Bindle Stiff
by Amlin Gray

THE STORY: In this curtain raiser, set in 1937, Bertha is a “BINDLE STIFF,” or hobo.

She has come into the theater in search of someone she calls “Perfessor” (an empty chair in the audience).

The Perfessor, a social scientist, hired her for his social research on the lives and habits of hobos.

First, Bertha was to relate her own life story: from her childhood in Kansas, to a socialist farm during World War I, to being a prostitute.

But recently the Perfessor has asked her to go back on the road and the rails to gather more information for his book.

After three more trips out, however, Bertha is feeling used.

She's here to tell the Perfessor she has decided to quit and go back to the life she knows.