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5INT. MARGOT’S BEDROOM. DAY.

The walls of Margot’s room are red, with little running zebras painted all over them. There is a collection of African masks hanging in the corner. Margot sits at a small metal stand, typing on an IBM typewriter.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

Margot Tenenbaum was adopted at the age

of two. Her father had always noted

this when introducing her.

CUT TO:

A cocktail party. Royal introduces Margot to a group of elderly men in black tie.

ROYAL

This is my adopted daughter, Margot

Tenenbaum.

Margot nods politely.

CUT TO:

A wall filled with bookshelves. There are thousands of books of plays. Margot takes out a copy of The Iceman Cometh.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

She was a playwright and won a Braverman

Grant of fifty-thousand dollars in the

ninth grade.

There is a mock-up of a stage set for a play that appears to have taken place in a network of tree houses on a tropical island. Margot places a tiny canoe beneath a palm tree.

NARRATOR (CONT’D)

She and her brother Richie ran away from

home one winter and camped out in the

African Wing of the Public Archives.