FRANKIE AND THE GINGERBREAD BOY ONE ACT By Bobby …

1 FRANKIE AND THE GINGERBREAD BOY ONE ACT By Bobby Keniston Copyright 2012 by Bobby Keniston, All rights reserved. ISBN 1- 60003-661- 9 CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this Work is subject to a royalty. This Work is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations, whether through bilateral or multilateral treaties or otherwise, and including, but not limited to, all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention. RIGHTS RESERVED: All rights to this Work are strictly reserved, including professional and amateur stage performance rights. Also reserved are: motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound recording, all forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as CD-ROM, CD-I, DVD, information and storage retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into non-English languages.

2 PERFORMANCE RIGHTS AND ROYALTY PAYMENTS: All amateur and stock performance rights to this Work are controlled exclusively by Brooklyn Publishers, LLC. No amateur or stock production groups or individuals may perform this play without securing license and royalty arrangements in advance from Brooklyn Publishers, LLC. Questions concerning other rights should be addressed to Brooklyn Publishers, LLC. Royalty fees are subject to change without notice. Professional and stock fees will be set upon application in accordance with your producing circumstances. Any licensing requests and inquiries relating to amateur and stock (professional) performance rights should be addressed to Brooklyn Publishers, LLC. Royalty of the required amount must be paid, whether the play is presented for charity or profit and whether or not admission is charged. AUTHOR CREDIT: All groups or individuals receiving permission to produce this play must give the author(s) credit in any and all advertisement and publicity relating to the production of this play.

3 The author s billing must appear directly below the title on a separate line where no other written matter appears. The name of the author(s) must be at least 50% as large as the title of the play. No person or entity may receive larger or more prominent credit than that which is given to the author(s). PUBLISHER CREDIT: Whenever this play is produced, all programs, advertisements, flyers or other printed material must include the following notice: Produced by special arrangement with Brooklyn Publishers, LLC COPYING: Any unauthorized copying of this Work or excerpts from this Work is strictly forbidden by law. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means now known or yet to be invented, including photocopying or scanning, without prior permission from Brooklyn Publishers, LLC. FRANKIE and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 2 CHARACTERS (5 males, 6 females, extras as desired) VICTOR: A young man, dressed as a skater boy archetype.

4 He jumps into different roles as a member of the CHORUS. He has tremendous energy. SHEL: Dressed somewhat conservatively as an average teenage girl . Also a member of the CHORUS and requires great energy and enthusiasm. MARY: Teenage girl, dressed as a cheerleader. She is the third member of the CHORUS, the popular girl archetype. FRANKIE : Teenage girl. She is VERY shy and put-upon. She has accepted her role in life. Her escape is baking. KEVIN: Captain of the football type, portrayed as a jock archetype. KARA: A new girl at the school, previously an outcast in her old school. She wants to help FRANKIE , but not at the expense of becoming an outcast. GINGER: The GINGERBREAD Boy, FRANKIE 's creation. He is pure innocence, a fountain of love of purity. JOCK 1 AND JOCK 2: Archetypes of Kevin's cronies. Cruel. CHEERLEADER 1 AND CHEERLEADER 2: Archetypes of rough, cruel high school popular girls.

5 TIME: Present PLACE: Any high school Do Not CopyFrankie and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 3 PROP / FURNITURE LIST Lockers (if desired) Books ( FRANKIE ) Desk Chairs to Represent Desks Benches Two Folding Chairs File Folder (VICTOR) Ugly Tie (VICTOR) Large Baking Table Sheet This play is dedicated to Tracy Sue for being the perfect Ideal Reader, and because, in its humble way, this play is everything. And I want to give her Everything. Thanks, Tracy. Do Not CopyFrankie and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 4 FRANKIE AND THE GINGERBREAD BOY (ONE-ACT VERSION) by Bobby Keniston SCENE ONE SETTING: A hallway at a school. If desired, there can be a row of lockers to set the scene. AT RISE: CHORUS of three in the hallway: MARY, a teenage girl, dressed as a cheerleader, SHEL, a teenage girl dressed conservatively, and VICTOR, a teenage boy, dressed in skater-boy fashion.

6 When ALL THREE speak together, THEY are labeled as CHORUS. THEY will jump into different roles as necessary. As the lights rise, THEY address the audience directly. CHORUS: And so it is: VICTOR: We present to you, the SHEL: What should be the most normal, the least sinister of places--- MARY: An empty hallway of a high school. CHORUS: A spot for education. (The THREE of them pause, trying to keep straight faces. Finally, THEY burst out laughing) CHORUS: Sorry. VICTOR: Education. If only. SHEL: Perhaps not education, but VICTOR: ..training for what we call real life. MARY: Society. CHORUS: And we shall one day run the world. (CHORUS pauses. CHORUS claps their hands. FRANKIE , a teenage girl enters. Her head is down. SHE clutches a few books to her chest. SHE is shy, dressed conservatively, and looks dowdy. SHE has smears of baking flour on her face and outfit. Her hair is a tangled mess.)

7 Do Not CopyFrankie and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 5 CHORUS claps their hands again: KEVIN, JOCKS 1 and 2, CHEERLEADERS 1 and 2 all enter and take their places in their cliques, loitering in the hall. Once in their places, THEY freeze in tableau, as does FRANKIE .) VICTOR: Ready for an experiment? MARY and SHEL: Ready! (CHORUS claps their hands and the OTHERS come to life, chattering. FRANKIE starts to walk across the stage, but SHE trips and falls, dropping her books. EVERYONE starts to laugh at her.) KEVIN: First day on your new legs, loser? JOCK 1: Get up, uggo! JOCK 2: She was just standing, but then she fell. That is funny! (KEVIN and the JOCKS walk across stage. JOCK 1 kicks one of FRANKIE s books. The OTHERS laugh. THEY high five in an exaggerated manner. THEY exit. The CHEERLEADERS then walk by FRANKIE .) CHEERLEADER 1: out of the way. Stupid. CHEERLEADER 2: Freak.

8 CHEERLEADER 1 and 2: Stupid freak. (THEY exit without helping her. FRANKIE quietly scoops up her books, stands and puts her head down. SHE starts to walk off. CHORUS claps. FRANKIE freezes in place.) VICTOR: The results of our CHORUS: Speak for themselves. VICTOR: Because high school CHORUS: .. real life. SHEL: We keep quiet out of MARY: We do not always help the CHORUS: And we do not trust the ones who walk alone. Do Not CopyFrankie and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 6 (CHORUS regards FRANKIE for a moment, and begin to circle her.) VICTOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we present to SHEL: Complete and MARY: An CHORUS: Loner. ( THEY present her with a gesture) FRANKIE ! FRANKIE : Look at those eyes filled with fear. VICTOR: For her, this simple high school hallway is the scariest and loneliest place in the world. MARY: Look at her face smeared with flour. VICTOR: That s all she has.

9 The girl can bake. But she bakes alone. MARY: She walks SHEL: Studies alone. CHORUS: Every. Thing. Alone. (Pause. Then, with a certain ) VICTOR: This is a story about FRANKIE . MARY: The loser. SHEL: The loner. MARY: The girl who only has her books and her baking. SHEL: Unnoticed. VICTOR: Except for ridiculing. MARY and SHEL: Here is a story we hope you ll enjoy. VICTOR: This is a story that is all about FRANKIE . CHORUS: All about FRANKIE and her GINGERBREAD Boy. (CHORUS bows to the audience, then spring into action: if a row of lockers was used, CHORUS removes them with great energy and noise. As THEY do so, JOCK 1, JOCK 2, KEVIN, CHEERLEADER 1, CHEERLEADER 2, KARA, and FRANKIE all enter quickly with chairs that represent desks, set themselves up as a classroom, sit with their hands folded in their laps and freeze into tableau. CHORUS brings on a small desk to represent the teacher s desk.)

10 THEY observe the STUDENTS for a moment, perhaps even adjust the way THEY sit. CHORUS then goes to the desk.) Strike a pose! Do Not CopyFrankie and the GINGERBREAD Boy (One-Act Version) Page 7 (The STUDENTS move into poses: FRANKIE keeps her head down. The CHEERLEADERS lean over in a pose of whispering to each other. KEVIN and JOCK 1 go into a tableau of a fist bump, while JOCK 2 takes out a paper airplane and goes into tableau as if about to throw it. KARA sits up straight, trying to make a good impression.) Scene one: MARY: Setting: CHORUS: Mrs. Turtledove s Home Economics class. SHEL: At rise: MARY: The students, as always, are restless. VICTOR: In this scene, Shel will play the part of Mrs. Turtledove. (SHEL takes a pair of glasses out of her pocket and puts them on. SHE messes up her hair. When finished, SHE stands behind the small desk.) SHEL: Ready! CHORUS: Show time! (CHORUS claps.