DCD’s Grade 6 Class Play leapt off the page in an unforgettable performance of The Bamboozling Book Machine!
As the annual science fair unfolds, the young student Beanie has a rather unusual invention to present— a machine which automatically reads books for you and downloads the digested information straight to your brain! Though his teachers admonish Beanie’s quick-fix efforts as undermining his deeper learning, Beanie and his friends remain confident that this invention will help them win the book-reading competition without even trying! To demonstrate, they load a heaping pile of books into the machine, and turn it on— but the struggling machine drains the school’s power supply, and the lights flicker ominously before Beanie is expelled from the science fair!
Soon, a wicked cackling begins from the dark corners of the school, and out of the shadows emerge the collected villains of all the stories submitted to the machine— Scar, the Big Bad Wolf, and a trio of witches from Snow White, The Wizard of Oz, and Hansel and Gretel have escaped the confines of their pages, and have now come to revel in their newfound freedom from their fated ends! Hoping to stop these villains from carrying out their evil plans, the Royal Family has also emerged from the books, hoping to remove these stories from the machine— but Beanie, in his disappointment, destroyed the only key!
With no other choices to be found, the Royal Family and the teachers work together to beam down the collected heroes of these stories, and task them with the recovery and imprisonment of their respective villains!
One by one, the heroes carry out their acts of subterfuge, exploiting the known weaknesses of their villains in order to outsmart them. Snow White tricks the Witch into donning a pair of dancing shoes which whisk her about the forest until the Royal Family arrives to capture her. As the Candy Witch bakes herself a new house in the school oven, Hansel and Gretel arrive with a story of searching for Bo Peep’s lost sheep, and as everyone knows sheep like warm places, the witch suggests they check the over— only to be knocked insider herself, where she’s kept safe until she, too, is apprehended. As the three pigs pretend to have no memory of the Big Bad Wolf, the villains ego and proclivity for drama gets the best of him, as he climbs inside the soup pot to demonstrate his traditional role, only to be caught fast and outsmarted! Meanwhile, Simba and Nala discuss Simba’s own insecurities of becoming king, and how they only wished Scar was around to take his place— which Scar is only too willing to do, kneeling down in preparation of her ascension, only to have her hands tied fast! Finally, the Wicked Witch of the West is tricked into auditioning for a performance of her own story, dousing herself in water and melting away to a pitiful pool.
With all the villains recaptured, the wayward students promise to read the books themselves from now on, while the teachers promise to have more faith in the students’ outside the box thinking. To demonstrate their newfound understanding, the teachers award Beanie and his friends first place in the science fair, as they were not afraid to make mistakes and try again!
Thanks as always to Jane Rothwell and her work with costumes, as well as Sean Reardon and his support with the scenery.
This play also marks a special milestone, as it represents Ms. Sidoli’s 250th play and 500th performance at DCD! Ms. Sidoli’s skills and efforts are foundational to our DCD drama program, and make possible all of the incredible performances delivered by our students. Thank you, Ms. Sidoli, for all you do in writing and directing our DCD plays!
And, of course, thank you to all of our Grade 6 teachers and parents for your support in this play, and to our Grade 6 performers for a wonderful Grade 6 Class Play!
