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Gronk.
I couldn't think of a title.

Today's lesson: If you've got a running gag, run a marathon.

This is a continuation of Vitenka/Imagery (which also, is a working title at best)

And this is, roughly, an outline of a play.  More a pantomime, really.  Comments (and unfinished ideas) in emphasis.

SOMEWHERE in all of this, more PrincessBride lines belong.
Come to think of it - any lines of dialogue would be good.

It's probably a bit ''too' constrained by trying to tell the story I chose.




It's a play (four words)  With dragons (or people in masks, anyway) as the narrators
They fight over whose story it is.  Tempted to have a pastiche of the Beverly hillbillies intro...
End with Nemesis.  "All stories are ended eventually.  There is never a good place to stop.  There is only me."

Three areas of stage:  To the left, the forest and thief camp.
To the right, the castle (which is also the other castle)
In the middle, a bit of bare stage for solo's, narrators and sword fights.
Describe this from the POV of Elly watching?

Centre stage:
Dragon One (to dragon 2): "A story"
Dragon Two (to dragon 1): "No - a tale of royalty"
{they bicker a while.  Both turn to audience, turn back}
Both: "Let's not argue in front of the kids"
{Exit dragons by dim light}

Castle stage:
{The three princes introduce themselves and the northern castle.}
{Prince 'the bold', in high operatic style}
{Prince 'the beloved', in the style of a romance ballad}
{Prince 'the base', in comedic bluntness.}

{They argue a little over precedence, to set their styles in the audiences minds - whilst}
Forest stage:
Introduce the bandit cast.  Peasants and dark things and bandits and monsters and wolves and wolves that walk as men.
{Pantomime?  Song?  I suspect silence may be most eerie.  After all, the audience should already know the story. - though our modern audience does not.}

Castle stage:
{The king enters grandly.  He babbles incoherently.  Centre stage a dragon translates.  (Flash cards if the audience can read) }
King (dragon translating): "Get on with it you lot.  Go find me a daughter in law."
King (points at base): "You first."

{Base traipses across centre stage (politely avoiding the dragon, bowing and scraping) to the forest.  He is pounced be its every inhabitant, and the lights go out.}

{The king walks onto the centre stage, elbowing the dragon out of the way}

Centre Stage:
King (dragon translating) : "No news.  How sad.  We mourn our son."
{Princes bow heads.  King pauses for almost a second.}
King (speaking plainly) : "That's about enough.  Let's get on with things."
{Lights dim - exit all centre.  Exit all forest.}

Castle Stage:
{Beloved gathers a whirl of courtiers in a mad dance - with strewn rose petals and women falling in his way.  He dances over to the forest stage which is again empty.}

Forest stage:
{They (beloved and extras) settle into a camp.  Night falls.}
{Beloved goes out to look at the moon, admire himself in a lake and do all sorts of other distractingly vain things on centre stage - whilst quietly the evil forest dwellers kill his retinue and take his stuff.}
{Beloved walk all around the forest - before emerging}

Castle stage:
{This is now the castle of the king of the South.  It should be proclaimed this by a large and obvious sign, being hastily erected by a dragon who looks kinda surprised at being caught, and tries to pretend he isn't there.  Everyone else politely ignores him after their first acknowledging bow.  After the third of which he stops panicking and trying to shush them and just puts a hand over his face.}

Now comes the love story, taking up this and centre stage - as Beloved woos and wins the princess.  But her father is enraged at the thought of giving away the gem (which should be about as big as a person, and carried by courtiers) as dowry.  So the king (twirling his moustaches, no doubt) throws beloved into the deepest dungeons (off stage)
This is all done in silent movie 'over acting' style, with percussion accompaniment which makes the courtiers jump.

Choreographed to this - on the Forest stage - the bandits (teamed up with many of beloved courtiers) and the monsters fight.  They then start harassing the villagers.

Time and again, thieves are captured by magistrates - but the leader of the thieves 'dread' frees them. He starts off furtive, but grows bolder.
Eventually, at the same crash that has beloved thrown off stage - he simply orders the magistrates to leave and stands as undisputed ruler of the forest.

Everyone on both stages freezes.  A messenger from the castle unfreezes and moves to centre and a magistrate from forest unfreezes and joins him.

{Lights off on both side stages, and clear them up for the next scenes}

Centre Stage:
Messenger and magistrate decry their problems (Beloved bedded the princess, the magistrates have bowed to the dread brigand) whilst carefully stepping around their fault in the matter.
They end in a shared cry of "Save us!" Jeebus ;)

Castle Stage:
Bold prince declares: "I will cure these problems with my sword."

He charges across centre stage, cutting down both magistrate and messenger.
He waits for his men to catch up.
Then he charges onto the forest stage - chasing away all but one of the bandits.
The last, dread, simply averts his face and the men pass him by.

After much chasing around, bold comes back across to the castle (now, again, the southern castle, complete with embarrassed dragon whose sign is initially faced with its back to the audience.)

Bold lays siege to the keep of the princess.  Many insults are exchanged.

The king sends beloved out under a flag of truce - then shoots him in the back and flees.

Lights dim.

Castle and Forest stage:

First he flees to the forest - where he duels with dread - who forces him back out to the centre stage.  But the king reveals the gem (well, his courtiers walk up from the castle stage struggling under its huge paper load) which has the king and dread rewind their last few moves.
The king then spits dread with his sword in a flourish and runs - back to the forest stage - where he hides in the mountains.  (Off-stage, declaring his intent to hide in the mountains and get his revenge.  Dread does the flashcard translating.)
The bandits listen with undisguised greed.

Centre stage:  Lights dim, exit all.

Castle stage:  Bold builds his keep - which consists mainly of turning the lights back on and the dragon turning his sign around with a knowing "Aha, you thought I'd been stupid again, hadn't you?" wink to the audience.

Forest stage:
Dread exhorts his companions to take the gem for themselves, for him.  And dies.

Centre stage:
Bold now takes a moment to solo and grieve his brother, dead at the kings treacherous hand.  He swears he will see the king dead.

Castle stage:  ("Kings castle in the mountains.  Confused yet?" asks the sign, held by Dragon2) the kings is pacing and quivering.

An army approaches - under the banner "The wolves of the dead thief" - it includes half a dozen evil monsters.
They take up arms - and repel Bold's attack.  (Centre stage, much clashing of arms and dying of extras)

Centre stage:
Bold takes his own life through pride - for his failure.

Castle stage:
The king is hopping with glee.  The wdt stab him in the back, 'steal' the gem (tapping its bearers on the shoulder and beckoning)

They go back to the forest and cut down all the trees.
They then build, on the castle stage, the customs fort. 
Which operation consists of whacking the dragon with the trees until he changes the sign and lets them put up their flags.

Centre Stage:
As the bearers cross the solo stage, dragons swoop down and steal the gem.  Which, again, consists of them just pointing its bearers in the right direction.
They then stay on centre and narrate the epilogue.

Simultaneously on all three stages (only centre having any dialoge)

Castle stage:
Wdt take up their positions in the customs fort.  And then, one by one, take off their nice new tabards and resume their roles as bandits and thieves.

Forest stage:
The monsters unlurk and being prowling as the lights dim.

Centre:
Dragons (narrating to audience) "All three brother dead (and one of them twice, at that), the king of the north never did get his daughter in law."
"But at least the forest is safe again.  Oh."
"Well, there's a nice shiny new border ... fort ... oh."
"We got out gem back, that's something at least."
(Third smaller dragon rushes out, taps one on the shoulder and whispers in their ear.  They hurriedly run off stage)

Nemesis enters for whatever the traditional close of story "Please give generously" is.





CategoryFiction Vitenka/Imagery Vitenka/WhereDidTheDragonsGo


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