(OPTION A: Before the piece begins, find a list of the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Take the list, and divide it up – and give each audience a list of names. Instruct the audience members that at the proper time they should be prepared to read their list of names. Given the number of names, this is best done with an audience of 100 or more, which would give 30 names per audience member.)

(OPTION B

: Before the piece begins, make separate copies of the four separate parts in Option B and pass them out to each member of the audience. These should be done randomly, so that the various Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 are scattered throughout the audience, not organized by section. Instruct the audience members that at the proper time they should be prepared to read their particular part, simultaneously with other audience members doing other parts.)

(Lights up. There is only one character on stage; each character enters just prior to their first line, perhaps from the audience or other unusual location.)

ONE: The thing I remember most is the perfect blue sky.

TWO: The cell phones. I remember all the cell phones ringing.

THREE: I thought of my grandfather.

FOUR: And the TV. That’s all there was, even on the music and sports channels. Everyone was watching it.

THREE: All those years he used to talk about Pearl Harbor and what it shame it was that nobody ever remembered the anniversary anymore.

TWO: They just rang and rang. Constantly. All day long.

ONE: It was just one of those beautiful September days, when summer is still hanging on before it gives way to fall.

THREE: I used to think, geez, grandpa’s so old-fashioned. I mean, the Japanese are our friends now. The war was a long time ago. Just get over it.

FOUR: I remember thinking, who could possibly do this? Who could possibly hate us this much?

ONE: And then all flights everywhere were grounded, so there were no more just trails across the sky. None. Not a one.

TWO: I mean, people started worrying about where their friends and family might be, even if they knew they were hundreds of miles away.

FOUR: Nobody got any work done that day. We all just sat there and watched – over and over and over.

THREE: I remember thinking, well, now I know what my grandfather was talking about.

(OPTION A: At this point, each actor takes out his or her list of names of victims and starts reading; the audience should be directed, by gesture, to join in. The result should be a cacophony of voices, each reading a separate list of names. While the reading takes place, the four actors should each light a candle and set it on the floor.)

(OPTON B: At this point, each actor should signal the audience to begin reciting the lines they have been handed at the beginning of the performance. The result should be a cacophony of voices, each reading a separate timeline of events. While the reading takes place, the four actors should each light a candle and set it on the floor.)

(Simultaneously:)

ONE: TWO: THREE: FOUR:

(Flight 11 timeline) (Flight 175 timeline) (Flight 77 timeline) (Flight 93 timeline)

ALL (attempt to do this in unison with everyone in the audience): September 11, 2001.

(One steps forward.)

ONE: The thing I remember most is the perfect blue sky.

(Lights out, abruptly, leaving the four candles burning.)

---------- THE END -------------

Dwayne Yancey

1791 Mount Pleasant Church Road

Fincastle, VA 24090

Days: 540 981 3113

Nights: 540 473 3313

E-mail: dwayneyancey@yahoo.com

THIS IS OPTION B FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS WITH PART ONE:

Your cue line is:

THREE: I remember thinking, well, now I know what my grandfather was talking about.

Maybe I should give him a call.

ONE and AUDIENCE: 7:59 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles. There are 92 people on board.

8:20 a.m. Flight 11’s transponder stops working.

8:21 a.m. Flight attendant Betty Ong calls American Airlines headquarters to report that two flight attendants have been stabbed and one passenger may be dead.

8:24 a.m. Air traffic controllers pick up a transmission from the cockpit: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you’ll be OK. We are returning to the airport."

8:26 a.m. Flight 11, just west of Albany, makes a sudden turn to the south, toward New York City.

8:36 a.m. Flight attendant Madeline Sweeney calls American Airlines headquarters to report the plane has begun a rapid descent.

8:46 a.m. American Airlines flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at a speed of 490 miles per hour.

10:28 a.m. The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

ALL (attempt to do this in unison with everyone in the audience): September 11, 2001.

TWO and AUDIENCE: 8:14 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles. There are 65 people on board.

8:47 a.m. Flight 175’s transponder code changes several times.

8:49 a.m. Flight 175 veers off of its assigned flight path and heads toward New York City.

8:50 a.m. A flight attendant on Flight 175 calls the United Airlines maintenance center and tells the mechanic who answers: "Oh my God. The crew has been killed, a flight attendant has been stabbed. We’ve been hijacked." Then the line goes dead.

8:51 a.m. Air traffic controllers ask Flight 175 to switch its transponder to the proper code. There is no response.

9:02 a.m. Air traffic controllers pick up Flight 175 over New York City, descending rapidly.

9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center at a speed of 500 miles per hour.

9:59 a.m. The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

ALL (attempt to do this in unison with everyone in the audience): September 11, 2001.

THREE and AUDIENCE: 8:20 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles International Airport outside Washington, bound for Los Angeles. There are 64 people on board.

8:56 a.m. Flight 77’s transponder stops working.

8:58 a.m. Somewhere over southern Ohio, Flight 77 makes a U-turn and heads back toward Washington, D.C.

9 a.m. Flight attendant Renee May calls her mother in Las Vegas to report the plane has been hijacked and instructs her to call American Airlines.

N9:25 a.m. Passenger Barbara Olson calls her husband to report the plane has been hijacked by men armed with knives and box cutters.

9:30 a.m. The hijackers tells passengers to phone their families because they are all going to die.

9:32 a.m. Air traffic controllers spot an unidentified aircraft headed toward Washington at a high rate of speed and warn the Secret Service.

9:37 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon.

ALL (attempt to do this in unison with everyone in the audience): September 11, 2001.

FOUR and AUDIENCE: 8:42 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark International Airport, bound for San Francisco. There are 45 people on board.

9:28 a.m. An open microphone in the cockpit of Flight 93 broadcasts the sounds of a scuffle, followed by a man screaming "get out of here, get out of here."

89:35 a.m. Flight 93, travelling south of Cleveland, turns sharply to the southeast and heads toward Washington, D.C.

9:45 a.m. Passenger Todd Beamer tries to call his family but gets a telephone company operator instead. He says the pilot and co-pilot have been killed and the passengers in the rear of the plane have voted to storm the hijackers. The last words heard are Beamer saying: "Are you guys ready? Let’s roll."

9:58 a.m. Armed with food carts and hot water, the passengers on Flight 93 storm the hijackers.

10:01 a.m. The hijackers attempt to knock the attacking passengers off their feet by shaking the plane back and forth.

10:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

ALL (attempt to do this in unison with everyone in the audience): September 11, 2001.