Playwright
SYNOPSIS
Based on a true story. Ravi Dharun attempts to live stream Tyler Clementi, his gay roommate in an intimate moment with another man. When Tyler learns of this he takes his life on the George Washington Bridge. The entire play is written in Shakespearian verse exploring the inherent tragedy between these two individuals and the cultural frame work that its imbedded in.
Sample
Scene II
New Jersey. Rutgers University. Dormitory room of TYLER CLEMENTI and DARUHN RAVI.
TYLER
How do you find this strange and foreign land?
DHARUN
The corybantic games have just begun!
The drinks the merriment it’s all so new.
It casts my body flinging to and fro,
Though I attempt to bench it sleepy still.
TYLER
Oh
DHARUN
What?
TYLER
Nothing. It’s just that I feel unsure.
DHARUN
You are shy I take it, but cast that off !
TYLER
It is a queer meal for me to digest.
What class, What club, What brotherhood to choose;
I flounder as I navigate the stream.
I feel as though I have been plucked and placed
Abound a vast and unforgiving sea.
Which hereto shifts my stance before I can
Grip my toes to the inconsistent earth.
DHARUN
Come, come thou thespian make not me laugh!
But since you play the part of dramatist,
You might consider trying on that role!
TYLER
You jest, Dharun, in sooth my face is long,
And longs for simpler times before in school.
(aside)
And yet, tis true, more under watchful eye,
To spread my wings and let my colors fly.
DHARUN
O, rush aside these lily-liverd nerves.
If you shrink small, I will in turn grow large.
If you tremble fast, I will hold you still.
When you are lost, I’ll search the campus wide.
And when your mind frosts ‘ore with ashen clouds,
Of misgiving doubt and homesick tear blues,
A drink, we’ll grab, to sail the torrent seas,
As a blood bound brother fleet now are we.
TYLER
Assured words bring comfort to mine ears,
And yet I’ve known you for so split a spell.
DHARUN
Prey, tell me if I’m wrong, rewrite my words.
An itching in my brow tells onto me,
You’ve made another special friend or two?
TYLER
I do not know the meaning of your words,
Some meetings have I made with peers, ‘tis true.
If that speaks your meaning, ‘tis not remiss.
DHARUN
Tyler, I live betwixt these walls as well.
These things you cannot hide under fresh soil.
The wet, raindrops will quickly wash away;
To show what men are buried now below.