“Problem Solving”
One act Play: Me, Me 1, Me 2
Me 2: “You, be quiet, I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to her.”
Me: “But it’s my business too, isn’t it?”
Me 2: “Don’t interfere; we’ll decide what you will do. Furthermore, I will decide because I can’t rely upon you.”
Me 1: [babbling] “Why can’t I decide? What’s wrong with me?”
Me 2: [rudely] “Everything. First you’re kind to me, but you’re weak. Look at yourself [teasing], and you’ll understand me. When you see the smallest problem, you surrender, you give up easily, when something bad happens to you, you cry. You can’t do anything. For example, something happens to her, she doesn’t want to do her homework, what will you do, what do you think?”
Me 1: “I don’t know.”
Me 2: “I know. You see the world through rose-tinted glasses, you would say: “Oh well, I won’t do my homework today. Nothing will happen.” You should have made her feel angry with everyone, so that she hated everyone, this would have motivated her to sit down to do her lessons, and prove to everyone that she was able.”
Me 1: “Do you think that she would ever achieve anything with such an attitude in her heart?”
Me 2: “Of course she would, don’t be stupid.”
Me 1: “Do you really think so? All these years we have lived with elevated ideals of love, beauty, humanism… But something was missing. And now you’re saying this, I think, to make us quarrel.”
Me 2: “I am right. I couldn’t bear it anymore. I wanted to choke you, when you were filling her head with love, humanism, beauty – ridiculous ideas [teasing]. One must be more of a realist sometimes. Your time is up, now it’s my turn. Now you must sleep, you’ll wake when I tell you. Don’t worry; I’ll let you dream for half an hour each day. You see, I can be good too.”
Me 1: “Enough! Is that everything? What you said was in vain. She must choose us, we can’t change a thing.”
Me 2: I know. It will be a challenge for her, which will help her overcome more difficulties in the future. You must make the decision.”
Me: I’m listening…and I will make it.”
Me 1 and 2: And so.
Me: … [silence].
Lusine Hakobyan
14 years old
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“A curtain”
One cloudy morning I woke-up, stayed in bed and started learning my work by heart. I looked at the poem, and fell into a deep depression. How was I supposed to learn that all, it was too long. I stared and stared…
“Oh, how tired I am”, I thought, “and it’s a cloudy day, full of sadness. I don’t want to do anything.”
Tick-tick. Suddenly I heard a sound. It was a woodpecker, pecking at the hollow of a tree. “It’s a good reason to avoid doing my work; I’ll go and look at the woodpecker.”
Suddenly I thought, “Oh, how I want to keep a parrot and a bear cub if the latter could by a miracle become herbivorous.”
I was learning Narekatsi’s poem. It was miraculous how he could use words. I decided to try too but it was in vain.
“How am I going to write such things, poor Ani!”
“Mum, I am hungry. Please, can you prepare breakfast until I learn this, this … poem?”
“Haven’t you learnt it yet? I thought you had learnt it quickly.”
“But…mum, it sends me to sleep, I’m tired. Ok, I’ll sit and learn it.”
Later I managed to learn it with great difficulty, mostly not to make my mother angry by getting a bad mark.
Ani Deghoyan
15 years old
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“Why don’t you stop murmuring under my ears?”
“Why? Do I say anything when you murmur and grumble?”
“Don’t you? You aren’t behaving like a good friend at all.”
“Do you think you are behaving better?”
“Maybe no, but I never tire you with my problems.”
“Your problems are nothing as compared with mine. You have just had an argument with your friend and that is all. And I have got a satisfactory mark from my English test.”
“It is not a serious problem; I have a satisfactory mark too.”
“Do you want to say that if you get a SAT others should also be getting this mark?”
“We have all made many mistakes. You would receive better mark if you had prepared well. I have, by the way, had an argument with a friend and that is quite a more serious problem than your satisfactory mark… I should go.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
“Then how can I solve my problems?”
“Study English.”
“Eh, I don’t want to speak to you any more.”
“Just don’t,” I replied and left.
I met another friend on my way, with whom I had also had an argument that day. He looked at me attentively for a long time and did not greet me.
“It was a bad day,” I thought to myself and went to another friend of mine’s place.
Eleonora Harutyunyan
15 years old
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I had had an argument with my friend and I was the guilty. My brain was busy with ideas about how to talk to her. Maybe I should try to call her? But what should I say? Finally I decided to call:
“Hi, Lil.”
“Hi.”
“Do you want to talk to me?”
She did not answer.
“I know that I am to blame for everything but for how long should this go on?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if I apologize?”
“Ok.”
“I am sorry.”
The only thing I would be happy to hear then was that my friend had accepted my apologies. I don’t like apologizing but I did it because I really felt guilty.
“Don’t worry, Mag. Everything is fine.”
“Thank you, Lil. Can you come to my place now?”
I was happy when we solved the problem. It was good to talk to my friend again.
Maggie Hakobjanyan
11 years old
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My relatives say that my hands have an unusual warmth and strength. My hands cure them when they are ill. I just rub my hands, put them on the place, which aches, and the pain disappears.
Once I decided to go to school with a skirt on, but it was crumpled and there was no one at home. So I had to iron it myself. I remembered my relatives’ discovery about my curing warm hands and put them on the shirt. Nothing changed. Then I exclaimed:
“Unusual warmth and strength! Can’t you, my magic hands, iron my skirt, which I need so much?”
My hands were sweating, but again in vain. Soon I understood that I would be late for the classes. I threw away the skirt that wouldn’t obey me. I could not put it on that day. I dressed as usual. I was desperate for I could not solve the problem, for the warmth of my hands could help everyone but me.
Ester Sahakyan
12 years old
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We were going to write a history test. The teacher had told us the questions for the test beforehand in order for us to get ready. The test day came at last.
“Children, are you ready for the test?”
“Yes,” we answered unanimously.
In an hour we were told to go to the headmaster’s to write the test. When we entered, I was shaking with excitement. After a thought I understood that I had to gather all my strength and do my best. I wrote the test all by myself and passed.
Anna Masouryan
13 years old
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