Orpheus Descending

We did the show in the field
After the crazy girl
The Artistic Director was fooling around with
Burned down the abandoned warehouse
We were doing American Dream in

It was a shitty show anyway
I never liked Albee
And we did him eight thousand times
Or at least, it seemed like it

I always liked straight-forward theater
That's why I suggested we do Tennessee Williams

It's still fucked up
But at least you can follow the story

Beau, the Artistic Director
He liked the idea
And we did it in this field

I'm not kidding

This fucking field
Out in the middle of nowhere

There were mosquitoes
There was cowshit
Funnily enough, there were no cows

But we told ourselves
It was cowshit
Because otherwise it was something else

You see where I'm going with this?

We all told ourselves this was real theater
This was theater under the stars
We were carrying on a great tradition
Like the Greeks
Doing this great epic American tragedy

Orpheus Descending

And we got a good crowd
Even out there in the field
Because by then we'd established a following

And by a following
I mean--People thought we were fucking nuts
Which we weren't

We were just drunk a lot
And we found stupid shit funny

So we're out there
In the field
Doing Tennessee Williams
While the audience sits on blankets
And gets eaten alive by the bugs

One night these two kids started screwing on a towel
Right in the front row

I asked Beau if we should stop the show
And he said--Which one?

Anyway, Beau's fiance was in the show
Because she was a part of the acting company
And she was about seven months pregnant with his kid
Except, well, never mind
Let's just say she was pregnant with his kid
And she was only seven months in
And she was in the show
And you see where I'm going with this?

She went into labor
Right there in the field

And the show stops
And Beau's saying--Is there a doctor here?

And, I mean, we're out in a field
You'd be better off asking for a tractor

But one of the other girls in the company
Used to be a nurse
And she told Beau there was no time
To get his wife to a hospital
So she was going to have to deliver right there

And Beau's wife starts screaming that she wants a priest to marry them
Because she doesn't want to have a baby out of wedlock
Even though, the kid was conceived out of wedlock
So what's the difference?

Turns out there was a priest there
Go figure
And he married them
Right as the baby was coming out

This was all while the audience was still sitting there
Waiting for, I don't know what
The baby
Or for us to finish the show
So they could see what happens

When they heard that baby cry
They applauded

The first sound that kid ever heard
Was applause

And there we were
All of us
This acting company
Standing around
Crying our eyes out
Because...

Because it was like this kid belonged to all of us

That was the day we became a family
And we stayed a family
Always
From that point on

I left the company a few seasons ago
And two days later I died of a heart attack

The last thing I saw before I died
Was that sky full of stars
Above that field
The night Beau's wife gave birth
Halfway through the second act of Orpheus Descending

That was the most perfect moment
Of my life

And the kid?

They named him Tennessee

I guess it just seemed
Appropriate