Sample skit - exemplar

The “Busboy” Poet is Discovered

Fade in: Washington D.C. in 1925. We are at the Wardman Park Hotel restaurant where Langston Hughes is currently working as a busboy. The already famous poet, Vachel Lindsay is dining at the restaurant. Hughes sees Lindsay eating from across the room.

Hughes: (curiously staring) Hey! Do you think that is The Vachel Lindsay?

Busboy 1: Who’s that?

Hughes: You know, the poet. He’s written “The Gospel of Beauty” and “Rhymes to be Traded for Bread.”

Busboy 1: Never heard of him.


Hughes: (Walking slowly toward Lindsay’s table, searching for the right words to say. He digs up a napkin from his pocket and writes down one of his poems “The Weary Blues.” He continues to walk toward Lindsay’s table and holds his breathe.) Are you done, sir?

Lindsay: You can take this plate. (He doesn’t even look at Hughes when he answers.)

Hughes: (Places the napkin in front of Lindsay and takes the plate.) Anything else I can do for you, sir?

Lindsay: What’s this? (He seems irritated that his meal is being intruded upon by another want to be poet, but he still takes the time to read the poem. He slows down and doesn’t seem so annoyed anymore; he is intrigued by Hughes’s poem.) Did you write this young man?

Hughes: Yes sir. I have been writing for a while now. (He is confident, yet humble and truly amazed that Lindsay is interested in his work. The two become deeply engaged in conversation.)

Lindsay: How long did it take you to write it? What was your inspiration?

Fade out: Lindsay and Hughes discuss poetry through the rest of the night. Vachel later calls him the “busboy” poet because this is how he is discovered. Lindsay gives Hughes much valuable advice, which later helps Hughes win high accolades for his poem “The Weary Blues” which helped put him on the map as a writer. Unfortunately, Lindsay goes on to commit suicide.