{"id":1126,"date":"2017-03-10T17:50:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T17:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/?p=1126"},"modified":"2017-03-29T12:44:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T12:44:22","slug":"planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Contributor Jonathan Albert is a professor of theatre at Union College in Schenectady, NY where he teaches acting and playwriting. He will be contributing his original self-contained scenes, as well as scenes from longer form plays, and other contributions to Planet Arthur. Full disclosure; He is also the Owner of Putnam Den, a sponsor of Daily Planet Arthur. These contributions are not part of their sponsorship – it is just excellent writing! <\/em>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin, a masculine representation of man – stoic and tall in his solid stature.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nYou certainly put the \u201cman\u201d in mannequin, don\u2019t ya. MANnequin. Man E. Quin. Quinny. Cutie.<\/p>\n

Rose begins to undress the mannequin, slowly, seductively.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nI don\u2019t usually do this. Certainly not on a first date. I\u2019ve never been able to do the one-night-stand thing ya know? I just\u2026 I have to be more invested.<\/p>\n

His light summer jacket is now off.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nOh. I didn\u2019t realize you had this under here.<\/p>\n

She runs her hands along his pecs and arms.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nYou look good. So good! Why do you look so good to me??…. I am so weird.<\/p>\n

She takes off his shirt in a cold unfeeling manner.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nWhat would these plastic muscles look like on a real person? Real\u2026 You\u2019re not real. This isn\u2019t real. What is real anyway? What makes real real? There is no reality \u2013 there\u2019s simply one\u2019s perception of reality and a joint perception makes reality? But no two people truly see things the same way, so no two perceptions are the same, and if perception is reality then then no one sees reality as the same, nothing is true or real and here we live. This is a lonely, lonely world.<\/p>\n

Rose speaks to the mannequin as if looking for an answer.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nHow did I end up here?<\/p>\n

She waits for an answer that doesn\u2019t come and drops her head.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nAnd why are you wearing freaking sandals?! No self-respecting dude wears sandals- except to the beach. Does this look like the beach? You\u2019re not at the beach! You\u2019re\u2026 We\u2019re\u2026<\/p>\n

Rose looks around.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nI don\u2019t know where we are.<\/p>\n

She looks back at the mannequin. Very matter-of-fact\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nI\u2019m going to take off your pants now.<\/p>\n

She quickly stops.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nWait- what? No\u2026 No I\u2026 I\u2019m not\u2026 I know you are about to be naked but I am not taking off my clothes\u2026 No. I\u2019m not. I don\u2019t care what\u2019s fair or not fair\u2026 I\u2019m taking off your pants now\u2026 No I am not- I refuse to get naked with you. It\u2019s inappropriate. And like I said \u2013 I don\u2019t do this. This is a new\u2026 and unusual\u2026 experience for me.<\/p>\n

She puts her hands in his waistband and unbuttons his pants. She drops his pants to his ankles and marvels at the mannequin’s bulge.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nThat\u2019s interesting. Now what are we supposed to do with that?<\/p>\n

She sighs.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nAlright. Here\u2019s your fall attire. Fall into fall\u2026 Man \u2013 I don\u2019t remember abs feeling like that.<\/p>\n

Rose runs her hands over his abs and feels his pecs.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nWhat the\u2026 What\u2019s wrong with me?<\/p>\n

Rose continues to run her hands over his shoulders and arms and chest and abs. She puts her other hand down her own pants. She feels him. She feels herself and breathes heavily, falling into him, losing herself. She continues for a moment or two or three\u2026. then suddenly snaps out of it. She slaps the mannequin across the face and then pushes him. Hard. He falls back.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nYou are a piece of plastic \u2013 an inanimate idea of\u2026 something that I am twisting into\u2026 something else that I think is familiar but is is sooo wildly unfamiliar to me\u2026 to me\u2026 To me you are perfect.<\/p>\n

She struggles to get him back up and begins to dress him in his new outfit- black pants, running sneakers, white v-neck t-shirt and loose sweatshirt over it.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nYou listen when I talk. You show me unconditional attention and support. You stand up, stand tall, strong, steadfast. Mmmm and your shoulders\u2026<\/p>\n

She looks at the other mannequins.<\/em><\/p>\n

ROSE
\nAnd you\u2019re loyal. Thank you for your steadfast loyalty. And\u2026 and for letting me dress you.<\/p>\n

The mannequin is dressed now. Rose steps back, and looks at her work. She fixes how the sweatshirt is draped on his shoulders. She sweetly kisses the mannequin on the cheek and lets her hand run across his shoulders and chest as she walks away leaving him. She lingers for another second or two, stopping to look back at him. Then\u2026 she goes.<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n*************************<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Contributor Jonathan Albert is a professor of theatre at Union College in Schenectady, NY where he teaches acting and playwriting. He will be contributing his original self-contained scenes, as well as scenes from longer form plays, and other contributions to Planet Arthur. Full disclosure; He is also the Owner of Putnam Den, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":1123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[168,120,167,36],"class_list":["post-1126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theater","tag-dressing","tag-jonathan-albert","tag-mannequin","tag-theater"],"yoast_head":"\r\nPlanet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Daily Planet Arthur\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arthur.gonick\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-10T17:50:38+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-29T12:44:22+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"594\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arthur\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/go_arthur\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arthur\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/\",\"name\":\"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-10T17:50:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-29T12:44:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/773d66497389b8f3b3878424db163807\"},\"description\":\"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":594},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/\",\"name\":\"The Daily Planet Arthur\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/773d66497389b8f3b3878424db163807\",\"name\":\"Arthur\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/94740ee40dd2a83516d140afceb44f4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/94740ee40dd2a83516d140afceb44f4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arthur\"},\"description\":\"Long before I became a reporter, I became a human being. Empathy is the key to telling any good story... I write with the goal of always having my next story be my best story!\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arthur.gonick\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/go_arthur\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/author\/art-gonick\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur","description":"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur","og_description":"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/","og_site_name":"The Daily Planet Arthur","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arthur.gonick","article_published_time":"2017-03-10T17:50:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-29T12:44:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":594,"url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arthur","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/go_arthur","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arthur","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/","name":"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts - The Daily Planet Arthur","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg","datePublished":"2017-03-10T17:50:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-29T12:44:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/773d66497389b8f3b3878424db163807"},"description":"Rose steps up into the front windows of the JC Penney storefront. She drops a heap of clothing onto the floor. She turns toward a mannequin.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2017\/03\/img_5816.jpg","width":1024,"height":594},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/2017\/03\/planet-jonathan-a-jc-penny-for-your-thoughts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Planet Jonathan: A (JC) Penny-for-your Thoughts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/","name":"The Daily Planet Arthur","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/773d66497389b8f3b3878424db163807","name":"Arthur","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/94740ee40dd2a83516d140afceb44f4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/94740ee40dd2a83516d140afceb44f4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arthur"},"description":"Long before I became a reporter, I became a human being. Empathy is the key to telling any good story... I write with the goal of always having my next story be my best story!","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arthur.gonick","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/go_arthur"],"url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/author\/art-gonick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1771,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/1771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/daily-planet-arthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}