Casting
Flexible casting from 11-40 students. Use as many Bees, Attendants, Squirrels, etc. in each scene as desired. One student can easily play several roles if needed, and individual roles can be doubled up. Note that roles can be played by either boys or girls; see our comments in the Teacher's Guide.
CHARACTERS:
Bees
Queen Bee
Attendants (2)
Bonnie Bee
Billy Bee
Betty Bee
Spiders (2)
Owls (3)
3 Branches (of Government)
Sparrow
Bald Eagle
Squirrels
Announcer
Students (2)
Ants (3)
and a CHORUS composed of all students who are not playing roles on stage at the time.
Script
(This is the first one-third of the script.)
(BEES are buzzing around stage, very excited.)
BEE #1: She's coming, she's coming!
BEE #2: Hurry, hurry -- get the hive ready!
Song 1 -
Listen to a clip now!
CLASS (sings):
Some monarchies have kings, but that is not for us
You may prefer a prince, but they are such a fuss!
And do not mention dukes or we just might get miffed
And a princess is a princess, if you get my drift.
If you ask a bee we'll tell you:
We love our royalty!
The Queen
The Queen
The best you've ever seen
We're here to celebrate her
Come on let's coronate her
The Queen
The Queen
The best you've ever seen
I guess we simply mean
Long live the queen!
A monarchy they say is quaint and out of date
But we're content with having just one head of state.
And that's the way it is and how it always was
If someone asks the reason, tell them here's the buzz...
If you ask a bee we'll tell you:
We love our royalty!
| HALF OF CLASS: | OTHER HALF OF CLASS:
|
| The Queen | The Queen
|
| The Queen | The Queen
|
| The best you've ever seen | Wah woo wah
|
| We're here to celebrate her | Yay!
|
| Come on let's coronate her |
|
| The Queen | The Queen
|
| The Queen | The Queen
|
| The best you've ever seen | Wah woo wah |
CLASS:
I guess we simply mean
Long live the queen!
(QUEEN arrives with her ATTENDANTS. The BEES all give way, perhaps kneeling or bowing.)
ATTENDANT #1 (announcing): Her Honorable Majesty, the Queen Bee!
(BEES buzz in approval)
ATTENDANT #2: Attention. The Queen has a very special message.
(Buzzing stops)
QUEEN: My fellow bees. It has been my great privilege to have you serve me. But I come here today to announce my retirement.
(General concerned Bee-buzzing; during this we hear in quick succession:)
BEE #3: What?
BEE #4: Can she do that?
BEE #5: What will we do?
QUEEN (putting out her hands, calming down her subjects): Please, calm down. Ι know this may sting a bit. But I've devoted my life to you -- now it's time for me to find myself.
ATTENDANT #1: She lays 1000 eggs a day. It's exhausting.
ATTENDANT #2: And she NEVER gets out of the hive.
QUEEN: So I'm following my dream -- I'm moving to Florida. [NOTE: You may actually live in Florida. Feel free to substitute the destination of your choice.]
BEE #6: But who will be our Queen?
QUEEN: You know, you've always had a queen. Maybe you should try something different.
BEE #7: Something different? Like making chocolate syrup instead of honey?
BEE #8: Oh, man, I LOVE chocolate syrup.
QUEEN: No. I mean like a different form of government. Something besides a monarchy.
BEE #9: There's something besides a monarchy?
ATTENDANT #1: Sure. We just have to decide how we want to organize the hive.
ATTENDANT #2: Yeah! Who do we want to make the rules?
QUEEN: Exactly! It's up to you to decide!
Song 2 -
Listen to a clip now!
QUEEN and ATTENDANTS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
Who puts their hands on the governmental tools?
BONNIE BEE: How 'bout me?
BILLY BEE: How 'bout me?!
CHORUS: Do you think that we are fools?
QUEEN and ATTENDANTS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
If you had a dictator he'd tell you what to do
You wouldn't have to vote or think or have a point of view.
A radical democracy could also be quite fun
The people vote on everything and nothing much gets done.
QUEEN and ATTENDANTS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
Who puts their hands on the governmental tools?
BONNIE BEE: How 'bout me?
BILLY BEE: How 'bout me?!
CHORUS: Do you think that we are fools?
QUEEN and ATTENDANTS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
A monarchy that's limited would be a compromise
A constitution cuts the regal powers down to size.
Great Britain has this system where the royalty are grand
They cut a lot of ribbons and they own a lot of land.
QUEEN, ATTENDANTS, CHORUS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
Who puts their hands on the governmental tools?
BONNIE BEE: How 'bout me?
BILLY BEE: How 'bout me?!
CHORUS: Do you think that we are fools?
QUEEN, ATTENDANTS, CHORUS:
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
Who
Tell me who
Makes the rules?
QUEEN: As my last act as your queen, I will create a committee to explore the different possibilities of government for the hive. When you have come to your decision, you will need to get the final word from the Great Guru.
BETTY BEE (jumping up and down, raising her hand): Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me for the committee! I have a LOT of ideas.
ATTENDANT #1 (to QUEEN): That's Betty Bee, Your Highness. She has, ahem, a LOT of ideas. A LOT.
BETTY BEE: Like, what if we take every wild and crazy political idea we can think of and try them out one at a time?
QUEEN: That's been done, my dear. It's called Berkeley. I was thinking of Bonnie Bee and Billy Bee, since they have always wanted to have positions of leadership.
BETTY BEE: You could choose me too! I really want to help!
QUEEN (to ATTENDANTS): What do you think? Should we add a bee?
ATTENDANT #2: Two bees or not two bees -- that is the question.
QUEEN: Very well. Bonnie, Billy, and Betty -- you are the committee to form a new kind of government for our little state. Good luck! I'm off to Miami Beach.
(QUEEN and ATTENDANTS exit. BONNIE, BILLY, and BETTY take center stage.)
BONNIE: I think I should be chairman of the committee.
BILLY: Who said there was a chairman? But if we do have one, it should be me. I'm the oldest.
BETTY: Why don't we go by colors?
BONNIE: Colors? We're bees, Betty. We're all yellow and black.
BETTY (gazing off into the distance): I meant the colors in our hearts.
BILLY (trying to move on): Uh, yeah, well, let's just try to get started. To be honest, none of the government options sounded all that good.
BONNIE: I know. Except for the dictator. With the RIGHT dictator, of course.
(SHE touches her chest, indicating the "right" choice.)
SPENCER SPIDER (entering with SPALDING SPIDER): Oh, you don't want a dictator.
BILLY: Well if it isn't the Spider brothers.
SPALDING: We heard the queen told you all to buzz off.
SPENCER: Yeah, you bees just keep droning on and on about it.
BILLY: It's a big change for us, but we're moving forward.
BETTY: And staying positive! We're going to invent a new form of government -- maybe something based on types of fruit.
SPALDING: Fruit? No. You don't need to invent anything new. And you don't want another queen or a king or a dictator.
BONNIE: But if we had the RIGHT dictator...
SPENCER (shaking his head): Naaah. What you want is a democracy.
BILLY: But we have too many bees and we're too busy flying around collecting pollen. If every one of us had to vote for everything, we'd never get anything else done.
SPALDING: You're right. But we're not talking about a direct democracy, which is also called a radical democracy.
SPENCER: He's right. That's what they had in ancient Athens, way back in the fifth century BCE, and look what happened to them...
SPALDING and SPENCER: They're all dead!
SPALDING: What you need is a representative democracy.
BETTY: That sounds lovely!
SPALDING and SPENCER: Oh, it is!
Song 3 -
Listen to a clip now!
SPIDERS:
In a representative democracy
You elect officials that's the key
They all vote on laws and bills and then you hope that you agree
In a representative democracy.
In a representative democracy
Elected folks create most policy
And the senators and congressmen all work in harmony.
SPENCER (spoken): No laughing!
SPIDER BROTHERS:
In a representative democracy.
You get to vote directly every now and then
That's great because your voting power expands
It's yay or nay on dozens of initiatives
And ballot measures no one understands.
SPALDING (spoken): But you get to vote anyway!
BROTHERS and CHORUS:
In a representative democracy
Elected folks create most policy
And the senators and congressmen all work in harmony.
SPENCER (spoken): No laughing!
BROTHERS and CHORUS:
In a representative democracy.
In a representative democracy.
(SPIDER BROTHERS exit.)
(This concludes the first one-third of the script.)