THE SET-UP
Seth is a young Marine serving during wartime. Nicholas is his civilian longtime companion who waits back home. In addition to the strain on their relationship caused by distance and absence, they must hide their love for one another behind code words and secret identities because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States military.
Seth’s mother Anne assists them by providing the cover of a woman’s handwriting for Nicholas’ daily letters, but Nicholas and Seth’s resolve is starting to weaken.
Jonas, another young gay Marine in Seth’s unit just coming to terms with his identity, forms an intense bond with Seth overseas.
Tyson, a former Army soldier who got fed up with “don’t ask, don’t tell” and didn’t reenlist, now works alongside Nicholas, providing temptation as well as a reality check.
When Seth returns home for an unexpected leave, with Jonas at his side, and post-traumatic stress following him from the battlefield, old relationships are tested, and new ones bloom. Seth is staying at his home with Nicholas, leaving Jonas to bunk down with Seth’s parents. While helping Jonas settle into Seth’s boyhood bedroom, Anne is reminded of a memory of her son before he left for Marine training. She passes in and out of this memory during her scene with Jonas. This is that Anne and Seth scene pulled out on its own.
“To change things from the inside rather than try to knock them down from the outside. To do something even if it seemed impossible, because it was the right thing to do. That’s exactly the boy you raised.”
Lights shift as
SETH appears from out of the past, in civilian clothes.
ANNE speaks to SETH in memory.
JONAS remains in half-light in the present in the same room.
SETH
You don’t need to help me pack for basic training, Mom.
ANNE
You always wait til the last minute and you always forget something.
SETH
Nope. All set.
ANNE
Don’t lie to your mother. Basic training lasts for three months. There must be something —
SETH
It’s a trick question.
ANNE
Of course it is. The military’s involved.
SETH
Mom.
ANNE
Sorry.
SETH
The Marines only want me to bring the following – my driver’s license, my social security card, my banking information, and the clothes on my back.
ANNE
That’s ridiculous.
SETH
The Marine Corps issues me everything else when I get there – from my toothbrush right down to my underwear. They’re rebuilding me from the ground up. That’s why they call it basic.
ANNE
So what do you need your mother for?
SETH
Now Mom, don’t be needy.
ANNE
I thought you’d be spending every last moment you could with Nicholas.
SETH
I finally had to force him to go to work today. He’s getting too worked up.
ANNE
Can you blame him?
SETH
No, but it’s not helping either of us. It’s not quality time if he’s miserable.
ANNE
He’s going to miss you. We’re all going to miss you.
SETH
We’ve spent time apart before.
ANNE
Not three months. And not like this.
SETH
I know.
ANNE
Even when you were gone for more than a few days at a time before, there was email and phone calls and video chat and texting. Now we can’t see you, we can’t talk to you.
SETH
You can all write letters. The Marines are even giving me pen and paper so I can write back. And the mail is delivered faithfully every day but Sunday, just like in the real world.
ANNE
We can write you. Nicholas can’t. And even your father and I need to be careful.
SETH
That’s why we have the code.
ANNE
This is America. We shouldn’t need the code. It’s bullshit.
SETH
Mom!
ANNE
Well, it is. This isn’t Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Our own country shouldn’t be spying on us.
SETH
They’re not spying.
ANNE
Don’t be naive. I didn’t raise a stupid boy. And don’t apologize for fascists.
SETH
Why is it the closer I get to basic training, the more unhinged everybody seems?
ANNE
Well, I was going to say “sex police” but what else is that but fascism? And we’re getting “unhinged” because it’s starting to sink in what you signed the rest of us up for when you enlisted.
SETH
I came over here for goodbyes, not a lecture.
ANNE
I thought I just said I didn’t raise a stupid boy. You know what you’re in for when you enter this house.
SETH
My mother the peacenik.
It’s not brainwashing if I actually believe it.
ANNE
I didn’t raise you to believe that fighting was the answer to every problem.
SETH
But you did raise me to believe that you have to fight for what you care about.
ANNE
You’re embracing fighting as a way of life.
SETH
I’m not picking a fight. I’m offering to be the one who fights if fighting needs to be done.
ANNE
And I’m proud of you for stepping up.
SETH
You just don’t want me to actually do it.
ANNE
Well… no.
SETH
You’re my mother and you don’t want me to get hurt. I get that.
ANNE
But that’s not enough to stop you.
SETH
No.
The Marines put into words things I thought about but never said before. “I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.” That’s not forgetting who I am. That’s expressing who I am.
ANNE
You love your country.
SETH
(she gets it)
Yes!
ANNE
And your country loves you.
But the military doesn’t.
SETH
That can change. I can change it.
ANNE
In over 230 years, they just haven’t had the right gay Marine to help them see the light. But you’re gonna be that guy?
SETH
Just being in the Marines would be the most important thing I ever did with my life. But if I could do this, too…
ANNE
I raised a boy with a messiah complex.
SETH
You raised a boy who takes what he believes in seriously.
ANNE
In order to be allowed to prove them wrong, first you have to prove them right. First you have to hide, so they’ll even let you in the door. I didn’t raise a boy who would do something like that.
SETH
To change things from the inside rather than try to knock them down from the outside. To do something even if it seemed impossible, because it was the right thing to do. That’s exactly the boy you raised.
The Marines let a woman serve in 1918, two years before she could even vote. The military started eliminating segregation in its ranks in 1948, years before the civil rights movement gained any traction in this country. The Marines were the first to award an African-American a Medal of Honor, the highest military honor.
ANNE
Posthumously. After he threw himself on a grenade.
SETH
Yes.
ANNE
That’s not the way I want you to change things.
SETH
“I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.”
ANNE
If you don’t stop quoting the Armed Forces’ Code of Conduct, I swear I’ll throttle you.
SETH
They’re not just words. They mean something.
ANNE
Your life means something. Your identity as a human being means something. They want you to deny that. They want to erase that.
SETH
Since the founding of our country, gays have always served in the military.
ANNE
And the minute the military found them, they kicked them out.
SETH
You were this way about Nicholas, too, you know. At first.
ANNE
That was different.
SETH
Not really. I was excited. It was a major change in my life. And you were cautious.
ANNE
I didn’t want you to get your heart broken. I still don’t.
SETH
Nicholas didn’t break my heart. Neither will the Marines.
ANNE
It’s a rare and beautiful thing, love. You got lucky with Nicholas. I got lucky with your father. I’m not sure we get lucky more than once like that in a lifetime.
SETH
Anything’s possible. You taught me that.
ANNE
Can I take it back?
SETH
Too late.
ANNE
The difference between Nicholas and the Marines? Nicholas always loved you for who you were. He knew you, from the moment you met. When you were boys. Before you had an inkling who you were going to be to each other, he knew you. Like I knew you. Like your father knew you. Like God knew you. Unconditional love. That’s all I’m arguing for here.
SETH
Right now I’m gonna love the Marines enough for both of us. The Marines’ll come around.
ANNE
You’re so sure you can’t lose.
SETH
Hey, I’ve got all of you on my side, right? You, Dad, God, Nicholas.
ANNE
Always.
SETH
Then losing isn’t even on the table. Losing isn’t an option.
(photo: (left to right) Tina Sigel as Anne and Ryan Henderson as Seth in the 2011 Minneapolis production of “Leave” by Urban Samurai Productions; photography by Ron Ravensborg; scenic design by Erica Zaffarano)
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