Some of the script...

I have been trying to write the script in between Christmas things and holiday things...so it is slow slow slow still.

Anyway, just to show that it is arriving, and also so that you can see some emerging ideas and comment on them..here is the current state of the first scene or so.  ANY THOUGHTS???

Once Upon a Tiger

Characters

Charlotte, an old lady.  [previously a young girl]  Grumpy and angry, and everyone thinks she is a witch.  She lives in a little house outside the village.  She is very nervous about the outside world, and especially children.  She reads the newspapers all the time and is frightened by them.  She has forgotten everything about when she was young.

Young Hee,  a young girl, brave and fearless.  Musical.  Scientific – she has a gismo or gismos for everything, and will calculate everything.   She is very committed to saving the planet and sustainable living.  She doesn’t speak much, but when she does she speaks korean.

Andy Sherbert.  A young boy.  Very cautious.  A  lover of nature, and of pizza. He wears pink ear-muffs.

The Bad-singing Squirrel.  Lives in the hollow of the old old tree.

The Tiger Rug, previously the tiger.  Was friendly with Charlotte when he was a cub, and she was a little girl, and saved all of the people of the village during the war.  He was then saved in turn by Charlotte, although in the end she failed to prevent his death.  Now that he is a tiger rug, he is still watching out for her, although she has forgotten all of this.

Mr Finglehorn the hunter.  He is a self-made man who is very ambitious.  He wants to rule everything and everywhere.  He wants fame fast, and believes he will get it by killing the tiger.

The people of the village.

The soldiers.

Scene One

[There is a little house in the background.  A very old tree further forward.  There is a pretty kite stuck in the tree.]  

[It is cold.  Winter.  A little dark.]

[Voices off]

Andy Sherbet:   Where did it go?

Young Hee:        [All her lines are in Korean] This way.

Andy:    We can’t go that way.  Young Hee.  The witch’s house!

[Young Hee and Andy arrive in the auditorium.  He is scared of going towards the stage.  They are looking for something.  They talk with members of the audience.]

Andy:                   Excuse me.  Did you see a kite coming this way?  The string broke.  It’s a beautiful kite.  Red and Yellow and Blue.  Have you seen it.  Sorry.  Sorry about this.  Just looking for our kite.

[Eventually the kite is spotted, in the tree on stage]

Oh no.  Not up there.

Young Hee:        Andy.  Throw the stick.  Knock it down.

Andy:    What?

[Young Hee calculates some angles]

Young Hee:          The stick.  Andy.  [She demonstrates her plan]  If you throw it right, and hit at an angle of maybe 60 degrees, then you will knock the kite in such a way, it will fly in this direction.

[He throws his stick towards the kite, but misses by miles]

Andy:                  Missed!

                           

Young Hee:        Idiot!  We will have to go and get it.

Andy:                  We can’t go in there.

Young Hee:        Andy!

Andy:                  I am not going in there, Young Hee.  The witch.

Young Hee:        Coward.

[Eventually they arrive on stage.  Young Hee is exploring.  Andy is very scared, and she keeps having to drag him.  She clearly loves the place.  She dances around in it.  He is less sure]

Andy:                  Stop doing that will you!  Get the kite, and let’s go.

[Young Hee tries to reach the kite, but cannot.  Then she gets interested in the tree.] 

Young Hee:        It is so old.  Gomoknamu.

Andy:                  I don’t care that it is old, Young Hee.  Just get my kite.  Have you forgotten, this is the witch’s house.  She will get us.

Young Hee:        Look, Andy.  Look at this.

Andy:                  What is it?

Young Hee:        It’s an old stone.  With writing.

Andy:                  An old stone, with writing?  What does it say?

[Young Hee gets paper and wax from her bag, and starts to make a copy ‘brass-rubbing’ - style, of the stone.  Andy is frustrated by her getting ‘distracted’]

Young Hee?  What are you doing?  The kite, remember?  What is it? Well, what does it say?

                            [She hands over the paper]

                            [reading] ‘Once upon a tiger, when the old people were still young…’

What is that supposed to mean?  And what’s this?  I can’t read that.  What does it say?

Young Hee:        ‘Horang, horang, horang’

Andy:                  What does that mean?

                            [There is a low growling noise.  They are unnerved]

                            Forget about it, Young Hee.  Come on.  The kite.

[They try again to reach the kite, but just as Young Hee is getting close, the squirrel makes a noise and she jumps back and hides.  Andy is already hiding]

Young Hee:        Aaah!  Andy?  Where are you?  Andy?

                            [She goes, the squirrel appears.]

Squirrel:             What?  What?  Very strange……I could have sworn I heard children…hmmm.  What is that noise?  Over there?  No, over there?  Must be imagining it.  Hmm. 

                            What’s this?  What a beautiful kite.  I wonder if it works. 

                            [She flies the kite down towards the audience] 

Oh my goodness what am I doing?  Is that the time?  7.00am already.  It is time for my morning song.   Here we go…..

[The squirrel sets up and plays some beautiful music, then starts to sing along, very badly.]

Charlotte:          [off] Children?  Can I hear children?   Shut up!  Shut up, shut up, shut up!

                            [The squirrel sings on.  Charlotte arrives]

                            Where are they?  Oi.  It’s you.  Shutupshutupshutup!

                            [The squirrel stops singing]

I know you are out there somewhere, children.  Which of you is it?  I have the pictures from the papers.  Every one.  [She has lots of newspaper cuttings]  I know you all want to mug me, or tie me up and steal everything, so don’t think I am not prepared.    You know how much I hate children. 

It is just you, is it, squirrel?  Well, keep it quiet.  I am trying to get a lie-in in there.  What have you got there?   That’s very pretty.

[She reaches up and takes the kite.]

Have you been stealing, squirrel?  Tut tut.  I think I had better take that.  If there were any children, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?

[The squirrel nods.  Charlotte goes back into the house.  The squirrel watches her and then goes back into the hole in the tree]

Peter is finally writing his script!!!

So, with all these ideas in place, and with only five days to go until Christmas, I am sitting down with all my notes and writing the first draft of the play.

I know I am behind, but we have been able to do everything like casting the play, and discussing the design, even though there is no finished script.  I will be working very fast now.  That is the way I tend to work...a long time thinking, and in this case talking with all of you, and then  whoosh, bang click click..a script.  At least I hope so.

We now have our third performer.  It is going to be Dan, who was the turtle in Two Bum Bun - the Moby Duck version of Sugungga, in 2007.  Ali [from I'm Still Hungry] will be the old lady, and Ji Hye arrives in the UK in January, and she will be Young Hee.

I think I need an english name for the boy.  Maybe something close to Yong Gi, but not quite so simliar to Young Hee, the girl.   I will look through your other ideas.

Progress this week

Two main things to report....

Firstly, a meeting with Olly, and some preliminary ideas about the set.  I don't think I will put anything about them yet on the blog, becasue there is too much still to be decided, but Olly is really pleased with the images from Leighswood and the Dream Tree, and talking with him helped me narrow down on some of the choices I have to make.  We think that the squirrel will be a glove puppet, which will mean more or less 'to scale' - thats to say a realistic squirrel size.  For this play there may not be that much more puppetry.

We do have to solve the problem of how to fly on the rug, though.  hmmmmmm

The other thing was the final session of the term at Leighswood.  This was great, because we talked about what our play actually means.  not, what happens in it, but the themes, the messages and the meanings behind it.  I knew the Leighswood group would have some good ideas, and they didn't let me down.  I feel as if I know what the story is now, and also 'why.'

There were a few main themes we found:

Some are environmental - about the tree, and the endangered tiger [I notice more in the paper today about that, only 3200 tigers left in the world!]

Others are about being brave, about co-operating across cultures.

But the key one is about old people and young people.  The children think that the old lady is a witch, she has forgotten the time when she was a child.  By the end of the story they understand each other....  this thought is going to be very helpful when I write the script - in the next week or so.

watch this space, and it should be coming soon.

I wish I did not have so much admin work to do, with applying for funding and other projects...grrrr

I also discoverd that next Lunar Year is 'The Year of the Tiger'   fantastic!!!!!

December Ideas

The group worked without me this week, and here are the ideas that came out.....










Hi Peter,






Sophie and I think that the boy and girl should be called Hisen (boy) and Iesha (girl) Margret (Granny) and Isan ( bad singing squirell. )






The stone outside the tree should say: 'Bewithered tree old and hard standing tall forever more'.






We think that in the war the tiger should have got squished by a stampede of soldiers Then became the tiger rug.






In the squirell and tiger funny scene they should have a singing contest. Then the tiger could win then they have a fight with the squirel winning because he is very irritating like a flea ( his tactic was biting him)






We think that in the last scene Mr. Figglehorn should just disappear and it's the tiger's magic that does it. Then just at the end when their on the rug going home they see Mr.Figglehorn being good in another country. (helping a lady across the road.)






We think that Mr. Figglehorn should not die in the last scene.






Ideas from Sophie and Stephanie






pet!,



The girl should be called Toodle and the boy should be called Pip, short for Phillip and Matilda! The Squirrel should be called Sir Sing a Lot.


In the war the Tiger gets shot by a cannon by Mr Figgle-Horn trying to save the tree.










From






William S & Christopher L








Hi Pet!






Here we have some ideas for the boy and girl's names. Theams f e boy's name is Izaac and the girl's name is Camilla. The squirrel's name is Kai. He is a really bad singer and dreams of being on the red carpet when the presenter says 'and now for the brilliant Kai!'






On the stone it says 'this tree is 4000000 years old and is dedicated to Mr Peterson which is why the tree is called 'the peterson tree''.






What happened in the war was that the enemies try to chop down the tree and the squirrel sings really badly and the people are really scared and run away leaving their guns behind them. The korean people see the leftover war equipment and they get to keep them in case of future wars.






What happens when the squirrel meets the tiger is that the tiger sees the squirrel and asks him to sing. he says that he will eat him if he doesn't. the squirrel sings and the tiger eats him and then sicks him back up because his insides are horrible because of the terrible singing. also the tiger spits him back out because he is singing inside the tiger's belly.






What happens to mr figglehorn is that he eats the squirrel because he thinks that he might taste nice. he eats him right there and the squirrel tickles his insides. the hunter is driven mad and eventually goes to hospital in a tragic state. the hospital nurses cut his stomach open and the squirrel jumps out and starts to sing, even more badly than usual. the nurses are so flabbergasted that they fainted and the doctors have to carry them out. the hunter is eft alone with the squirrel and finally begins to like him. he cradles him on top of his bleeding stomach and suddenly the doctors come in because the nurses have died from the shock of the faint and they say 'what are you gonna call him, cause its a boy!' and mr figglehorn says ' i'm gonna call it kai!'






from abi, izzy and livster








To Peter






The boys name could be Sherbert. The girls name ould be Dip. Dip is short for Philipa. The squirl could be called Sir Badnote! Sir Badnote is the worst singing squirl in the world! Mr Figglehorn could play a horn to let people know when he is coming! The volcano can be called Leprococo Volcano! The desert can be called The desert of dessert! The island can be called Rockapocka ( a place where everyone pokes you!) The treasure could be a tigers tooth. They could buy Granny a new chair she's pleased.










Hope Paris is good






Daisy (Fred) and Daniel






Hi Pet, (gets into your mind once youve said it)






The squirrel could be called a 'SQWIGEL' A RARE SPEICES OF BAD SINGING ANIMALS. The boy can be called 'LING' and the girl can be called 'LILY MAY LING'. The stone can say 'BEWARE THIS TREE IT CAN CURSE YOU DON'T GO INSIDE THE HOLLOW HOLE AS YOUR LIFE MIGHT BE LOST!' This is what me and Ellen think what happened in the war' In the war the tree was blown up but the tiger was protecting it and when the bomb reached the tree it struck he tiger to make him a rug and now if anyboy goes inside the tree they too will get cursed.' When the squirrel meets the tiger he jumps down from the tree and starts bouncing on his head telling him his life story, the tiger tried to eat the squirrel and the squirrel starts to do that evry ay. (he tal like a western cowboy) Mr. Figglehorn realises that hunting animals and he turns good!!


Thanks !


From Cerys and Ellen!

 Dear Peter,


We have thought about a name for the singing squrril, it is Opra Oliver. Also we have thought of a name for the granny, which is Charlotte the creep ,granny. what happens to mr figglehorn At the end we are thinking what could happen to mr figglehorn he could go back in time to when everyone was young and when Opra Oliver the squrril how then could sing well un like in the normall time were he could not or baddly so it makes him think 2 times before he kills the squrril . see you soon from James and Bailey






# 05 December 2009, 17:41 by Abigail Scott


hi Pet!






I've been thinking about what could happen to Mr.Figgleohrn in the end.So I thought that he could turn into another BAD SINGING squirrel.Then a person hates his singing and tries to kill him but he's protecting his nuts and then he realizes what he had done wrong by killing the tiger and he see's what it feels like when you are trying to protect something special to you.So then he stays as a squirrel forever.But he turns good.........but still sings bad and he got married to a girl squirrel who sung badly and they had lots of children and know there is a overpopulated race of BAD SINGING SQUIRRELS.






For the funny scene were the squirrel meets the tiger. The tiger sees him up a tree and ignores the squirrel but the squirrel wants to be noticed so he throws a nut at him but he just gets angry but still ignores him.Then he throws 2 and he gets even more ANGRY but still ignores him.And so on until he's throwing 100 at him at once then the tiger turns around and looks at the squirrel and gives him an evil look.Suddenly the tiger gives out a MASSIVE LOUD ROAR then the whole city gets an earthquake and the tree shakes so loud the squirrel falls off. Then the vibrations from the earthquake makes all the nuts fall off the tree and fall on the squirrels head. That makes the tiger laugh out loud.






Well thats all the ideas I have for now so SEE YOU SOON PET!






From


Abigail Scott






HI again Pet!



Linking back to my idea of being an OVERPOPULATED RACE OF BAD SINGING SQUIRRELS i thought at the end when the credits come up if it comes out on CD there could be the squirrels singing badly and hopefully it will make people laugh.






By abigail

An idea from Abigail

27 November 2009



Hii Pet!




I've been thinking about some of the scenes to fit in the play like we were doing today maybe when they are on the tiger rug and are going back in seasons they could go from like the deserts to the pyramid where its really hot and when they have gone through the hot places they could go to somewhere like the antartic were its FREEZING.




Also if that idea wasnt that good ive got another one for the scenes.If you go back in seasons it would start with winter so put the weather as it is in winter and they could all be wearing PINK EARMUFFS and when it gets all the was to Spring they could all be wearing jumpers.




I've got another idea for the play too well when the children are in the house when they hide they could fall through a trapdoor which sends them into a portal which seems like hours in the portal world but in the real world they only take about 3 minites.Thats when they all go back in time and go through the seasons.




Also I've been searching the internet for korean names which could possibly star in the play I'll put the 2 best ones in a list.






1.'Gi' which means 'the brave one' for a boy.






2.'Hee Young' for a girl which means 'eternal' and 'pleasure'.





Well thats all i have to say for now but i have really enjoyed sharing idead with the once upon a tiger group and i cant wait until we meet up again to discuss more things about the play.Anyway bye for now.




From


Abigail

Note from Peter


Thanks very much for these ideas, Abigail.  Really good ideas for names I think as well - what do you think, Won Hye?  Can you tell us if Hee Young and Gi are good names in Korea?