WORTHLESS: THE LAST LIVESTREAM ============================== Published: December 29, 2024 Author: Daniel Conderman Context: Recovered Conderman.Group one-act play Original URL: https://conderman.group/2024/12/worthless-the-last-livestream/ A ONE-ACT PLAY CHARACTERS ---------- Cora Luxe (20s-30s) -- A wildly successful social-media influencer. She radiates confidence and performative charm, but beneath it is terrified of losing control. Optional offstage voices may include brand representatives, fans, or flight control. The piece can also be performed solo. SETTING AND PRODUCTION ---------------------- Time: The near future or an unspecified modern era. Place: A cramped, high-altitude capsule at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. A chair, phone, harness, blinking controls, and a window or field of stars can suggest the capsule. Lighting begins bright and hopeful, then becomes stark and cold. A soft mechanical hum intensifies as the situation worsens. SCENE 1: LAUNCH AND GLORY ------------------------- (Cora streams from her phone, energetic and smiling.) CORA: Hey, Luxies! We did it -- we are officially on top of the world! This is Cora Luxe, coming to you live from the highest balloon flight ever attempted. We're basically knocking on space's door! See that curve? That's Earth, my loves! Is this insane or what? We're 120,000 feet and climbing. Gotta thank my sponsors -- SparkFizz Energy, Lux Studios, and MyGloss Cosmetics -- for making this possible! I'm literally out of this world right now. (She reads the imaginary chat.) I see you! "Where's your oxygen mask?" Right here, babes, but I'm all good. State-of-the-art tech. Let me show you the -- (A beep. The lights flicker.) SCENE 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE ---------------------------- CORA: Must be a little glitch. Hold up, I need to check something. (She pushes controls. The hum changes pitch.) Altitude thrusters... why are you...? That's weird. (Back to the phone, falsely cheerful.) Slight hiccup with the altitude controls. No big deal! At the edge of space, but we have backup systems for everything, right? (An alarm intensifies.) Ground control? Hello? I can't descend. Something's jammed. Do I have rescue incoming? Hello? (Static.) Minor update: My thrusters are glitching, so I might be stuck for a bit. Let's get NASA on the line, folks! Flood their feed. Let's crowdsource a rescue. #SaveCora. SCENE 3: HOPE WANING -------------------- (Hours pass. Cold light. Cora's hair and makeup are disheveled.) CORA: It's been six hours? The air's thinning. I need someone to come get me. Are we trending? Is NASA seeing this? Elon? Blue Origin? Private jets? I've got all the money in the world. I'll pay for the biggest rescue operation ever. Somebody do something! Please? "Hang in there, Queen!" Thanks. "Use a parachute?" I don't have one -- this isn't that kind of flight. "She's faking it for views"? Are you serious? SCENE 4: DESCENT INTO DESPERATION --------------------------------- (Cora coughs and sips the last water. The phone's viewer count falls.) CORA: Where's everyone going? We dropped from a billion to eight hundred million. Then five hundred million. Only five hundred million people. Great. Now a hundred million. Please stay with me. Don't leave me alone. Anyone have coordinates for a rescue balloon? A supersonic jet? If only I'd kept that partnership with the search-and-rescue brand. It doesn't matter -- it's worthless up here, all of it! I was stupid to believe all these billions could save me. I have everything, and it's worthless when I can't fix a jammed thruster. I'm just a girl in a balloon about to run out of oxygen. SCENE 5: FINAL DECLINE ---------------------- (Dim light. Cora is weak and clutches her phone.) CORA: Five thousand viewers? I had over a billion! Where did they all go? Did they get bored with my near-death experience? Maybe they think I'm a lost cause. Maybe I am. To everyone still watching -- all five thousand of you -- thank you. It isn't your fault. You can't magically build a rocket. You can only watch me fade. I'm so cold. So tired. Oxygen's nearly gone. Remember me as the influencer who soared too high -- literally. If you share this stream, maybe it helps someone somehow. FINAL MOMENT ------------ (She sets down the phone facing her. Her breathing is ragged.) CORA: Mom... Dad... I'm sorry. You said real life was more important than likes. Guess you were right. I just wanted to show the world... (She trails off. The phone chirps with new messages, but rescue never comes. The capsule's power fades to black.) END PERFORMANCE NOTES ----------------- The play can use one performer, a phone, and subtle sound and lighting. The audience can become Cora's silent chat. Her desperation should grow naturally from confident showmanship to an unguarded fear of death. The script can run roughly 10 to 15 minutes depending on transitions and monologues. The piece's central theme is that followers and money become powerless under physical reality: a virtual empire cannot rescue a stranded human being.