October 27, 2026 · daily scene
Candy Inspection
Given circumstances
- Character
- Guardian
- Setting
- Your kitchen table, your niece's trick-or-treat bag dumped out in front of you, wrappers everywhere.
- The moment before
- You found a piece of candy with no brand name, no wrapper seam, just smooth black paper with her name written on it in white ink.
- Scene partner
- Your twelve-year-old niece, sitting across from you, still in her witch costume
Direction
Stay calm and adult. You're the responsible one. But the fear is right under the surface, and by the end it's the only thing left.
Script
Where did you get this one?
NIECEI don't know. Someone gave it to me.
It has your name on it. Your full name. Look at this—it's handwritten. Which house?
NIECEI don't remember. We went to like forty houses.
This isn't a joke. Think. Was it someone you recognized? Someone who knows you?
(she picks it up and turns it over. Her face changes.)
There's more writing on the back. Really small. It says 'See you next year, just like last time.' But you've never been trick-or-treating here. We just moved here.
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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