I have just started adding my plays to TES (over 400)!but this will take time! All my assemblies/class plays and guided reading scripts are on www.plays-r-ussell.com and I am happy to write on request. I have converted the entire History Key Stage II curriculum into play format - and much of the other subjects such as Science, Geography, PSHE etc. I cover events such as the Olympics and have received great feedback from teachers around the world! Writing is my passion - hope you enjoy my work!
I have just started adding my plays to TES (over 400)!but this will take time! All my assemblies/class plays and guided reading scripts are on www.plays-r-ussell.com and I am happy to write on request. I have converted the entire History Key Stage II curriculum into play format - and much of the other subjects such as Science, Geography, PSHE etc. I cover events such as the Olympics and have received great feedback from teachers around the world! Writing is my passion - hope you enjoy my work!
Aesop Fables Guided Reading Scripts
SPECIAL HALF TERM OFFER:
Set of 5 Guided Reading Scripts, from Aesop Fables - available individually @ £5.00 Special Offer - all 5 for £15
These scripts, 6 speakers each, can be used within the classroom, in English or PSHE, or for *performance. They each come with lesson plan, original story synopsis, discussion points and suggestions for further activities.
*as separate plays (6 speakers), or one combined play(cast of 30)
Five Aesop Fables:
· The Lion and the Mouse
· The Fox and the Stork
· The Tortoise and the Hare
· The Jay and the Peacocks
· The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
The Five PSHE Themes are:
· Friendship
· Mutual Respect
· Taking Time
· Being Happy with Who and What we are
· Being Satisfied with What We've Got
Duration: Each script is between 5 and 10 minutes reading time. As each comes with additional activities, this resource is potentially five 20-30 minute lessons – so could be done over the course of a week or spread out over a longer period.
Happy Customer: "I am so excited to use these! I was beginning to forget who I am as a teacher especially during guided reading because I was trying so hard to fit into my schools strict guided reading expectations and I think this will really help me discover me again. Thank you so much!"
Rating: 4.0
So lovely to receive comments like this - within 24 hours of releasing these scripts! Thank you so much to this teacher - made my day! Currently working on a 5 scene/5 guided reading script adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. Hope it gets the same reception!
Wizard of Oz Guided Reading Scripts (10) - 6 speakers each
This ‘play’ was written primarily as a set of guided reading scripts or Readers Theater – to be used by 5 groups of 6 speakers. The 10 scripts can be divided into Scene I & II for Group 1, Scene III & IV for Group 2 etc; or a run of consecutive readings, going round twice e.g. Scene I for Group 1, Scene II for Group 2 etc.
Conversely, the 10 scripts could be used by one group at a time i.e. for 10 or however many sessions it takes; or just straight through in around 30 minutes.
These scripts could be combined to produce a play for performance, with the addition of directions, music suggestions and extra cast members plus props.
Number of Scenes and Duration:
There are 10 Scenes. Each of these is around 3 minutes reading time. 30 minutes in total.
Cast
The same 5 principal roles (Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion) are used in each scene. The additional 6th speaker is different each time with the exception of the last two scenes.
In brackets after the cast list e.g. Scene I (‘Others - 3 Munchkins - BLUE – for class play) are the additional cast members that could be added for a performance play. These are not required for the guided reading scripts as they stand.
Scene I Arrival in Land of Oz
Cast
· Dorothy
· Toto
· Scarecrow
· Tin Woodman
· Cowardly Lion
Plus
· Good Witch of the North
(‘Others’ - 3 Munchkins - BLUE – for class play)
Sample Text:
Witch: (Interrupting) Oh, no mistake, my dear! Your house here took her out in one move. Can’t you see her feet sticking out from underneath?
Toto: She’s right! Well, who would have thought it
Scarecrow: (Sadly) Hmm. Thinking. Not my speciality! No brains to speak of, me!
Dorothy: That’s what you think!
Tin Woodman: But that’s just the point! He can’t – think, that is! Any more than I can feel!
Dorothy: You are mistaken
Cowardly Lion: Huh! You’ll be telling me I’m a brave creature, next!
Dorothy: You are!
Witch: (Impatiently) Well, much as I would like to stand around listening to you lot arguing all day – not! Let’s just say, it’s a blessing that cyclone brought you here all the way from Kansas
The Ugly Duckling Guided Reading Script or Readers Theater for Group of six speakers
This is one of a collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories and includes teaching input, discussion and suggestions for further activities - i.e. ample content for a lesson. It can equally be used as a literary or PSHE resource.
It could also be used as a small play, for performance, with a few ‘tweaks’ and the addition of the music suggestions below.
Music
1. ‘There once was an ugly duckling’ song
2. Swan Lake – Tchaikovsky
3. You’re so Vain – Carly Simon
Cast of 6:
Narrator
The Ugly Duckling
Farmyard Turkey
Swan 1, 2 & 3
Duration: Around 10 minutes reading time
Sample Text 1
Ugly Duckling: ‘Oh dear!’
Narrator: (Puzzled) Pardon?
Ugly Duckling: ‘Oh dear!’ I mean, that was the first thing I heard when I emerged into this world.
Swan 1: Oh, you poor, dear sweetheart!
Farmyard Turkey: (Mimicking Swan 1) Ah bless! You little darling!
Swan 2: (To Turkey) What is your problem? Did nobody ever show you any love?
Farmyard Turkey: Well, now you come to mention it, no!
Swan 3: Oh dear! That would explain a lot!
Farmyard Turkey: (Angrily) I beg your pardon? Heh, I’ve survived, haven’t I? And not, may I add, done so very badly for myself! Think farmyard status again!
Narrator: Oh, you and your farmyard status! I wonder how you’d have fared outside that yard, in the bigger world?
Farmyard Turkey: (Anxiously) Ooh, you wouldn’t get me going beyond the farmyard gate!
Ugly Duckling: And that’s exactly to and beyond where I was chased!
Narrator: But, hold on a minute. What about those other ducklings?
Swan 1: Yeah. Those first brothers and sisters of yours?
Swan 2: Didn’t they stand by you?
Swan 3: Didn’t they stick up for you?
Ugly Duckling: You are joking? From the minute they saw me they made fun of me!
Sample Text 2 (Demonstrating PHSE link)
Narrator: Nah! Ever heard the expression, beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
Swan 2: Meaning?
Narrator: That what is ugly and unattractive to one person, is totally beautiful to another!
Ugly Duckling: A shame my brothers and sisters didn’t see that!
Narrator: Because you were different from them. And sometimes being different is quite scary to others. They feel threatened.
Ugly Duckling: They feel threatened? They want to feel what it’s like to be on the receiving end!
Narrator: Which is why we should always treat others as we’d like to be treated ourselves.
Fairy Tale Pantomime
This script can either be used for performance purposes - as a pantomime, a Christmas play or an assembly - or as a set of guided reading scripts (Readers Theater) to be used within the classroom.
35 pages of fun – and extremely bad jokes!
Cast of 30 (five groups of six)
Play I SLEEPING BEAUTY
Speaker 1 Narrator
Speaker 2 Sleeping Beauty
Speaker 3 Prince (girl)
Speaker 4 Good Fairy (boy)
Speaker 5 Bad Fairy (boy)
Speaker 6 Sleeping Beauty’s Mother – the Dame
Play II CINDERELLA
Speaker 7: Cinderella
Speaker 8: Bad Sister 1
Speaker 9: Bad Sister 2
Speaker 10: Fairy Godmother
Speaker 11: Prince
Speaker 12: Cinderella’s Step-Mum alias ‘Dame’
Play III SNOW WHITE
Speaker 13: Mirror
Speaker 14: Wicked Queen/Step-Mother
Speaker 15: Snow White
Speaker 16: Huntsman/Prince
Speaker 17: Dwarf 1 Dopey/Dame
Speaker 18: Dwarf 2 Jolly
Play IV Little Red Riding Hood
Speaker 19: Little Red Riding Hood
Speaker 20: Little Red Riding Hood’s Mother
Speaker 21 Big Bad Wolf
Speaker 22: Grannie/Dame
Speaker 23: Huntsman
Speaker 24: Censor
Play V RUMPELSTILTSKIN
Narrator: Narrator
Speaker 25: Rumpelstiltskin
Speaker 26: Daughter
Speaker 27: King
Speaker 28: Miller
Speaker 29: Queen/Dame
Duration: Around 30 minutes not including music suggestions (around 5 minutes for each of 5 plays)
Sample Text:
Music 1 – A medley of Christmas songs
(Children file in, seating themselves along 2 rows of 15, facing the audience; in 5 groups of 6)
Narrator: Good morning and welcome to our pantomime
(Whole Cast stands)
Whole Cast: (In disbelief) Our what?
Narrator: You heard! I have decided that this year
Child 1: (Interrupting) No way!
Child 2: We’re always happy to come to your drama group, sir, but
Child 3: Absolutely no way are we doing panto!
Narrator: Oh yes you are!
Whole Cast: Oh no we’re not!
Narrator: There you are! I knew you wouldn’t take much persuading!
Child 4: Er, I think you just misheard. We said
Whole Cast: Oh no we’re not!
The Emperor's New Clothes Guided Reading Script
This is one of a collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories and includes Teaching Input, Discussion and Suggestions for Further Activities - i.e. ample content for a lesson. It can equally be used as a literary or PSHE resource.
It could also be used as a small play, for performance, with a few ‘tweaks’ and the addition of the music suggestions below.
Music
1. Fashion - David Bowie
2. You’re so Vain – Carly Simon
Cast of 6:
• Narrator
• Emperor
• Weaver 1 & 2
• Royal Adviser
• Street Child
Duration: Around 10 minutes reading time
Sample Text:
Narrator: (To Street Child) Apart from you, you all went along with this charade – just so as to save face? Well, really!
Royal Adviser: Yes, I know it looks bad
Narrator: It most certainly does
Emperor: But I wonder what you’d have done, especially as everyone else seemed to be going along with it?
Narrator: But couldn’t you see you were being taken for a song and a dance?
Weaver 1: It was quite funny!
Weaver 2: Especially when the emperor here actually turned up to try on his new clothes
Weaver 1: After having given us all that money and gold thread and
Emperor: (Interrupting) Yes, yes. Must you rub it in? Haven’t I been humiliated enough?
Royal Adviser: (Groaning) Oh, if only I had had the strength to admit to what I could see – as in, nothing! No cloth on the loom, no clothes, just air!
Emperor: And what a lot of hot air you were! Coming back telling me how wonderfully the work was progressing. How delighted I was going to be with my new clothes!
Royal Adviser: But I didn’t want to appear either unfit for my job or stupid.
Narrator: And so, you ended up being both!
Street Child: I’ll never understand grown-ups!
Other Hans Christian Anderson stories available are:
• The Ugly Duckling
(with more to come)
Miracles of Jesus Assembly and/or Guided Reading Scripts
This assembly can be used as a class play (for performance) or as a set of guided reading scripts within the classroom – there are a set of questions for class discussion included in the Production Notes.
The five plays within this assembly are:
Turning Water into Wine
Feeding the Five Thousand
Walking on Water
The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead
Healing Miracles including Healing the Man Born Blind
Cast of 30 - Narrator plus Student, with cast of 5 for the first 4 plays and then cast of 8 for the fifth.
Duration: Around 10 – 15 minutes not including hymns
Sample Text:
Music 1 Love Divine All Loves Excelling hymn
(Cast files into hall, seating themselves along two rows of fifteen seats, facing the audience; Narrator and Student standing to one side)
Narrator: Good morning and welcome to our assembly on
Cast: (Together) Miracles!
Narrator: The miracles of
Cast: (Together) Jesus!
Student: Wow! This should be amazing! I’ve never seen miracles performed live before!
Narrator: And I wouldn’t count on seeing any here today!
Student: (Protesting) But
Narrator: (Interrupting) But nothing! Jesus never intended his work to be seen as magic! He was not there to entertain but to teach.
Student: (Stifling a yawn) If you say so!
Narrator: I most certainly do! So, if you don’t mind, we’ll get going with the very first miracle Jesus performed at that Wedding in Cana.
Music 2 Hymn – Lord at Cana’s Wedding Feast
Play 1 Water into Wine Miracle
(Enter Jesus, bride, groom, servant 1 & 2)
Jesus: Was ever there a happier occasion than a wedding?
(Bride and groom talking together in worried tones)
Bride: What are we to do?
Groom: This is a disaster!
Jesus: But wait? What is the matter with our happy couple?
Servant 1: Have you not heard?
Servant 2: The wine has run out!
Peter Pan Cast of 6 Script
This script comes with synopsis, teaching input and further discussion ideas – the whole ‘package’, including 10-minute reading time of script, coming to around 20 – 30 minutes.
Also available:
Peter Pan Play – in two versions:
• one for primary school children (7 to 11-year olds)
• the other, which includes a social commentary from J.M. Barrie, for upper Key Stage II primary school children plus i.e. from 10 years on
Sample Text:
Narrator: And so, our task today
Peter Pan: To take you to Neverland!
Tinker Bell: With me!
Wendy: And me!
Tinker Bell: (Groaning) Oh, must we?
Peter Pan: (Angrily) Tink! We’re talked about this
Wendy: (Interrupting) You mean her insane jealousy
Tinker Bell: (Interrupting) What? Of you? Don’t flatter yourself!
Captain Hook: (Intervening) Ladies! Please! Where’s your self-respect?
Crocodile: Tick! Tick! Tick!
Captain Hook: (Screaming) Oh no! Not now!
Wendy: (Sarcastically) Did someone just mention self-respect?
Narrator: (To Captain Hook) And a pirate, too! What is the matter with you, man?
Captain Hook: Oh nothing! (Rounding on Narrator, angrily) Other than the fact I lost an arm to this monster! I wonder how you would feel about that?
Peter Pan: Er, not strictly true. It was I that severed that limb from your body!
Captain Hook: (Shrieking) Oh, don’t remind me!
Peter Pan: And then fed it to this crocodile!
Crocodile: Yum yum! Definitely gave me the taste for some more!
Tinker Bell: Which you got – right at the end!
Wendy: Nothing like a happy ending!
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Christmas Play
Cast of 30 (with some doubling up)
Duration: around 30 minutes (without music suggestions)
This is a fun, simple to produce a class play or assembly - it can also be used for panto purposes. After writing the set of guided reading scripts based on the story, I couldn't resist writing another play whilst the story and characters were still fresh in my head! Though Dorothy is not quite as 'wholesome' as in the original story and the Wizard of Oz is a little more 'versatile' in this version!
Also available:
• The Wizard of Oz Guided Reading Scripts (10 of these, with 6 speakers each; around 3 minutes each – total reading time around 30 minutes)
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Play – the non-Xmas version!
Sample Text:
(Toto reluctantly wags tail at Dorothy)
Dorothy: (Patting Toto on the head) That’s better! An obedient pooch! Now we can get the show on the road!
Toto: But, just as a matter of interest, what happened to that other Dorothy – the one I rehearsed with?
Dorothy: (Dismissively) Oh didn’t you hear? She got caught up in one too many cyclones! Nasty business if you don’t get it right!
(Sound of howling wind, followed by long scream)
Music 2 Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
Narrator: Good heavens! What on earth was that?
(Enter Good Witch of the North, with great panache and thunderous applause from the cast, carrying a pair of silver shoes. She is accompanied by three Munchkins)
Good Witch: (Curtseying to the cast) Ah thank you so much!
(Cast continues to clap and cheer)
Good Witch: Oh now, really. You’re too kind!
Dorothy: (Scowling) I’ll say! How come I didn’t get that kind of reception?
Good Witch: Oh dear! What’s with the scowly face? That’s not very pretty, dear!
Toto: (To Good Witch) I think she’s a bit put out – that you seem to have stolen the show!
Good Witch: (Incredulously) Stolen the show? Me? The Good Witch of the North? With all my panache and presence? Oh, surely not?
(Good Witch twirls and beams broadly from ear to ear)
Good Witch: (To Dorothy) I bet you too have loads of superstar qualities! (Pauses) Only, you’re just keeping them rather well hidden!
Dorothy: Huh! I’ll have you know, some of us have business to attend to!
Good Witch: Well, I have to hand it to you. Killing the Wicked Witch of the East was pretty smart!
Toto: (Exclaiming) She what?
Good Witch: (Waving silver shoes around) Oh yes! And here’s the evidence! Bit of inspiration, my dear, landing that house directly on top of the witch! Here are her shoes, all that’s left of her!