Casting:
Flexible casting from 11-40 students.
Use as many Electrons, Capacitors, Televisions, etc. as desired.
One student can easily play several roles if needed. Note that all roles
can be played by either boys or girls; see our comments on page 31
of the Teacher's Guide.
Read the Script:
This
is the first one-third of the script:
CHARACTERS:
Narrators (at least three)
Ben Franklin
Student Soloist
Cynthia
Thales
Electrons
Capacitors
Volta Fan Club
Leader of Club
Electromagnets
Televisions
Sun
Bankers
and a CHORUS comprised of all students who are not playing roles on stage
atthe time
(There is a string attached to a kite (or a picture of kite) on the backdrop.
The CLASS is on stage. The NARRATORS step out, approach and
address the audience.)
NARRATOR
#1: Welcome to our story about electricity. We’re very excited
about it.
NARRATOR
#2: To get us started, we’ve invited Benjamin Franklin to
re-enact his famous kite and lightning experiment.
NARRATOR
#3: There’s all kinds of things about that story I’ve always
wondered about. Like—why did he need all that electricity in the first place?
(BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN enters with an electric guitar strapped around his
neck. He walks across the stage, picks up the end of the string from the kite
and plugs it into his guitar. He faces the audience, plays big chord, and the
CLASS sings. He continues to play guitar throughout the song.)
Song 1
CLASS:
We’re feeling acrobatic
We’re waxing operatic
Just learning ’bout the static
Charges from our comb
We’re
charged up we’re not lying
Our circuits keep on frying
Yeah
it’s electrifying
We love
our ohm sweet ohm.
Amps
and joules
Watts and volts
Sparks and arcs
And
lots of jolts.
It’s
electrifying
It’s
electrifying
It’s
electrifying
Woh-oh-oh-oh.
(The following lines are chanted by one student, although different
individual students may chant each line)
STUDENT:
It's
true we love to shuffle both our feet across the rug
And
then we give our brother such a nice big hug.
To do good science someone usually has to take his lumps
It's absolutely shocking just how high he jumps.
CLASS:
We got some great instruction
We’re
current on conduction
And how ’lectric production
Affects
us in our home
We’re
charged up we’re not lying
Our circuits keep on frying
Yeah
it’s electrifying
We love
our ohm sweet ohm.
Amps and
joules
Watts and volts
Sparks and arcs
And
lots of jolts.
It’s
electrifying
It’s
electrifying
It’s
electrifying
Woh-oh-oh-oh.
(FRANKLIN exits.)
NARRATOR #1: To be honest, that never really happened.
NARRATOR
#3: You mean Ben Franklin didn’t play
electric guitar?
NARRATOR #1: No, he didn’t.
NARRATOR #3: Electric keyboard?
NARRATOR #1: No.
NARRATOR #3: Drums?
NARRATOR #1: NO!
NARRATOR #2: But he did do really important experiments with
electricity, and he did use the kite to show that lightning is a form
of electricity.
NARRATOR #3:
(pointing to audience)
So
we’ve lied to these people already?
NARRATOR #1: It’s not lying. In the theater we call it
“dramatic license.”
NARRATOR #3: The theater? I thought we worked in a power plant.
NARRATOR #2: We DO. But we’re always being asked about
electricity,
so we put together this little musical to inform the public.
NARRATOR #3: Oh. So these people aren’t actually in our
power plant.
NARRATOR #1: No. They’re the audience.
NARRATOR #3: The audience? You mean they paid to see us put on
this show?
NARRATOR #2: Actually, they got in free.
NARRATOR #3: Free! Well,
come on, let’s give them their money’s
worth. What happens next?
NARRATOR #1: Let’s watch a demonstration of how the
existence of
electricity was first discovered. Way back in
ancient Greece.
(CYNTHIA
and THALES enter. CYNTHIA holds a rock and a
piece of cloth. )
NARRATOR #3: Wow! Are those guys really from ancient Greece?
(NARRATORS
# 1 and #2 give #3 a dirty look)
Oh
yeah, right. Dramatic license.
CYNTHIA: Hey
Thales, check this out.
THALES: What is it, Cynthia?
CYNTHIA: If you rub this piece of amber with a piece of
wool, it can pick
up stuff.
THALES: Like what?
CYNTHIA: Like feathers and little sticks and fuzz balls.
THALES: That’s fantastic.
CYNTHIA: Isn’t it? It’s my latest discovery. I
call it…the vacuum cleaner.
THALES: Can I try?
CYNTHIA:
Sure.
(THALES
rubs it. Suddenly jumps back.)
THALES: Did you see that?
CYNTHIA: What?
THALES: It gave off a little flash of light.
CYNTHIA: Really? Let me see.
THALES: No. I want to rub it some more.
CYNTHIA: It’s MY rock. Give it to me.
THALES: But I LOVE this rock.
CYNTHIA: NOW!
THALES: Okay, okay.
CYNTHIA
(rubbing the rock, then): Wow, it’s does give off a spark!
Song 2
THALES and
CYNTHIA:
There is a spark
There’s
a spark in the dark
here’s
a spark in the dark when I rub this amber
And if I buff
If I
buff it enough
If I
buff it enough I can make it pop.
There is a
spark in the dark
There
is a spark in the dark
Why it is so
Why
it’s so I don’t know
Why
it’s so I don’t know but I can’t I can’t seem to stop.
It’s
thrilling and it’s frightening
Making
my own lightning
It
glimmers and it crackles
Tickling
my hackles
I have
great powers
I’ve
been doing this for hours!
There is a
spark
There’s
a spark in the dark
here’s
a spark in the dark when I rub this amber
And if I buff
If I
buff it enough
If I
buff it enough I can make it pop.
There is a
spark in the dark
There
is a spark in the dark
Why it is so
Why
it’s so I don’t know
Why
it’s so I don’t know but I can’t I can’t seem to stop.
(THEY exit)
NARRATOR #3: So they didn’t know about electrons in ancient
Greece?
NARRATOR #2: No.
NARRATOR #3: Then how did they make their TVs?
NARRATOR #1: They didn’t have TVs!
NARRATOR #3: No TVs!? You mean no _____? No _____?
No ______? [Fill in blanks with the name of favorite TV shows, preferably
silly ones.]
NARRATOR #1: No.
NARRATOR #3
(in disgust): And they call themselves the
cradle of
Western civilization.
NARRATOR #2: The Greek word for amber is “electron,”
so around 1600
when it came time to name the force that made things stick to objects like
amber, they called it “electricity.”
NARRATOR
#1: In the seventeenth century some really smart folks figured
out that this mysterious thing called electricity moved, that it could really zip
through certain materials.
(3 ELECTRONS
run onto stage and all around, buzzing and zipping.)
NARRATOR #2: And here they are!
NARRATOR #3: Who?
ALL THREE
ELECTRONS (stop running around and shout):
We’re electrons!
ELECTRON #1:
Put us in a good conductor and us mobile, “free”
electrons can race along as electric current.
ALL THREE
ELECTRONS: Free the electrons! Free the
electrons!
ELECTRON #2: But if we’re in an insulator, there’s too
much resistance
and the electric current can’t flow.
ALL THREE
ELECTRONS (with thumbs down): Resist the
resistance!
Resist the resistance!
ELECTRON #3: It’s all about conduction!
Song 3
ELECTRONS:
I like to move
Get
down and groove
Go with
the flow and have fun
I like
to move
Get
down and groove
Find a
conductor and run.
I love good
conductors
Like silver’s mighty fine
Give me
something copper
And
I’ll dance down the line.
I can
zip through water
I will
never tire
Iron
can resist me
Yeah I’m a real live wire.
I like to
move
Get
down and groove
Go with
the flow and have fun
I like
to move
Get
down and groove
Find a
conductor and run.
I hate
insulators
They
try to box me in
Leather
and ceramic
Won’t
let me take a spin.
Porcelain and
rubber
Feathers
hair and glass
They
put me in neutral
When I
want to hit the gas.
I like to
move
Get
down and groove
Go with
the flow and have fun
I like
to move
Get
down and groove
Find a
conductor and run.
(THEY exit)
NARRATOR #1: Of course, it was a long time before people knew
anything about electrons.
NARRATOR #2: But by the eighteenth century
they had discovered all sorts
of ways of rubbing and spinning things to make an electric charge. Now they
needed a way to store an electric charge.
NARRATOR #3: That’s easy! I always keep
an extra electric charge in
my pants.
NARRATOR #1: You do not.
NARRATOR #3: Yes I do.
NARRATOR #2: No one can store electricity in his pants.
NARRATOR #3: Yes they can. Just a minute, let me look.
(She/he
searches through pockets, and eventually finds a jar.)
See,
here it is.
NARRATOR #1: And you have an electric charge in there?
NARRATOR #3: A big one. A giant one. Huge, even.
NARRATOR #2: Let me see that.
(She/he
takes can. Opening it carefully, some of those springy snakes
bounce out.
NARRATOR #2 jumps in fright.)
That’s
not funny. And it’s not electricity.
NARRATOR #3:
Oh no? Then how come it gave you a shock?
(to
audience)
I love
that one. I got a million of them.
(hands out
business card to audience members)
Here’s
my card. I do birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs.
NARRATOR #1: Enough of that! What we’re talking about here
are
capacitors or condensers. Things that keep an electric charge stored up
and then release it when you want it.
(shouts
to side)
Bring
in the capacitors!
(CAPACITORS
enter)
CAPACITOR #1: Here we are! And look how far we’ve come from
the
Leyden jar of the eighteenth century.
CAPACITOR #2: You bet. We’re sleek, smooth, and everywhere
now,
from washing machines to computers.
CAPACITOR #1: Oh yeah, baby, we’re charge-a-licious!
Song 4
CAPACITOR #1:
I’m a capacitor
I
snatch and catch the juice
Oh
whoa, oh whoa
And I
will not let it loose.
CAPACITOR #2:
I’m a capacitor
And
though I’m not so large
Oh
whoa, oh whoa
And I can take a charge.
CAPACITORS:
Ben Franklin was quite odd
With
his lightening rod
Set up to catch the lightening all around
But
when he caught a bolt
He
didn’t save one volt
But let
it all escape into the ground.
(Spoken: Such a waste!)
We’re a
capacitor
We’re
ev’rywhere you are
In your
appliances
And
riding in your car.
We’re
storing energy
Yeah
that’s our claim to fame
Oh
whoa, oh whoa
And
farads are our game.
We really
have come far
From
that Leyden jar
That
folks once used to store ’lectricity
Now in
this modern age
Condensers
are the rage
And
there is nothing I would rather be.
(Spoken: Our mothers are so proud!)
I’m
a capacitor
I
snatch and catch the juice
Oh
whoa, oh whoa
And I
will not let it loose.
I’m a
capacitor
And
though I’m not so large
Oh
whoa, oh whoa
And I can take a charge.
(THEY exit. VOLTA’s FAN
CLUB enters.)
LEADER: Gather ’round, gather ’round. Welcome to
the annual meeting
of the Alessandro Volta fan club.
ALL: Volta, Volta, I’m your fan...Galvani
isn’t half the man.
LEADER: Okay, settle down. It’s time for the reading
of the scroll.
(Some
one hands him a bowl.)
What’s
this?
FAN CLUB
MEMBER: It’s the bowl.
LEADER: Not the BOWL. The SCROLL! Where’s the scroll?
(Another FAN
CLUB MEMBER hands the leader a scroll, which she/he
unrolls and reads from it in a serious voice, one filled increasingly
with emotion.)
FAN CLUB MEMBER: Let us now
recall the dark days, the bleak days
before 1800,the dim days when there was no way to produce a constant
electric current.
MEMBERS: Whoa, whoa to the dark days.
FAN CLUB
MEMBER: Then there came a man who put two
different
metal plates in salty water and lo, there was a mighty change. A powerful
change. A chemical change!
MEMBERS: It was magic!
FAN CLUB
MEMBER:(stops reading): Not magic, my friends,
but anodes,
cathodes, and electrolytes.
MEMBERS: It was magic!
LEADER: Close
enough.
(continues reading)
From
this chemistry he brought to us the cherished electric cell. And cell to
cell did our brave Volta connect, cell
upon cell did he heap. Until, at last, he
produced the original…the unprecedented…the wonder of the first practical
battery, called the Voltaic Pile.
MEMBERS: Hail the Voltaic Pile!
LEADER:. And
so, my fellow Voltarians, as folk tales the world over now
relate, the modern unit of electric potential was named after our
beloved Volta.
MEMBERS: Volta! Volta! Volta!
LEADER: Now, sing with me.
Song 5
MEMBERS:
Who made the first electric cell?
Who
made the current flow?
Who
made the first real battery
Two
hundred years ago?
Who worked
with copper, lead, and tin?
Who
figured out a way
To
father all our batteries
From D
to triple A?
Alessandro
Volta
CLASS:
Volta, Volta, Volta!
MEMBERS:
He was
sure no dolta
CLASS:
Dolta, dolta, dolta!
MEMBERS:
He made elect current run much faster than a colta
Alessandro
Volta
He was
sure no dolta
Next
time you touch a battery and get a little jolta
Thank
Alessandro Volta.
Whoever had
his brilliant mind?
Whoever
had his style?
Who
wouldn’t give his foot to be
A nice
Voltaic pile?
Who worked
with copper, lead, and tin?
Who
figured out a way
To
father all our batteries
From D
to triple A?
Alessandro
Volta
CLASS:
Volta, Volta, Volta!
MEMBERS:
He was
sure no dolta
CLASS:
Dolta, dolta, dolta!
MEMBERS:
He made elect current run much faster than a colta
Alessandro
Volta
He was
sure no dolta
Next
time you touch a battery and get a little jolta
Thank
Alessandro Volta.
(THEY exit)
(This concludes the first one- third of the
script.)
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