Enjoy!
Turkey Hunt
A Musical Comic Tragedy
Enjoy this one-act play written by Elizabeth Fitzgerald for the Students of St. John’s School in 2005. (I didn’t write the songs.)
Synopsis: Indians and turkeys enjoy a fall morning. The Indians hunt the turkeys for their Thanksgiving Feast.
Cast:
Chief Swift Arrow
Hiawatha
Bright Stars
Little Turkey Hunter
Gobbles Turkey
Feather Turkey
Little-feather Turkey
Music:
“10 Little Indians”
“The Sweet Rosy Morn” by Richard Leveridge
“Indian Dance” by Katherine Bolt
“The Cuckoo”
“Three Fat Turkeys”
“O Give Thanks”
Script:
(Set in the forest with trees, pumpkins, leaves and a stump. Backdrop is painted with teepees and fall forest scenery. Indians, stage right, and turkeys, stage left, are asleep.)
Indians awake in their camp while turkeys awake in their nest. Both groups softly sing and do the motions to “The Sweet Rosy Morn” unaware of one another.
Indians and turkeys sing:
“The sweet rosy morning peeps over the hills,
With blushes adorning the meadows and fields;
The merry, merry, merry birds call, Come, come, come, away!
Awake from your slumber and hail the new day.”
(Turkeys preen, brush teeth & read the comics.)
Chief: “Good morning family! Today is the day of our turkey hunt. We will share a great feast with our neighbors, the white men, that will last for five days.”
Wife: “They had such a hard winter – so many of them died. We will celebrate with them the bountiful new harvest.”
Chief: “Let’s make sure we have all the children with us.” (Mother Indian points to each child as they skip by, silently counting them.)
Indians sing:
“One little, two little, three little Indians,
Four little, five little, six little Indians,
Seven little, eight little nine little Indians,
Ten little Indians here.”
Mother Indian: “Okay, we are all here.”
Little Indians: Let us go hunt the turkeys!
Indians and turkeys sing:
Indian Dance
(Dance of the Warm Spring Indians from Oregon)
Indians sing: “Brothers, let us dance;
Beat upon the drum.
Make the circle wider, wider!
Here we come.
We will stamp our feet,
Bend our heads down low,
Lift our knees up higher, higher!
Here we go.
Let us hunt the turkeys;
Bring them to the feast.
We will hunt the turkeys
Until we have three!
For the first two verses the
Turkeys sing:
Gobble, gobble, gobble:
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble;
Gobble, gobble, gobble!”
(Indians ready their bows and arrows.)
Feather: Remember family, gobble, this is the time of the year we must be very careful. Gobble.
Gobbles: Yes, gobble, the Indians will be hunting for us!
Little-feather Turkey: They shot Uncle Albert, gobble, last year!
All three turkeys: “Gulp.”
(Both groups move out into the forest, not seeing each other. Babies back into each other and scurry off during the Cuckoo song.)
(In the background a Cuckoo is heard.)
Indians and turkeys sing together:
“The Cuckoo”
Indians begin with:
“In forests far away we can hear the cuckoo.
From top of his great oak he is calling to the owl.
Turkeys begin with:
“Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.”
(The Indians see the turkeys but the turkeys don’t see the Indians. The Indians ready their bows.)
The turkeys finish the “Cuckoo” at the front left side of the stage.
Feather: “I don’t see any, gobble, Indians.” (Little-feather turkey pulls on Feather’s feathers, unnoticed.)
Gobbles: “Me either, gobble, I think we’re safe. Want to hear a joke?
Feather: Sure. (Little feather is still tugging at Feather to warn of the Indians, but ignored.)
Gobbles: Why did the turkey cross the football field?”
Feather: “I don’t know. Why?”
Gobbles: “Because someone called a foul.”
Feather: “I don’t get it.”
Gobbles: “Never mind, let’s sing”:
Turkeys only sing:
Three fat turkeys are we,
We hid all night in this tree
When the chief came around
We couldn’t be found
And that’s why we’re here
You see.
(At the end of each verse one of the turkeys is shot, Little-feather, and then Feather; then Gobbles. The Indians drag the turkeys off stage one by one as they are shot. The Indians stay back stage with the turkeys.)
Two fat turkeys are we,
We hid all night in this tree,
When the chief came around
We couldn’t be found
And that’s why we’re here
You see.
(In a trembling voice:)
One fat turkey am I
I sure wish that I could fly
When the chief comes around
I don’t want to be found
I’m afraid I’m going
To die!
Then Hiawatha and Gobbles come to the front together and say:
Indian Mother: This has been the story of how the turkey became the center of the annual thanksgiving feast.
Gobbles: The turkeys were thankful to be included.
Then they all come back on stage and sing “O Give Thanks”.
O Give Thanks
O give thanks, O give thanks, O give thanks unto the Lord;
He is gracious, His mercy endureth forever.