Pre-K Play: The Script, Props, And Sets

Yesterday I shared about the 5 month process that lead to this year's Pre-K play. Today I present you with the script in its final form, illustrated with photos of the props and set pieces we created as we went.

In the script, I've tried to honor the children's exact words and phraseology, although I've also added the stage directions as well. This way, serving as the play's narrator, I can tell them, "If you listen to me, you'll always know what to do."

The Mysterious, Haunted, Spooky House Full of Hearts

Cast

Sylvia -- Rainbow Butterfly Sylvia

Siena -- Fairy Princess

Sasha -- Leopard

Addison -- Harry Potter

Archie -- Bumble Bee

Sena -- Rainbow Butterfly Sena

Sadie -- Rainbow Butterfly Sadie

Violet -- Rainbow Butterfly Violet

Jody -- Panther

Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts.

This is our Hogwarts. You might recognize the box from this post. We'd rescued it from

getting "all used up," even before we knew what we wanted to use it for, knowing that

 we could use it in the play somehow. Each side is painted in a different color in the

preschool tradition of compromise that almost always results in "rainbow."

 The audience, however, only only saw the pink.

The Rainbow Butterflies go fluttering around. And a Fairy Princess showed up and she looked beautiful. The Rainbow Butterflies fluttered around her. Then they all sat by the flowers.

Leopard came. Then the Leopard sat in the desert. Then Panther came. Panther sat in the desert.

When we sat down to discuss how we were going to make the desert, I'd

expected we would need to create a backdrop, but the kids wanted to make

a cactus with "lots of pokey parts." We wrapped a traffic pylon with

 construction paper, then stuck small bits of tape all over it to represent thorns.

Then Bumble Bee comes. Harry comes out of Hogwarts. Bumble Bee takes Harry to a place with lots of things and a magic bridge that turns to a butterfly one. They got to Hogwarts.

We built our magic bridge from cardboard boxes on a base of "roller boards"

(small platforms with casters) using a glue gun, then painted it 

(you guessed it) rainbow, making each box a different color. 

The whole thing needed to be on wheels so we could turn it around to

reveal that it had magically turned into a "butterfly one." We made our

butterflies by making a "sandwich" with wax paper as the bread and tissue

paper and liquid starch serving as the filler. Once it dried, we cut out wing

shapes and added black rectangular bodies.

Then the Rainbow Butterflies come and the Fairy Princess. She looked at the Rainbow Butterflies and the Rainbow Butterflies stared at the Fairy. Then the Rainbow Butterflies looked in the water and the Rainbow Butterflies started swimming.

As we painted our box blue to represent water, we discussed the audience's

perspective. What part of this would they see? What parts needed to be blue

to create the illusion and which parts were we painting "just for ourselves?"

Then the Rainbow Butterflies looked all over and saw something that looked like a bad guy in the water.

The Butterflies and Fairy run and sit by the flowers.

These two 5-foot tall fabric flowers were the first set pieces we chose

for the play. I made them several years ago for the Fremont Summer

Solstice Parade and they've lived in our classroom ever since.

The Fairy Princess comes. The Leopard saw the Fairy Princess. Then they sat together in the desert.

Harry comes out of Hogwarts. A big, giant paint ball came falling out of the sky and bonked Harry on the head.

We made this months before we'd even begun talking about a play.

As I've written before, this particular group proved to be rather "mess

averse." At one point they really wanted to make a paper mache planet

to add to the collection we already have hanging from our ceiling, but

the moment they were confronted with actual paper mache paste, most

of them cringed. The few who did participate only lasted a few minutes.

Violet's dad Eric wound up doing most of the work, but the kids became

attached to it nevertheless. They didn't even want to paint it for the play.

The Rainbow Butterflies come fluttering across the sidewalk and Harry trips on the Butterflies.

Harry stands up.

The Rainbow Butterflies sit by the flowers.

Harry discovers that Hogwarts is dark. (Note: There is a light switch on the stage. I had assumed an adult helper would be responsible for turning the lights off and back on, but in every run-through including the performance itself, one of the cast members would break character to handle it.)

And the Fairy Princess comes and falls in love with Harry. They go into Hogwarts.

The Rainbow Butterflies dive into the water and flutter back.

Then the Rainbow Butterflies look inside Hogwarts. Then they go around Hogwarts. Then they go back to their flowers.

Then Panther pops out of the desert. Harry comes out of Hogwarts and asks for a fight with it. And everyone cheers for Harry.

Then Panther sits in the desert.

Harry discovers there are tons and tons of passageways and discovers he is in the Chamber of Secrets. (Note: To represent the Chamber of Secrets a parent unfurled one of our collapsable tunnels from backstage through which Harry Potter crawled.)

Then Harry goes to Hogwarts.

The Rainbow Butterflies are fluttering and eating.

And the Rainbow Butterflies have a race around the audience! Everybody goes with them. Then they all sit on the stairs. (Note: Racing around the audience has become a Pre-K play tradition, with each year's class recreating these exciting moments from their memories of what happened the year before.)

Panther comes and shoots a web on the ceiling and swings to another web and another and catches a good guy.

Here's our good guy puppet. We made tissue paper and pipe cleaner flowers,

then stuck them into a styrofoam head.

Panther sits on the stairs.

The Leopard lived in the desert. The Leopard goes to the desert.

Harry jumps on stage and pulls a sword out of the sorting hat. Harry goes into Hogwarts.

Panther goes into fire. Then he goes to the desert.

To create our fire, we painted a couple large sheets of paper with red and yellow

paint. When it dried, we cut it into triangles, then glued it on a piece of

cardboard.

The Fairy Princess comes. She discovers the desert and the Leopard almost bites her! She runs away to Hogwarts.

And Harry comes out of Hogwarts and jumps in front! And so the Leopard ate Harry instead of the Fairy Princess.

Harry goes back to Hogwarts. The Leopard stays in the desert.

Panther comes! Then he sits on the stairs.

Next Panther shoots a web out of his mouth and catches onto a building and sees a good guy and catches him. And he only catches good guys at night.

This is our "building," the creation of which I shared here.

Panther takes the good guy to the desert.

The Fairy Princess flies out of Hogwarts and Harry follows her. And everybody runs around the audience!

Then they all come back and sit on the stairs.

Then the Leopard comes and trips on something.

The Rainbow Butterflies flutter in to see if the Leopard is okay.

Then they take the Leopard to the desert.

The Fairy Princess comes and transforms into a Princess. She sparkles into the air and spins around while she is doing it.

Harry comes and falls in love with the Princess.

They go into Hogwarts.

Bumble Bee comes. He saw a bad guy train . . . And blasts it!

Bumble Bee sits on the stairs.

Harry and the Princess come out of Hogwarts. Harry tries to trick the Princess, but she says, “I’ll always be your princess forever.”

Then they go back into Hogwarts.

The Rainbow Butterflies flutter to Hogwarts to see if the Princess was fine.

Then they go back to the desert.

Panther comes. He opened his mouth and bats came strait out of it!

The children were quite proud of their paper airplane bats. In the actual performance

several of them ran off the stage and retrieved their bat rather than leave it in the 

hands of the audience.

And everybody throws bats at the audience!

Then everyone sits on the stairs.

And then Panther comes again and transforms wings onto him. And flies around the audience! Everybody flies around the audience!

Then they come back and sit on the stairs.

So, the Princess and Rainbow Butterflies come on stage. The Princess said, “Oh, I’m fine.” And the Rainbow Butterflies said, “Well, okay. We guess we’ll be going.” And the Rainbow Butterflies sit by the flowers.

And then Panther comes and says, “Super mode!” and turns into a monster!

Then Panther sits in the desert.

Now the Princess comes again gets scared of the bats and starts to run away and the Rainbow Butterflies save her!

Then they go again and sit by the flowers.

Then Panther comes and transforms into his shape. Then he sits on the stairs.

The Rainbow Butterflies went into the desert to check on the Leopard, but the Leopard wasn’t noticing and the Rainbow Butterflies went home to the flowers.

The Princess comes. Well, since the Rainbow Butterflies and the Princess become friends, the Rainbow Butterflies say, “Let’s play a game! Let’s play hide and seek and the Princess hid first. The Butterflies find her.

Panther and Bumble Bee come. Panther blasts Bumble Bee! But then Panther didn’t mean it and said, “Are you OK?” And then he said he was, so Panther fixed him and they blasted bad guys together.

Our bad guy puppet uses toothpicks instead of flowers. We 

worried some that it would be too scary for the "babies" in

our audience.

Panther and Bumble Bee make sure none of the bad guys are trying to trick them and some were so they blasted them . . . Yeah, we know. We like to blast.

Panther and Bumble Bee sit on the stairs.

The Princess came and found her carriage with a horse and just rided it. She found the Rainbow Butterflies and said, “Hi, Rainbow Butterflies!” and stopped and leapt out of the carriage. (Note: We just used one of our stick ponies to represent the carriage.)

Panther and Bumble Bee come and they transform into tanks.

Then they sit on the stairs.

Everything in the world becomes different, except the Princess.

Harry Potter comes. The Princess comes.

And they fall back in love.

THE END

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