SCENE 1

(curtain opens on a woman pushing leftover food, drinks, and garbage on a large cart. She has food smeared on her apron. She hits the button waiting for the elevator as she watches the arrow get closer to her floor. Once it comes she walks into the elevator. Right as the door is about to close a man runs on stage)

MAN

Hold the elevator! 

(Major stage directions: Man runs towards the elevator as the woman makes no effort to hold it open because of her full hands. He finally enters the elevator, stumbling slightly. The woman recognizes him as the man who spilled food on her. )

MAN 

Thanks for the help 

(the woman ignores the mans sarcastic comment)

MAN

Hello? What's your problem?

(the woman continues to ignore the man, but this time lets out a sigh) 

MAN

Wait, you're from the party.You were the janitor that I spilled food on! I knew I recognized you from somewhere.

WOMAN

I’m not a janitor.

(still not looking at him)

MAN

Oh so you do speak.

WOMAN

You know I really don’t want to hear this right now. I had to stay until I thought everyone left to clean up your mess. It's past midnight and I just want to go home so please, leave me alone!

(the man stands there speechless)

MAN

You know I had a long night too-

WOMAN

Yeah I’m sure

(she walks over the the elevator buttons)

Why isn’t this elevator moving?!

(she realizes she didn’t press the button when she walked in. She presses the ground floor and walks back to her cart. The man was standing there quietly. The man's phone starts ringing as the elevator starts to descend.)

MAN

Yo whats up. (as he talks into the phone, pausing to listen to what the person on the other side has to say.)

The bar on third?

(woman rolls her eyes at the mans comment)

Yeah I’ll be there in 10. 

(the call cuts out and the man looks at his phone awkwardly and realizes that his wifi is cut out. Man looks at the woman confused)

WOMAN

What?

MAN

My wifi just completely cut out. 

(on queue, the elevator lights begin to flicker and the elevator shakes. The man and woman are startled by a jolt and crashing sounds. The elevator lights go black for a second until one singular emergency light from above turns on, barely lighting up the entire elevator.)

SCENE 2

(they stand there in silence assessing the situation and what just happened to them)

MAN

What just happened?

WOMAN

Well if I had to guess, I would say that the elevator is STUCK.

(says in a sarcastic tone)

(Man starts pacing the elevator clicking random buttons)

MAN

Someone will find us eventually right. Someone has to leave the building and no one is gonna walk down, like, 20 flights of stairs. We are fine. It’ll be fine. They’ll find us soon.

(the man's watch beeps. The woman still in shock after what happened, looks panicked after hearing the sound)

WOMAN

What was that!

MAN

It’s just my watch,I have it set to go off every two hours so I know when I can go on a break during work. But anyways, they’ll find us soon, we’ll be okay.

WOMAN

I doubt it. I was the last person out of that room. It's midnight on a Friday before a holiday weekend. No one is coming back here for days. 

(the man stares at her in disbelief)

MAN

Very optimistic aren't you.

WOMAN

I want to get out of here as much as you do. Can you try calling someone?

MAN

I have no service at all. 

(the woman groans going over to the buttons clicking the emergency one. But nothing is happening.)

MAN

That's not going to do anything! Ugh i can’t believe this is happening. And with you of all people. I need to leave. People are expecting me! You know it was probably your stupid cart that caused this to happen in the first place. 

WOMAN

How is this my fault?! It's this stupid building and all it's stupid fancy technology. 

MAN

I seriously can't believe you. Don’t talk to me.

WOMAN

Okay. I didn’t want to anyways. 

(the man turns around and sits on the ground against the wall not even looking at the woman. The woman does the same on the opposite side of the elevator.)

SCENE 3

(not even 30 seconds after they vow to not talk to each other, the man speaks up)

MAN

Okay! I give up. If we are gonna be stuck in here we need to get along so we can try and find a way out.

(he sees the woman hesitate to respond. She rolls her eyes before responding.)

WOMAN

Fine, I agree.

MAN

Okay…well let's start out with the basics. What do you do for a living?

(the woman looks at the man confused, the answer being obviously right in front of them)

WOMAN

Um……I’m a caterer……as you can see. But also a baker, I made all this myself.

(she says gesturing towards the giant cart of leftover food)

What do you “do for a living”?

(she says in a mocking tone)

MAN

 I work at this company. Don’t ask what I do cause it's too confusing even for me sometimes. I’d much rather be a baker, that seems so easy.

WOMAN

It's not.

(the woman responds immediately after he speaks disagreeing)

MAN

Okay, but still, maybe if we get out of here you can make me more of those cupcakes you had up there because they were seriously so good.

WOMAN

Stop, you're just saying that.

MAN

No seriously, they are amazing.

(the man says slightly scooting closer to the woman)

WOMAN

Well thank you. They’re my mothers recipe.

MAN

Tell your mother that she is a very good baker.

WOMAN

Was.

MAN

What?

(the man says caught off guard)

WOMAN

Was a good baker. She died 2 years ago.  

(the woman said this with a very empty look. The man didn’t know what to say)

MAN

Oh…um…I…I’m-

(the man stutters trying find the right thing to say)

WOMAN 

You really don't need to say anything. It's okay. I kind of became a baker because of her.

(the man looks at the woman with an almost sympathetic look)

MAN

I bet she would’ve loved that.

(the woman just nods her head, her eyes glistening with tears. The man takes this as a sign to change the subject.)

You know…my dream when I was younger was to become a cook.

WOMAN

Shut up. Seriously?!

(she said this laughing)

MAN

What's so funny?!
(laughing as well)

I loved cooking shows and creating recipes in my parents kitchen. They hated me for it, but I made some pretty good stuff. But ever since, my dream has been to become a cook. 

WOMAN

Well why didn't you?

(she said scooting closer so their conversation was happening next to each other)

MAN

My father. He wanted me to work for him and get a “real” job like a “real man”. So here I am. 

WOMAN

Do you like working here?

MAN

No. I hate it. But it pays well so I stay.

(the woman hesitated for a second before deciding what to say)

WOMAN

Maybe once we get out of here you can come and cook something for me. See how good you really are.

(the woman says teasingly but the man looks at the woman with a shocked expression, caught off guard)

MAN

Um yeah sure totally.

(he says as he looks down at his hands not sure what to say next. The woman notices the man's reaction and quickly responds.)

WOMAN

For my business obviously. Strictly business related.

MAN

No yeah of course. Strictly business.

(his voice gets quieter as he says that. They sit in silence for a few seconds. Slightly awkward but also comfortable silence. They hear the beep of his watch again,showing that two hours have passed.)

WOMAN

Have we really been in here for two hours already? Is anyone going to come?

MAN

I don’t know, maybe we could-

(the sound of people yelling cut him off.)

SCENE 4

WOMAN

Perfect timing. Finally it feels like it's been forever.

(the man stands up and move away pulling himself together)

Help!

(they start screaming)

MAN

Help!

(they start hearing voices above them but cannot make out what they are saying.)

[Voices are coming from off stage] 

(but they are looking up trying to hear them.)

WOMAN

I can't hear them can you?

MAN

No. Maybe let's try opening the top vent to see if that helps.

(the man climbs on top of the woman's cart and opens the vent above them. A small light shines into the elevator)

WOMAN

Anything?

(right after she says that the faint voices become more prominent)

VOICES

Hello? Who's down there? 

MAN

We are here! We’ve been stuck here for a few hours. We didn't know what to do. We tried hitting the emergency button but it wouldn’t work.

VOICES

We got half of an emergency call but then it turned off so we thought it was a mistake. We thought everyone had already left.

MAN

Yeah no we were the last two out.

(the man says as he looks down to the woman with hope that they might get out)

VOICES

Okay we are going to hoist you guys up. Just try not to move yourselves or anything in the elevator with you.

(the man and woman look at each other with worry. Sounds of the elevator scraping against the metal are heard. The man and woman are sitting as still as possible praying they’ll get up all the way. The man grabs the woman's hand as she looks at him for reassurance. The light from the vent gets brighter as the voices become more clear)

MAN

Come on, you're almost there.

(the man says while pushing her up as far as he can. Trying to keep a confident fron, but on the inside he was terrified.)

VOICES

Okay we have you up as far as we can go. I need you to try and climb out of the vent so we can grab your arms and pull you out.

WOMAN

You go first, I put us into this mess.

MAN

No. I don’t care what happened back there, you're going first.

(the man insists that she goes first. They both get up cautiously, the elevator shaking slightly and the light flickering. The man starts helping the woman up on top of the cart. The elevator shakes and the lights flicker even more.)

VOICES

You guys need to hurry up please we can’t hold this for too long.

(the woman goes up a little farther)

WOMAN

I’m almost there just a little further!

MAN

Yes, come on you can do it!

VOICES

Oh no- Wait!

(the man and woman look at each other in shock before the elevator lights go out and they feel themselves free falling. The light from the vent is getting dimmer. Their stomachs drop as the noise from the elevator dropping gets louder and louder, scraping against the walls. You hear screaming as a big crash is heard and all of the lights go pitch black.)

THE END