October 14, 2026 · daily scene
The Emergency Contact
Given circumstances
- Character
- Roommate
- Setting
- Hospital waiting room, plastic chairs, fluorescent lights, three a.m.
- The moment before
- You've been waiting two hours. The nurse just called your roommate's name and you're the only one who stood up.
- Scene partner
- A nurse holding a clipboard, standing in front of you
Direction
You barely know this person. You're the emergency contact because no one else would be. Play the discomfort of that.
Script
NURSEAre you family?
Roommate. I'm the one they called.
We've lived together four months. I don't know their parents' names. I don't know if they have parents.
NURSEThey're asking for someone named Marcus. Do you know how to reach him?
No. I've never heard that name.
What do I tell them when they wake up and ask where Marcus is? That the person whose couch they sleep on three nights a week doesn't know who that is?
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