Fun Activities For Kids – Play-Scripts – Jack And The Baked Beanstalk
Fun Activities For Kids – Play-Scripts – Jack And The Baked Beanstalk
Copyright (c) 2010 Ivana Katz
Pantomime Time!
Around Christmas and New Year, it’s got to be pantomime time. This activity is perfect for keeping kids occupied and out of the way with their secret rehearsals. Give them all the encouragement they need to get started and make sure they know to keep things simple. Older children tend to like directing, writing scripts, sorting out costumes and props, and being the narrator. Younger children are usually best at playing the central roles. Agree on a fairytale and decide who’s who. Break down the story into no more than five scenes. All the characters should introduce themselves to the audience when they first appear in the story, but then limit their parts to a few lines each per scene. The narrator can fill in any gaps in the storyline and keep things moving along.
There are some essential
ingredients. There must be a baddie with an evil laugh that the audience can boo. Two characters should have an argument that involves yelling, “Oh no I didn’t!” and, “Oh yes you did!” Include an opportunity for the baddie to hide conspicuously, so that the audience can shout: “He’s behind you!” And, of course, there’s the happy ending, full of Christmas cheer. If there’s any spare rehearsal time, the children can even draw tickets and a poster for the show.
Included over the next few pages is a copyright-free example of the sort of play-script your children may like to use for their seasonal pantomime.
Pantomime Play-script
Jack and the Baked Beanstalk
Characters:
Jack
Jack’s Mom
The cow (For a simple costume, make cardboard ears to stick onto a hair band. To be more adventurous try and recreate the traditional pantomime cow. Two
actors dress in similar-coloured clothes – one as the front end of the cow and one as the back end!)
Strange Old Man (wearing the wackiest clothes you can find!)
The Giant (wearing outsize clothes?)
Props:
A tin of baked beans,
Suitable costumes for each character (see above),
Props to distinguish the Giant from Jack (using a large wooden spoon to eat with, rather than a normal-sized spoon, huge books, big chair etc)
A tall pot plant,
A carton of milk,
A yellow ball (the golden egg!)
SCENE 1 – JACK’S HOUSE
(Mom is sitting in the kitchen, staring at an empty saucepan. Jack enters with a milk carton)
Jack:
I’ve milked Daisy, Mom… What’s for tea? I’m starving.
Mom:
(groans) Oh Jack! What are we going to do? We’ve got no food in the house.
Jack:
It’s my fault Mom. Ever since I lost
my job at the bakery we haven’t had any money.
Mom:
(shakes her head) No, son. It’s not your fault you were fired… You weren’t to know what it was you were putting into the donuts. Custard and mustard do sound very similar.
Jack:
(shrugs and turns to the audience) I got confused!
Mom:
Well worrying won’t put food on the table. the cupboard’s bare. It’s just you, me and the cow…
Jack:
(interrupts) That’s it! The cow! I’ll take Daisy to market and see how much money I can get for her. Don’t worry, Mom. We won’t go hungry… (Jack leaves the kitchen to go to market).
SCENE 2 – ON THE ROAD
(Jack is on the road to market with Daisy the cow trotting behind. A strange looking old man is sitting by the road.)
Old Man:
Good morning, Jack
Jack:
(taken by surprise) Good morning to you… How do you
know my name?
Old Man:
(nods knowingly) Ahhh… That would be telling! Where are you off to?
Jack:
I’m off to market to sell our cow here. (Daisy looks sad)
Old Man:
(shakes his head sadly) Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…
Jack:
What’s the matter?
Old Man:
You’ve picked the wrong day, I’m afraid. It’s not cow-selling day today.
(Daisy does a little jig)
(Jack flops onto the floor next to the old man and sighs).
Jack:
What am I going to do? I promised Mom that I’d come back with money for the cow…
Old Man:
Well as you are so friendly I don’t mind doing a swap with you your cow for this tin of magic baked beans…
Jack:
A tin of beans? That won’t last us very long.
Old Man:
Ah, you don’t know how magic these beans are… When you plant them, by the next day they will have
grown right up to the sky.
Jack:
(turns to the audience as if weighing up his choices) What should I do? The beans or the cow?
Old Man:
I tell you what… If they don’t grow, you can have your cow
back.
Jack:
That sounds fair.
(hands the old man the cow) Goodbye, Daisy.
(The old man gives Jack the tin of beans)
SCENE 3 – JACK’S HOUSE
Mom:
Back already, Jack? I can see you haven’t got Daisy with you, so you must have sold her. How much did you get?
Jack:
(smiling) You’ll never guess…
Mom:
Good boy! How much was it? 10 gold coins, 20? Not 30?
Jack:
(interrupts) I told you you’d never guess.
(produces the tin of beans from behind his back)
I got these magic beans! They’re amazing… Plant them overnight and…
Mom:
(shouts) What? WHAT? You silly boy! You
gave away Daisy, the best milker for miles around for a tin of beans? Give me them!
(Mom snatches the tin of beans and throws them over her shoulder)
Mom:
There – out of the window with them! And you can go straight to bed without any supper.
(turns to the audience) I haven’t got any to give him anyway!
SCENE 4 : JACK’S HOUSE, NEXT MORNING
(Jack yawns as if he has just woken up and looks around him. He notices the beanstalk (a tall potted plant?) and walks up to it)
Jack:
A baked beanstalk! So the old man was telling the truth after all!
(looks up) It reaches all the way into the clouds… I wonder where it leads. There’s only one way to find out…
(Jack begins to climb up the stalk)
SCENE 5 : THE GIANT’S HOUSE
(The giant’s house has lots of huge items in it. e.g. a large wooden spoon, a big round
tray for a plate, a huge chair, adult-sized boots. If the actor playing Jack is small, the difference in size should work well).
Jack:
Where am I?
(Looks at the room and wanders around picking items up) Everything is so big. I wonder who lives here. He must be a giant!
(He comes across the yellow ball and picks it up)
A golden egg! We could buy all the food we ever need with this!
Giant:
(shouts offstage)
Fee, fi, fo, fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!
Jack:
Oh no! It’s the Giant! I’d better get down the beanstalk fast!
(He disappears offstage and the Giant enters his house)
Giant:
(sniffs a little, then shouts) Who’s been here? I can smell him!
(looks around) My golden egg’s been stolen! Aargh!
(The Giant stomps
off in the same direction Jack went)
SCENE 6 : JACK’S HOUSE
(Jack enters with the egg under his arm)
Jack:
(out of breath) Mom! Look! A golden egg!
(Mom looks up in shock)
Jack:
Didn’t I tell you those baked beans were magical?!
Giant:
(shouts offstage)
Fee, fi, fo, fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!
Jack:
The Giant!
Mom:
Quick, Jack! It sounds like he’s after you!
Cut down the baked beanstalk!
(Jack pretends to saw down the beanstalk and there is a yell as the Giant fall down it)
Jack:
I’ve done it!
Mom:
And we’ll never go hungry again!
Jack:
What’s for tea, Mom?
Mom:
How do you fancy some baked beans?!
Ivana Katz of Hey Gorgeous Kids shows you how to make parenting fun – keep your children entertained for hours with FREE fun activities for kids, create special memories, do some serious shopping, explore exciting parks & playgrounds and so much more!!! Get a free special report “What You Need to Know Before Travelling with Kids” – www.heygorgeouskids.com
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