What do you do when your childhood heroine goes soft and "mooshy"? How do you celebrate her birthday?

What do you do when your inspiration panders to patriarchy? Or, how do you react when a lonely woman claims your life’s fight inspired her spite?

SYNOPSIS:

Dr A is bitter. Her Aunt Betsy has spent her life as an activist, too busy for relationships. And Dr A looked up to Betsy, as a model for her independence. Until now.

Aunt Betsy sees her own independent life as a lonely one, and plans to look for a husband. Dr A can't understand why. It's as if everything she stood for is a lie.

Aunt Betsy worries that Dr A will grow old and lonely, but that’s her niece’s business. She tries not to be angry with her niece for misinterpreting her life’s work, for being pushy. She wants her niece to be independent, and happy.

And, the current state of their world, and of the hotel their staying at, is a tinderbox for this underlying conflict.

Of course, neither of them expresses these things directly. Or, they try not to, most of the time. We enter the hotel room along with them, when they continue a conversation they were having on the bus, in the hallway, and in their minds. And, we learn, with the characters, more about who they really are.

*historical note. This script was created for the Harper’s Bazaar film contest. I didn't like the terms and conditions (there was no prize money, they just wanted a free ad), so I didn't enter. Now it's up for sale. In order to fit the "story within a room" scenario of a contest, we enter the conversation halfway through, so we'd need professional actors who can find the subtext (don’t worry, it’s all there in the dialogue).