THE PRODIGY
The play takes place in a living room setting. Andrea Merced, a rising young teenage tennis star, sits on a sofa watching television. Pamela and Marcus Merced, her parents, and Brandon Helms, a reporter come to interview Andrea, enter the room.
After introductions are made, it is established early on that both Pamela and Marcus are frustrated atheletes of a by-gone era. Pamela still laments that her working-class parents were unable to finaince her career as a figure skater, while Marcus feels an untimely knee injury prevented him from becoming a world-class tennis player.
The initial part of Helms' interview reveals the grueling training regimen to which Andrea is subjected on a daily basis in order for her to reach tennis stardom. A casualty of this process is her life as a normal high-school student.
When friends of the family visit, Pamela and Marcus leave the room, allowing Andrea to speak her thoughts freely. She tells of the pressures imposed upon her to succeed, her fears of failure and the depression of witnessing what has happened to the women pros who have not materialized as the next hot prospect.
At length Andrea reveals her real love, music, and how she had secretly made a vocal recording in the school studio. She even gives Helms a tape of her performance. He encourages her to continue with music, no matter the frustrations. When asked about the article to be written, Helms says it will be the usual fluff piece with no mention of their private conversation. In the end, Andrea is left alone once more to view TV, only this time she is definitely upbeat in demeanor.