Musical Scripts
"12 Unique Peace Child Scripts Highlight Diversity of Performances Throughout History"
Index:
1. Original Peace Child Story Outline (1981)
2. Original Albert Hall Script & Final Story Outline (1981)
3. US-Soviet Tour Script (1986)
4. The Bridge – Script & Production Notes (1991)
5. Istanbul Habitat Two Script (1994)
6. Hague Appeal for Peace Script (1999)
7. Kids on Strike Script (2008)
8. Illustrated Future We Want Script (UN Office in Geneva - 2013)
9. Primary School Script (2018)
10. Green Peace Child Script (2015)
11. Generic Peace Child Script (2018)
12. Time Travel Chat Show Script (2008)
13. Gulf War Peace Child - Outline Story (1991)
14. Lockdown Peace Child Movie - Outline Story (2021)
2. Original Albert Hall Script & Final Story Outline (1981)
3. US-Soviet Tour Script (1986)
4. The Bridge – Script & Production Notes (1991)
5. Istanbul Habitat Two Script (1994)
6. Hague Appeal for Peace Script (1999)
7. Kids on Strike Script (2008)
8. Illustrated Future We Want Script (UN Office in Geneva - 2013)
9. Primary School Script (2018)
10. Green Peace Child Script (2015)
11. Generic Peace Child Script (2018)
12. Time Travel Chat Show Script (2008)
13. Gulf War Peace Child - Outline Story (1991)
14. Lockdown Peace Child Movie - Outline Story (2021)
INTRODUCTION
Included here are 12 x very different Peace Child scripts from different periods in Peace Child’s history. They are just a handful of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of different versions of the story that have been performed. Some, like the Istanbul script, have the names of the cast children written in – which is what every producer should do to give the young people of the cast full ownership of the play they are performing.
If you choose to write and produce a Peace Child show with young people, you will face the same challenges that every other Peace Child writer / producer has faced. Reading some of the following scripts may help you to see how other Peace Child writers have done it. Good Luck!!
1. The Original Albert Hall Script (1981)
The
Original Albert Hall Script (1981) – a copy of the script of the very first Peace Child show starring
Susannah York as the Story-teller. It still has the director’s notes all over
it. Also included here is a the
very first outline treatment by David Woollcombe that
got the whole production moving + a scrapbook of the original flyers, letters,
reviews and production notes written at the time.
2. The Original US Study Script (1983)
The Original US Study Guide Script (1983) – Here is the Flyer that promoted the US Premiere performance at the Kennedy Centre Concert Hall in Washington DC, and the basic Cold War script and Study Guide that came out of it. This show was performed over 10,000 times mainly in the USA between 1983 and 1990. Though now a period piece – as history has moved on massively since it was written, it is still considered by many to be the best Peace Child script: the dialogue in it cuts to the essence of children exposing the insanity of many government defence policies and provides a useful guide to how better Peace Child scripts could be created in the future.
3. The First Soviet - American Tour Script (1986)
The First Soviet-American Tour Script (1986) - This is the script of the show that is featured in this video. Because of plane delays, the cast only had 4 days to create and rehearse this show – in Russian for an audition performance before the Soviet Minister of Culture. We then only had a couple of days to translate and re-rehearse the show in English for our 20 x city Tour of North America. That we had a show at all that hung together is one of many Peace Child miracles!
Ludmila Senchina stars as the
Story-teller in the US-Soviet Tour of 1986
4. The Bridge
The Bridge – a story of communities at war either side of a river which makes
peace between them.
5. The Istanbul Script (1996)
The Istanbul Script (1996) – as performed at the Habitat TWO Conference in
Istanbul in June 1995
6. The Peace Child Millennium Script (1999-2000)
The Peace Child Millennium Script (1999-2000) – as performed at the Hague Appeal for Peace
starring Peter Ustinov as the Story-teller in July 1999 and published as part
of the Hague follow-up Global Campaign for Peace Education;
7. Kids on Strike (2008)
Kids on Strike (2008): This is the
script created under the direction of Rick Staropoli (who also played the
US President) – by the Children of Rochester, New York. It was performed there
and at the World Youth Congress in Quebec City, Canada. It was their idea
to have a global kids strike – the idea that now forms the backbone of every
new Peace Child show.
8. Peace Child 2050 - Creating the Future we want (2013)
Peace Child 2050 – Creating the Future we want (2013) – performed in
the Grande Salle at the UN Office in Geneva for the 21st Anniversary of Mikhail
Gorbachev’s Green Cross organisation. This was the first Peace Child to focus
almost exclusively on Climate Change and sustainability issues;
9. Primary School Peace Child (2018)
Primary School
Peace Child (2018) – set in a UK school, created for and with 8 to 10 year olds. It tells the story of a child whose parents
are diplomats and has to return with them to an unstable country – which brings
war into their classrooms via face-time video calls.
10. Green Peace Child
An early version of the Climate Change Peace
Child musical
11. The Generic Peace Child Script (2017)
A story written for the Moscow Production which became, eventually, STRIKE. This became known as the “place-based script” as the names of the characters, the places and the situations are all dictated by the place in which the story is set. Adapt to your “place”!
12. The Time-Travel Peace Child Show
A 20-minute Assembly presentation about the children of today being brought back from two alternative futures – one peaceful, serene, prosperous and sustainable; the other a dystopian nightmare with people in gas-masks, at permanent war with each other. The Peace Child choice in stark, simple terms and very easy for students of all ages to pull off;
Other Script Outlines
Peace Child scripts written to
help young people through tense, specific and unsettling periods of history
1. The Gulf War Peace Child Script (1991)
A script written in response to the war in the
Gulf
2. The Lockdown Peace Child Script (2021)
A story that brings the young protagonists
together via zoom; Devised as an internet movie, it can be done by youth
collaborating across the world.