Mark is a wonderful husband who has a seemingly perfect life. He has lived his life through a series of notes. Notes from his life, notes from his wife and notes that he has written to himself as reminders of his experiences. He keeps them so that he can reflect on the best and worst times of his life. But when his wife tells him that she is unexpectedly pregnant he changes from a perfect husband to a despondent stranger. Living separate lives he shuts his wife and child off from his world and reverts to his thoughts and his notes for sanity. Through his story we learn that even in the most perfect of relationships can change with the addition of a child. Is it the child that makes Mark turn his back on his family or it is something more? Secrets are revealed and lives are forever changed. In the end it takes A Private Note to understand why Mark has done what he has done and to feel empathy for his situation.
Male- A Private Note
- (Scene opens with Mark. He is looking through a series of notes. Some of them make him smile, others laugh, others think, others are emotional. He refers to these notes throughout. We don’t know what they say but we know they are important to him and his story.) I was never much into expressing my feelings, but these tell my story. So many notes and so much love. (Reads) “Happy birthday, you look older than you are. Opps. Love ya.” (Laughs, picks up another one and reads) “There’s milk in the fridge but it’s a little chunky, happy breakfast.” (Smiles beat) The pieces of me were not a reflection of my childhood. I was always a loner in high school. Loner in my school didn’t mean that I did drugs under the staircase (Smiles) it meant that I didn't have a lot of friends, didn't play sports and when I tried it was cross country which I had to quit because of my asthma which is embarrassing. Nothing worse than my first track meet getting through the first 100 meters of a 1600 meter race and passing out on the track, (Laughs) hell I wasn't even a band nerd. (Smiles) I wasn't very liked but I was me and I guess that was enough. I got my ass kicked a few times, but in my defense I never fought back. When we were taught to stop drop and roll to put out fire, that’s what I used when I got in fights. I’d stop, drop and curl up in the fetal position and start rolling. Usually the guys that were punching me thought that was funny. (Laughs) There were times when I would collapse and roll before I even got hit, kind of turned into a game. (Reads note) “Don’t get ass kicked to day.” It wasn't until I got into college that I broke out of my shell if you will. I joined a fraternity, got a tattoo, and I even got nominated for college homecoming court. (Beat) Then I met my wife Julie. (Smiles)