Amy lines: Act 3

Do not use until sure everything is correct

(S1) “Hello Amy!”

“I don’t want to see you.”

“Oh, Amy I’m so sorry for how I behaved. Please? Forgive me?”

(icy silence)

“So when do you begin your great work of art, Raphaella?”

“Never.”

“'What - why?”

“I’m a failure. Jo is in New York, being a writer, and I am a failure.”

“That’s white a statement to make at twenty.”

“Rome took all the vanity out of me. And Pris made me realize I’d never be a genius. I’m giving up all my foolish artistic hopes.”

“Why should you? You have so much talent and energy.”

“Talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing. I won’t be a common-place dauber, so I don’t intend to try anymore.”

“What women are allowed into the club of geniuses anyway?”

“The Brontes? (bronties)”

“That’s it?”

“I think so.”

“And who always declares genius?”

“Well, men, I suppose.”

“They’re cutting down the competition.”

“That’s a very complicated argument to make me feel better.”

“Do you though?" Feel better?”

“I do think that male or female, I’m a middling talent.”

“Middling talent? Then may I ask your last portrait be of me?”

“All right.”

“Now that you’ve given up all your foolish artistic hopes, what are you going to do with your life?”

“Polish up my other talents and be an ornament to society.”

“Here is where Fred Vaughn comes in, I suppose. You are not engaged, I hope?”

“No…”

“But you will be,if he goes down properly on one knee?”

“Most likely, yes. [pause] He’s rich, richer than you, even.”

“I understand queens of society can’t get on without money. But it does sound odd coming from one of your mother’s girls.”

“I’ve always known that I would marry rick Why should I be ashamed of that?”

“There is nothing to be ashamed of, as long as you love him.”

“Well, I believe we have some power over who we love, it isn’t something that just happens to a person.”

“I think the poets might disagree.”

“Well, I’m not a poet I’m just a woman. And as a woman I have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. Even if i had my own money, which i don’t, it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. If we had children they would belong to him not me. They would be his property. So don’t sit there and tell me that marriage isn’t an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you but it most certainly is for me.”

(theres a knock at the door)

“That will be Fred now. How do I look?” [long pause] “Do I look all right?” [amy walks to exit frustraited at his silence]

“You look beautiful”

[amy pauses, glares then leaves]

[lightting cues and pauses or smth]

“Laurie, When are you going back to your grandfather?”

“Very soon.”

“You’ve said that a dozen times in the past month.””

“Short answers save trouble.”

“He expects you, so why don’t you do it?”

“Natural depravity, I suppose.”

“Natural indolence, you mean.”

“I’ll only plague him if I go, so I might as well stay and plague you a little longer. You can bear it. In fat, I think it agrees with you.”

“What are you doing?””

“Looking at you.”

“No I mean what do you intend to do.”

“Oh you mean with life?”

“Yes.”

“What would you have me do?”

“Go back and work for your grandfather and make something of yourself. Here”

"When did you do this one?”

“It was the day at the beach, when I met Fred for the first time.”

“When is he coming back?”

“A week or two… he has business in London.”

“Don’t marry him.”

“What?”

“Don’t marry him.”

“Why?”

“You know why…”

“No, Laurie, That’s mean, It’s just mean of you…”

“Why?”

“I have been second to Jo my whole life in everything and I will not be the person you settle for just because you cannot have her. I won’t do it, now when, not when I’ve spent my entire life loving you.”

“Yes, yes, good day and that. I’m quite busy you know, I don’t have time for all of this!”

(O.S) “Aunt March!”

“Heavens! Can’t I have a minute of peace and quiet, without some headstrong youth rushing in and ruining it?”

“Hello Aunt March! I was wondering if you had seen Laurie around today?”

“That Laurence boy was just here.”

“He was?”

“What a disappointment he’s turned out to be. It must be the Italian in him.”

“When will he be back?”

“He’s gone to london. Why? What do you need to discuss with him?”

“I’ve just told Fred Vaughn that I wouldn’t marry him.”

(S3) “I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

“I should have been. [pause] I need to get home.”

“I don’t know that you can ever really go home. Leaving changes us - those we leave behind change too. I wish we could go back - really go back. But we can’t, that is one of the sacrifices of growing up.”

“Sacrifice? Growing up? What would you know about either?”

“You might be right. But no matter what going home brings us - we will do it together.”

“You’re coming with me?”

“I couldn’t let you travel alone with Aunt March being so sick - even if you despise me.”

“Oh, Laurie, I don’t despise you. Beth was the best of us. I’m not marrying Fred Vaughn”

“I heard… Amy…”

“It was not for you, it was for myself. You are under no obligation to say anything or do anything, it was because I didn’t love him as I should. You don’t have to say anything, we never need to talk about it, we don’t have to tal about—”

[Jo fixes her face]

“Laurie told you?”

“Amy, I’m so happy for you. It was meant to be.”

“Oh, I’m so relieved - I couldn’t write because it all happened so quickly and then, really I was worried you’d be angry.”

“No, no.”

“So you aren’t? Angry?””

“Life is too short to be angry at one’s sisters.”

“I really miss her…”

(S4) “I thought she hated me.”

“She could still hate you and leave you the house!”

“I’d like to open a school. We never had a proper school, and now there are women’s colleges opening - there should be a school. For Daisy and Demi.”

“What about writing?”

“I started something… but I don’t think it’s very good.”

“Everyone likes what you write.”

“It’s just about our little life.”

“Maybe we don’t see those things as important because people don’t write about them.”

“No, writing doesn’t confer importance, it reflects it.”

“I’m not sure. Perhaps writing will make them more important.’

“When did you become so wise?”

“I always have been, you were just too busy noticing my faults.”

“who is he?”

[amy waves laurie away]

“wait…”

“-Please stay! We have more than enough room.”

“It was my sister, Beth.”

“We all play a little.”

“What a wonderful man. I hope he comes again, he would be a terrific friend for me.”

“Oh Father, he wasn’t here for you!”

“No?”

“Jo! You love him!”

“I do not!”

“You do too! I may be half as smart as you are but I can see it so plainly, you love him. I have never seen you happier. What else is love? Doesn’t she love him, Laurie?”

“That’s a good instinct, you love him.”

“Go get him. Laurie, prepare the horses. We can catch him before he gets to the train.””

“He is moving to California!”

“That’s a fiction. He was practically begging for a reason to stay.”

“But it’s raining outside.”

“It doesn’t matter! Put on a better dress. Follow me.” [they drag Jo to the other side of the stage] “Laurie, stop standing there and go get the horses!”