Neville Mur
7355 Idamor Lane
St. Louis, MO 63123-2102
(314) 849-1346 (Direct Line)
nevillemur@att.net (E-Mail)

Playwright’s Biography & Resume

Neville, a transplanted New Yorker has written more than a dozen audience participation comedy murder mysteries all of which have been performed since 1987. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, Actors’ Equity, AFTRA and SAG.

He brings a wide theatrical background to his writing, starting as a drama student attending the famed High-School of Performing Arts in New York City. After high school he joined the Marines. Upon completing his military service he enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and two months after graduation, was hired by an Off-Broadway Equity production.

This led to working in many Off-Broadway theatres, in addition to Summer Stock at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Pennsylvania, Rockland County Playhouse in New York, and the Muny Opera in St. Louis. He performed in the St. Louis production of Shear Madness. As a TV actor he was featured as the “Sweetheart Swindler” in an episode by that same name appearing on Unsolved Mysteries for NBC-TV.

He’s written several plays including a one-act play, The Last Fifth of the 20th Century, which was given a reading by the Women in Theatre/LA in June of 2009, two ten-minute plays, Bar Mitzvah Blues, which was a featured as part of the 2006 Ray J. Flores Festival and Harper’s Elevator which was a finalist in the 2007 Flores Series of readings in New York City. Both plays were finalists in First Run Theatre’s Spectrum Series of short plays given fully staged performances in St. Louis in June 2007. His first full-length play, the romantic comedy, A Marine Caught in Leotards, won the 2006 new play competition at the Brevard Little Theatre (Brevard, NC) and received its world premiere on Brevard’s stage, May 25, 2007.

When not acting, or directing, he continues to write. He worked as a theatre critic for radio station KDHX-FM. His latest full-length play Brooklyn Bagatelle received a reading with Equity actors in St, Louis, and became a finalist in the 76th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, in the Stage Play Script category, the 3rd Annual Great Plains Theatre Conference and the Brevard Little Theatre Annual Competition. He’s been requested to adapt A Marine Caught in Leotards into a screenplay while he continues to work on his next play, Murder on the Mississippi (A Mark Twain Mystery)



A Modern Angel

A Short One-Act Play

By Neville Mur


Copyright © Neville Mur
Dramatists Guild Member
All Right & Privileges


Send all inquires to:

Neville Mur
7355 Idamor Lane
St. Louis, MO 63123-2102

(314) 849-1346 (Direct Line)
nevillemur@att.net


A Modern Angel


Characters


Samantha: Woman, thirty-five to forty-five

Gabe Man, Sixty to Seventy

Time: The Present

Place: An Elevator somewhere

1

SCENE:

(Set Suggesting an Elevator. This can be
Accomplished by three flats or screens: one upstage, one to the right of the upstage flat,
one to the left of the upstage flat. These left
and right flats or screens should come out of
the upstage flat or screen at a 45 degree angle
to give the two characters more room for staging. SAMANTHA, is stylishly dressed in a tailored pants suit. She sits on the floor in
the right coiner of the elevator with a handbag
strapped over her shoulder and an attaché case
next to her. GABE is dressed in old jeans, shabby shoes and a faded old Hawaiian Aloha shirt. He stands in the left corner. After a long pause SAMANTHA speaks.)

SAMANTHA
(Nervously)
How long have we been here?

(GABE speaks and when he does it’s with a very
Pronounced Yiddish accent)

GABE
I don’t know. I haven’t the vaguest idea. You’ve gotta watch, give a look.

(SAMANTHA rises from the floor, looks at her wristwatch,
notices the sweep second hand isn’t moving. She taps the
watch, nothing happens. Now she shakes her wrist, holds
the watch to her ear, still nothing.)

GABE
Problems?

SAMANTHA
It doesn’t seem to be running. It’s frozen at 9:45.

GABE
A.M. or P.M?

SAMANTHA
A.M. or course, what would I be doing in an office building elevator at 9:45 P.M?

2

GABE
Who said it’s an office building?

(SAMANTHA ignores him)

SAMANTHA
God, I hate when this happens. Why now? This is my anniversary with the Company.
(GABE shrugs his shoulders)

SAMANTHA
What could possibly be worse than being stuck in a tiny elevator when you’ve got a very important meeting?

GABE
You’ve been stuck in elevators before?

SAMANTHA
No, never. But I always wondered how I’d react if it ever happened.

GABE
Now you’ll find out.

SAMANTHA
(Getting very impatient)
Very funny. (Pause) Why are we stuck? Can’t we just push the alarm button or use the emergency phone … call for help … anything to get us out of here!

GABE
There’s no alarm button, there’s no emergency phone.

SAMANTHA
That’s ridiculous … what kind of cockamamie elevator is this? I’ve never heard of such a thing. All elevators come equipped with emergency buttons and phones.

GABE
Apparently – not this one.

SAMANTHA
I don’t remember getting in this elevator … I have no recollection of walking into this office building … that this elevator must be in … in fact, I don’t remember anything.,

GABE
Sounds like amnesia.

3

SAMANTHA
No, I know who I am. My name is Samantha Bradley, I’m thirty … never mind the age business. How did I get here? (Pause) Why me …Why Now!

(She starts banging her head against the wall)

GABE
Don’t do that, you’ll damage the bulkhead.

SAMANTHA
Bulkhead?!

GABE
Forgive me … I like to speak in nautical terms. It comes from being in the Marines during the big war.

SAMANTHA
You couldn’t have been in World War II, you’d be in your eighties by now.

GABE
Who said it was World War II?

SAMANTHA
But, you said the big war.

GABE
Darling, whether it’s World War II, Korea, Viet Nam or this desert mishegas, when you’re in it, and they’re shooting at you –personally – believe me it’s the big war.

SAMANTHA
You’re talking … you’re speaking … but you’re not making any sense.

GABE
Who said it’s supposed to make sense?

SAMANTHA
(Changing the subject)
As long as we’re here … stuck like this, we might as well make the best of it, get acquainted. I’ll start first my name is Samantha …

GABE
Bradley, yeah you told me already.

SAMANTHA
And you are …?

4

GABE
Just call me Gabe or Ray, whichever you prefer, it really doesn’t matter.

SAMANTHA
You have two first names?

GABE
My name is Gabriel Raphael or is it Raphael Gabriel? It’s been such a long, long time I’m never quite sure.

SAMANTHA
You don’t know your own name?

GABE
In the grand scheme of things it’s really not that important.

SAMANTHA
Certainly it’s important. How can you say that? It says who you are, it’s why you’re here, it’s your identity. It supports your purpose in life.

GABE
My, aren’t we getting philosophical.

SAMANTHA
For instance, what line of work are you in Mr. Gabriel Raphael or Raphael Gabriel, what ever your name is.

GABE
You could say I’m a … collector.

SAMANTHA
Judging by your appearance I’d say you’re in the salvage business.

GABE
A euphemism for junk dealer, see Miss Smarty Pants I could be an appraiser

SAMANTHA
The appraisers I know all dress with a little more taste.

GABE
Another euphemism for: conservative, stuffy, staid, stodgy, run-of-the-mill.

SAMANTHA
What exactly do you collect or appraise?

5

GABE
People, mainly.

(Awkward pause)

SAMANTHA
What the hell are we doing here … what’s going on? (Pause) I remember getting into my car … rushing through three yellow lights to get here … suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw this enormous garbage truck bearing down on me … then a crash … then nothing.

GABE
Now you remember?

SAMANTHA
How did I wind up in an elevator stranded between …?

GABE
Topside and below decks.

SAMANTHA
We’re on a ship?

GABE
There I go again using those nautical analogies. We could be on a typical New York elevator … always breaking down, but I think you get the drill.


(Another awkward pause, then revelation)

SAMANTHA
I’m no longer alive.

GABE
BINGO!!

SAMANTHA
Then you’re the Archangel Gabriel or Raphael. Which is it?

GABE
Like everyone else these days we’re downsizing. Since I’m doing the work of two, I might as well be both.

SAMANTHA
And topside is …? And below decks are …?

6

GABE
Exactly.

SAMANTHA
This is all so bizarre. How can you be Gabriel or Raphael … you’re Jewish. Whoever heard of a Jewish Angel.? I’m not Jewish, I’m Catholic. This must be some kind of mistake.

GABE
Where is it written that an angel has to be a goy?

SAMANTHA
But we never heard of Jewish Angels in Catechism class.

GABE
Was that my fault? Believe me Gabriel and Raphael are featured in the Old Testament along with Michael and Uriel. Hey, we even get better billing in the New Testament. If you look in those pages you’ll see us mentioned many times.

SAMANTHA
Who reads the Bible in Catholic School?

GABE
You don’t think Jews have Angels?

SAMANTHA
I’m not doubting your word.

GABE
I’m telling you the truth. Besides I can’t lie. I’d be breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

SAMANTHA
Do Jews follow the Ten Commandments too?

GABE
What do you think Moses last name was … O’Brien?

SAMANTHA
This can’t be happening to me.

GABE
The first stage of denial.

7

SAMANTHA
But I’m too young. I’m breaking the glass ceiling in my field, the first woman to ever do it. This is my shot!

GABE
Shot, smot, it ain’t happening darling, get use to it.

SAMANTHA
So now what happens?

(GABE picks up a clipboard from the floor)

GABE
I have to do an appraisal to see if you go up (Points index finger up) or down (turns thumb down to the floor) this elevator ain’t movin’ until we do the paperwork. If we go up I’ll personally escort you to the Head Gatekeeper. If we go down I’ll let you off at the sub-basement level, then I’m gone.

SAMANTHA
So in other words we’re stuck in Limbo.

GABE
There are no other words, those are the exact words.

SAMANTHA
I thought you had all that information on a giant ledger up there … somewhere.

GABE
You’ve been seeing too many Movies. Do I look like Mr. Jordan to you? This is not a scene from Heaven Can Wait.

SAMANTHA
This is all so surreal … I must be in some sort of crazy dream.

GABE
The second stage of denial.

SAMANTHA
Stop saying that!

GABE
Tell you what, how’s this for reality?

(GABE pinches her arm)

8

SAMANTHA
Ouch! That hurts.

GABE
Is that real enough, now you know you’re not dreaming.

SAMANTHA
But if I’m dead how can I feel that pinch?

GABE
You’re body is dead, not your soul.

SAMANTHA
So that’s what this is about?

GABE
Yeah, it’s called soul searching. That’s what we do with this questionnaire I have to fill out.

SAMANTHA
You mean I have to justify my Life?

GABE
Of course, how else do you expect to get … topside.

SAMANTHA
Before we proceed further I have to tell you this is not at all what I expected. I never envisioned being on an elevator with a shabbily dressed Jewish Junk Dealer.

GABE
(Laughs)
What? You envisioned someone in a long flowing white gown, spouting wings? As I said you’ve been watching too many Movies. Who should I look like, Henry Travers?

SAMANTHA
Who!!?

GABE
The character actor with the bushy eyebrows who played Clarence the Angel in It’s A Wonderful Life, also a goy. Samantha, has it occurred to you why you’re on an elevator and nowhere else.

SAMANTHA
I suffer from severe claustrophobia I fear being confined to small spaces, particularly elevators. I barely tolerate it, but I have to in my business.

9

GABE
Which is?

SAMANTHA
I’d rather not say.

GABE
I know what you did, but you have to tell me why you got into that kind of work.

SAMANTHA
I have no regrets. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

GABE
Don’t be flippant.

SAMANTHA
I was recruited straight out of college.

GABE
You couldn’t have chosen another vocation?

SAMANTHA
The money was good, the benefits outstanding; besides I was serving my Country.

GABE
Weren’t there other ways to achieve that?

SAMANTHA
There were, but this sounded so much more adventurous.

GABE
Going into the military, serving your country, that’s an adventure, but not this kind of spook work, why?

SAMANTHA
I wanted to show them all that a woman was capable of doing these things. That it could be accomplished unemotionally and detached. Previously only men had performed these contracts.

GABE
And you were good at it, weren’t you?

SAMANTHA
Very good, the best in my field, that’s what this appointment was about.

10

GABE
You were being kicked upstairs.

SAMANTHA
Yes, I’m about to head up a new unit consisting of very attractive women who could be trained like me. I would be the template for all future assignments.

GABE
Until now.

SAMANTHA
Until now.

GABE
Didn’t you think there’d ever be a day of reckoning?

SAMANTHA
Occasionally I had twinges of guilt, but I pushed them aside. I was a professional doing a professional job.

GABE
It’s time to quit stalling and fill out this questionnaire.

SAMANTHA
Right here, right now?

GABE
Until we do this elevator ain’t movin’.

SAMANTHA
Alright, how do I begin?

GABE
By that one thing, telling the truth.

BLACKOUT