One glass a year

won't do you any harm. I insist you join us. MS. LIVINGSTON: Dr. Lanyon, you'll be our undoing! MISS LIVINGSTON: Our utter downfall! (THEY laugh and timidly take a glass.) DR. LANYON: Miss Hatchet, how about you? MISS HATCHET: I never indulge. Especially tonight. Things

will be wild this first night in the dormitories; I must keep my wits about me.

DR. LANYON: Very well then, very good. Henry, Owen, Miss Latimer, do you all have a glass? Poole, you must join us, you must, it's only proper; we are all in this together, aren't we? Well then, let's raise a glass and toast another year. Cheers!

ALL: Cheers! MR. WISTER: Here's to another year! The present marches

forever into history. DR. JEKYLL: That sounds rather depressing. MISS LATIMER: But poetic. I'm excited about your new

chemistry class, Dr. Jekyll. What an opportunity for our girls.

MISS LIVINGSTON: But chemistry?

MS. LIVINGSTON: Is that a fitting subject for our young ladies to be engaged in?

DR. JEKYLL: It was for Madame Curie. MR. WISTER: Touché! DR. LANYON: My dear Misses Livingston, we have to face

that the world is changing. We want our young ladies to be ready to face these changes.

MISS LATIMER: The Great War taught us many things, not least of all that there is nothing certain in this world. Anything can happen. Change can happen overnight.

MISS HATCHET: Nothing is going to change tonight, not if I can help it. If you will all excuse me, I must return to Mansfield Hall before there is time for any mischief to brew.

MS. LIVINGSTON: We must retire as well. MISS LIVINGSTON: Morning comes early! Good night, all. (MISSES LIVINGSTON exit. MR. WISTER stands.) DR. LANYON: Good night, ladies. Owen, are you leaving as

well? MR. WISTER: We launch right off into the Greeks tomorrow.

I just want to brush up on my Herodotus. And maybe a little Homer… Oh yes, tonight calls for a little Homer. (Exits.)

DR. JEKYLL: Perhaps we should all retire. I know you must be tiring, Lanyon.

DR. LANYON: Not at all, not at all, I assure you. I am glad of the company.

DR. JEKYLL: You forget that I am your physician and have prescribed rest for your heart.

MISS LATIMER: Have you been unwell, Dr. Lanyon? DR. LANYON: It's of no concern, just a condition I have lived

with for many years. No need for worry, but perhaps my physician is right. The excitement of opening day always makes me feel young and I run the risk of overexertion.

MISS LATIMER: Goodnight, Dr. Lanyon. DR. LANYON: Goodnight, friends.

(DR. LANYON exits. MISS LATIMER and DR. JEKYLL prepare to leave as well.) MISS LATIMER: How was your summer, Dr. Jekyll? DR. JEKYLL: Please call me Henry. There are no students

present and the formality makes me tired. MISS LATIMER: Henry then. And you may call me Rose

when there are no students about. Where did you go on holiday?

DR. JEKYLL: I spent it here. MISS LATIMER: Preparing for the new class? DR. JEKYLL: That is what I told Lanyon. But, no. I have

been engaged for some time now on a course of private study and experimentation, of which my old friend knows little. He would not understand.

MISS LATIMER: I would be honored to hear about it. If you thought it right to share.

DR. JEKYLL: I have always lived as a proper man, kept myself focused on work and doing good where I can.

MISS LATIMER: Yes, of course you have. DR. JEKYLL: But, Miss Latimer…Rose, that is not all that I

am. MISS LATIMER: I believe everyone has a public and a

private face, Henry. DR. JEKYLL: That's not quite what I mean... I am a

dedicated doctor, scientist, and now teacher, but at the same time... I have sometimes been tortured by thoughts of forgetting my work and indulging in nothing but pleasure. Doing whatever I wished, with no thought of punishment.

MISS LATIMER: I think we have all felt that at times. DR. JEKYLL: Have you, Rose? I should be very much

surprised if that were true of you. I...I wish to be free of that kind of...duality. Much progress has been made in understanding the human psyche. For some time now I have been working towards a method in which those two identities could be separated, so that I, and everyone who wishes, could live only as their best self.

MISS LATIMER: I'm not sure that I follow you.

DR. JEKYLL: It might be possible to alter the psyche through science. It might be possible to fundamentally change a human at their core, so that they could inhabit only their highest self, doing away with their animal nature once and for all.

MISS LATIMER: Are you talking about changing what God has made?

DR. JEKYLL: Only to be closer to God. MISS LATIMER: It sounds dangerous. DR. JEKYLL: All things worthwhile require risk. MISS LATIMER: But, Henry, it sounds wrong. From: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- By Loren Crawford Published by: Eldridge Publishing Co. http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2610