a Christmas story

 

 

Puppet Piece

by Ruth Salles, based on a short story by Luiza Lameirão

CHARACTERS: cat, dog, rooster, hen, chick, maracanã parakeet, Sun,
João and Ana, José and Dona Maria, Angel.

1st scenario: everything dry: cherry without cherry, mango without mango, mulberry without blackberry, dry leaves.

The maracana parakeet, the dog, the cat, the rooster, the hen and the chick sing and dance or jump

PARAQUIET-MARACANA:
“The ground has dried up. What happened?
Why did it never rain again?

DOG:
“I'm skinny to be sorry.
I only drank a drop of water.”

CAT:
“And I don't know where it ended up
the milk that the cow usually gives.”

ROOSTER, CHICKEN, CHICK:
“Piu-piu-piu-piu! Co-co-ro-co!
All skinny to pity!”

SUN (appearing):
– I am the sun king.
Silence, bugger!
I want the whole class
well behaved!

DOG:
- Majesty Sun!
the rain clouds
went for a walk.
they resolved
never come back?

ALL PETS (sing or talk loudly):
“Cocorocó! Tweet tweet!
Rain, rain, fall here!
Meow meow! Oh, oh!
Piriquiri! Piriquiri!”

SUN:
- Silence, bugger.
Nature is sleeping.

PARAQUIET-MARACANA:
- Why? She is tired?
But it's still morning.

SUN:
- It's not that, maracanã.
Nature needs to be prepared
in order to send a shower.

DOG:
– Whoa, whoa… This drop of water didn't quench my thirst.

CAT:
– Meow, meow… Did the milk even dry up inside the cow?

ALL (disappointed):
– Ohhhh… We are too skinny… (they quiet down or lie down)

ANA (enters with John):
– Where did the blackberries go?
And the pitangas? And the sleeves?

JOÃO:
– Ana, Ana, everything is dry.
But with so many months without rain,
what did you want?

A-N-A:
- John, look at that.
even the pets
are skinny
to hurt.

JOÃO:
– Do you remember the prayer Grandma used to teach?
“The roses in the valley to bloom we will see,
and the Baby Jesus with us we will have!”

A-N-A:
- And even! Christmas is near.

JOÃO:
– And maybe he brings the rain!

A-N-A:
– I miss the corn in the cornfield…
Mom and Dad hitting the ground with the hoe...

(Behind, the sound of a hoe hitting the floor.)

ALL (they speak in rhythm, the animals too, standing):
– Replanting plants,
green sprouting,
corn pegging,
blooming roses,
so much manacá perfuming,
so many ripe bananas,
in the garden of Seu José
and Dona Mariazinha.

JOÃO and ANA:
- Come on! Come on! It's somewhere!

(Change of scenery. The dry season leaves, and the farmland enters, with rose bushes in bloom, cornfields hanging, etc.)

DONA MARIAZINHA (seeing João and Ana entering):
- Hi! I am Miss Mariazinha.

A-N-A:
- Sorry if we get in the way.

MISS MARIAZINHA:
– Do you want something, little girl?

A-N-A:
– I wanted a straw doll.

DONA MARIAZINHA (she leaves and returns with the straw doll for Ana):
- It's for you, Anna. I made it from corn husks.

A-N-A:
- Thank you!

YOUR JOSÉ (appears with a wooden cart):
– I am your Joseph, the carpenter,
and I made this little wooden cart.
It's for you, John.

JOÃO:
- Thank you very much!

MS. MARIA:
– Our little house is poor and rough,
but we have cornbread and donut. (give them)
(she shows a little baby she carries on her lap):
- Have you seen our little boy?

JOÃO and ANA:
– Oh, what a beautiful little baby!

ANGEL (appears):
– In Joseph’s smile and Mary’s gestures,
we see love, we see joy,
and we see that this home
live everywhere
where the heart trusts the earth
and receive the light of heaven.

(The crib scene with Joseph, Mary, the Baby Jesus and the angel is in a corner. The scene goes back to the beginning.)

BOYS and ANIMALS (speaking or singing, clapping):
“Look at the cloud, look at the cloud,
how heavy it is.
After all, it's Christmas.
It will rain, it will rain!
And the seed there in the ground
soon, soon it will sprout!
After all, it's Christmas.
It will rain, it will rain.
To Jesus we thank
vegetables and love.
Plenty comes from the rain
and the sun with its heat!”

 

 

END