Dear Evan Hansen
Page 7
I lay there on the ground and then—
(He turns to the next card.)
Good morning, students and faculty, I would um . . .
(A shiver of panic goes down his spine as he realizes that he has lost his place in the note cards.
He tries frantically to put them back in order.)
Um . . . um . . . um . . .
(Suddenly, a card drops from his hands, fluttering slowly to the ground.
He crouches to pick it up.
There on the ground, Evan suddenly stops.
He stares out past the lights at the faces in the auditorium.
A moment of pure, unadulterated terror grips him.
Everything is telling him to run away.
A long beat.
He looks at the tie.
He makes a decision.
Slowly, he stands, putting away the cards entirely.
He begins once again, differently.)
YOU WILL BE FOUND
EVAN:
Have you ever felt like nobody was there?
Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?
Have you ever felt like you could disappear?
Like you could fall, and no one would hear
(The story he has told so many times before becomes, now, suddenly, a genuine discovery.)
But see, the thing is, when I looked up . . . Connor was there. That’s the gift that he gave me. To show me that I wasn’t alone. To show me that I matter. That everybody does. That’s the gift that he gave all of us. I just wish . . . I wish we could have given that to him.
So, let that lonely feeling wash away
Maybe there’s a reason to believe you’ll be okay
’Cause when you don’t feel strong enough to stand
You can reach, reach out your hand
And oh, someone will come runnin’
And I know they’ll take you home
Even when the dark comes crashin’ through
When you need a friend to carry you
And when you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streamin’ in
’Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
Lift your head and look around
You will be found
You will be found
You will be found
You will be found
You will be found
(Suddenly, onstage, the screens begin to hum and buzz to life. Alana enters.)
ALANA: Have you seen this? Someone put a video of your speech online.
EVAN: My speech?
(Jared enters.)
ALANA: People started sharing it, I guess, and now . . . I mean, Connor is / everywhere.
JARED: / Your speech is everywhere. This morning, The Connor Project page, it only had fifty-six people following it.
(Cynthia enters.)
EVAN: How many does it have now?
JARED: Four thousand, / five hundred, eighty-two.
CYNTHIA: / Sixteen thousand, two hundred, and thirty-nine.
EVAN: I don’t understand. What happened?
CYNTHIA: You did.
(The image of Evan’s speech begins to proliferate, spreading across screens, one, two, many Evan Hansens.
Evan, Cynthia, Alana, and Jared stand among the images, awash in the images, engulfed by them.
The space slowly fills with people’s posts, a Virtual Community.
The Voices overlap and each of the individual threads becomes part of the larger stream of messages and one by one they fuse with the stream until there is no separation between them.
A dreamlike feel, like we have fallen into some kind of collective hallucination.
Maybe this is what life after death feels like or maybe what it would feel like to fall into the internet.)
ALANA:
There’s a place where we don’t have to feel unknown
(Separate Voices, one at a time, emerge to speak, to commune with one another.)
VOICES:
Oh my God
Everybody needs to see this
ALANA:
And ev’ry time that you call out you’re a little less alone
VOICES:
I can’t stop watching this video
Seventeen years old
JARED:
If you only say the word
VOICES:
Take five minutes, this will make your day
ALANA/JARED:
From across the silence your voice is heard
VOICES:
VIRTUAL VOICES/
Share it with the people
CYN/Z/A/J/L:
you love
Oh
Re-post
The world needs to hear this
A beautiful tribute
Favorite
I know someone who really
needed to hear this today, so
thank you, Evan Hansen,
Oh
for doing what you’re doing
I never met you, Connor.
But coming on here, reading
A/CYN/L/VV:
everyone’s posts . . .
Oh
Z/VV/J:
It’s so easy to feel alone,
Oh
but Evan is exactly right,
we’re not alone
Someone will
None of us
Come runnin’
We’re not alone
None of us
None of us
None of us is alone
A/CYN/L:
Z/J:
Like
Oh
Oh
Forward
Share.
Especially now, with everything you hear in the news . . .
Like
Share
Re-post
Forward
Oh
Thank you, Evan Hansen,
Someone will
for giving us a space
Come runnin’
to remember Connor
To be together
Oh
To find each other
VOICES:
Z/J:
Share
Sending prayers
Someone will
from Michigan
Come runnin’
Vermont
Tampa
J:
Z/L:
Sacramento
To take
You home
To take
Thank you
You home
Evan Hansen
A/CYN:
Re-post
Someone will
Come runnin’
To take
Thank you, Evan
You home
Watch until the end
Thank you, Evan Hansen
This video is everything right now
Thank you, Evan
All the feels.
This is about community
The meaning of friendship
VOICES:
J:
Z/L:
A/CYN:
Thank you
Thanks to Evan
To take
You home
To take
Evan Hansen
Oh
You home
Home
Thank you, Evan Hansen
ALL:
Even when the dark comes crashin’ through
When you need a friend to carry you
When you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streamin’ in
’Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
If you only look around
You will be found
H/A:
You will be found
CYN/Z/VV/L:
J:
You will be found
You will be found
H/A:
You will be found
You will be found
(Photographs of Connor begin to appear on the screens, mingling with the images of Evan.)
ALL (Except for Evan and Larry):
Out of the shadows
The morning is breaking
And all is new
All is new
ALL (With Evan):
It’s filling up the empty
And suddenly I see
That all is new
All is new
(As the darkness lifts, something inside of Larry shifts.
He stares up at the screens, images of his son surrounding him.
He turns to Cynthia.
He can no longer hold back his emotion.
In an instant, all of his defenses, all of the hurt and anger calcified over years, decades—all of it shatters at once, irrevocably.
He breaks down.
Cynthia holds him.
They stand there, surrounded by light, holding one another.)
A/J:
You are not alone
A/J/Z/CON:
You are not alone
A/J/Z/CON/CYN/L/H/VV:
You are not alone
You are not alone
A/Z/VV/CON/L:
You are not alone
CYN/VV/J/H:
You are not alone
A/Z/VV/CON/L:
You are not alone
You are not alone
You are not
A/Z/CON/L:
CYN/H:
J:
You are
You are
You are not
Not alone
Not alone
You are
Not alone
(Zoe sits on Connor’s bed, staring at a laptop screen, her expression unreadable, as the screens around her continue to swirl and pulse.)
Z:
Even when the dark comes crashin’ through
When you need someone to carry you
When you’re broken on the ground
VV/A/H/CYN/J/CON/L:
You will be found
E/Z:
So let the sun come streamin’ in
ALL:
’Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
VV/A/CYN/J/CON/L/H:
If you only look around
A/CYN/CON/H:
Z/E/L:
You will be found
Even when the dark
Comes crashin’ through
A/VV/CYN/CON/H/L:
You will be found
When you need someone
To carry you
VV/A/H/CYN/J/L/CON:
You will be found
You will be found
(The music cuts out, sharply.
Evan sits beside Zoe on Connor’s bed.)
ZOE: Everything you said in your speech. Everything you’ve done. You don’t know how much . . . what you’ve given . . . all of us, everyone. My family. Me.
EVAN (Uncomfortable): No, I . . . this is . . .
ZOE: You’ve given me my brother back.
(Without warning, she kisses him.
Stunned, he pulls away for a moment.
He knows that this is the point of no return.
There is no going back.
He makes a decision.
He kisses her.
They kiss.
They are reeling.
The world is reeling.)
ACT TWO
ONE
Once again, we hear the murmuring of voices, as the house lights slowly fade.
Once again, the screens buzz with text.
All of it now about Connor Murphy.
His absence fills the world.
The murmuring grows louder and louder when suddenly everything goes black.
Lights snap up on Alana in her bedroom, speaking into her laptop screen.
ALANA: Hey everybody, it’s me Alana, Connor Project co-president, associate treasurer, media consultant, chief technology officer, and assistant creative director slash public policy director for creative public policy initiatives for The Connor Project.
(Lights find Evan in his bedroom, speaking into his laptop screen, something unmistakably different about him, a newfound confidence.)
EVAN: Hi I’m Evan. I’m co-president of The Connor Project.
(Pause.)
ALANA: Wish I could see all of your amazing faces out there.
EVAN: Hope you’re having an amazing day.
ALANA: Now, I know a lot of you guys have seen the inspirational videos on our website.
EVAN: Thank you for checking out the awesome new videos we put up this week with Mr. and Mrs. Murphy, Connor’s sister, / Zoe . . .
ALANA: / . . . and Connor’s best friend, my co-president: Evan Hansen.
EVAN: As you know, Connor’s favorite place in the entire world was the incredible Autumn Smile Apple Orchard.
ALANA: The stunning Autumn Smile Apple Orchard, which tragically closed seven years ago.
(Alana posts a current photo of the abandoned orchard, an empty overgrown field dotted with tree stumps, a large FOR SALE sign nailed to a rotting fence.)
EVAN: Connor loved trees.
ALANA: Connor was obsessed with trees. He and Evan used to spend hours together sitting at the orchard, looking at the trees . . . being with the trees, sharing fun facts they knew about the trees.
EVAN: But the one thing Connor wished more than anything was that some day the orchard would be brought back to life.
ALANA: Which is where you come in . . .
(Alana posts a digital architectural rendering of a blossoming orchard nestled in an idyllic park.)
EVAN: Because today we are starting a major / Kickstarter campaign.
ALANA: / One of the most ambitious Kickstarter initiatives since the internet was first created to raise—gulp—fifty thousand dollars . . .
EVAN: . . . fifty thousand dollars in three weeks.
ALANA: It’s a lot of money, I know. But it’s also a lot of amazing. So let’s do it, guys, and . . .
ALANA/EVAN: . . . make The Connor Murphy Memorial Orchard not just a dream . . .
EVAN: . . . but / a rea—
ALANA (Louder than Evan): / But a reality.
TWO
A spotlight.
Connor steps into it.
SINCERELY, ME (REPRISE)
CONNOR:
Dear Evan Hansen:
Life at rehab is all right
I like the yoga
And the sharing circles ev’ry night
But, dude, these stories sometimes scare you half to death
So many people end up sucking dick for meth
(Lights snap up on Jared, elsewhere, typing on his computer, enjoying himself immensely.
Evan, sitting at his laptop in his bedroom, shakes his head, chagrined.)
Oh, and one more thing
That’s worth mentioning . . .
That guy from our school, Jared Kleinman?
Yes, the insanely cool Jared Kleinman!
I think we should start
And make him a part
Of this awesome friendship we have
(Jared shuts his laptop and joins Connor.)
CONNOR/JARED:
A part of this awesome friendship we have
CONNOR:
This adorably heartwarming friendship we have
JARED:
Hey!
CONNOR:
Hey!
CONNOR/JARED:
Hey hey hey hey!
’Cause all that it takes is a little—
(Unable to take any more of this, Evan stands, and the music cuts out.)