[The Chorus and Russell are on stage.]
Chorus - all: At night, when the sun has gone down, and it's very dark outside; when all the human people are asleep, and there's no light to frighten them, all the little ghosts come out to play.
Russell: Except Pinky.
Chorus - 1: Right!
Chorus - 2: We don't let Pinky play with us, of course.
Chorus - 3: Because he's pink!
Chorus - all: Everybody knows ghosts are supposed to be white.
Russell: And besides, he dresses funny. Did you see that strange green ribbon he always wears?
Chorus - 1: Yes!
Chorus - all: Ha! Ha!
Chorus - 2: It's crooked and it's stringy, and it's such a funny color!
Chorus - 3: Who ever heard of wearing a green ribbon? It's not at all like our own beautiful red ribbons!
[Russell looks out the window.]
Russell: Look! It's dark outside! The sun has gone down and there's no light to scare us, and all the people in the house are fast asleep. Let's play hide and seek.
Chorus - all: That sounds like fun!
Chorus - 1: Yeah!
Chorus - 2: Good idea!
Russell: Who wants to be IT? Who wants to close his eyes and count to a hundred while everybody hides?
Chorus - 3: Not me!
Chorus - 2: Not me!
Chorus - 1: Not me!
Russell: Well, I will, then. I'll even go down to the basement, and I'll close my eyes, and I won't peek, honest. Then I'll count to a hundred while all of you go and hide. But you'd better hide real good, because I'm going to try very hard to find you!
[Exit Russell, stage left. The Chorus flutters excitedly to and fro across the stage.]
Chorus - all: Oh my! Where shall we hide?
[The Chorus moves to stage left.]
Chorus - all: Shall we hide here?
Chorus - 1: No, that's too hard.
[Chorus moves to stage right.]
Chorus - 2: Shall we hide here?
Chorus - 3: No, that's too easy.
[Chorus circles the stage in a sort of frenzy]
Chorus - 1: I wish Russell weren't down in the basement!
Chorus - 2: Yeah! He knows all the good places to hide!
Chorus - 3: Where can we hide where he won't find us?
[Enter Pinky, stage right.]
Pinky: Hi, Fellas!
[Chorus retreats to stage left.]
Chorus - all: Pinky!
Chorus - 3: Oh, no!
Chorus - 2: It's Pinky!
Pinky: Whatcha doing?
Chorus - 1: None of your business, pink-o.
Chorus - all: Go away.
Chorus - 1: Leave us alone.
Pinky: But why can't I play?
Chorus - 1: You just can't, that's all.
Chorus - 2: If you're going to stay here, we'll leave!
Chorus - 3: Come on, fellas, let's go.
[Exit Chorus, stage left. Pinky paces back and forth across the stage while speaking the following lines.]
Pinky: Why won't they let me play? Why don't they like me? I can't help it if I'm pink! I was made that way. Besides, pink is a very pretty color. It's the color of the sky at sunrise. Oh.
[Pinky pauses, looks out at audience]
Pinky: Oh, my. They don't like pink because they're afraid of the sunrise! Well, so am I. But pink is also the color of sunsets, and we all like it when the sun goes down. I guess I just don't understand. It isn't fair. It isn't nice, either. I wish I weren't different. I wish I weren't pink. No, I wish all the ghosts were pink. I think I'm going to cry!
[Exit Pinky, crying, stage right.]
End Act 1
Act 2
[Chorus flutters excitedly and worries]
Chorus - 3: I wonder what happened to Russell?
Chorus - 1: He should have finished counting a long time ago.
Chorus - 2: He should be looking for us everywhere, in all the places we might have hidden.
Chorus - 1: Should we go and look for him?
Chorus - 3: No, that isn't how hide and seek is played!
He's supposed to look for us.
Chorus - 1: Well, this is boring.
Chorus - 2: It's always boring when you're hiding and no one is looking for you.
Chorus - 3: I wish he'd hurry up!
[Verbal pause. Fluttering continues.]
Chorus: Maybe he forgot his numbers and had to start over again.
[Verbal pause. Fluttering continues.]
Chorus: Oh, why is Russell taking so long? This isn't any fun at all!
[Enter Pinky, stage right. Chorus retreats, stage left.]
Pinky: Terrible news, fellas! Horrible news! Oh, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news!
Chorus - all: What?
Chorus - 3: What are you yelling about, crybaby?
Chorus - 2: Nothing could be that bad!
Pinky: But it is! It's just awful!
Chorus: Well, stop sniveling about it and tell us what's happened.
Pinky: The mommy woke up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, and she forgot to turn off the light in the hall and now Russell is trapped in the basement! He can't get out without getting light all over him!
[Chorus flutters excitedly to and fro across the stage, carefully avoiding Pinky.]
Chorus - all: Oh, no!
Chorus - 3:That really is terrible!
Chorus - 2:Poor Russell!
Chorus - 1:We have to do something! We have to save him!
Chorus - 2:He's all alone in the basement with no one
to talk to or anything!
Chorus - 3:What'll we do?
Pinky: Well, we could rescue him.
Chorus - 1: Oh, no, we can't!
Chorus - 2: Not us!
Chorus - 3: You want all of us to get trapped like poor
Russell?
Chorus - 1: We're not going out there in the light, I'll
tell you that!
Chorus - 2: No, sir, not us!
Pinky: But if we all go together, the light can't hurt us.
Chorus - all: How do you know?
Chorus - 1: You're just saying that to get us all out there so we'll get trapped too.
Chorus - 2: We are not going out into the light for nobody, noway, nohow, never!
Chorus - 3: Forget it, buster!
Pinky: But we have to save Russell! He's all alone, and he's scared! We can't just leave him there to rot, you know.
Chorus - 3: Well, we'll think of something.
Chorus - 2: We're not stupid enough to go out in the light.
Chorus - 3:Who knows what kind of things live in the light and would come out and gobble us up?
Chorus - 1:We'd better go and think about this a whole lot.
[Chorus moves to stage right, with Pinky following.]
Chorus: Oh, no, you don't.
Chorus - 1:You aren't coming with us, Pink-o.
Chorus - 2:We can't think straight with you jabbering at
us all the time.
Chorus - 1:You and your crazy ideas!
Chorus - 2:Go out into the light, Ha!
Chorus - 3:Come on, fellas, let's go figure out how to save Russell.
[Exit Chorus, stage right.]
[Pinky paces slowly back and forth across the stage, pausing after every sentence. He will take one or two steps between sentences.]
Pinky: Well. I guess I'll have to go all by myself.
No, I can't. I'm too scared. I have to. I have to do the right thing, even if I'm scared. Besides, my mommy said the light can't hurt me. But I'm still scared of it. But so is Russell, I guess. I just have to go and get him out of the basement. Somehow. But how? I know!
[Pinky shows excitement, begins fluttering about on the stage.]
Pinky: I'll make him shut his eyes so he can't see the light, and then he won't be so scared!
[Pinky slows down, moving to stage left.]
Pinky: But I'll still see it. I'm so scared!
[Exit Pinky, stage left. Enter Chorus, stage right. Chorus is fluttering excitedly to and fro across the stage.]
Chorus - 1: Oh, this is really terrible! Here we are, stuck in the attic all night long, and we can't go out to play because of that awful light in the hall!
Chorus - 2: Why did the mommy forget to turn off the light? I bet she didn't forget at all, she was just being mean.
Chorus - 3: She didn't want us to play.
Chorus - 1: Oh, don't be silly! She doesn't even know we exist.
Chorus - 3: Well, it isn't fair
Chorus - 2: Why did Russell go and get himself trapped in the basement?
Chorus - 1: I bet he isn't trapped at all. I bet he just forgot about us.
Chorus - 3: Don't be silly, Russell never forgets anything!
Chorus - 2: Well, it just isn't fair. I want to go out and play!
Chorus - 1: Me, too!
Chorus - 2: Why doesn't anybody feel sorry for us, being stuck up here in the attic? Why is Russell so special that every one should be sorry for him?
Chorus - 3: Oh, that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad light!
[Exit Chorus, stage left.]
End Act 2
Act 3
[Enter Pinky and Russell, stage right.]
Pinky: It's okay, now Russell. You can open your eyes now. We're safe in the attic again.
Russell: Pinky, you saved my life! How can I ever pay you back?
Pinky: Well, you could start by calling me Roy.
Russell: Roy? But I thought your name was Pinky.
Roy: No, you guys just call me that because I'm different.
Russell: I'm really sorry I was so mean to you, Pinky. I mean, Roy. You have really been a good friend to me. No one else came to help me. Only you. You must really be brave.
Roy: I have to tell you, Russell, that I was really awful scared.
Russell: Me, too. But you did the right thing, even when you were scared. I couldn't do it. Isn't that what being brave is all about? From now on, Pinky, I mean Roy, I want you to be my best friend of all! But,...speaking of friends, where is everybody?
Roy: I don't know. But if you want to, you can sit down and rest for a little while, and I'll go see if I can find them.
Russell: Thanks, Roy. I feel like I could use a rest now, after that horrible scare.
Roy: Well, relax, then. I'll be back as soon as I can.
[Exit Roy, stage right.]
Russell: We were so mean to him. All because he is different. He looks kind of like the sunrise, and we're scared of the sunlight. But he looks kind of like sunset, too, and we love the sunset. I'll never be mean to him again, I promise.
[Enter Chorus, stage left.]
Chorus - 2: It isn't fair, I tell you!
Chorus - 1:I hate being stuck in this attic all night!
I want to go out and play.
Chorus - 3:Maybe we should go downstairs and scare the baby! Maybe that would make the mommy sorry she left the light on.
Chorus - 1:No, it wouldn't. She doesn't believe in us, remember. She'd just leave more lights on because human kids are afraid of the DARK!
[Chorus laughs.]
Chorus - 1: Look! Russell's back!
Chorus - 2: Russell!
Chorus - 3: Russell, how are you?
Chorus - 2: What happened to you?
Chorus - 1: Are you okay?
Russell: Yes, I'm fine.
Chorus - 1: What happened to you?
Chorus - 3:How did you get out of the basement and past the light?
Russell: Roy saved me.
Chorus - 3: Roy?
Chorus - 2: Roy?
Chorus - 1: Who is Roy?
Russell: I used to call him Pinky, when I didn't know any better.
Chorus = all: Pinky?
Chorus - 2: How could that stupid...
[Russell jumps up, looming over the Chorus as if he intended to strike.]
Russell: Stop it right there!
[Chorus retreats, trembling, to the left corner of the stage. Russell advances toward them, stomping his feet and clearly angry.]
Russell: He isn't stupid. In fact, he's smarter than any of you, because he figured out how to save me. You didn't.
Chorus - 1: But Russell, we did, too!
Chorus - 2: It was just too dangerous, what with the light and all.
Chorus - 3: We were too scared.
>Russell: Well, Roy was scared, too. But he saved me anyway, because he's brave. He did the right thing, even if he was scared and didn't want to. From now on, he's my very best friend.
Chorus - 3: But Russell, how can that be?
Chorus - 2: He IS pink, after all!
Chorus - 1: And he dresses funny, you know, with that stringy green ribbon.
Russell: Well, what a person looks like and the way a person dresses don't count. Sure, Roy is different from us. And it's a good thing, too, or I'd still be stuck in the basement.
Chorus - 3: That's true.
Chorus - 1:Yes, that's very true.
Chorus - 2:I guess that underneath all that pink sheet, Pinky is just like everyone else, isn't he?
Russell: No, he isn't. He's brave, and we aren't. That's one difference. We were mean to him, and he's never been mean to us. That's another difference. Roy is different from us and I'm glad he is.
Chorus - 2: Then we'll be glad, too, Russell.
Chorus - 3:If you like Pinky, we'll like him.
Russell: And don't call him Pinky any more. His name is Roy.
Chorus - all: Sure, Russell.
Chorus - 1:We can do that.
Chorus - 2:Oh, Russell, we're so glad you're back!
Chorus - 3:What game are we going to play now?
>Russell: We aren't going to play anything right now. I'm going to go find Roy. We'll decide what to play after we get back.
[Exit Russell, stage right.]
Chorus - all: Okay, Russell.
Chorus - 1: We'll wait for you!
[Chorus wanders around aimlessly on the stage.]
Chorus - all: You know, I think Russell's right. It doesn't matter what a person looks like on the outside, or what kind of clothes he wears. What's really important is what he's like on the inside.
Chorus - 3:Do you think maybe we are all different from each other on the inside?
Chorus - 2:Do you think maybe we're supposed to be different from each other?
Chorus - 1:Russell's different from us; he can always think up good games, and we can't.
Chorus - 3:And Pinky, I mean Roy is different, too. He's brave, and we aren't.
Chorus - 2:I wish I were different from everybody else.
Chorus - 1:Oh, look! here they come!
[Enter Russell and Roy, stage left.]
Russell: We're back, guys! Roy, you can play with us any time you want. Isn't that right, fellas?
Chorus - all: Sure!
Chorus - 3: What shall we play?
Russell: Let's play tag.
Chorus - all: Okay!
Chorus - 1: We love to play tag!
Russell:
Chorus - 2: Not me!
Chorus - 1: Not me!
Chorus - 3: Not me!
Chorus - 1: Run, fellas!
Chorus - 2 : Don't let him catch us!
[Exit Chorus, stage right.]
Roy: Wait a minute, Russell. I don't know how to play tag. I've never played it before. What do we have to do?
Russell: It's easy, Roy. Right now, I'm IT. I have to chase everyone around until I catch someone, then I touch him and holler "Tag!" Then he's it and he has to chase everyone around until he tags somebody. See?
Roy: It sounds like fun!
Russell: It is! Are you ready?
Roy: Yep!
[Roy turns to run, but Russell quickly tags him.]
Russell: TAG! You're it! You have to try and catch me, Roy! Bet you can't!
[Exit Russell, stage right, running.]
Roy: Now everybody likes me, and I'm still different! I'm really glad I'm different! I'm really glad I'm me! Here I come, everyone! I'm gonna getcha if you don't watch out!
End Act 3
FINIS
Instructions for Staging The Play
Answers and stories copyright © 1997 by Grandma
| Materials | Construction |
8 white facial tissues 2 pink facial tissues 4 red bag-closing ties 1 green bag-closing tie | Wad up one white facial tissue into an approximate ball and place it in the center of another white tissue. Twist the second tissue slightly to help hold the wad in place, then wrap a bag tie around the twist to form a "necktie." All four of the white "ghosts" use the red bag closures. Be sure the facial tissue hangs fairly evenly from the tie. Use a pink tissue for the fourth ghost, and use the green bag tie to hold the pink tissue wad in place. |
| 1 black marking pen | With the marking pen, draw eyes and a mouth on each of the ghosts. |
1 sewing needle black thread 2 1/4" dowels about 6" long 1 1/4" dowel about 12" long | Thread the needle with the black thread, knot the thread, and poke the needle up through the "neck" of the ghosts so that the thread protrudes from the top of the head. Pull the thread through to its full length (15-18 inches). Cut the thread at the needle, and tie it to one of the sticks. The pink "ghost" is by itself on one 6" dowel and the three white "ghosts" are evenly spaced on the 12" dowel. The fourth white "ghost" is by itself on the second 6" dowel. Be sure to leave enough space for your fingers between the "ghosts," for you will have to jiggle the thread of whichever chorus "ghost" you assign to speak. |
| 1 large cardboard box (printer or copier paper box is best) with lid | Cut the cardboard box so that the top and one of the long sides are open. Reinforce it by placing the cut box inside the lid so that the top and the open side show. The marionettes will be lowered through the cut side while the audience views the play through the top of the box. |
| decorations to make inside of box look like an attic | Decorate the inside of the box any way you like, or don't decorate it at all. You can use doll-house furniture, sort of stacked up and jumbled into one corner, or small square pieces of cardboard leaned against the side of the box to represent stored pictures, etc. You can paint the walls with tempura paint if you like. |
| 1 high-powered flashlight | Turn off most of the lights, so that the room is fairly dim. The teacher's aide (or an older child) is to hold the flashlight and train the light on whichever marionette is speaking (at least one rehearsal is recommended so that the "lighting technician" doesn't get lost during the play). |
| Keep the script handy! | I staged this play for a classful of 3-year-olds and they didn't seem to mind that I had a helper standing by holding the script open for me so I could read it when I forgot the lines. |
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