SYNOPSIS
Revised synopsis
The full cast fills the stage with the idea that heroism isn’t reserved for the extraordinary — that in any ordinary moment, anyone might be called on (You Might Be a Hero).
Two teenagers, Beano and Jackie, flank a grade-school kid known only as Little Brother, who is laboring over a school report on “hero.” Mills wanders in with plenty to say on the subject, all of it sandwich-related. Beano’s frame of reference stops at Marvel. Then Gaston arrives, immaculately dressed, trailed by Susu, who hovers at the edge of the scene like hired help. On command, Susu produces the dictionary definition of “hero,” which Gaston instantly applies to himself. Little Brother counters with a second definition — one that turns on the outstanding qualities of the person, not the packaging.
Rudy joins them and is caught up on the debate. Gaston insists he looks like a hero, and the group takes the whole notion apart: what a hero wears, what a hero eats, what a hero is supposed to look like at all (What Does a Hero Wear?).
So could any of them be one? Jackie sets the terms: you need a situation that demands a hero, something real to risk, and the nerve to stay brave longer than anyone else would. Rudy cuts the philosophy short — they’re here to study for a math test. Gaston suggests, half-jokingly, that they cheat instead.
Rudy invokes the pledge they all signed in fourth grade: never cheat again. Someone notices that Cat is missing — he’s meeting with the math teacher, Mr. Lattery, right now. The suggestion comes around again. And as the material stops making sense, the joke starts to sound like a plan. Why do they need any of this anyway?
Cat arrives with a copy of the test, found on the floor of Lattery’s room. Rudy tells him to take it back. The others push: if they only use it to learn the material, where’s the harm? Cat argues they’ve spent their whole lives playing by rules the rest of the world ignores. And the stakes are real — summer school, boarding school applications, scholarships.
They remember fourth grade, and the classmate who cheated on a spelling test, and how badly it wounded a teacher they loved — enough to make them swear it off forever (Dear Mrs. Upson). But these are different times, the group argues. And the classmate who cheated was Rudy.
Cheating, someone points out, is simply how the world runs now: supplies that walk out of the office, expenses that appear on tax returns. Only Rudy and Jackie hold out. But Rudy knows how hard math is for Jackie, and how much Jackie needs an A in the one subject that has never come easily (I Can, I Will).
The next morning, the group waits on Rudy’s decision (What About Rudy?). Little Brother announces he’s writing his report on the mythological Hero — who was, contrary to everything anyone assumed, a woman.
Jackie turns the pressure up. Rudy asks what happened to make him so cynical, and Jackie answers with the moment his life bent that direction, when he was far too young for it (Six). Then Rudy produces two pieces of paper: the answer key, and the fourth-grade pledge Little Brother has turned up. He tears one of them in half.
You Might Find A Hero
What Does A Hero Wear?
Dear Mrs. Upson
What About Rudy?
Hero and Leander
Easy
Six