Drama scene for two actors from the one-act eplay, “Wasted Talent” wherein Donnie relives a painful memory from his life.

DONNIE: What’s on your mind, man?

JARED: I think I’m moving on.

DONNIE: With what?

JARED: This whole thing. I think I’m gonna make a change.

DONNIE: What change?

JARED: Forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything.

DONNIE: What is it? Can’t start something and leave me hanging.

JARED: I don’t think I want to be this anymore.

DONNIE: Can you speak English?

JARED: This man, music…I don’t know about making music anymore.

DONNIE: Music?

JARED: I’m done with it.

DONNIE: Tomorrow you’ll be talking about your next track.

JARED: Nah, I’m being honest. Can’t hang with this no more. Losing my edge. Not as passionate as I used to be about it all. It’s getting old, and I’m getting tired of the struggle.

DONNIE: What put this in your head?

JARED: Nothing. It’s been on my mind for awhile now.

DONNIE: Dora, she’s got nothing to do with it?

JARED: Don’t go blaming Dora, alright?

DONNIE: Well, I can see her trying to get you to do other things.

JARED: She’s not, she’s not.

DONNIE: Just checking cause this doesn’t sound like you.

JARED: Cause I keep this sh’t in, I don’t ever talk about it. You know how I am.

DONNIE: Yeah, I know that you’ll want to kill yourself if you stop making music. I know that. Since we’ve been kids, it’s all you ever did.

JARED: Things change. I’m evolving. I’m getting to a different place in my life now.

DONNIE: And what place is that?

JARED: I’m growing up. I want things. Not making any progress —

DONNIE: You’re not making any progress cause you’re not hustling enough. Don’t look at me like that, man; it’s true. Now you want to walk away from what you love cause you haven’t been fighting hard enough for it to begin with? Maybe you should walk away from it then.

JARED: Why you coming at me like that?

DONNIE: Because man, I see how you are…you’re always making excuses.

JARED: I’m not. I’m always grinding.

DONNIE: I’ve seen you let so many opportunities run cold throughout the years. How many things come your way that you say no to cause you always have some excuse, always thinking that it don’t suit you, that you don’t trust the people, always bailing on the project.

JARED: That’s not true, people bail on me.

DONNIE: Come on, man.

JARED: People are always playing themselves, and you know it. No one is straight up anymore. No one has honor. Like that one guy who wanted to put me on and kept me waiting for two years and then tells me it’s on and —

DONNIE: And what did you do?

JARED: I told him what I had to tell him.

DONNIE: See? That’s the kind of shit that gets noone anywhere. What if you said yes?

JARED: That guy deserved nothing but a no from me. Why would I take someone like that seriously?

DONNIE: Really? He was giving you a shot, and you blew it. You didn’t take it, and you should have taken it.

• To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:

In this one-act play, Donnie goes back in time to shed light on his present day state of mind, to try and make peace with his best friend’s suicide.

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