Don't Count on Forever

What 17-year-old Lisa doesn't realize yet is that her parents' marriage is dissolving and that her family is about to go through a traumatic change. Lisa was sure she could count on everything … good friends, a good future, and most of all, a really good and supportive family. In a life filled with so much confidence and energy, it's hard to believe that some good things just don't last. With a mixture of outrageous humor and painful drama, the playwright juxtaposes the two most significant elements in a young person's life: home and school. In her role as student, Lisa is the popular editor-in-chief of the high-school yearbook. Her days are a constant struggle to control her zany staff: the sports editor who won't keep his letter jacket on, the photographer who won't take her ammunition vest off, the copy editor who worries about going to the prom. In her role as daughter, Lisa is the only child of Frank and Joan, whose relationship is headed toward divorce. Her evenings are a struggle to control her emotions as they fly from love to hate to confusion, and back again. When commencement night comes, Lisa's father has left his family. Everything Lisa has always counted on is over. But she refuses to be defeated. In her remarkable address to the senior class, she reveals what she's learned. Graduation, she tells her friends, is the time to pack up all the good memories, throw away the bad ones—and set out for new beginnings.