Newscaster [Patriot Day Monologue]
Cast
NEWSCASTER – male/female (name can be changed) – wearing clothes for field reporting
CAMERA PERSON – male/female – wearing a pocketed vest and/or cargo pants
Production Notes
Props
camera, mic
Script / Monologue
Lights come up on NEWSCASTER and CAMERA PERSON. They begin by wrapping up a broadcast with a few short lines of dialogue.
NEWSCASTER:
That wraps up our coverage for tonight. I’m Nicole Stephens, and thank you for watching this very special edition of “News to Me; In Memory of September 11th.” Good Night.
CAMERA PERSON:
(points to NEWSCASTER) And that’s a wrap.
NEWSCASTER:
(to CAMERA PERSON) Thank you so much.
CAMERA PERSON:
No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow. (turns to leave with camera and mic)
NEWSCASTER:
Yeah . . . see you tomorrow.
NEWSCASTER becomes reflective and stands for a few moments before beginning monologue.
NEWSCASTER:
Our office was the first to hear about the World Trade Center, and I was one of many assigned to report the developing story. As we drove through the streets of New York City I could see thick smoke pouring out of the North Tower. I couldn’t believe that a plane had crashed into the building. As our van pulled into a nearby parking lot I saw streets lined with people stunned by the image of an airplane-sized hole where once there was a complete building.
Then the unthinkable happened. Another plane came streaking toward the South Tower plummeting into the steel beams and glass, engulfing itself in hideous flame and smoke.
There was only an hour between crash and collapse, but it passed in seconds. I stood in horror as I watched dignified, educated, businessmen and women jump out of office windows for fear of being consumed in the blazing fire near the tops of the buildings. People poured out of the trade centers running for their lives in mad evacuation. Everywhere I looked the expression was the same. Panic.
Nothing will ever match the terror that gripped me at my core when the South Tower began to crumble. It’s something I have never felt before, even in my wildest nightmares, and pray I never experience again. People began screaming and running any way they possibly could as debris from the building began raining hard on the streets of New York. Clouds of smoke billowed through every open space swallowing running victims, their lungs aching for clean air. Everyone the same, stripped of all identity, one of thousands fighting for a chance . . . at tomorrow.
NEWSCASTER pauses for a moment. Lights fade. NEWSCASTER exits.