October 13, 2026 · daily scene
The Studio at 2 A.M.
Given circumstances
- Character
- Composer
- Setting
- Recording studio, control room, clock showing 2:07 a.m., tracks glowing on the screen.
- The moment before
- You played back the last take and heard it—the thing you've been chasing for six months. Then you looked up and saw them packing.
- Scene partner
- The session musician you booked for midnight, standing by the door with their instrument case
Direction
Start grateful, almost pleading. The shift comes when you realize gratitude won't work—then you offer the one thing you swore you wouldn't.
Script
MUSICIANI have to go. I have a session at nine.
One more. Please. That last take was close, it was so close.
Thirty minutes. I'll pay you double for the hour, I'll credit you as co-writer, whatever you want.
MUSICIANYou said that at midnight.
I know. I know I did.
But this time it's real. I heard it in the last eight bars. You heard it too, I saw your face.
If you walk out that door right now, I'm starting over with someone else tomorrow, and your name comes off everything.
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.
Perform it in Act It Up Or perform it in your browser