A Play – Hope for the Earth

(ALL THE SONGS ARE WRITTEN IN ITALICS – THESE CAN BE SUNG TO SIMPLE TUNES)

Narrator: You are about to enter the enchanted world of nature as we tell you the story of a girl called Amla who lives in Mumbai and wants to save the earth.

Amla: I’m tired of this city Full of buildings so cold and dead There are no trees or flowers It’s crowded with people instead

The roads are blocked with traffic jams The skies are grey with smog The noise is just unbearable And the garbage stench is terrible

Its just not fair

Its just not fair (All her friends join her and together they say this LOUDLY)

(Sung to the tune of ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’)

Her Friends in turns: Where is the world we’re supposed to know? Where are the trees? …. ….. The flowers and the bees?

The yellow fields, the burning sun above, The bright blue sky, the pretty birds that fly

They often sang for people.

Where have they gone?

Amla: Why did the world become like this?

How can I make it what it used to be?

Tree: Hey, little girls …

Amla and her friends: (looking around) We wonder who THAT was?

Tree: It’s me….

Amla: Can you really talk, or am I imagining it?

Tree: Yes, I can talk but only some people can hear me.

Amla: You want to say something to us?

Tree: You were singing about saving the earth. Do you really want to?

Amla and her friends: Yes, we want to … desperately.

Tree: Then maybe I can help you. Pluck a leaf from one of my branches. Hold it in the palm of your hands. Then close your eyes and think of saving the Earth and you will be able to do it!

Amla and her friends: Oh, thank you, thank you.

(They sing this song in turns)

For we all share this world of ours, And we need to protect it we need to right start now Even though we may not know how …..

Just think how far out the ocean goes, from shore to shore, door to door. Think of the valleys, the mountaintops the Earth never stops.

So deep, so high, with miles of sky Remember that we are all part of that pie.

So keep the sea and the land, just the way that God has planned , just the way that God had planned .

(Sung to the tune of ‘Yankee Doodle’)

Everyone Together : We must work hard to make this world beautiful again !

Lets take the leaf and think about saving the earth .

Narrator : Amla and her friends reach out for the leaf, hold it in

their hands and think about saving the earth

(There is a loud bang and the lights go off.)

Narrator : Looks like they have reached another land.

( A group of children come dancing on to the stage wearing clothes made of newspaper strips and wearing necklaces made of tins and cans and empty toothpaste tubes etc. – they dance like Baloo to the tune of ‘ Bare Necessities ‘ from the movie Jungle Book )

WNWNP : ( Waste not want not people )

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature’s recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

( Play the song till ‘ Where ever we wander , Wherever we go )

Amla and

her friends : Where are we ?? Who are these people ??

(They stop and ask some of the people who are singing ….)

What place is this ?? What is this place

called ??

WNWN people : This is the Land of Bare Necessities and we are the ‘WANT

NOT WASTE NOT PEOPLE ’ here ……..

One WNWNP

person : There are no shops in this land and no one buys

anything ….

WNWNP : Now when you shop

And buy dresses and shoes

Junk jewellery and what have yous …..

Just think where everything came from – honey ??

‘Cause though you may be paying the money

Its Mother Earth with all of nature that ends up paying a price

( The children say this to Rap )

Amla and

her friends : How does Mother Earth and all of nature end up paying a

price ??

One WNWNP : We’ll tell you how .

Now when you buy a dress .

Second WNWNP : Its made from cloth

Third WNWNP : Which is woven from thread

Fourth WNWNP : Which is spun from cotton

Fifth WNWNP : Which grows on these plants

Sixth WNWNP : And do you know how many forests were cut down to grow these plants ??

Fourth WNWNP : On which grew the cotton

Third WNWNP : From which the thread was spun

Second WNWNP : From which the cloth was woven

First WNWNP : From which this dress was made …..

Amla

and her friends : Aha ! we understand it all so clearly now . So when we shop its doing the Earth a lot of harm somewhere .

WNWNP Together : And there’s one more thing you have to learn about our land .

One

WNWNP: We do not waste anything here ….nothing is thrown

away . Everything is reused or recycled including our

garbage …. We just love our ‘Kachra ‘ and our TRASH !!

WNWNP sing together :

YES, WE all LOVE our TRASH ,

And we always recycle all our waste

‘Cause we need to make our garbage less

Or our Earth will soon be covered with our mess

Put your plastic and paper waste all in the bins

Then recycle with cans and tins.

Don’t throw your stale food and vegetable peels

Make it into compost – its no big deal

This is food for the plants, that will make the earth green

Thus the world will forever stay clean.

( Sung to the tune of ‘ It’s a Small World ‘ )

One WNWN

Person :

It takes plastic 500 years to decompose and break down.

Imagine that every time, that someone throws a plastic bag or a plastic bottle it will remain on the earth for 500 years !

AMLA and

her friends :That’s very frightening . WE have a lot to learn yet ….lets see

where the leaf takes us next ..

They all hold the leaf together …….

( Sound of a BIG BANG !!!! )

Narrator : Amla reaches the LAST LANDS OF NATURE and she

is shocked to see what is happening there. The first place

she reaches are the Rainforests :

( The Rainforest children come dancing in and after dancing to music they sing this song )

The Rainforests : sing this song

We give you fresh air to breathe

Animals call us their home

From our plants and trees you get food and medicines more

All the birds in all the trees

Every insect, every leaf

Fish and animals dance with me

Sustaining life for us all

Now it is very important to

Tell the people what we must do

Tell everybody that its not okay

To let the forests get cleared away

( Sung to the tune of ‘Come Back Eliza’ )

Amla and

her friends :

Rainforests … why should we worry about rainforests -they’re so far away,

And there’s nothing that WE can do.

One of

Amla’s friends:

I know that in these Rain Forests

That I may never see,

Half the world’s plants, animals and insects

Live in harmony.

So much bio-diversity

Another friend: I know that trees are being cut,

Faster than we know.

These trees are habitats where the creatures live,

So now where will they go?

Amla and all

her friends : So, even though they’re far away,

Rainforests I can’t see

But I can learn and understand

Because the future starts with me!

Rainforest

Children

in turns : Have you eaten a papaya ?

A strawberry, an orange, a banana ?

A tomato , a capsicum, a pea-nut ?

A sweet potato ,

maybe a pineapple ??

Well do you know where these were first found ?

You guessed right – they were found in the rainforests !!!

The same with our medicines. So many plants are there yet undiscovered in our rainforests.

Amla : My goodness – there’s so much to see and learn yet – lets

move on.

(Amla and her friends hold the leaf.)

( A LOUD BANG !!! !

Narrator : Amla and her friends are now in a new habitat …….lets

see where they’ve reached ..…….

( The SEA children come dancing in – some come as waves waving blue coloured odhnis and some children come as the fish swimming through the waves )

THE SEA Children We are the sea, the sea , the sea ,

Sing : Just look at the sea world around you

Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more are you looking for?

Fish and oysters and eels,

And whales and sharks in the deep,

Dolphins that dive and leap,

There are so many creatures here

So much bio – diversity

Under the sea, under the sea

But now the humans are messing it up

With oil slicks from ships

And factories that pour

Toxic wastes by the shore ,

And the mess gets more and MORE AND MORE !!

( Sung to the tune of ‘ Lily the Pink ‘ )

Amla and

her friends :

We are destroying EVERYTHING ON THIS EARTH !

Amla and her friends :

We’ve now understood it all ………

We’ve been through all the Lands of Nature …..

They sing this song or say it :

The Earth is such a beautiful place

That’s being threatened by the human race

All the habitats are being destroyed by the hour

And animals are dying forever

So we must learn to care

Not to waste, to use less and to share

To work hard to make people aware

For that’s the only way we can hope to save the earth

EVERYONE COMES ON TO THE STAGE AND SINGS WITH THE AUDIENCE

Let us begin to lend a hand

Parents, children across the land

Let’s start to share, Let’s start to care

Cause that seems the only way

From the smallest ant to the tallest tree

From the highest peak to the deepest sea

The world must sing in harmony

Cause that seems the only way

Let’s vow today to make our earth a better place to stay

Let’s start to share, Let’s start to care

Cause that seems the only way

( Sung to the tune of ‘ Auld Lang Syne ’ )