PLAY SCRIPTS

Many of Edel Wignell's play scripts have been published in magazines, some have been compiled into collections and others are single scripts published as books.

• See the Script Collections
• See the Single Scripts

Try a play script 'The White Elephant' a play for acting, based on a folk tale of India, first published in Orbit: School Magazine. NEW!

Read a newspaper article about the collection, Tricking the Tiger. It was written for ages 8-12 years, and was first published in the 'All About Books' lift-out in 'The Age'.

SCRIPT COLLECTIONS

ISBN numbers indicate books in print.

	The White Elephant: Drama based on Asian Folk Tales (2009, Teaching Solutions) for ages 8-12 years. ISBN 978 1 870 51688 4 A white elephant, a magic gem, trickery, time twists, fire and wind wrapped in paper, a beautiful bird, wishes granted... This collection contains seven plays based on folk tales from India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Papua/New Guinea. It includes: two plays for acting, three plays for shared reading and two radio plays Choruses and shared reading ensure that everyone in the class can have a turn in every play. Extensive Notes for Teachers accompany the plays. www.teachingsolutions.com.au See Notes for Teachers NEW! for Classroom Activities and an article, 'Adding Choruses to Play Scripts'.
	Tricking the Tiger: Plays Based on Asian Folk Tales - eight photocopiable plays for ages 10-14 years. ISBN 9 781876 580322 A ghostly trickster, winning a princess, the exploits of a thief, brothers sharing an inheritance, a seductive portrait, and more. The folk tales are from Papua New Guinea, Korea, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Japan and Indonesia. www.phoenixeduc.com Also Tricking the Tiger: Teacher Resource Book ISBN 1 876580 38 0 (Click cover for larger image)
	The Hobyahs and Other Plays from Around the World (1995, Bushfire Press, translated into Chinese by Bookman Books, Taiwan) - five photocopiable plays for ages 8-10 years. ISBN 1 875191 48 8 Hobyahs, trolls, a mighty sparrow, a goat with seven eyes, a ghost wagon, and more. The collection includes a puppet play, a tall tale and a trickster tale for shared reading, a ghost play with songs, and a folk tale from the viewpoint of the 'baddies'. Choruses and shared reading provide turns for everyone. www.bushfirepress.com Also see the Chinese book cover (Click cover for larger image)

SINGLE SCRIPTS IN BOOK FORMAT

ISBN numbers indicate books in print.

	Bendemolena, illustrated by Mini Goss, 'Voiceworks' series (2001, Pearson Education) in small and 'big book' formats, for ages 6-8 years. Small book: ISBN 0 7406 1810 5 Big Book: ISBN 0 7339 1760 7 Bendemolina was selected by Scholastic Canada for a French language edition of Voiceworks. The title is Bettina, and the series is En scene. In this play script, based on an American tall tale, Bendemolena, the kitten, lives in a noisy house, so she takes a shiny pot and puts it on her head. Hooray - it's quiet!. But Mother asks her to run messages, and she muddles them up! www.pearsoned.com.au (Click cover for larger image)
	The Ant and the Grasshopper, illustrated by Meng-Feng Wu, 'Story Steps' series (2000, Shortland-Mimosa, Australia; Kingscourt, UK) - for ages 6-8 years. ISBN 0 7901 2129 8 Grasshopper's friend, Ant, has fallen into a stream. Will Grasshopper be able to rescue him? How can a coconut help? This picture-story play script is based on a folk tale of Indonesia. www.mcgraw-hill.com.au (Click cover for larger image)
	The Tie Olympics, illustrated by Robert Roennfeldt, 'Southern Cross' series (1987, Macmillan Australia) for ages 8-10 years. The Foster family will soon be moving house. They decide to tidy up, give away and throw out everything they don't need. Mr Foster has a large collection of ties. The family have a Tie Olympics, with votes to decide which ones to keep and which to discard. (Click cover for larger image)

NEW!
THE WHITE ELEPHANT
Edel Wignell ©
A play for acting, based on a folk tale of India, first published in Orbit: School Magazine.

The following play script is based on a folk tale of India. A woman, sworn to secrecy about her husband's visits to heaven – holding the tail of a magical white elephant – tells her neighbour and, when the story spreads, everyone tries to join in. All the children in a class can be involved.

The script is one of seven in a collection by Edel Wignell, The White Elephant: Drama based on Asian folk tales (2009, Teaching Solutions) for Years 3-7. ISBN: 978-1-921454-28-8 www.teachingsolutions.com.au

Also see Notes for Teachers selected from the collection.

If this play is printed in multiple copies for classroom use, ensure that the copyright notice, Edel Wignell ©, appears on each copy and that a remuneration notice is sent to Copyright Agency Ltd. Download the PDF version

Cast:

• STORYTELLER 1
• STORYTELLER 2
• STORYTELLER 3
• SHANKAR - the Rajah's chief gardener
• LAKSHMI - Shankar's wife
• AIRAVATA - a white elephant
• LAKSHMI'S FRIEND
• LAKSHMI'S FRIEND'S FRIENDS (any number)
• HUSBANDS OF THE WOMEN (any number)
• CURIOUS WOMAN

Props (suggestions)

• sun and moon - perhaps cardboard discs to show day and night
• Rahjah's garden - drawings on the blackboard
• garden of heaven - mural
• giant areca nut, betel leaf, mango and flower - cardboard or
• papier mâché

Settings

• The Rajah's garden
• Shankar and Lakshmi's cottage
• The garden of heaven
• The village street

The Rajah's garden with SHANKAR and LAKSHMI'S cottage in one corner. SHANKAR is working in the Rajah's garden. LAKSHMI is inside.

Source

Folk Tales from Asia for Children Everywhere, Book 4 (1975, Weatherhill, New York, and Heibonsha, Tokyo, sponsored by the Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO)
ISBN: 978-1454-28-8

THE WHITE ELEPHANT: NOTES FOR TEACHERS

With the children, find India, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand on a map of Asia, and then on a world globe. Several children could borrow books from the library to display and read in the classroom. Others could search the Internet.

Children's enjoyment of the play may be increased if they have background information in the following areas:

• elephants
• white elephants
• areca nuts

Elephants
In Asia the elephant is highly regarded for its intelligence, strength and docility - its willingness to be trained to do various kinds of work and to carry heavy loads. Elephants have been included in Asian folklore and legends for thousands of years.

White elephants
Long ago in India, people believed that the first elephants were milk-white with large wings. They flew and were able to create clouds.

White elephants, being rare, are valuable and, in the past, were regarded as sacred. In Hinduism (the main religion of India), elephants are sacred animals. One of the most celebrated Hindu gods, Indra, rides a mighty white elephant called Airavata.

Siam (now called Thailand) was once called 'The Land of the White Elephant', and 'The King of the White Elephant' is the proud title once used by the kings of Siam and Ava in central Burma (now called Myanmar).

A recent newspaper report from Rangoon (the capital of Myanmar) described the discovery of a white elephant (The Age, Melbourne, 10 November 2001). Having pearl eyes and whitish, light pink skin, he is regarded as an albino elephant.

Areca nut
The areca nut comes from the fruit of the areca palm tree. Indian people wrap leaves of the betel plant around small pieces of the areca nut, and add a little lime, making a kind of chewing gum.

Drama - performance

• Before acting the play, the children can read it and discuss the characters, the action and the setting, then the feeling and atmosphere of the story.
• They can experiment with different voices for the various parts, and decide who's who.
• As they rehearse, children can read from the script while acting - until they gain confidence.
• The trialling children said that the play is too short. You can make it as long as you like by adding more people to the chain of villagers rising up to Heaven.
• Everyone in the class can take part. First they can research and find Indian names, and select one each.
• How will they fly through the air? Perhaps they will weave around the playground, holding onto each other. They could invent dialogue with the next person - maintaining their Indian character by discussing the elephant, and wondering about their journey and their destination.
• Finally, the question, 'How big are the fruits and flowers in heaven?', is asked, and each one passes the curious woman's question along the chain.

Classroom activities

1. Ethics: loyalty

• Questions may help the flow of discussion. How difficult is it to keep a secret? Have you ever kept one? How difficult is it to keep a promise? Have you ever broken one? What happened?
• Discussion could include the following topics: best friends, loyalty, being reliable, and the satisfaction of being able to trust a friend, as well as the hurt felt, and the loss of trust when a secret is revealed or a promise is broken.
• Children could create mottos, such as 'I will always keep a secret', and make badges to wear.

2. Creative writing

Using the above discussion as a basis, the children could write a story or a poem - factual or imaginative - about keeping a secret. They could compile the writings, with illustrations, into a book and give it an appropriate title.

3. Planning and organising

In English-speaking countries a 'white elephant' is something that isn't needed any longer - perhaps an old chair. Sometimes people give their 'white elephants' to a 'white elephant sale' at a fair to raise money for charity.

The class could organise a 'white elephant' sale to benefit a charity. Or it could be part of a School Fair to raise money for school funding, with every class contributing.

The class will need to list the jobs to be done, and make decisions: how to advertise the sale, when items should be brought, where they will be stored, how they will be priced, who will be in charge of particular aspects...

4. Folklore link

'The White Elephant' is a story that is as long as you like to make it. It's almost an endless tale. In folklore there are several endless tales. Here is one:

And Then, Bhurrah!
An endless tale from the Marathi people
of central and south-western India

Once a storyteller was tired of telling stories, but the children and the adults in his village weren't tired of listening.
   'Tell us more!' they said, time and time again.
   So the storyteller began to describe a huge flock of birds wheeling in the sky. 'At last, they swooped down and settled in a tree.'
   He paused, and the listeners, asked, 'And then?'
   'One bird flew from the tree with a sound like bhurrah!' said the storyteller.
   'And then?'
   'Bhurrah! went another bird, flying from the tree.'
   'And then?'
   'Another bird flew away. Bhurrah!'
   Finally someone asked, 'How long will this go on?'
   The storyteller answered, 'Till all the birds have gone.'

Children could tell the Indian endless tale at home, and report on the responses of adults and siblings. In groups, they could try to create a new one.

5. Literature links

• Display elephant stories in the classroom, including the classic, Barbar, the Elephant (Cape). Famous and popular, Barbar is the hero of many books written by French writer, Jean de Brunhoff. Barbar rules over the Land of the Elephants with the help of his wife, Queen Celeste, and his old friend General Cornelius. He fights wars with rhinos, escapes from a circus and has many exciting adventures.
• 'The Elephant's Child' is one of the tales in Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories (Macmillan).
• Madhur Jaffrey, Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths and Legends of India (Hodder & Stoughton) includes a great variety of tales from many areas.
• 'And Then, Bhurrah!' and 'Sea-of-Stories', an endless tale from the Tamil people of southern India, are included in Carl Withers, A World of Nonsense: Strange and Humorous Tales from Many Lands, (The Bodley Head); 'The Fox and the Geese', a German endless tale from the Brothers Grimm - in Richard Bamberger, My First Big Story-Book (Penguin Books).