A Rainy Night in Hollywood
1947. A parked car outside a studio gate. Two people who know exactly what stardom costs.
It is 1947, the golden age of Hollywood, and the rain has settled in outside a studio gate for the night. A car sits parked at the curb, engine off, waiting for the weather to pass or the conversation inside it to end first.
Behind the wheel is George, a studio driver with a screenplay he has never shown anyone and no clear idea how a person in his position is supposed to change that. In the passenger seat is Rita Hayworth, one of the most photographed women alive, and thoroughly unimpressed with what fame has actually gotten her.
Neither of them planned on this conversation. But the rain is not letting up, the gate is not opening, and for the length of one ride neither of them has anywhere else to be. What starts as small talk becomes something closer to confession, two people from opposite ends of the same industry, both quietly certain the other one has it better.
A Rainy Night in Hollywood is a two-hander built for exactly the kind of tight, character-driven staging that makes an audience lean in, available as a full one-act or trimmed down to a ten-minute festival piece.
Two People, One Night
Rita Hayworth
One of the most famous women in the world, and no longer sure the fame was worth what it cost her.
George
A studio driver with a screenplay in a drawer at home and a rainy night’s worth of nerve to finally talk about it.