Jerome Bixby's The Man from Earth

Copyright © 2008 by Richard Schenkman

Cover art by
The Drawing Board Art Studio / David E. Wilkinson
www.dbastudio.com

Motion picture photos © 2007 Man From Earth, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that
JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH
is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Commonwealth, including Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. In its present form the play is dedicated to the reading public only.

The amateur live stage performance rights to
JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH
are controlled exclusively by Samuel French, Inc., and royalty arrangements and licenses must be secured well in advance of presentation. PLEASE NOTE that amateur royalty fees are set upon application in accordance with your producing circumstances. When applying for a royalty quotation and license please give us the number of performances intended, dates of production, your seating capacity and admission fee. Royalties are payable one week before the opening performance of the play to Samuel French, Inc., at 45 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10010.

Royalty of the required amount must be paid whether the play is presented for charity or gain and whether or not admission is charged.

Stock royalty quoted upon application to Samuel French, Inc. For all other rights than those stipulated above, apply to: Samuel French, Inc., at 45 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10010.

Particular emphasis is laid on the question of amateur or professional readings, permission and terms for which must be secured in writing from Samuel French, Inc.

Copying from this book in whole or in part is strictly forbidden by law, and the right of performance is not transferable.

Whenever the play is produced the following notice must appear on all programs, printing and advertising for the play: “Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.”

Due authorship credit must be given on all programs, printing and advertising for the play.

9780573803970

Printed in U.S.A.

#12930

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
CHARACTERS
ACT I
PRODUCTION STILLS FROM THE MOTION PICTURE JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH

IMPORTANT BILLING AND CREDIT REQUIREMENTS

All producers of
JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH must
give credit to the Author of the Play in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play, and in all instances in which the title of the Play appears for the purposes of advertising, publicizing or otherwise exploiting the Play and/or a production. The name of the Author
must
appear on a separate line on which no other name appears, immediately following the title and
must
appear in size of type not less than fifty percent of the size of the title type.

“Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth”
Motion Picture Production Credits

FALLING SKY ENTERTAINMENT
Presents

A Film By
RICHARD SCHENKMAN

JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH

Directed By
RICHARD SCHENKMAN

Written By
JEROME BIXBY

Produced By
RICHARD SCHENKMAN
ERIC D. WILKINSON

Executive Producers
EMERSON BIXBY
MARK PELLINGTON

Director of Photography
AFSHIN SHAHIDI

Production Designer
PRISCILLA ELLIOT

Editor
NEIL GRIEVE

Music Composed By
MARK HINTON STEWART

Casting by
ELISABETH JERESKI

Costume Designer
JILL KLIBER

Unit Production Manager/First Assistant Director
MICHAEL R. MELAMED

Second Assistant Director
DANIEL R. SUHART

Sound Supervisor
JAMEY SCOTT

Art Director
LAUREN RUGGERI

Co-Producer
ROBBIE BRYAN

Associate Producer
MICHAEL R. MELAMED

Line Producer
STEVEN ALEXANDER

2nd Second Assistant Director
CHAD STEINER

Cast
(in order of appearance)

CHARACTERS

JOHN OLDMAN
– About 35, good looking, competent, easygoing history professor

DAN
– 60-ish professor of anthropology; big, fit

HARRY
– 50’s professor of biology; stocky, likable

EDITH
– 50’s, art history professor; a hint of the spinster about her

SANDY
– Late 20’s; fiercely intelligent, but reticent

ART
– 50’s, but holding desperately onto youth; archeology professor

LINDA
– Very pretty young student; wide-eyed, yet smart

WILL GRUBER
– 75, large, mustachioed, bluff

MOVING MAN #1
– Burly, uniformed mover from “Charity Now”

MOVING MAN #2
– Another uniformed mover from “Charity Now”

PARAMEDIC
– Uniformed EMS worker (can be played by a Moving Man)

COP
– Young uniformed officer (can be played by a Moving Man)

SCENE

A cabin in the California desert.

TIME

The present.

ACT I

Scene 1

(SETTING:
Low desert in California. Winter. Late afternoon. An expanse of tan dirt, dotted with cacti. A small cabin a distance from the road, a log fence, an irregular patch of lawn.)

(A pickup truck is parked nearby; in it and near it are boxes of various items, many books, utensils, clothing, etc.)

(
NOTE:
Most of the action will take place inside the cabin, and some on the porch, but some will also occur in the yard and by the truck and so there should be a representation of the exterior, even if it is more stylized than realistic. Nearly everything will play out in real time. Over the course of the next eighty minutes or so, the sun will sink lower into the sky until finally darkness falls.)

(AT RISE:
JOHN OLDMAN
, wearing a sweater and jeans, lifts a box off the ground and hefts it into the bed of the truck.)

(JOHN
picks up a snowboard, finds room for it in a box. This act exposes something that looks like a small van Gogh, leaning against another box.)

(We hear a car arrive O.S.; the door opens, closes.
JOHN
glances toward the sound… for a split-second, he looks impatient. He then waves at the visitor,
DAN
, who walks onstage wearing a warm winter jacket.)

DAN.
(coming up)
You don’t waste time.

JOHN.
I try not to.

(
JOHN
struggles to lift a heavy box of books onto the wagon’s gate.)

DAN.
Give you a hand?

JOHN.
Sure.

(
DAN
grabs the other end of the box, and it’s done. We hear another car arrive O.S., accompanied by O.S. chatter as the passengers get out. )

(The new arrivals are
EDITH
,
HARRY
, and
SANDY
, who doesn’t look entirely happy.)

(All wear warm garb, carrying plates of wrapped food. They are all somewhat upset with John.)

HARRY.
Would you like to tell us what the hell that was all about?

(
JOHN
’s eyes meet
SANDY
’s, and he looks away.)

JOHN.
I don’t like goodbye’s.

HARRY.
Kind of the
point
of a goodbye party.

(
SANDY
’s eyes are on
JOHN
. She wants to say something, but doesn’t. There’s clearly something between them.)

HARRY
(cont’d)
We went to a certain amount of trouble, John. You could have at least stayed a few minutes, eaten some of the food we so feverishly prepared.

JOHN.
I apologize.

(
HARRY
wants an explanation, but decides to let it go.
EDITH
gives
JOHN
a hug.)

EDITH.
Why are you moving so quickly? You only resigned two days –

DAN.
You got the history chair at Stanford!

JOHN.
I wish.

(
HARRY
hefts the plates. Tries to lighten it up:)

HARRY.
Pork chops, tacos, tuna salad, and Pom. If we’d had time, we’d have done something more grandiose. Candlelight dinner at McDonald’s, strippers…