Over the Moon Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events,

  real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places,

  and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance

  to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON PULSE

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

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  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Simon Pulse paperback edition January 2011

  Text copyright © 2011 by Jodi Picoult and Jake van Leer

  Music copyright © 2011 by Ellen Wilber

  Lyrics copyright © 2011 by Jodi Picoult

  Sticker art by Cara E. Petrus copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Designed by Mike Rosamilia

  The text of this book was set in Prestige Elite.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Library of Congress Control Number 2010933585

  ISBN 978-1-4424-2132-5

  ISBN 978-1-4424-2133-2 (eBook)

  Special thanks to transcriptionist Dan Cragan

  INFORMATION ON PERFORMING THIS PLAY

  Amateurs and professionals are hereby warned that Over the Moon is fully protected by copyright law and is subject to royalty. All rights in all current and future media are strictly reserved. No part of this work may be used for any purpose without the written consent of the authors. To purchase acting editions of this play, or to obtain stock or amateur and professional performance rights, you must contact: Playscripts, Inc., 450 Seventh Ave., Suite 809, New York, NY 10123, www.playscripts.com, 1-866-NEW-PLAY (639-7529).

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I am fourteen years old and the boy sitting opposite me is feeding me marbles. “The rain in Spain,” I say, in a thick Cockney accent, “stays mainly in the plain.” I am Eliza Doolittle for the next two hours, and a few scenes later when I reappear, elegant, wearing a bottle-green velvet gown, I hear the collective gasp of the audience.

  When I was growing up, theater was a big part of my life. It gave me a chance to be someone I wasn’t; it taught me how to succeed at public speaking; it gave me an instant group of friends. My very first kiss, in fact, came from a boy playing the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver! So perhaps it isn’t surprising that when my own kids were in middle school, I wanted them to have the same experience I did onstage. The only problem? The theater program in their school didn’t offer many opportunities. My solution? To create my own theater program instead. I wrote a short play that was fun and funny and age-appropriate—and that play, unlike most of my novels, actually had a happy ending. My children were too young at the time to read my books, and this was a way to share my writing with them.

  The Trumbull Hall Troupe was born with ten kids on a tiny stage in a community hall attached to a local church. A friend, Marjorie Rose, was our director. Our modus operandi was twofold: to raise money for charity so that our kids realized that even at a young age they could make a difference in the world, and to provide a theater experience to the kids who might otherwise be crushed by a traditional audition process—those who were quiet, or who had no stage experience. If you were invited to be in the troupe, you had a part, and that was that. The father of one cast member could play Beatles songs on the guitar, so I rewrote the lyrics to some of those songs and peppered the play with them. We teamed up with the Zienzele Foundation, a group that provides help to HIV/AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe. The kids over there became pen pals with our cast, so there was an immediate and real connection that the work they were doing onstage was benefiting children half a world away.

  To say our theater program experiment was successful would be an understatement. As the program grew, so did the production staff. My son, Jake van Leer, began cowriting the plays, which grew more complex and accommodated larger casts. My friend Ellen Wilber, a veteran musical performer and longtime music teacher, came on board to write original music for the plays and to serve as music director. Alexandra Lovejoy and I started codirecting the shows, and Allyson Weiner Sawyer became our choreographer. We began working with Dan Cragan to transcribe the music. We quickly outgrew our space and moved our performance venue to the middle school auditorium. Now, seven years into it, the Trumbull Hall Troupe has forty kids performing onstage and working behind the scenes. Ellen and I have written the music and lyrics to more than one hundred songs. Our plays have raised more than forty thousand dollars for charity. And yet our mission is still the same: to create an original musical that can be performed by kids ages twelve to eighteen (many of whom are on a stage for the first time), the ticket revenue from which is used to benefit children whose lives are less fortunate than the troupe’s own.

  I have heard from many drama teachers who bemoan the fact that their kids perform the same old chestnuts over and over, that few are really age appropriate, and that only a limited number of musicals accommodates a good-sized cast. Over the Moon is the antidote to those problems. In the spirit of inclusiveness, we have a tradition at the troupe of awarding stickers at the end of each rehearsal to three kids who have worked exceptionally hard. You’d think that high school kids would scoff at the thought of receiving a princess sticker, but they loved it (so much so that they’d yell at us if we forgot to give out the stickers at the end of rehearsal), and their scripts became dotted with the proof of positive feedback. We’ve provided stickers here, just in case you’d like to incorporate this tradition into your own theater program.

  I am proud of how far the Trumbull Hall Troupe has come, and of the money we’ve raised for charity—but most of all, I’m struck by the tools we have given our cast members to carry with them through the rest of their lives. I’ve watched the ease our cast members have when it comes to speaking in public; I’ve seen children who were quiet as mice get up two years later and belt out a song; I’ve watched shy kids shrug themselves into a character and become someone completely different. I’ve witnessed upperclassmen mentoring underclassmen; I’ve seen how kids from different school districts learn how to collaborate instead of compete. I have watched kids take risks and exceed even their own expectations. The most magical thing happens in drama: By trying on another persona for size, these young actors learn more about themselves.

  It has been thirty years since I played Eliza Doolittle, but if you beg me, I can still sing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” in a full-out Cockney accent. Every time I speak at a book signing, I am reminded of the first time I stepped onstage as a teenager, heart pounding, and looked out at an audience. I loved musical theater then, and I love it now, because drama brings back that childhood moment when the world is full of possibility and you can be anything and anyone you want. It’s no coincidence that the art form you’ll see here is called a “play.” To that end, I believe that theater for kids should be fun, energetic, and enjoyable. But I also believe Shakespeare when he wrote “all the world’s a stage.” What if a silly fractured fairy tale does not just entertain, but makes one shy kid who’s wat
ching think, I’d like to be a part of that one day? What if the message in Over the Moon—to be yourself and be proud of it—is absorbed by the audience and taken back into the real world? Frankly, I cannot think of a better way for life to imitate art.

  Jodi Picoult

  August 2010

  CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

  Hairy Godmother

  A hairy, masculine godmother; narrator

  Johnny Nova

  Radio show host

  Stella

  A star, and friend to Luna

  Bella

  A star, and friend to Luna

  Luna

  The moon; disguised as a boy named Leo when in Hanoveria; in love with Prince Jack

  Newsboy

  Newspaper salesperson in the town

  Baker

  Baker in the town

  Fishmonger

  Fishmonger in the town

  Flower Lady

  Flower lady in the town

  Butcher

  Butcher in the town

  Ferocia

  Queen of Hanoveria, sister of Hugo

  Gertrude

  Princess of Hanoveria, daughter of Ferocia

  Eunice

  Princess of Hanoveria, daughter of Ferocia

  Felicity

  A young lady of noble birth who is a bit of a tomboy; smitten with Leo Felicity

  Prince Jack

  Prince of Hanoveria, nephew of Ferocia and son of Hugo; in love with Felicity

  Mama Bear

  Bear who lives with Papa Bear, Baby Bear, Jean-Claude, and Hugo

  Papa Bear

  Bear on the outskirts of Hanoveria

  Baby Bear

  Bear on the outskirts of Hanoveria

  Jean-Claude

  Servant to Hugo; was cast out of Hanoveria

  Hugo

  King of Hanoveria; was cast out after Ferocia’s spell turned him into a giant

  Pinocchio

  A wooden puppet, servant to Ferocia

  Cinderella

  A princess married to Prince Charming

  Grumpy

  Son of Snow White

  Sneezy

  Daughter of Snow White

  Snow White

  A princess married to a different Prince Charming

  Sleeping Beauty

  A princess with narcolepsy, married to a prince

  Tree 1

  A talking tree in the Enchanted Forest

  Tree 2

  A talking tree in the Enchanted Forest

  Humpty Dumpty

  A big egg traveling the country on a Harley

  Wolves

  Wolves of Hanoveria that attack Felicity

  Li’l Red From The Hood

  Young hip-hop girl; interested in Jack

  Goldilocks

  Young girl with blond hair; interested in Jack

  Old Woman Who Lives In A Shoe

  Older woman; interested in Jack

  Porky

  One of three pigs; construction worker

  Hamlet

  One of three pigs; construction worker

  Francis Bacon

  One of three pigs; construction worker

  Blitzer

  Wolf who is foreman of a construction company

  Rapunzel

  Girl who escapes from her tower

  Prince Sheldon

  Prince who was supposed to rescue Rapunzel from her tower

  Mickey

  One of three blind mice

  Minnie

  One of three blind mice

  Algernon

  One of three blind mice

  ACT ONE

  SCENE 1

  A cross-dressed HAIRY GODMOTHER enters, holding a book.

  HAIRY GODMOTHER

  (opening book)

  Once upon a time. . .

  (beat)

  What? What’s the matter? You’ve never seen a hairy godmother before?

  (beat)

  Maybe you were expecting someone -- a little different? Someone with a little less testosterone? Some sweet old grandma type with a blue cloak and a magic wand? A FAIRY godmother?

  (beat)

  Well, news flash: that was a TYPO!

  (beat)

  You can’t believe everything you read in fairy tales. Jack and the magic beanstalk? We’re talking genetically modified plants, here. And the three little pigs? They went on to become [Insert name of local development company].

  (beat)

  I hear what you’re saying: the whole point of a fairy tale is that everyone knows the story. Sure as the moon’s in the sky every night, Cinderella’s always gonna lose her glass slipper and Rapunzel’s always gonna have a grooming problem, and me, well, I’m gonna wave the wand around and sing “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.”

  (beat)

  But what if the moon WASN’T in the sky? Because THAT’S a story I bet you’ve never heard. . .

  He walks off, revealing:

  SCENE 2

  LUNA, the moon, and her friends, STELLA and BELLA, are up in the sky, listening to the radio.

  JOHNNY NOVA

  Howdy folks, welcome back to the number one satellite radio show in the galaxy. I’m Johnny Nova, comin’at you so bright you better keep your shades on!

  STELLA

  Guys, guys! It’s on again!!!

  JOHNNY NOVA

  Now, let’s get back to some of those hit Nep-Tunes. . .

  STELLA

  Hey, Bella, does this dress make my asteroid look fat?

  BELLA

  Honestly, Stella, you KNOW you’re a heavenly body.

  LUNA

  People down there just don’t get it!

  STELLA

  Don’t tell me you’re spying again.

  BELLA

  Oh, stop being such a blue moon! Humans mess everything up.

  LUNA

  Seeing them throw away love makes me want to just stop glowing! Seriously, girls, why else are we here?

  Bella and Stella look at each other and shrug.

  BELLA

  The universal health care plan?

  LUNA

  No! All those wishes on a falling star. All those kisses in the moonlight. But each night I see humans throwing away true love.

  SONG 1: OVER THE MOON

  LUNA:

  When it comes to love, you shoot for the stars.

  When it comes to love, no journey’s too far.

  Love is worth waiting for.

  Love conquers all

  right from the moment you fall.

  LUNA WITH STELLA AND BELLA:

  Someday I will find the guy of my dreams.

  Someday I will find a fella who seems

  like he was meant for me,

  a perfect pair,

  and then a lifetime we’ll share!

  CHORUS:

  Every word he whispers

  is a secret tune.

  Every one of his kisses, I know,

  will send me over the moon!

  Maybe one day I will walk down a street,

  and, by chance, our eyes will happen to meet.

  And we will know right then

  we’re meant to be,

  forever after happily!

  And we will know right then

  we’re meant to be,

  forever after happily!

  JOHNNY NOVA

  This one’s going out to all you lovers. . .

  LUNA

  That’s it! Girls, I’m leaving. If people on Earth can’t find true love, I’m going to find it for them!

  SCENE 3: Side of stage

  HAIRY GODMOTHER

  And when the moon climbed down from the sky, she landed smack in the middle of the kingdom of Hanoveria. . .

  LUNA

  Excuse me, are you talking to me?

  HAIRY GODMOTHER

  Depends. Do you need a hairy godmother?

  LUNA

  I thought it was a fair-

  HAIRY GODMOTHER

  It’s a typo!<
br />
  (beat)

  And besides, it wasn’t that long ago a certain someone had a crater face. . .

  LUNA

  Ok, ok. I had a little acne problem. . .

  HAIRY GODMOTHER

  You may want to think about your looks again. Because if you’re planning to mingle with the masses, you shouldn’t. . .glow. . .quite so much.

  Luna gasps and hides behind scenery as the town awakens.

  SCENE 4: FULL CAST mingles in Hanoveria

  SONG 2: WONDERFUL MORNING

  NEWSBOY

  GOOD MORNING HANOVERIA!!!

  ALL:

  It’s a wonderful morning.

  It’s gonna be a wonderful day.