Excerpt terms and conditions This excerpt is available to assist you in the play selection process. Excerpts are not intended for performance, classroom or other academic use. In any of these cases you will need to purchase playbooks via our website or by phone, fax or mail. A short excerpt is not always indicative of the entire work, and we strongly suggest you read the whole play before planning a production or ordering a cast quantity. Tinker Bell By PATRICK FLYNN Based on the works of J.M. BARRIE Dramatic Publishing Company Woodstock, Illinois • Australia • New Zealand • South Africa © Dramatic Publishing *** NOTICE *** The amateur and stock acting rights to this work are controlled exclusively by THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., without whose permission in writing no performance of it may be given. Royalty must be paid every time a play is performed whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not admission is charged. A play is performed any time it is acted before an audience. Current royalty rates, applications and restrictions may be found at our website: www.dramaticpublishing.com, or we may be contacted by mail at: THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., 311 Washington St., Woodstock, IL 60098. COPYRIGHT LAW GIVES THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR’S AGENT THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO MAKE COPIES. This law provides authors with a fair return for their creative efforts. Authors earn their living from the royalties they receive from book sales and from the performance of their work. Conscientious observance of copyright law is not only ethical, it encourages authors to continue their creative work. This work is fully protected by copyright. No alterations, deletions or substitutions may be made in the work without the prior written consent of the publisher. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, videotape, film, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. It may not be performed either by professionals or amateurs without payment of royalty. All rights, including, but not limited to, the professional, motion picture, radio, television, videotape, foreign language, tabloid, recitation, lecturing, publication and reading, are reserved. For performance of any songs, music and recordings mentioned in this play that are in copyright, the permission of the copyright owners must be obtained or other songs and recordings in the public domain substituted. ©MMXIX by PATRICK FLYNN Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved (TINKER BELL) ISBN: 978-1-61959-229-2 © Dramatic Publishing IMPORTANT BILLING AND CREDIT REQUIREMENTS All producers of the play must give credit to the author of the play in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the play and in all instances in which the title of the play appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing or otherwise exploiting the play and/or a production. The name of the author must also appear on a separate line, on which no other name appears, immediately following the title, and must appear in size of type not less than fifty percent (50%) the size of the title type. Biographical information on the author, if included in the playbook, may be used in all programs. In all programs this notice must appear: “Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., of Woodstock, Illinois.” © Dramatic Publishing Tinker Bell was commissioned and premiered by Adventure Theatre MTC of Glen Echo, Md. (Michael J. Bobbitt, artistic director) on June 22, 2018. CAST: Mr. Smee ...................................................... Garnet Williams Wendy ..............................................................Meghan Abdo Tinker Bell ....................................................Michelle Polera Peter Pan ...................................................... Carmen Castillo Captain James Hook ........................................... Peter Boyer Ensemble #1 (Lost Boys, et al.) ..............Ashley K. Nicholas Ensemble #2 (Pirates, et al.) ..........................Danny Pushkin PRODUCTION: Director ................................................................Nick Olcott Movement & Fight Director ................................Jenny Male Scenic Design .....................................................Daniel Pinha Costume Design .....................................Moyenda Kulemeka Lighting Design ....................................... Sarah Tundermann Sound Design ................................................ Neil McFadden Props & Puppets ................................... Andrea “Dre” Moore Stage Manager ..............................................Kathryn Dooley 4 © Dramatic Publishing For Maggie and Josie © Dramatic Publishing “And all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.” —Shel Silverstein © Dramatic Publishing Tinker Bell CHARACTERS TINKER BELL: A green fairy, lonely, brave PETER PAN: The boy who would not grow up MR. SMEE: Hook’s spectacled boatswain CAPTAIN JAMES HOOK: Cadaverous and blackavised WENDY: Eldest Darling child JOHN: Middlest Darling child* MICHAEL: Youngest Darling child* THE LOST BOYS: Peter’s gang of six boys* TOOTLES NIBS SLIGHTLY CURLY FIRST TWIN SECOND TWIN THE PIRATES: Scalawags the lot; they act and speak as a unit* NANA: The Darling family nanny, also a dog* MRS. DARLING: The most beautiful woman in Bloomsbury; she is an offstage voice CROCODILE: With a taste for one Captain James Hook* *Can be either actor or puppet. If puppets are used for The Lost Boys, there should be six puppets with one puppeteer. Excepting the actors playing Tinker Bell and Peter Pan, all should double as puppeteers, flowers, birds, fairies, etc. 7 © Dramatic Publishing PLACE The island of Neverland Kensington Gardens, London The Darling’s house in Bloomsbury, London TIME Meaningless in Neverland Mid-to-late 19th century in Kensington Gardens 1904 in Bloomsbury PRODUCTION NOTES There should be little effort made to disguise that this is a play for the audience. The audience should be able to “see the wires.” Costume changes can be onstage, puppeteers need not be hidden and the set can be more suggestive than literal. At all times, the attitude should be playful and theatrical, like children playing dress-up. The trick is that the theatricality cannot undermine the stakes. When actual children play dress-up, it is deadly serious. Childlike wonder is at the heart of J.M. Barrie’s works and should be alive here too. This play can be performed with or without an intermission. To perform without the intermission, simply replace the dialogue and action from Tink’s line, “That cannot happen!” on page 41 to her line, “Boys! Boys! Come quick!” on page 42 with a transition to Neverland and The Lost Boys entrance. Sheet music for “The Dance of the Fairies” and “Tinker Bell’s Motif” can be found in the back of the book. 8 © Dramatic Publishing Tinker Bell ACT I SETTING: Neverland is amorphous and so is our stage. Locations, boundaries and/or set pieces should be suggested more than physical wherever possible. The Darling home in Bloomsbury is a time for rigid and boring reality, but as long as we are in Neverland, the audience should have to fill in the gaps somewhat. AT RISE: The stage is dark. A deep darkness like the day before creation. After a beat, a green ball of light no bigger than a fist appears and flitters around the stage emitting a ringing bell playing “Tinker Bell’s Motif.” Slowly at first but then more and more insistent. The ball of light darts around the stage, clearly trying to interact with the audience. After a few beats it stops and hovers. Beat. (Enter MR. SMEE and WENDY.) SMEE. ’Allo. WENDY. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Apologies for our intrusion, we are somewhat early. SMEE. S’truth. I’m not in the play until much later, but we need to come on and kick things off because none of you can understand our star. WENDY (indicating the green ball of light). That’s her. Tinker Bell. But you knew that. SMEE. You did, right? It was on the poster outside. 9 © Dramatic Publishing 10 Tinker Bell ACT I (NOTE: Feel free to substitue “poster” for “program” or “leaflet” or whatever your theatre provides either inside or outside.) WENDY. Do you believe in fairies? (Audience response.) SMEE. Oh. You should, you know. WENDY. You really should. SMEE. Because they believe in you. (SMEE and WENDY blow fairy dust on the audience. Instantly, the ball of light transforms into TINKER BELL, a petite fairy dressed all in green. The shade of green of her costume lightens and intensifies depending on what she is feeling but is always a shade of green.) TINKER BELL (to the audience). It’s not fair! People always get it wrong. I just wanted a friend. Everyone should have a friend. I didn’t mean for him to follow me from Kensington Gardens. He just did. You know how he can be. And once he was here, so many other things happened. Mermaids and pirates and the crocodile and—sorry. Hello, and welcome to Neverland. The other fairies are always telling me I should be friendlier to strangers. So, “Hello.” Again. It was easier before the boy came. And it wasn’t. But before him there was just us fairies. (Many balls of light fill the stage, all different colors and ringing bells playing “The Dance of the Fairies.”) TINKER BELL (cont’d). It seemed every day there were new fairies. Lots of flying and buzzing about. You see, when the © Dramatic Publishing ACT I Tinker Bell 11 first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born, its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every child who ever was. But, children know such a lot now. (The balls of light flicker.) TINKER BELL (cont’d). Soon they don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says, “I don’t believe in fairies!” (A ball of light goes out.) TINKER BELL (cont’d). There is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.