Transcripts:Episode 1

THE ADAM HENDRICKSON SHOW

**TAHS 101 THIS IS YOUR SCHOOL PART 1**

Written by

Adam Hendrickson

THE STORYTELLER:

Hello there! You’re about to watch The Adam Hendrickson Show. My name is The Storyteller, and I’ll be popping in and out here and there to help get this story told. Our protagonist, Adam, is a very bright individual who is obsessed with music. He strives to be one of the greatest music composers who’s ever lived! Only, he doesn’t know it yet. This is that story. The story of the creation of a young musician finding himself, and in that, his voice! You’ve seen that not only is Adam the main character of this show but also the creator of this show! So, you may be wondering, where do I, The Storyteller, fit in? Well, it would be no fun to answer that right here in the opening monologue

*m1*

THE STORYTELLER:

\*sung\*

Come in, come in! To a story, I’ve designed! The worlds about to change now. So don’t just stay outside!

*Cut back quickly and follow him as he walks.*

Come in! Come in! The means and ways are not of concern! We’ll start with new beginnings and watch the future burn, come in!

*Mirror the original come in video possibly here with the adam hendrickson show text.* *Four Storytellers appear holding big cards out horizontally and they flip up with the specific words the storyteller sings.*

Come one! Come all! Make yourself at home. I insist. And hear a tale of love and hate and pain and joy with minor twists of which I’ll tell with upbeat manner and style. Take my invitation, I’ll make it worth your while!

*We enter The Storytellers invitation, as a b&w negative version of him comes up and snaps colors into the scene. We are now at Whitelake High*

And now, you’re here at Whitelake high school with me! There’s not a place I’d rather be so have a seat and soon you’ll see this school’s a stage. A perfect place to tell my tale. For now it seems extraneous. But watch as the story’s unveiled!

*Meanwhile, we back up through a long hallway, passing many doors and other things. After coming out of an exit, we have a quick sequence here where we find Adam, and follow him inside Whitelake for the first time. He walks into the auditorium and sits down. Pan over to the stage, where The Storyteller finishes the song.*

This is the show! It’s a story I’ve designed! Each twist and turn writ carefully each chapter set in ordered lines, come in! Come in! You don’t know what you’ll find. I am The Storyteller. Get used to this odd state of mind.

*He runs up to the soundbooth, and we cut back to Adam standing in the auditorium.*

m2

*He spends a few seconds looking around. He sits down in an empty seat in an empty section. He takes out his notebook and for a quick moment we see a bunch of sheet music.*

ADAM:

Arjun! Arjun, there you are. Where’s everybody else?

ARJUN:

I don’t know, they probably got LOST. Speaking of which, I’m shocked you of all people found your way here before the bell rang, What’s up dude? Can you believe it? It’s the first day of school!

ADAM:

Well, I’ll tell you what I truly can’t believe.

*Adam looks up.*

Look at this place! This auditorium is absolutely incredible!

ARJUN:

I know. What kind of a high school, a public school for that matter, puts so much into something like their auditorium?

*Tyler enters from the left*

TYLER:

Did somebody say “Gang”?

ADAM:

Nope!

TYLER:

Yo, Arjun, Adam!

ARJUN & ADAM:

Yo, Tyler!

TYLER:

Alright dude, fill me in. What’s going on?

*James enters from the opposite side.*

JAMES:

Yeah, fill us in. It’s us! The Gang!

ADAM (quickly):

Here we are! The Gang!

TYLER (quickly):

That’s us!

ARJUN (quickly):

That is ourselves, obviously!

*Scott enters the scene.*

SCOTT:

And here I am! Scott!

ADAM:

The final one.

JAMES:

Now the whole gang is here.

m3

DR HOFFMAN:

Students! Quiet down, quiet down please!

I need you to pay attention for just a moment!

*Chaos then continues to ensue*

DR  HOFFMAN:

Students, Please! \*reverb\*

*The loud yell finally quiets the students.*

DR HOFFMAN:

Finally. Now, for those of you who don’t know me, I am Dr. Hoffman, the principal of this fine establishment. That means I am your teachers boss, which by extension makes me your boss. And that means I expect more respect from you people going forward. Got it?

*Beat*

Now, I need you all to figure out where you’re going, okay? I have a wonderful group of upperclassmen who will be showing you around the school.

*Beat*

You all better be listening! Because I’m not going to repeat myself.

m4

*Break to The Gang, who conversates in a hushed whisper.*

TYLER:

Guys, we almost forgot! We got our schedules! Break em out boys

*The Gang excitedly takes out their schedules and swaps them among each other.*

JAMES:

Tyler! Photography 1 is you and me, my guy.

SCOTT:

Huh, I guess I’ll only get to see you guys at lunch on.. \*looks at schedule again\* Tuesdays and Thursdays. My Counselor didn’t try to fix my schedule at all.

ARJUN:

Don’t worry Scott. We’ll all just stop being friends with you at the same time. It’ll be like... ripping off a bandaid. Except on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

*The instructions blare over the dialogue as another teacher marches on stage to finally console the disrespectful students. He is the same teacher that Adam has for Geometry.*

TEACHER:

Everyone! SHUT UP! Please make your way to your specified groups so we may begin the tour! You all still have classes!

JAMES:

Alright, let’s get moving. Hurry up Scott. I want to get to the part where I never see you again.

*Adam and The Gang walk out of the auditorium. They have a small conversation while walking out and into the hallway.*

ADAM \*to Arjun\*:

*Running his finger down the schedule*

So I have English, then we both have Geometry and Lunch, and then I’ve got keyboarding in the library. Wait a minute. Keyboarding? What the heck? Do they mean like.. Computer keyboard typing?

ARJUN:

No, they mean like on a piano.

ADAM:

Really?!

ARJUN:

No, you dunce! They mean computer keyboard typing! What else could it be?

ADAM:

Oh man.

*The Gang enters the hallway, where they find many upperclassmen standing under signs that indicate letters of the alphabet. Ex. A-D, E-G, H-K, etc.*

TYLER:

Guys, I’m noticing something. They’re playing this whole “find your group” game using the good ol’ honor system.

JAMES:

Oh, Tyler. You’re not suggesting we all stick together regardless of what group we truly belong in?

SCOTT:

By george, I think he might be!

ADAM:

Wait, what’s going on?

*The rest of The Gang don’t hear Adam.*

JAMES:

Let’s go over to this group. There’s not too many people there.

ADAM:

I mean, I’m just gonna follow you guys anyway.

*The Gang walks over to the sign “Q-U”. A senior girl appears to be the leader of this group.*

*m5*

AMBER:

Gather around guys, make sure you can hear me

*The students shuffle closer to Amber.*

AMBER:

Alright, that’s better. Happy first day of high school you guys! My name is Amber, and I’m gonna show you guys around. We’re gonna go quickly, so try and keep up. And please, if any of you are worried or are curious about something, feel free to talk to me, ask me any questions! I’m here to help.

ADAM:

Oh, I get it. We’re getting a tour of the school. I was all worried there for a second.

m6

ARJUN (to Adam, snickering):

I’m more worried about that summer reading project than anything else.

ADAM:

The what now?

AMBER:

Alright, hurry along everybody, we’ve got an entire school to see

*We now see the group exit into another hall, lined with plaques and trophies.*

AMBER:

Through this way I’ll show you to the lunchroom, but as we pass, you’ll see all sorts of awards given to Whitelake Falcons of the past.

TYLER:

My older sister told me something about how, like a few years ago, all the sports teams were laughable. Like every single student here was just non athletic.

ADAM:

I see a lot of music awards, though.

AMBER:

Yeah, that’s a really big part of Whitelake High and what we do. The theater department is enormous, it’s kinda bizarre actually. I bet you took notice of our auditorium.

ADAM:

There must be some story behind that.

AMBER:

Well, it’s really thanks to our principal, Dr. Hoffman. Her first year, she donated an insane amount of money to the school to build that thing. Now you know!

*Cut to Adam & Arjun, pan to the Commons.*

AMBER:

This is our lunchroom.  We call it “The Commons”.

SCOTT:

No wonder I don’t have lunch with anybody I know. This room is way too small to be a lunchroom.

AMBER:

It actually used to be quite a bit bigger. When they built the auditorium they sacrificed a good chunk of this room. Most kids just go there to eat, if there’s no tables left

*Cut to The Storyteller, sitting in the auditorium. He holds up a bagged lunch. The group cuts between various rooms*.

AMBER:

Main office, Main entrance, Gym, Study center, library!

ADAM (to Arjun):

Hey, weren’t we supposed to get textbooks or something?

ARJUN:

Dude, we got textbooks 3 weeks ago.

ADAM:

You’re joking.

ARJUN:

Never been more serious!

AMBER:

Alright, let me show you guys upstairs.

(from top of stairs)

This is Stairwell E, The quickest stairs.

(now in the hall)

This school has 5 sets of stairs, A through E. They wanted me to tell you guys that Stairwell C is now “Down only”.

JAMES (to Arjun):

*Down only* stairs? What, do they have an escalator or something?

ARJUN:

How could you even realistically enforce a rule like that?

*James and Arjun exchange a glance, and look back at the stairs. Quick beat. The group is now upstairs, following Amber down a long hallway adorned with tall windows and lockers.*

AMBER (looks at her phone):

Oh, gosh we are completely out of time! when the bell rings in a bit, passing period will begin and you’ll have 5 minutes to get to your first class. Good luck!

ADAM (to Arjun):

Arjun, do you know where room 234 is?

ARJUN:

Adam, how can you possibly still not know where you’re going?

\*BELL RINGS\*

*The tour group is seen walking away in the background. The hallways are then filled with other students*

ADAM (quickly):

Alright dude never mind, I’ll figure it out on my own. I’ll see ya in geometry.

*. We pull back and watch Adam and Arjun go their separate ways. Quick sequence here matched to music. We see Adam finding his class. He pulls out his schedule again and we follow him down a few halls. The Storyteller is seen following him. He finds it, and we walk inside. This is Adam’s ENGLISH CLASS with Victoria, Alex, and James.*