Nothing on screen

Dark, repressive atmosphere

Props: Narrator holds props in a prop box and hands out all props but the elephant
to the characters throughout the play. Annie has a stuffed elephant and a
permission slip, Samantha has letters, Charlotte has a permission slip.
Audio: Explosions in a Four Chambered Heart by Moon Ate the Dark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbn8D2bdWKI
Jillian, Gilda, Sarina, Isabella
Narrator:
wait 16 counts before speaking
This is the story of a single-income family living in modern-day rural America. With a
single mom and two kids, the Cooks struggle to survive in a commercializing world.
The youngest child, Annie, is eight years old. She goes to school, just like the other
children. But somehow, she is different. She can't understand why the other kids
don't want to talk to her and why the teacher gets so mad at her when she is just
speaking her mind.
Annie: Hey teacher, look at my stuffed elephant! It's name is Elephant.
Narrator as Teacher: Annie, how many times have I told you? You can't speak
without raising your hand first!
The older child, Charlotte, is sixteen. Every day after school, she runs eight blocks to
the Walmart where she works. As a result, she has no time for friends.
Narrator as Teenager: Hey, Charlotte, there's going to be a party tonight, wanna
come?
Charlotte: Sorry, I can't. I have to work.
Narrator as Teenager: Can't you take a night off?
The mother, Samantha, struggles to raise her two daughters on her own. She
blames herself for her children's hardships.
Annie: Mom, can we go for ice cream after dinner later today?

Samantha: Sorry Annie, I have to work late tonight.

Charlotte: Mom, I spilled coffee on my shirt at work. Can I have a new one?
Samantha: You know we cant do that Charlotte, I'm sorry.
Narrator: Samantha desperately wants to make her children happy, but knows it is
more important to put them through college so that they wouldnt have to live the way
they live now. So everyday, she goes to her minimum wage job and works as hard
as possible, always hoping for a raise.
Narrator as Samanthas Boss: Good news everyone! Minimum wage has gone up.
The bad news is that we don't really want to pay you for that. You are dismissed.
Samantha: That's not fair!
Narrator as Boss: There's nothing I can do, sorry.
Narrator: Despite her mothers misfortune, Annie was actually having a good day at
school.
Narrator as Teacher: Annie, can you please come here for a moment?
Annie: Am I in trouble again?
Narrator as Teacher: No, I have something to tell you. Your grades have improved
remarkably. You are eligible for a summer class for gifted and talented students!
Here, take this letter home to your mother and show it to her.
Gives Annie a letter
Annie: Thank you, teacher!
Narrator: Annie was so excited, she skipped all the way home.

Annie: Mom! Look at this! Can I go? Can I go? Please? Can I?
freeze
Narrator: The next day at school, Charlotte receives some good news, for once.
Narrator as Teacher: Okay, class I have an exciting announcement! We will be
going on a field trip to San Diego to learn about deforestation and climate change.
We'll be staying in a hotel for 3 nights. Take these permission slips home to your
parents and bring them back by Friday. Class dismissed.
Gives Charlotte a letter
Narrator: After work, Charlotte goes home. She can't wait to tell her mom about the
trip. She has always wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo.
Annie: Can I go? Can I go? (repeat until interrupted)
Samantha: Hold on a moment, Annie, your sister is home.
Charlotte: Mom, look at this! My class is going on a field trip to the San Diego Zoo. I
can go, right?
Samantha: I'm so sorry...
tableau and darkness
Narrator: It is several months later and the mail has arrived.
Narrator delivers mail to Samantha
Samantha:
mutters while flipping through the mail
eyes widen when she sees the letter from the landlord, drops all other mail to the
floor and she opens it and reads it

Notice to terminate tenancy.

Narrator as Letter:
Narrator is supposed to be the voice in Samanthas head; read in an authoritative
Notice to terminate tenancy
To: Samantha Cook
You are hereby notified that your tenancy of the premises is terminated
in 30 days. Please take no longer than 30 days to remove yourself,
your belongings and all other persons occupying the property from the
premises.
Narrator: Samantha is devastated but she has to tell her kids. They are coming
home from school.
Both: Hi mom!
Samantha: I have some bad news. We have to move.
Annie: What?!
Charlotte: Where are we going to go?
Samantha: ...I don't know
darkness and tableau
END SONG
lights come back on and actors are in animal costumes
while narrator speaks actors run off stage and change into animal costumes
Narrator: The loss of shelter that Samantha and her family face is a story that is all
too common for animals that lose their habitats due to deforestation. Habitat loss can
be devastating, for humans and animals. Families of all species lose everything they
have to power-hungry industries and corporations that cut down trees for lumber,
palm oil, and agriculture.
Why do we only care about habitat loss when it is our own?

long silence for the audience to think about how deep this is and rethink their lives
and existences
screen: deforested forests
drumming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH9n6pwpK0A begins animals come
on stage
Gilda: Black spider monkey
Isabella: Sumatran tiger
Sarina: Panda
Narrator:
Gilda comes on stage and dances as a black spider monkey
The black spider monkey lives in the receding Amazon rainforest. Cutting down
tropical rain forests leaves families of black spider monkeys homeless and without
protection. In the last 45 years, the black spider monkey population has decreased
drastically due to deforestation.
Pause while Gilda continues to dance, and Isabella as a tiger enters the stage
Sumatran tigers live various, diverse forests. The destruction of these forests is
considered the greatest threat to Sumatran tigers. If we continue to destroy these
habitats at the current rate, the Sumatran tiger will go extinct by 2040.
Pause while Isabella & Gilda dance, Sarina enters the stage
In the Qingling (ching-ling) and Minshan mountains there lives the last Giant Pandas.
The construction of railroads and roads through these bamboo forests has left the
pandas with small patches of land to live in, with minimal mates and food. The
industrialization of the pandas habitat is severely impacting their population, perhaps
causing them to go extinct.
Among these endangered animals are many others. The Bengal tiger, the Sumatran
elephant, the mountain gorilla, the saola, the honey bee, and the butterfly, to name a
few. These animals all do their parts to hold the ecosystem together.
Pause while more extras enter the stage
Narrator: Honey bees pollinate 70% of the 100 crop species that most of the world
depends on for food. Without bees, we would struggle to sustain our world.
Gorillas help spread the seeds they eat through the forest. This maintains the dense
tree cover, and helps to grow many plants on which many people depend for
survival.
In the past century, four butterfly species have gone extinct. Butterflies are an
indicator of the health of their environment and ecosystem. They play a role in the
pollination of our food.

Pause?
All of these animals are vital to our ecosystems, but they are also important because
life is important. In their own right, they are all worthy of conservation.
Pause as animals continue to dance
Narrator: Why do we only care about habitat loss when it is our own?
Animals die dramatically
Tiger, monkey and panda all rise up, and join the Narrator in one line, powerfully
facing the audience
Samantha: You probably felt pretty attached to the Cook family.
Annie: You probably wanted to find out if Annies classmates ever accepted her
Charlotte: Or if Charlotte got to go to the San Diego Zoo.
Narrator: But think about this: What if we had told you that the Cooks represented a
family of endangered animals from the beginning?
Charlotte: What if you had known that?
Annie: Would you have still been so attached?
Samantha: This issue affects you more than you think. Millions of species make up
our ecosystems.
Charlotte: The Earth is unique.
Annie: This delicate balance of species holds our ecosystems together and sustains
life.
Samantha: Every year, trees and other plant life eliminate 5.1 metric tons of carbon
from the atmosphere.
Charlotte: Without forests and grasslands we would be dealing with 8 metric tons of
atmospheric carbon each year.
Annie: It is worth saving our forests.
pause
All: Why do we only care about habitat loss when it is our own?

Works Cited
Abd, Rodrigo, and Frank Bajak. "Illegal gold mining transforms rainforest into
mercury-poisoned wastelands." AOL News 2 Dec. 2014: n. pag. AOL. Web. 4 Mar.
2015. <http://www.aol.com/article/2014/12/02/illegal-gold-mining-transformsrainforest-into-mercury-poisoned/21001874/>.
Addessi, Frank. "Are You Covered? Home Insurance Loopholes." SmartAsset. Ed.
SmartAsset. SmartAsset, 22 Dec. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<https://smartasset.com/insurance/are-you-covered-home-insurance-loopholes>.
Appenzeller, Tim. "The Case of the Missing Carbon." National Geographic. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 4 May 2015. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/
environment/global-warming/missing-carbon>.
Collyns, Dan. "Illegal gold mining exposing Peru's indigenous tribes to mercury
poisoning." The Guardian 9 Sept. 2013: n. pag. The Guardian. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/09/peru-amazon-indigenoustribe-gold-mining>.
"Deforestation: Modern-Day Plague." National Geographic. National Geographic
Society, n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/deforestation-overview/>.
Google Earth. "Brazilian Amazon Deforestation, 1984-2012." Google. Google, n.d. Web.
4 Mar. 2015. <https://plus.google.com/photos/
+GoogleEarth/albums/5875822979804092129>.
Green Peace. "Solutions to Deforestation." Green Peace. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/forests/solutions-to-deforestation/>.
In Peru, Gold Rush Leads to Mercury Contamination Concerns. Narr. Gwen Ifill and
Steve Sapienza. PBS, 2011. PBS. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/globalhealth-july-dec11-peru_12-27/>.
Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation." Earth Observatory. Ed. Paul Przyborski.
NASA, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/deforestation_update3.ph
p>.
University of Cambridge. "Amazon deforestation 'threshold' causes species loss to
accelerate." University of Cambridge News 5 Mar. 2015: n. pag. University of
Cambridge. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/amazondeforestation-threshold-causes-species-loss-to-accelerate>.
"Why Butterflies Matter." Butterfly Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2015.
<http://butterfly-conservation.org/45/why-butterflies-matter.html>.

WWF. "Deforestation." World Wildlife Fund. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation>.