Employee of the Year by Michael Todaro
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This Play is the copyright of the Author and may not be performed, copied or sold without the Author's prior consent
Evening:
OSHIOS (OH SHE OHS) Is a large multinational corporation with
ties to many countries around the world and billions of dollars in
profits. The exact product or service that OSHIOS provides is vague at
best. In fact the company is so big and diluted that most employees
are hard pressed to answer, "What is OSHIOS?" However they know
what they do, but not what the big picture is. OSHIOS prefers it that
way. Their yearly Employee of the Year party has been held in years
past in Aspen, The French Riviera, Brazil and many other exotic and
fancy locations. This year, primarily for legal reasons, they have
decided to open up its year-end company party to include
non-management types from all branches of their wide reaching
corporation. Also for the first time, lower level employees will be
considered for the coveted OSHIOS Employee of the Year award. They
have decided to rent out "this" facility this year to make the
event more "accessible" to all of the first time invitees.
The night includes dinner, (Dinner can be optional and is the
"Non-dinner" version of the show is explained in the script), an
awards show and hired entertainment in the form of a married Karaoke
host couple. Awards include accomplishments in the past year at work,
culminating in the vote for the “Employee of the Year” award!
However as the night progresses the management and non-management
types clash in a battle of class warfare as the "99% ers" are
desperately trying to fit in and fight for acceptance.
OSHIOS is a phonetic spelling of the word Otiose which means
"Serving no practical purpose or result".
Quick character descriptions more in depth bios of each character
included at end of script
NON-MANAGEMENT
Lonnie Anderson-
Male 40 Plus. Warehouse manager from a local hub. Loud obnoxious but
with a big heart. Means well. Ralph Kramden goes to a fancy party.
Singing skills a plus, not necessary.
Ken Carrington -
Male 30 Plus. Sales. Recently let go from company. Shows up Drunk,
Uninvited.
Sherman Allen -
Male 25 plus. Socially awkward I.T. Geek. Dance skills helpful, but
not necessary.
Shay Van Porquet -
Male 20 plus. Works for Oshios in middle of nowhere branch in a made
up european country. Weird accent. says inappropriate things by
accident. Ridiculous flirt.
MANAGEMENT
Monica Monica
Female 20 plus. Team Building leader / in charge of parties. Former
Cheerleader. High energy.
Ed Bunker -
Male 40 plus. VP of Sales. Old and Crabby. Dance skills helpful, but
not necessary.
Dee Dee Blue
Female 30 plus. Human Resources. Hot, cougar type.
Gary Kzerltkzerkzon
Male 30 plus. Acquisitions Manager. Average guy. Very, VERY likeable.
Super nice. Approachable.
OTHER CHARACHTERS - Irene Clara Ingebretson-Olson -
Female 40 plus. CEO of company. Socially awkward. Singing skills a
plus.
Bob Clara Ingebretson-Olson
Male 40 plus. CEO Husband Nice, charming, possibly somewhat
effeminate, but not necessary. Singing skills a plus. Bob is from
Germany. It is where Irene and Bob Met.
Kelly Phobo
Female 20 plus. Special assistant to CEO. . Prim, proper,
conservative and organized. She is kind of a go between, between the
two classes. She kind of lives on both sides of the fence. Singing
skills a must.
Wanda Lamberton
Female 25 plus. Karoake Host. Ability to look and sound like a fancy
cheesy lounge singer and also look like a cartoon version of a rock
and roll star. Singing skills and wide range a MUST.
Albert Lee Lamberton
Male 25 plus. Karoake Host. Ability to look and sound like a fancy
cheesy lounge singer and also look like a cartoon version of a rock
and roll star. Singing skills and wide range a MUST.
Interns-
Various age and genders. Cast members who are interns at Oshios and
will be taking on all the tasks needed to keep the show moving
including picking up and counting EOTY Ballots. Also serve as
understudies in the show. Each production can determine how many of
these they need.
CONFLICTS TO KEEP EMPHASIZING THROUGHOUT SHOW Shay and Ed
Shay is flirting and dancing with women. He is engaged to Eds
Daughter. As Shay Flirts throughout the evening Ed is constantly on
him and angry with him, and watching him. Shay and Ed should emphasize
this relationship and it's conflict in the "EOTY Video" that
plays, making it clear there that Eds daughter is engaged to Shay and
how that happened. (See Extended Bios)
Shay will sing a Karoake song that is a giant flirtation with every
woman in the audience that will bring this conflict to a head.
Dee Dee and Sherman and Gary
Sherman loves Dee Dee. Dee Dee loves Gary. Dee Dee gets more and more
forthright with Gary as shows goes on and she keeps drinking. Gary is
married and a true blue guy, who is very awkward with this situation
but very very nice about it. This conflict will all play out in an “on
stage scene” during the awards part of program. They also will have a
dancing "show down" in the karaoke segment. At the end Dee Dee
chooses Sherman, and Gary is greatly relieved.
Irene
Has a phobia of her employees, germs, and loosening up.
Bob
Bob has no real conflicts other than his happy attitude and great
energy and his absolute enjoyment of everything tends to bewilder
Irene. Bob should be dancing with patrons all night.
Kelly
She is torn between hanging out with non-management types, which she
really is, or management types, which she is with most of the time.
She is torn between both. However she spends the majority of the show
tending to the needs of Irene.
Ken and Monica
Ken was fired and has shown up anyway to the event. He is drunk. He
is ruining her event. It's her first event and she needs it to go well
and he is single handedly ruining everything This will play out in the
opening in an “on stage Scene” as Monica is welcoming everybody to the
event and Ken shows up and comes on stage. Ken also sings a karaoke
song that makes Monica uncomfortable. Monica should be following Ken
around all night trying to keep him from doing horrible things, or
cleaning up the messes he makes.
Lonnie
He is at odds with all upper management types. He is gregarious but
slaps them on the back too hard and laughs too loud and eventually
takes the karoake stage and sings “Take this job and shove it”. This
will be the song and the moment that everybody starts to get really
heated at each other and at the end of this song is when the dance
floor is divided and the “Fight” is about to start for real.
He defends and protects Shay and Ken and Sherman like they are his
children. Lonnies feelings about management should be made subtle but
very clear in the "EOTY Video" that plays.
These are the conflicts. Each conflict will have it's defining moment
on stage or video so that every audience member understands the
conflict and is aware of it. Table talk of these conflicts will
re-enforce them, but each one will be clearly stated in a moment.
Employee of the Year PRE- SHOW
30 minutes prior to show start, patrons are let in to main room. They
pick up their tickets and put on nametags. Monica makes sure that
everybody has nametags and is checked in. She is accompanied by Kelly
Phobo. Monica and Kelly will also be getting names of people to put on
awards for later in the evening. Patrons should also be given
designations for what are of OSHIOS they work for and titles.
Interns, Bob and Dee Dee will all be helping people get to their
seats and welcoming patrons.
Characters filter into the main areas to mingle with patrons,
discussing how they hope they are the employee of the year and start
working the room for votes and establishing character. They let the
patrons know they will be voting for Employee of the Year.
Door and seating
Monica Monica
Dee Dee Blue
Kelly Phobo
Bob Clara
Ingebretson-Olson Interns
General table talk
Ed Bunker
Shay Van Porquet Gary Kzerltkzerkzon Sherman Allen Lonnie
Anderson
Pre-recorded Music will be playing during pre-show.
TOP OF SHOW
There is one center stage. Behind the stage on screen is the Oshios
Logo. At show time Monica Monica takes stage, gets people settled and
welcomes groups and points out illuminaries among the crowd. Also
informs them of bathrooms, smoking areas, turning off cell phones, and
the format for the evening, I.E. when and how dinner works. This
general information will differ from production to production and is
to be written by each individual production. When these are done
she can begin regular script.
SCENE 1
MONICA:
Well enough of that! HELLO EVERYBODY! And Welcome to Oshios's . . .
'sis Corporation Annual Employee of the Year Party! YAY!!! ARE YOU
READY?!
GIVE ME AN O!
GIVE ME AN S!
GIVE ME AN H!
GIVE ME AN .....E!
Wait no….GIVE ME AN I! ....right?
(She turns around and looks at logo on screen)
GIVE ME AN I! GIVE ME AN O! GIVE ME AN S!
WHAT'S THAT SPELL?
Audience and Monica yell "OSHIOS"
Okay everybody! First off, according to Company Policy, we have to
lay down the ground rules for the fun! Please welcome Human Resources
Director Dee Dee Blue!
Music plays as Dee Dee takes stage
DEE DEE:
Hi everybody! Okay, so I need everybody to pay attention. (reading
from pamphlet) Zero Tolerance for Inappropriate Touching. That's Z-TIT
for short. (She laughs slightly) All employees are to be treated with
respect and dignity. Inappropriate Touching of any kind will not to be
tolerated under any circumstance. This includes sexual touching and
other types of touching. Touching an Oshios employee, contractor,
vendor or customer-touching may lead to a private discussion with me
in the parking lot, or you may be asked to leave the party with me. In
short: No Touching. (beat) And don't say anything about people who
don't look like you. Thank you.
Music plays as she exits stage
Monica: Notouching!
[end of extract]
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