September 9, 2026 · daily scene
The Appraisal
Given circumstances
- Character
- Heir
- Setting
- The kitchen of your childhood home, estate appraiser's folder open on the counter.
- The moment before
- He just said he wants to keep the house, and you realized he doesn't know what that costs.
- Scene partner
- Your younger brother, leaning against the doorframe
Direction
You're not trying to win. You're trying to make him understand something you wish weren't true. The cruelty is in the math, not in you.
Script
Seventeen thousand in property tax. Annual. That's before insurance, before the roof they say has maybe three years left.
(beat)
I'm not the one taking it from you. I ran the numbers six times thinking I made a mistake.
(he cuts you off)
Then show me. Show me where I find seventeen thousand a year on what I make. Show me how you think I keep it.
(long silence)
That's what I thought. So we sell it, we split it, and we both get to stop pretending we're the kind of people who summer somewhere.
Written for Act It Up. Free to rehearse and perform for practice, classes and self-tapes.
Record this scene with a teleprompter and a scene partner who reads the other lines.
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