Unfinished Mishmash

All actors mime the existence of a house which is, (by their reactions): just downstage, or off to the right, or left of their location. When the intent is that the house is small: all eyes and heads move downward and face shows unacceptability, when the house is large all eyes and heads move upward and face shows approval. Attention of all actors, including non-speaking crowd, is constantly and uniformly directed to those spots.
Ensure that in characterization and rehearsals the exact and consistent location, size and acceptance of the house is established for consistency. The audience must be convinced the non-speaking actors have uniformly bought in through suspended belief.
Any number of non-speaking actors for crowd, have some of the crowd enter with each new speaking actor coming on stage. Ensure the non-speaking actors are at least as well trained as speaking actors since their roles must be even more convincing without being overdone, reacting appropriately to current tempo and feeling: (smile, snicker silently when correctness happens, sorrow when a hurtful thing is said, all agree at appropriate times). Correct reactions are essential as new situations happen, not "telegraphed" to the audience in advance.

1 comes on stage, stands back, looks at his house, very satisfied look.

1: Hey, gotta do say it myself, lookin’ sweeeeet!

All those guys tryin’ to tell me, “this is gonna be tough, no experience here, how can I do it?”
Guess I showed them, huh?
Like I say . . . swwwwweeeeeeeeeetttttt!

2 and 3 and some crowd come on stage, watch what 1 is doing, after a short time speak.

2: Hey 1, whatcha doin’? That’s a. . . that’s a. . .

1: Hey 2, 3. Right on, 2, a house. Exactly.

3: A house? That . . . is a house?

1: Of course. See, don’t you like the style?

2, trying to motion to 3 to be kind: What 1 is saying, 3, is that when he finishes, this will likely, maybe, likely, be a house. Maybe.

1: When I finish? I will have you know that what you are looking at is the completed article.

2: This? This is a finished house?

1: Yeppers! Finished, done-zo, fini.

3: My only question is what finished it? Earthquake, tornado, act of God?

1: You guys’re always the big jokers, come on now, be serious for a minute, be honest, have you ever seen anything like this?

2: No problem being honest on that one, I have never, ever, in my whole life seen anything that comes close to this.

1: Hey guys, you just don’t know what it means to me, hearing you say such nice things about this house that I built. You maybe didn’t know, it’s the first house I ever did build.

3: Actually, I would have guessed that. Really. I would have.

1, wipes away a tear: Guys, you know that simply breaks me up to hear your compliments.

3: It pretty much breaks me up trying to find nice things to say about this house.

2, gives a glaring look at 3: What 3 means, 1, is that words simply can’t describe this house.

3: 2 is right on there, we should really come up with a whole new pack of words to lay on this baby!

4 and 5 plus balance of crowd come on stage.

4: Hi guys, so what’s happening today?

5: Hi-heeeeeeelllllllllllooooooo, what is this? All ready for Halloween I see!

2: This was a house.

4: OKKKK, and what is it now?

2: 1 built it.

5: That would explain a lot right there.

3: Just a little question maybe, but where are the windows?

1: There are no windows. Did you realize that 71.5% of all heat loss happens through windows? Besides when I tried to install the windows they wanted to go in crooked.

4: They wanted to?

5: I know this is a silly question, but how do you see outside?

1: Closed circuit TV. My guess is that this house could set a new standard.

5: I think you are safe there, 1, there will be no challengers for that honour.

4: Just how long have you been working at this treasure?

1, proudly: Six days!

2: So what you are saying, 1, is that in the time it took for God to create everything, you kinda . . .

3: . . . “And on the seventh day he rested . . .”

4: My take is that 1 should have rested on the first six days.

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