BRIDGEBUILDING
This piece of drama is written with school assembly in mind, with performance opportunities for a complete form class. Minimal staging and props required.
The town and place names can be changed to make the piece relevant to your school and surrounding area.
The stage is set with five podiums. Centre stage is a lone figure, surveying the land and the podiums have a freeze frame arranged at each one, a group of farmers, a group of politicians, a group of architects and builders, a group of teachers and a group of parents and pupils.
MUSIC
Music intro –Five groups create three freeze frames to depict their roles/ lone figure remains still, music fades out and first freeze frame of the farmers comes to life.
Farmer 1- Your man there, he says he wants to buy the field
Farmer 2- Him, yonder, sure he hasn’t lifted a bale of hay in his life
Farmer 3- He wouldn’t know a Massey Ferguson from a JCB
Farmer 4 – I don’t think Armani does overalls!
Farmer 1- He’s not going to farm on it, he’s going to build on it
Farmer 2- Build! Over my dead body! This is farming land, always has been always will be
Farmer 3- Been ploughed and planted for generations
Farmer 4- He says he’s going to do the same, metaphorically speaking
Farmer 1- You what? Is he some kind a hippy, one of these new agers, I know his sort turn your back and he’ll have built one of those health spas!
Farmer 2- What’s he want to build? A hotel?
Farmer 3- Bet you he’s going to build houses, sell them a dream
Farmer 4- A school, he wants to build a school and let me tell you he is trying to sell a dream, wait til you hear this…
Visionary – This is a beautiful part of the world, gods own country, I bet you yield good crops from this field
Farmers – Aye
Visionary –Well I would like to use your land to do a little farming of my own
Farmer 2 –Nothing illegal I hope!
Farmer 3- This is a barley field, a golden field, fertile land
Farmer 4- What crops had you in mind?
Visionary-I want to plant some seeds, nurture them, help them grow
Farmer 1- He’s one of those organic farmers, wants to let them do their own thing, let nature take its course!
Farmer 2 - Told you he was hippy!
Visionary –The seeds in question are young people, I want to build a school, a school for those who want to come, a school who celebrates who you are and what you believe and opens your eyes to the world of others
Farmer 3- Sounds good, but look around you where would they come from, we are in the middle of nowhere
Visionary – There are people who want this for their children, they want to bridge the gap, build it and they will come, from Newry from Banbridge, from further afield, I know it, I believe it, I’ve seen it with my own eyes
Farmer 1- Did you check him out with UPS?
Farmer 4- So let me get this straight, you want to buy a barley field in the middle of nowhere so you can teach kids to be themselves and work with others
Visionary – That’s a good way of putting it, I promise we will build something your forefathers would be proud of, you can be proud of, this will be the start of a shared future
Farmer 2- I’m in. I hated school but that sounds brilliant
Farmer 3- What do you think da would say if he was alive?
Farmer 4- He’d say your man was a buck eejet, but he always said love thy neighbour and the land should be used to help generations to come, so I think he’d approve
Farmer 2- Then you’re the proud owner of one barley field…and a bull!
MUSIC – CHANGE FREEZE-FRAMES
Visionary – Building bridges is never easy, it takes determination and above all a little faith
Freeze – Frame 2 – The Councillors
Councillor 1- He’s got planning permission to build
Councillor 2- I never thought I’d see the day that there would be building on that agricultural land
Councillor 3- What’s he building?
Councillor 4 – Are you ready for this – a school
Councillor 5- A school! But what’s he doing building a school in the middle of nowhere!
Councillor 1- Who has ever heard of Loughbrickland! There are plenty of schools in
our towns we don’t need one slap bang in the middle of a barley field in the middle of
nowhere!
Councillor 2- Send him in
Councillor 3- Good afternoon Sir, we have been discussing your plans to build a
school in Loughbrickland, and your reason is?
Visionary – Not just any school, an integrated school, not exclusive but inclusive, a
place to work and learn together, side by side, our communities deserve it the people
want for their children what they never had
Councillor 4- Says who?
Visionary – Banbridge, Newry and further a field, we will bridge the gap between the
communities, I want to call it New-Bridge
Councillor 1- There are plenty of schools in these areas for the children to attend, we
don’t need another school
Visionary –Yes there are plenty of schools in these areas but none with an ethos like
this based on sharing cultures and mutual respect; it’s being built half way between,
neutral territory
Councillor 2- Good luck to you, I think you’re backing a loser; I’d give it a year
Councillor 3- Nice idea but you’re wasting your time, folks around here like things the way they are
Councillor 4- New-bridge, what a lot of hippy claptrap!
[The secretary who has remained silent throughout the scene speaks up]
Secretary – Do you have a secretary? A cleaner, a campaign manager? I make a mean
cup of tea, I’d really like to help! It sounds wonderful…
Visionary -Great oaks grow from small acorns and so bridge building began …
[Music – Freeze frames – Change]
[Freeze frame 3 -Architects and builders and locals]
Architect 1- So three mobiles and a car park, not one of our most ambitious projects
Architect 2- So he has a school
Builder 1- But does he have any pupils?
Builder 2- I don’t know if I’d take a risk sending my kids there
Architect 1- It’s certainly small, lots of one on one attention
Architect 2 – There’s a lot to be said for that, not just a number
Builder 1- He’s very passionate about it all, these parents who have heard his vision
have been persuaded to do miraculous things
Builder 2- Scrub the floors, paint the walls, make school dinners, and the endless cups of tea, it feels like home
Architect 1- It does doesn’t it, it feels like home
Architect 2- Watch out here come the locals…
Local 1- I’d never thought I’d see the day, a school on the farm
Local 2- Not in my day anyway…
Local 1- I’m not surprised though, us residents have always led the way, living in
perfect harmony, leading by example, pity the rest of the country couldn’t do the same
Local 2- You worship in yours and I go to mine, just across the road from each other,
sure we have hardly had a cross word with each other in thirty years
Local 1- Well not until now
Local 2- What do you mean not until now?
Local 1 – See that builder in the checked shirt
Local 2- Yes
Local 1- Well I saw him first! He’s mine – Yooohooo!
Architect 1- It’s an idyllic location
Architect 2- A harmonious community
Builder 1 – Good luck to you sir, I hope it works
Builder 2- And we’re back to build an extension.
Visionary – We had our school but would we have any teachers willing to make that leap of faith
Freeze frame 4 – Staff and Secretary
Visionary – Free thinkers, passionate educationalists, child centred and creative
Individuals, would we even interest one…
Secretary – It’s like the X Factor out there, there are loads of them, and vibrant, chatty people…I’m excited…Tea anyone…
Visionary – I’d like to thank you all for coming, I know this is a big ask, for some of
you to walk away from a permanent job and risk it all to educate our young people in
an environment of mutual respect with a desire to make a difference
Teacher 1- It’s all I ever wanted, it’s why I became a teacher
Teacher 2 –This is so exciting, young minds from all walks of life, the possibilities are endless
Teacher 3- We can learn so much from each other, we can bridge the gap, challenge their opinions and views
Teacher 4- Explore this shared community and celebrate our cultures
Secretary – I knew it, build it and they will come
Visionary – And so it was, not quite bricks and mortar but MDF on wheels, the newly christened Caravans of Love
Secretary – Peace and Mutual Respect
Visionary –We’d done it with team work and commitment and a desire so strong we were ready to open the doors but would they come?
[Music – Teachers/ Builders and Architects/ Farmers Take Centre Three Blocks and build the school create a freeze frame centre stage as music fades
Two groups of parents and pupils either side of the school to represent the feeder communities]
Freeze Frame 5 – Pupils/Parents
Parent 1- You look so smart, what a day, a new school, a new beginning
Child 1- I’m nervous, what if I don’t fit in, I don’t know anyone from my primary class who is going
Parent 1- Everyone will be feeling anxious on the first day, even the teachers!
Child 1- Really?
Parent 1- Really, and excited because this is the start of something, to be part of
something from the beginning, that’s the exciting bit, you’ll make lots of new friends
Parent 2- I wish I had of had this opportunity when I was your age, to go to an integrated school
Child 2- What’s so different about it?
Parent 2 –You’ll see, it’ll broaden your horizons, let you explore who you are, never judge
Child 2- Will there be homework?
Parent 2- I hope so!
Child 2- One of my friends said it’s a school for hippies, that we will be hugging each
other and eating muesli. I don’t like muesli
Parent 2 – That friend doesn’t know what she’s missing
Parent 3- Have a good day, may it be the start of many
Child 3- Will they know how to say my name?
Parent 3- Of course son and those who don’t well they will want you to show them
how, so that they can get it right, no more apologising
Child 3- And what if there are names I’m not sure of?
Parent 3- You only have to ask
Parent 4 –Do you mind getting the bus?
Child 4 – No, I’m excited – it’s like going on an adventure
Parent 4- Yes it is. Only you get to come home every day
Child 4 –And tell you all about it
Parent 5- So this is it, your first day at big school
Child 5 – they won’t make me do anything that I’m unsure of
Parent 5- Like what?
Child 5- I don’t know, like bless myself?
Parent 5- No love, you do what you always do and your neighbour will do what they do
Child 5- Sure
Parent 5- Sure
Parent 6- Good luck
Child 6 –I won’t need it
Parent 6- Why not?
Child 6- Well the principal said he was lucky to have us, such a wonderful opportunity
Parent 6- Yes he did but I think he meant the school in general
Child 6- No he definitely meant me
Parent 6- I’m glad you feel like that. It’s a special place full of special people
[Music – School scene slowly comes to life as they welcome in the pupils to the life of the school]
Visionary –It’s the people that make a place, not a place making the people.
Farmer 1- Building bridges isn’t easy but it’s certainly worthwhile.
Farmer 2- Integration is Ploughing and planting for generations to come
Farmer 3- Sowing the seeds of the generations to come
Farmer 4- Bringing life back to our land
[Concluding Music]
BUILDING BRIDGES
By
Andrea Grimason
1
A.Grimason