Solid Seasons is a one-act play by playwright and author Stephen Evans.
Set in July 1847, the play imagines an encounter by Henry David Thoreau with his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson in Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. Emerson attempts to convince Thoreau to leave Walden, while Thoreau struggles to maintain his personal and creative independence.
The play received its World Premiere reading at the 2023 annual gathering of The Thoreau Society in Concord, MA.
Note: The play is also included in Experience and incorporated into the full-length version of Monuments.
Characters: 2
Set: Single (Thoreau’s cabin)
Approximate Running Time: 30 minutes
Order the Play:
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Also available through your favorite local bookstore
Excerpt:
WALDO: Is that new?
HENRY: It is. A book I think. Maybe a lecture. But I think it’s a book.
WALDO: About?
HENRY: Me I suppose.
WALDO: You?
HENRY: Yes.
WALDO: You’re writing about you?
HENRY: Franklin did it. Rousseau did it.
WALDO: Of course Henry. Of course.
HENRY: Even you have done it, Mr. Emerson.
WALDO: When?
HENRY: In your essay on Experience. You wrote about little Waldo. How you felt when he. When he got sick.
WALDO: Yes. Yes. But. That was to illustrate a point. I wasn’t writing about myself.
HENRY: I am doing the same. Just on a slightly larger scale.
WALDO: What point are you illustrating?
HENRY: I’m not sure yet.
WALDO: I see.
HENRY: It’s a work in progress.
WALDO: Aren’t they all?
HENRY: It’s about…my time here.
WALDO: DaVinci said that art is never finished.
HENRY: What I have learned.
WALDO: L’arte non è mai Finita.
HENRY: What?
WALDO: DaVinci. That’s what he said. I thought you knew Italian, Henry.
HENRY: Italian? Yes. A bit. French. Latin. Spanish. German. Greek.
WALDO: And your English is coming along well too.
