Narrator- Once upon a time there was a group of people.
LaSalle- We will be there soon.
Cartier- I see land.
Wife of Cartier- When we get to shore we will camp there for the night.
Ann Nelson- Here at last.
Jean Nelson- Mommy I'm sleepy.
Ann Nelson- As soon as we get some where to sleep I'll put you to bed.
Narrator- The next morning they set out for water.
Wife of Cartier- (running ahead) I see water a spring.
Cartier- You are seeing.
["things" is presumably missing]
Wife of Cartier- No I'm not.
LaSalle- We will stay here for the night.
Narrator- When LaSalle's group is making camp a man is looking at them.
Man- LaSalle! He killed my father.
Narrator- As all this is going on Jean goes into the water.
Ann Nelson- Oh my little girl.
Wife of Cartier- Don't just stand there go and save her.
Cartier- I'm coming
Ann Nelson- Is she all right?
Cartier- I think she is very ill.
Narrator- A group of Indians are looking at the white men and wondering who they are.
Little Deer- My name is Little Deer.
Narrator- The people are wondering if they are making friends or enamys.
Little Deer- I come in peace. Girl sick?
Wife of Cartier- Yes verry.
LaSalle- We will have to stay here until she is well.
Little Deer- I will help.
Narrator- As the people are making camp the man is ready to kill LaSalle.
Man- Don't move. Ladies over there (pointing the gun at a tree.) the one with the dlonde hair over there with the ladies.
Jean Nelson- What about me? (as traci walks up to the man) I'm not a ladie!
Ann Nelson- Come over here.
Man- Be quiet.
Jean Nelson- Well?
Man- Go over with your mommy.
Jean Nelson- (runs over to her mom.)
Man- LaSalle you killed my father so I'm going to kill you.
Bang!
LaSalle- Noooooooo
Narrator- As the man is going in to the woods Cartier gets a gun and shoots him in the back.
Wife of Cartier- What are we going to do with them?
Jean Nelson- I know we will put them in the water.
Cartier- Good thinking.
Narrator- So they put them in the water and then Sue when crazy and got into the boat.
Wife of Cartier- Where is Sue?
Sue- I'm getting out of here. (fall)
Wife of Cartier- Go get her.
Cartier- I'm comming.
Charactors-
Claudine- Narrator, Sue
Chris- LaSalle
Danny- man
Traci- Jean Nelson
Mindy- Ann Nelson
Jeff- Cartier
Dionne- Wife of Cartier
(Not listed Francine- Little Deer,
But I know it was her based on the "F" in front of her lines
and my bucket like head.)
Explanation- This was created by our group in Mrs. Shay's fifth grade class for History.
Given the subject matter of early exploration, my best guess would be fall of 1980.
The text appears exactly as written on the weird, crunchy, just post purple mimeograph, copier paper with two exceptions for clarity
1) The cast list came first on the hand written copy.
2) The lines were written with only the first initial(s) of the students' names instead of the character names indicating who is speaking.
If I left it that way, it would make this more confusing than it must already be.
The exception to that convention was the narrator was listed as "n" because....
We were TEN!
What do you want, Broadway quality scripts?
Additional Notes of Clarification:
A) The handwriting is well beyond legible and, in fact, extremely neat, therefore it is not mine. My guess would be Mindy, Traci or Claudine wrote it all down as we worked it out.
B) A large amount of the concept, and some amount of the dialogue and character assignments were generated by me.
C) Related characters (Ann and Jean ) came from Mindy and Traci being friends and their respective heights.
D) As shown before, Mrs Shay was clearly awesome for letting us work on and perform this in front of class for a "History" grade in spite of these facts:
Jaques Cartier explored the gulf of Saint Lawrence in Canada and died in 1557.
Rene-Robert Cavelier sieur de La Salle explored the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, was likely killed by mutiny (not for Inigo Montoya reasons) on his last exploration, and WASN'T BORN until 1643.
Cartier's wife actually had a name (Mary Catherine des Granches) which even in the stone age we could have looked up in a book.
I have (and likely none of us had) any clue who the Nelsons, Little Deer, or Sue was.
E) There were two people shot to death in a play done by and presented to a class of Riverview grammar school students in a peaceful little suburb and everyone was fine with that..
Gotta love the Eighties!
F) There is a possibility that my being behind much of the writing of the plot explains Cartier's multiple heroic actions.
G) There is a strong possibility that I owe Danny a huge apology for supporting his casting as a nameless killer. Although he was friends with a group of guys that would tease and bully me at times, later that year he chewed out his own older brother when he knocked a log down some rocks we were climbing that hit me in the face, and Danny was the one who pulled me up those rocks so I didn't fall and get injured further, and made sure I was okay.
H) There is an extremely strong possibility that other casting is explained, above and beyond us being the tallest two in the class, by it being obvious to (and referenced by) everyone in the class (including the teacher) that I really liked Dionne. This was in the older mindset "enjoy her company" way compared to the standard "never mention it" kind of grade school crush. Given the disasters that accompanied trying to advance similar feelings for much of the rest of my life it is probably for the best that I didn't act on this idea beyond spending as much time talking to her at recess as possible.
I) There is the strongest of possibilities that I had no material for this week, and jumped at the chance to use this item to fill the gap when I found it in my old school files.
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