Premiered -- 14 February 2007

What Now? is a stageplay by Dan S. Ward. First written in 1990, it has been updated and revised twice; once in 2000 in order to account for the widescale use of e-mail and other technological innovations, and more recently in 2007 in the course of being prepared for inclusion in the Halexandria website. Accordingly, the intended stageplay is copyrighted in 1990, 2000, and 2007. (In case you were wondering.)

What Now? is a fictional story based upon the possibilities encountered in what might best be described as non-traditional romantic relationships, particularly where there is a significant age difference between two of the individuals. It is also about how such relationships can bring new and creative interactions between people, including the ever growing need for a sense of humor among all of the participants.

It is not unusual, for example, for a man to forge a romantic relationship, even a marriage, with a woman whose parents are younger than her boyfriend/soon-to-be-husband, or where the children of the groom-to-be are older than the woman the man is marrying. It can even result in, say, this woman becoming at the tender age of 37 a step great-grandmother-in-law. Meanwhile, the man's ex-wife might marry a man ten years younger than herself. Trust me on this one: This sort of thing does indeed happen!

The stageplay is in two acts. For ease in downloads, however, the first act is split into three parts and the second act into two parts. Also, in an effort to ease the readability of the script, the dialogues (as opposed to the stage directions) are all in bold type. Just try, while reading it, to put the proper emotion into the scene. This will, of course, imply that you are getting the sense of personality of each of the six characters, but we have total faith in your ability to do so.

One might also point out that there are numerous, sometimes radical statements included in the play. Some of these are slightly more extreme than reality might support, but they are made in part in order to create a tension between two of the players. There is also the possibility, of course, that some of the more extreme statements and/or situations are not without a surprising degree of truth.

An example of the latter is that in the case of Ellisene (nicknamed "El" in the play) and her allergic reaction to civilization's imposed environment. This is based upon a very real, true situation. If you can imagine someone who you could not visit wearing tennis shoes (they never really come clean), leather shoes with fresh shoe polish, deodorant, aftershave, wool or drycleaned clothing, and so forth and so on... then you have an accurate picture of one person's reality.

This story is, therefore, dedicated with great affection to Ellisene.