Scene 9 – A Plea for the Pardon of Fred the Squirrel
An excerpt from a screen play in progress
Posted by Lizzy Perkins
Lizzy and Kathryn are standing proudly on the front porch. Arlene, Yvonne, and Russ (leaning on a rake) stand on the sidewalk facing the “stage”. Kathryn is dressed in a gray turtleneck and gray stretch pants attached to her bottom are sprays of pussy willow branches. Lizzy wears green pants and a green t-shirt. Pine tree twigs are attached to the front of her shirt.
Lizzy: Welcome to our show, thank you for coming. Today we are putting on a show about why my dad should not cut down this tree, (points to the tree) starring Kathryn as Fred the squirrel and me as the tree. But first, I am going to read a poem about trees.
Trees are nice
Trees are dandy
Trees give us food
Trees give us maple candy
I love trees so much, I can’t stop writing!!
The End
(Arlene and Yvonne laugh and all clap)
Kathryn: And now the play!....Hi Terry Tree!
Lizzy: Hi Fred!!
Kathryn: Hi Terry!! Thanks for blocking the wind for me last night with your branches I would have been so cold without you!
Lizzy: I don’t mind Terry, I like holding you in my branches, and you’re my best friend!
Kathryn: I don’t know what I’d do without you!
(Russell walks away into the backyard; he has raking to do and looks slightly irritated)
Lizzy: I hope I can - wait, where’d dad go?
Arlene: He’s busy doing yard work Lizzy, we’ll watch.
Lizzy: But I wrote the play to show dad why it’s not ok to cut down the tree.
Kathryn: (trying to be positive, looks at Liz and with a big smile and a shrug) The show must go on?
Scene 10 – The Giving Tree Gone
Later on that week…Lizzy and Kathryn are looking down at the stump in the ground with sad looks on their faces. They are surrounded by hundreds of peanuts. The day is overcast and it appears to be a little cooler outside.
Kathryn: I guess that he didn’t make it.
Lizzy: We should have a wake for him.
Kathryn: What’s that?
Lizzy: It’s when you wake the dead person up and you tell them goodbye.
Kathryn: Oh…but we don’t know where he is.
Lizzy: We can use doggy, he looks dead.
Cut to Kathryn and Liz and the backyard. Shot from directly above. The two girls are kneeling on the ground in front of a shallow hole with a shoebox between them containing a stuffed dog that can barely be recognized as such. It is made of a tan fabric, has no fur or features left, and has a hole where the nose once was, he has long floppy ears and you can see that one has been sewed back on. It is Liz’s mother’s favorite toy from her childhood.
Lizzy: Wake up Fred…is there anything you want to say, Kathryn?
Kathryn: I’m going miss you Fred, I never met a squirrel who would eat from my hand before. (sudden realization) And I might never meet one again!
Lizzy: Fred, I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry that my play didn’t work. I thought maybe you found another tree to live in, but I know that if you were alive you would still come back to visit your stump like the boy in The Giving Tree and you would still come visit us in the morning. I’m really going to miss you Fred….I’m really going to miss the way…(starts to break up) your fat cheeks crunched peanuts…(Kathryn looks a little bewildered)
Kathryn: But now you’re ok, just go back to sleep….(Kathryn lies doggy back down and covers the box, she puts in the hole, and covers it up with dirt, Lizzy helps her…The camera slowly moves upward into the sky.)
Posted by Lizzy Perkins
Lizzy and Kathryn are standing proudly on the front porch. Arlene, Yvonne, and Russ (leaning on a rake) stand on the sidewalk facing the “stage”. Kathryn is dressed in a gray turtleneck and gray stretch pants attached to her bottom are sprays of pussy willow branches. Lizzy wears green pants and a green t-shirt. Pine tree twigs are attached to the front of her shirt.
Lizzy: Welcome to our show, thank you for coming. Today we are putting on a show about why my dad should not cut down this tree, (points to the tree) starring Kathryn as Fred the squirrel and me as the tree. But first, I am going to read a poem about trees.
Trees are nice
Trees are dandy
Trees give us food
Trees give us maple candy
I love trees so much, I can’t stop writing!!
The End
(Arlene and Yvonne laugh and all clap)
Kathryn: And now the play!....Hi Terry Tree!
Lizzy: Hi Fred!!
Kathryn: Hi Terry!! Thanks for blocking the wind for me last night with your branches I would have been so cold without you!
Lizzy: I don’t mind Terry, I like holding you in my branches, and you’re my best friend!
Kathryn: I don’t know what I’d do without you!
(Russell walks away into the backyard; he has raking to do and looks slightly irritated)
Lizzy: I hope I can - wait, where’d dad go?
Arlene: He’s busy doing yard work Lizzy, we’ll watch.
Lizzy: But I wrote the play to show dad why it’s not ok to cut down the tree.
Kathryn: (trying to be positive, looks at Liz and with a big smile and a shrug) The show must go on?
Scene 10 – The Giving Tree Gone
Later on that week…Lizzy and Kathryn are looking down at the stump in the ground with sad looks on their faces. They are surrounded by hundreds of peanuts. The day is overcast and it appears to be a little cooler outside.
Kathryn: I guess that he didn’t make it.
Lizzy: We should have a wake for him.
Kathryn: What’s that?
Lizzy: It’s when you wake the dead person up and you tell them goodbye.
Kathryn: Oh…but we don’t know where he is.
Lizzy: We can use doggy, he looks dead.
Cut to Kathryn and Liz and the backyard. Shot from directly above. The two girls are kneeling on the ground in front of a shallow hole with a shoebox between them containing a stuffed dog that can barely be recognized as such. It is made of a tan fabric, has no fur or features left, and has a hole where the nose once was, he has long floppy ears and you can see that one has been sewed back on. It is Liz’s mother’s favorite toy from her childhood.
Lizzy: Wake up Fred…is there anything you want to say, Kathryn?
Kathryn: I’m going miss you Fred, I never met a squirrel who would eat from my hand before. (sudden realization) And I might never meet one again!
Lizzy: Fred, I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry that my play didn’t work. I thought maybe you found another tree to live in, but I know that if you were alive you would still come back to visit your stump like the boy in The Giving Tree and you would still come visit us in the morning. I’m really going to miss you Fred….I’m really going to miss the way…(starts to break up) your fat cheeks crunched peanuts…(Kathryn looks a little bewildered)
Kathryn: But now you’re ok, just go back to sleep….(Kathryn lies doggy back down and covers the box, she puts in the hole, and covers it up with dirt, Lizzy helps her…The camera slowly moves upward into the sky.)
This entry was posted by Ben Myers, on
Saturday, June 10, 2006.
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