Cell Phones

I was doing a production of "Fires in the Mirror" and all four actresses were doing a monologue together, which contains a cell phone. This meant that I needed four matching cell phones circa 1991 which is all but impossible. I ended up using four very similar cordless phone receivers I found at thrift stores. Old cell phones and more recent cordless home phones are not all that different. The moral of the story though is save your cell phones. Recently I have been asked to provide cell phones for numerous shows and no one has them in stock yet. Technology is going to start showing up more and more in scripts as it becomes more integrated into our culture. Unlike other household items though, we don't keep out technology around in the same way. Broken laptops and cell phones don't end up in thrift stores or garage sales the way coffee makers and couches do. I have started telling my friends and family to save all their own cell phones and laptops for me, and it's already come in handy more than once.