FRUMPLED FAIRY TALES
by William J. Springer
First Produced
at Brown Ledge Camp, 1973
Dedicated to
Frances Bonnie Royster
Mentor & Friend
Performance Rights
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PUBLISHED BY
ELDRIDGE PUBLISHING COMPANY
www.histage.com
1989 by Eldridge Publishing Company
Download your complete script from Eldridge Publishing
http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=365
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-2-
CAST OF CHARACTERS
NARRATOR: May be played by one person or three (One
for each story.)
RUMPELSTILTSKIN
MILLER
MILLERS DAUGHTER
KING
RUMPELSTILTSKIN
MESSENGER
(Doubling possible: Miller may double as Messenger.)
RAPUNZEL
MAN
WIFE
RAPUNZEL
WITCH (Dame Gothel.)
PRINCE
(Doubling possible: Man or Wife, in all female cast, may
double as Prince.)
RED RIDING HOOD
RED
MOM
GRANNY
WOLF
HERO
(Doubling possible: Mom, in all female cast, may double as
Hero.)
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-3-
RUMPELSTILTSKIN
(AT RISE: The MILLER and his DAUGHTER are SR;
NARRATOR is DC; KING is SL. Throne is preset UC. 1st
room is preset on SL turntable. 2nd room is preset on SR
turntable. Both are in off position. NOTE: Specific blocking
is not always given for the Narrator. He may move through
the scenes or sit along the edge of the stage as the director
sees fit.)
NARRATOR: There was once a miller, who was poor.
(MILLER steps forward.)
But he had one beautiful
daughter. (SHE steps forward, court curtsy, freezes.) It
happened one day that the Miller came to speak with the
King. (KING crosses DS, MILLER crosses DL; they meet.)
And to make himself look more important he told the king:
MILLER: I have a daughter who can spin gold out of straw.
NARRATOR: The King said to the Miller:
KING: This is an art that pleases me well; if your daughter is
as clever as you say, bring her to my castle tomorrow that
I may put her to the proof.
NARRATOR: The Miller returned home. (MILLER crosses
back to DAUGHTER. ALL pantomime sleep. Daughter
snores. Looks from others. SL revolve on.) The next day
he returned to the King with his daughter. (THEY cross to
KING. Bow and curtsy business.) The King led her to a
room that was quite full of straw, (THEY circle stage to SL
room. MILLER off.) sat her by a spinning wheel and
spindle, and said:
KING: Now set to work, and if by the early morning you
have not spun all of this straw into gold, you shall die!
NARRATOR: Then he shut the door and left her there all
alone. (KING exit SL.)
GIRL: Hello ...
ECHO: Hellllllllllllllooooooooo ...
GIRL: Anybody there ...
ECHO: Noooooooooooo ...
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-4-
NARRATOR: And so the poor Millers daughter was left
there sitting all alone because nobody was there. She
could not think of what to do to save her life. She had no
notion of how to spin gold out of straw, and her distress
grew so great that she began to weep:
GIRL: WAAAAAAAAA ...
NARRATOR: Then all at once the door opened, and in
came a comical little man who said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: (Enters SL.) Good evening, Millers
daughter.
GIRL: Good evening little man who came in after the door
all at once opened.
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: Why are you crying?
GIRL: Oh,
NARRATOR: Said the girl,
GIRL: I have to spin gold out of straw and I dont understand
this business.
NARRATOR: Then the little man said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: What will you give me if I spin it for
you?
GIRL: My necklace.
NARRATOR: Said the girl. The little man took the necklace.
(Pantomimed.) Then he stood at the wheel and with three
spins: Whirr, whirrr, whirr, he had spun all the straw into
gold. When he finished, he disappeared. (HE exits.)
GIRL: Good-bye, little man.
NARRATOR: And the little girl went to sleep.
GIRL: (Snores.) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
NARRATOR: The next day at sunrise the King came to the
room. (KING re-enters.) When he saw all the gold he was
very happy, for he was a greedy king. (SR revolve on with
2nd room.) He took the Millers daughter to a second
room which held even more straw than the first. (SL
revolve off.)
KING: If you value your life, you must spin all this straw into
gold in one night!
NARRATOR: The King left. (KING exits SR.) The girl did
not know what to do and so she began to cry.
GIRL: WAAAAAAA!
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-5-
NARRATOR: Again the door opened and again the comical
little man appeared.
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: (Enters.) Ta-Da ! ! !
GIRL: Hello, again, comical little man who came through the
open door again.
NARRATOR: The comical little man said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: What will you give me if I spin all this
straw into gold?
GIRL: The ring on my finger.
NARRATOR: The girl replied. So the little man took the
ring, (Pantomimed.) spun the gold - whirr, whirr, - and left.
(HE exits.) The girl went to sleep. (Snore business.) The
next morning the King came to her. He was very, very
happy, and very, very pleased, but unfortunately he was
still very, very greedy.
KING: Very, very well done, my dear. Come along with me.
(SL revolve on with 3rd room; SR off. THEY cross to SL.)
NARRATOR: The King took the maiden to an even larger
room with even more straw. He said:
KING: This, too, must be spun in one night, and if you
accomplish it you shall be my wife and the queen of my
heart.
GIRL: Queen of Hearts? Off with your head ! ! !
NARRATOR and KING: What?
GIRL: Oh, sorry.
NARRATOR: Again the king left the room (HE exits.) and
again the girl cried.
GIRL: WAAA!
NARRATOR: And again the door opened and, yep, you
guessed it, again the comical little man came into the room
and again he said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: (Enters.) What will you give me if I
spin all the straw into gold?
GIRL: I have nothing left to give.
NARRATOR: Answered the girl.
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: Then you must give me the first child
you have after you are made queen.
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-6-
NARRATOR: The comical little man said. The girl did not
know whether that would ever happen, but she did not
know what else to do, so she said:
GIRL: Yes.
NARRATOR: And so again the little man spun the straw into
gold - whir, whir, whir - then the comical little man left (HE
exits.) and the girl went to sleep. (Snore business.) The
King returned the next morning (KING enters, crosses to
GIRL.) and when he saw all the gold, he immediately
arranged for the wedding. (KING leads GIRL off.)
And so they were married and the pretty Millers
daughter, that is the pretty daughter of the Miller, not the
daughter of the pretty Miller, that is if you see what I mean
- Anyhow the girl married the guy and because the guy
was a king, the girl became a queen. And so tune in again
tomorrow and you, too, may become a Queen for a Day! !
! (Pause.) Oh, excuse me, I got carried away As I was
saying, the Millers pretty young daughter was married and
became Queen. In a years time she brought forth a fine
child into the world (GIRL re-enters wearing crown,
carrying pantomimed baby. She crosses to throne, CS,
and sits.) and thought no more of the comical little man.
GIRL: The who?
NARRATOR: The comical little man.
GIRL: Oh, I dont think about him anymore.
NARRATOR: Well, one day, when the Queen was busy not
thinking about thinking about the comical little man, he
came into the room and said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: (Enters.) Ta-da! Again! ! !
GIRL: Hello there, comical little man whom I have thought
no more of since I brought this fine child into the world.
NARRATOR: Said the Queen. The comical little man said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: Now give me the child you promised
me!
NARRATOR: The Queen was terrified!
GIRL: Oh, no!
NARRATOR: She thought for a second or two (Thinker
pose.) or maybe three (Repeat business.) and then she
said:
Frumpled Fairy Tales
-7-
GIRL: I will give you all the riches of the kingdom, including
my new color television and a years supply of bubble
gum, if you will only leave me the child.
NARRATOR: But the comical little man said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No! I would rather have the child than
all the riches in the world unless you could make that
two color TVs.
NARRATOR: The Queen began to weep
GIRL: WAAA!
NARRATOR: because she only had one color TV. Then
the comical little man said:
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: I will give you three days to try and
guess my name. If at the end of that time you have not
guessed it, you must give the child to me. (HE exits.)
NARRATOR: The comical little man went away and the
Queen spent the whole night thinking of names. She sent
the messenger out into the kingdom. (MESSENGER
enters, crosses to QUEEN.)
GIRL: Search far and wide and bring me a list of all the
names of the common folk.
(MESSENGER exits RUMPELSTILTSKIN enters.)
NARRATOR: The next day when the comical little man
returned, she tried all the names she could think of:
GIRL: Caspar?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No!
GIRL: Melchior?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No!
GIRL: Balthazar?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No!
GIRL: Irving?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No! (HE exits.)
NARRATOR: The comical little man went away again and
again the Queen spent the whole night thinking of names.
The next day came and with it came the little man.
(RUMPELSTILTSKIN enters.)
GIRL: Perhaps you are called Roastribs
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No!
GIRL: Sheepshanks?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN: No!
End of Freeview
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