*Please see note from writer on ability to change race of performer.*
Ping is a young Asian American man who has a deep-rooted love for musicals. Not for the story and not for the music but for the connection that it has created between him and his sister that he has no seen in years. It was the comfort that it made him feel brought him out of his shell but the moment that his sister put him in that yellow dress he felt, whole. He couldn’t find the words to explain how wearing this dress made him feel but it was in this moment that he had found his comfort in life. His story is one of fighting at a young age to be the person he had always known himself to be. Through his beautifully told story we see the most intimate pains of a person who was able to maneuver one of the most challenging fights of their life, gaining acceptance for who they are. Ping was a gay man living in a country that was not accepting of him even as a young boy just playing dress up. But it is after his father publicly beats him and he is put in a conversion therapy hospital, to “fix him,” that his sister decides enough is enough. She convinces his mother to get him out of there and the three escape to America. It is then that she leaves him for good to figure out how to maneuver this life on his own. Their bond is the most important love of his life that allowed him to finally be able to then love himself freely. Freely love the life he’s allowed to have as a gay Asian man in America. The life that he found himself fighting for at a young age. The life that he never thought he would be able to live… his own life, in freedom. (*This story is a universal story. The race of the performer may be edited to reflect a different race as needed, the writer gives permission for this.)
Male- Unbroken
(Scene opens with Ping, an Asian American young man putting the final touches on his dress. He is humming a song probably from the cartoon of his choice that is his fuel for this opening moment. He is happy, bubbly even. He zips up the back, swirls to the front, slides his feet into his heeled slippers and gives the audience a twirl and a twirl and then- boom. Stops. Humming stops. The joy stops. He begins to look for something.)
Now where is it? I know it’s here, it’s always here. (Looking) Shit. Shit! It makes the outfit. (Laughs) She’d kill me if I lost it. (Looking then he passes the mirror, stops and comes back, he looks at himself in the mirror, removes the wig and places it back on his make-up station. Takes a napkin and blots off the lipstick. His dream is slowly coming back down into reality. He pauses for a moment longer before he speaks.)
There is nothing better than living in the fantasy. I put on my yellow dress and I squeeze every piece of my (He takes a moment and sucks in his stomach then lets it out with a big sigh laughing) self into my: self-made princess dress. The color is perfect, the wig is phenomenal, tell me when you- when you saw this wig you didn’t know exactly who I was? Now the heels take a bit of getting used to but once a queen always a queen as I’ve said before. (Laughs, Beat) Actually that’s what my sister would always say. She would always tell me, “Ping if what you want to be is a queen be a queen. If what you want to do is dance the dance of a princess hand in hand with her prince charming- dance your ass off. Whatever it is, just be you because life is too hard to be someone else.” (Takes off the dress and hangs it up with care.) I’m not exactly sure how my sister got to be so wise, and I don’t know that she’ll ever know that I was actually listening but the best days of my life are the ones that I spent with her. (Beat, to audience) How does that work? What does that say about my life when the best days that I’ve had are ones that I’ve already lived? Almost feels like there’s nothing to live for, right? Let’s be honest if you knew that there was never going to be a day that was better than that one perfect day you’ve already lived… really what’s the fucking point? (Laughs) My sentiments exactly.