# Street Scene (1929)/Act I

Layout 2
Setting by Jo Mielziner
ACT ONE
SCENE: The exterior of a “walk-up” apartment-house, in a mean quarter of New York. It is of ugly brownstone and was built in the ’90’s. Between the pavement of large, gray flagstones and the front of the house, is a deep and narrow “area-way,” guarded by a rusted, ornamental iron railing. At the right, a steep flight of rotting wooden steps leads down to the cellar and to the janitor’s apartment, the windows of which are just visible above the street level. Spanning the area-way is a “stoop” of four shallow, stone steps, fllanked on either side by a curved stone balustrade. Beyond the broad fourth step, another step leads to the double wooden outer doors of the house; and as these are open, the vestibule, and the wide, heavy glass-panelled entrance door beyond are visible. Above the outer doors, is a glass fanlight, upon which appears the half-obliterated house number. At the left side of the doorway is a sign which reads: “Flat To-Let. 6 Rooms. Steam Heat.”
On either side of the stoop, are the two narrow windows of the ground-floor apartments. In one of the windows, at the left, is a sign bearing the legend: “Prof. Filippo Fiorentino. Music for all occasions. ​Also instruction.” Above, are the six narrow windows of the first-floor apartments, and above that, the stone sills of the second-floor windows can just be seen.
To the left of the house, part of the adjoining building is visible: the motor entrance to a storage warehouse. Crude boarding across the large driveway and rough planks across the sidewalk and curb indicate that an excavation is in progress. On the boarding is painted in rude lettering: “Keep Out”; and at the curb is a small barrel bearing a sign with the words: “Street Closed.” To the wall of the warehouse is affixed a brass plate, bearing the name: “Patrick Mulcahy Storage Warehouse Co. Inc.”
To the right of the house, scaffolding and a wooden sidewalk indicate that the house next door is being demolished. On the scaffolding is a large, wooden sign reading: “Manhattan House-Wrecking Corp.”
In the close foreground, below the level of the curb, is a mere suggestion of the street.
AT RISE: The house is seen in the white glare of an arc-light, which is just off-stage to the right. The windows in the janitor’s apartment are lighted, as are also those of the ground-floor apartment, at the right, and the two windows at the extreme left of the first-floor. A dim, red light is affixed to the boarding of the excavation at the left.
In the lighted ground-floor window, at the right of the doorway, Abraham Kaplan is seated, in a rocking- ​chair, reading a Yiddish newspaper. He is a Russian Jew, well past sixty: clean-shaven, thick gray hair, hooked nose, horn-rimmed spectacles. To the left of the doorway, Greta Fiorentino is leaning out of the window. She is forty, blonde, ruddy-faced and stout. She wears a wrapper of light, flowered material and a large pillow supports her left arm and her ample, un-corseted bosom. In her right hand is a folding paper fan, which she waves languidly.
Throughout the act and, indeed, throughout the play, there is constant noise. The noises of the city rise, fall, intermingle: the distant roar of “L” trains, automobile sirens and the whistles of boats on the river; the rattle of trucks and the indeterminate clanking of metals; fire-engines, ambulances, musical instruments, a radio, dogs barking and human voices calling, quarrelling and screaming with laughter. The noises are subdued and in the background, but they never wholly cease.
A moment after the rise of the curtain, an elderly man enters at the right and walks into the house, exchanging a nod with Mrs. Fiorentino. A Man, munching peanuts, crosses the stage from left to right.
A Voice
[Off-stage]: Char-lie! [Emma Jones appears at the left. She is middle-aged, tall and rather bony. She carries a small parcel.] ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/20 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/21 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/22 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/23 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/24 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/25 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/26 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/27 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/28 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/29 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/30 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/31 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/32 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/33 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/34 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/35 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/36 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/37 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/38 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/39 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/40 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/41 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/42 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/43 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/44 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/45 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/46 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/47 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/48 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/49 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/50 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/51 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/52 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/53 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/54 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/55 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/56 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/57 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/58 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/59 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/60 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/61 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/62 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/63 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/64 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/65 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/66 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/67 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/68 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/69 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/70 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/71 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/72 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/73 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/74 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/75 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/76 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/77 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/78 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/79 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/80 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/81 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/82 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/83 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/84 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/85 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/86 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/87 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/88 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/89 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/90 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/91 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/92 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/93 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/94 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/95 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/96 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/97 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/98 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/99 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/100 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/101 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/102 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/103 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/104 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/105 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/106 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/107 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/108 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/109 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/110 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/111 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/112 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/113 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/114 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/115 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/116 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/117 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/118 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/119 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/120 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/121 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/122 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/123 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/124 ​Page:Street Scene (1929).djvu/125