Ragtime

(Harlem, late at night. YOUNGER BROTHER has been trying to find COALHOUSE, but is met by hostility from the community. COALHOUSE appears in the shadows, and signals to one of his MEN to bring YOUNGER BROTHER to him. COALHOUSE remains onstage as they exit.)

10. HARLEM NIGHTCLUB
(Loud rag piano comes out of a club. Carefree men come onto the street, laughing, dancing. One stays behind, joined by a young woman. COALHOUSE watches the young couple dance a romantic PAS DE DEUX and go off into the warm night. They remind COALHOUSE of the first night he met SARAH, and suddenly, magically, she is there.)

11. SARAH BROWN EYES

COALHOUSE
What’s your name?
SARAH
Sarah.
COALHOUSE
I’m Coalhouse.
SARAH
I know.
COALHOUSE
There was no music in my heart tonight.
Melodies kept refusin’ to flow
One look at you, now every note feels right
Comin’ out all sweet and slow.
SARAH
You tell stories
Like your hands play tunes
COALHOUSE
Sweetest une I know
Is Sarah Brown Eyes
Don’t be shy, now
Sarah Brown Eyes
Oughta take a chance
The stars are silver notes
Across that sky now
Sarah Brown Eyes.
Come, let’s dance.
SARAH
I never heard no music
Quite like yours
Where’d you learn
How to play it that way?
Was I smart,
I’d walk right out those doors.
COALHOUSE
Then I’ve got to make you stay.

BOTH
Nothin’ for it but a Ragtime tune
On that piano…
Sarah Brown Eyes
Don’t be shy now
Sarah Brown Eyes
Oughta take a chance
The stars are silver notes
Across that sky now
Sarah Brown Eyes.
Come, let’s dance.

(They dance without touching.)

BOTH
Silver notes
Across that sky now
Sarah Brown Eyes.
Come, let’s
SARAH
Dance.

(His vision of SARAH melts away as COALHOUSE returns to reality.)

12. HE WANTED TO SAY

(COALHOUSE and his MEN seem to be waiting for something. One of the FOLLOWERS begns to whistle.)

COALHOUSE
I said, no music.
COALHOUSE FOLLOWER
He’s here.
COALHOUSE
Bring him in.

(YOUNGER BROTHER is led in, blindfolded. The blindfold is removed.)

COALHOUSE
What is it you want?
YOUNGER BROTHER (flustered, there is so much he wants to say)
I…I…I want to…I know that if…

(EMMA appears magically at the side of the stage.)

EMMA
He wanted to say:
I am here because I have to be.
He wanted to say:
I am here for what is right.
Every day I wake up knowing
What you’ve lost and what is owing
I would shed this skin if I could
To stand with you and fight.
He wanted to say:
YOUNGER BROTHER
I am not who I appear to be.
EMMA
He wanted to say:
YOUNGER BROTHER
Do not blame me for my past.
BOTH
We have different lives and faces
But our hearts have common places
This was deep inside me
And you helped me find it at last

EMMA
Two men meeting
For a moment in the darkness
COALHOUSE
One turning from…
YOUNGER BROTHER
One waking to…
ALL THREE
…America!
Two men finding
For a moment in the darkness…
YOUNGER BROTHER & COALHOUSE
They’re the same.
EMMA
They’re the same.

COALHOUSE’S MEN
He wanted to say:
COALHOUSE
How I envy you your innocence.
EMMA & COALHOUSE’S MEN
He wanted to say:
YOUNGER BROTHER
By your side I could be brave
If there’s such a thing as justice
Let me help you find your justice
This I do for you and for Sarah
Who lies in her grave…
EMMA & MEN
But all he said was…
YOUNGER BROTHER
I know how to blow things up.
EMMA, COALHOUSE’S MEN
Two men meeting
For a moment
In the darkness
For a moment
In the darkness.

(As COALHOUSE and YOUNGER BROTHER shake hands, there is an enormous explosion, very present, very terrifying. And suddenly we are on the Boardwalk. FATHER approaches MOTHER and tells her that he must return to New York. COALHOUSE and his MEN have taken over the Morgan Library and are threatening to blow it up. FATHER tells MOTHER that once the situation is resolved, everything will be the way it was before. But MOTHER vows she will never relinquish COALHOUSE’S child. Things will never be the same. FATHER exits.)

13. BACK TO BEFORE

MOTHER
There was a time
Our happiness seemed neverending
I was so sure
That where we were heading was right
Life was a road
So certain and straight and unbending
Our little road
With never a cross road in sight
Back in the days
When we spoke in civilized voices
Women in white
And sturdy young men at the oar
Back in the days
When I let you make all my choices…
We can never go back to before

There was a time
My feet were so solidly planted
You’d sail away
While I turned my back to the sea
I was content,
A princess asleep and enchanted
If I had dreams
Then I let you dream them for me
Back in the days
When everything seemed so much clearer
Women in white
Who knew what their lives held in store
Where are they now,
Those women who stared from the mirror?
We can never go back to before.

There are people out there
Unafraid of revealing
That they might have a feeling
Or they might have been wrong
There are people out there
Unafraid to feel sorrow
Unafraid of tomorrow
Unafraid to be weak..
Unafraid to be strong!
There was a time
When you were the person in motion
I was your wife,
It never occured to want more
You were my sky
My moon and my stars and my ocean
We can never go back to before
We can never go back to before

14. LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE

BOOKER T. WASHINTON
Coalhouse Walker’s strategy of vengeance seemed to some the final proof of his insanity. Only a madman would shift the focus of his rage from Willie Conklin, a common bigot, to J.P. Morgan, the most uncommon and powerful man of his time.

(We are outside the impressive facade of the Morgan Library. A cluster of POLICE and REPORTERS, J.P. MORGAN trying to impress a flustered DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHARLES S. WHITMAN of the gravity of the situation, a thoroughly wretched WILLIE CONKLIN who is being made to repair COALHOUSE’S car, and FATHER. We see a vigil of HARLEM WOMEN with candles.)

WOMEN AT VIGIL
A day of peace.
A day of pride.
A day of justice.
We have been denied.
Let the new day dawn,
Oh, Lord, I pray!
WHITMAN (raises a megaphone)
Mr. Walker. This is This is District Attorney Charles S. Whitman. Do you hear me? I have Fire Chief Willie Conklin with me. He is restoring your car. Will you come out, sir?
WILLIE CONKLIN
You gonna let me be a martyr!
WHITMAN
Mr. Conklin will receive due process. You both will.
MORGAN
How much longer are you going to stand for this? Give him his car and then hang the savage!
WHITMAN
I’m doing my best, Mr. Morgan.
CONKLIN
This is a conspiracy of nigger lovers, that’s all it is.
FATHER
Sir, if I might suggest.
WHITMAN
Who the hell are you?
FATHER
You sent for me. I know Mr. Walker and I believe there’s one man he’ll listen to.
Mr. Booker T. Washington.
VIGIL WOMEN
Justice! Ah!

(The focus now goes to WASHINGTON, as the people on the street move away. It should seem as if he has been admitted to the library, and is now addressing COALHOUSE directly.)

WHITMAN
You are surrounded by militia. they are cutting off your water even as I speak.
J.P. MORGAN
Four Shakespeare folios! A Gutenburg bible on vellum.

The treasures of civilization are at stake!
EMMA GOLDMAN
I deplore the taking of human life, nut I applaud Mr. Walker’s capture of the Morgan library.

His actions speak for all oppressed people.
It is the cry of revolution.
WILLIE CONKLIN
White people should be grateful for what I done!
J.P. MORGAN
You’ve got to do something!
VIGIL WOMEN
Justice!
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
With guns and dynamite, you are destroying everything I have fought for, sir.
COALHOUSE
Despite the respect I have for you, Mr. Washington, you have come in vain.
WASHINGTON
Had you been ignorant of the tragic struggle of our people, I could have pitied you this adventure.
But you are a trained musician, an educated man.
COALHOUSE
It is true, sir. But I hope that I might suggest to you the solemn calculation of my mind.

We are both men of colour who insist on the truth of our manhood, and the respect it demands!

WASHINGTON

Your situation is hopeless. And you will be responsible for the death of these young men.
COALHOUSE FOLLOWER #1
Don’t listen to him, Coalhouse.
COALHOUSE FOLLOWER #2
They’re using him to get to you.
COALHOUSE FOLLOWER #3
We’re not giving up.
WASHINGTON
And you dare to teach your lessons
To these wild, unthinking youths.
Yet your own son, you abandon
To be raised on white men’s truths.
Look what you’ve done.
Think of your son.
SARAH (offstage)
Oooh…
WASHINGTON
Is this the legacy you would bestow upon him? Are these the shoulders you would have him stand upon? Let him be the son of a man who had the courage to tell the truth in a court of law. Make your case, and if the verdict is death, go to it proudly, knowing that you have been heard. The truth is all. If you do this, you will have the thanks and respect of every decent man of colour and of all those children of our race whose way is hard and whose journey is long.
Think of your son.
COALHOUSE
I would need a hostage and safe passage for my men.
WASHINGTON
It is done.
YOUNGER BROTHER
You can’t change your demands. You are betraying us. You said we would all go free or we all would die!
COALHOUSE
And the promise of a fair trial.
YOUNGER BROTHER
No!
WASHINGTON
You have my word. I am their mediator, sir, not their fool.
COALHOUSE
Then they will see me come out with my hands raised, and no further harm will come to any man from Coalhouse Walker, Jr.
WASHINGTON
God bless you sir.

(WASHINGTON and COALHOUSE shake hands. WASHINGTON exits. The FOLLOWERS and YOUNGER BROTHER surround COALHOUSE in furious agitation.)

FOLLOWER #1
You said we’d fight to the finish.
FOLLOWER #2
Yeah, you can go out there, man. We ain’t.
FOLLOWER #3
We’re all ready to die as Coalhouse.
FOLLOWER (leaping toward the detonator)
Push the plunger! Blow it all up!
COALHOUSE & HIS MEN
Nooo!

(FATHER is admitted to the Library to act as the MEN’S hostage. But they refuse to leave.)

FOLLOWER
We’re not going. You’ve lost, Coalhouse. We’ve all lost.
COALHOUSE
I don’t believe that.

15. MAKE THEM HEAR YOU

Go out and tell our story
Let it echo far and wide
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

How justice was our battle
And how justice was denied
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

And say to those who blame us
For the way we chose to fight
That sometimes there are battles
Which are more than black or white
And I could not put down my sword
When justice was my right
Make them hear you.
Go out and tell our story
To your daughters and your sons
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

And tell them, in our struggle
We were not the only ones
Make them hear you
Make them hear you
Your sword can be a sermon
Or the power of the pen
Teach every child to raise his voice
And then, my brothers, then
Will justice be demanded
By ten million righteous men
Make them hear you
When they hear you,
I’ll be near you
Again.

(COALHOUSE sends the MEN out, with YOUNGER BROTHER as the white hostage. “One white face looks just like another!” says COALHOUSE. FATHER remains inside. When they hear the MEN drive off in the Model T, COALHOUSE thanks FATHER for his kindness to SARAH and the baby. He goes to the doors, raises his hands and steps out into the glare of lights. There is a sharp burst of gunfire and a blackout.)

16. EPILOGUE: RAGTIME (reprise), WHEELS OF A DREAM (reprise)

(THE LITTLE BOY appears next to a small manual projector.)

THE LITTLE BOY
The era of Ragtime had run out, as if history were no more than a tune on a player piano. But we did not know that then.

(He turns the projector as a slow parade begins – a ghostly, silhouetted march of time: people of the past, people of the future.)

YOUNGER BROTHER
After Coalhouse Walker’s death, Younger Brother drove south to Mexico, where he joined the great peasant revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata.
ALL
La la la la la
EMMA GOLDMAN
The signs of the coming World War were everywhere.
The anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested again, of course,
but this time she would be deported, as well.
ALL
Ooh ooh…
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute became, in time, the capital of black America. When he died, flags were flown at half-mast. President and Mrs. Wilson attended his funeral.
ALL
La la la la la.
GRANDFATHER
Grandfather resided now in a cemetary. At last, peace and quiet!
EVELYN NESBIT
The passionate and beautiful Evelyn Nesbit would lose her looks and fall into obscurity. Whee!
HOUDINI
Harry Houdini was hanging upside down high over Times Square when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.
THE LITTLE BOY
Warn the Duke!
HOUDINI
A little boy’s words suddenly rang clear to the great illusionist. It was the one genuine mystical experience of his life. But it was too late. The world was already at war.
FATHER
When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a U-boat off the Southwest coast of Ireland, twelve hundred men, women and children lost their lives, and among them, Father.
MOTHER
Mother wore black for a year. At the end of this time, Tateh proposed and she accepted. She adored him.
THE LITTLE BOY
They moved to California.
THE LITTLE GIRL
They were now a family.
THE LITTLE BOY
They felt blessed.
MOTHER
Coalhouse!

(A very small black child runs into her arms. He is COALHOUSE WALKER III. The children play.)

TATEH
One afternoon, watching his children play, Tateh had an idea for a movie:
a bunch of children, white, black Christian, Jew, rich, poor–all kinds–
a gang, a crazy gang getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, but together despite their differences.
He was sure it would make a wonderful movie–a dream of what this country could be.
He would be first in line to see it.

(COALHOUSE and SARAH appear.)

COALHOUSE
I see his face.
SARAH
I hear his heartbeat.
BOTH
I look in those eyes;
How wise they seem.

MOTHER, TATEH, COALHOUSE, SARAH & ALL (offstage)
Well, when he is old enough
I will show him America.
And he will ride…
Our son will ride…
On the wheels of a dream.

CURTAIN