Time Switch: A Wildly Natural Christmas
The Story: When a young boy Casper is set an assignment to organise a Christmas play based on the Christmas Carol story which is to be an environmental interpretation and reimagining of the Christmas Classic by his zealous drama teacher, who is also an environmental activist, most characters must be not only a character but must also represent an element of nature (inclusive of our own human species) and the story must reflect on the joint interactive combination of humanity and nature's past, present and future but his task seems impossible because he doesn't know that much about nature. However, Casper manages to find an ally and ropes his friend and neighbour Melissa in to assist, who is a keen animal lover and climate warrior that has muscular dystrophy since she has always encouraged and supported him as a friend but the play must be ready for Christmas when it will be put on for an high ranking city official who is responsible for giving permission to property developers in the area. Since there is huge planning decision looming which involves the destruction of a nearby green zone which is a decision that must be made around and just after the Christmas period which the zealous drama teacher hopes to influence with his environmental interpretation of the Christmas Carol, the pressure starts to mount as Casper attempts to satisfy his drama teacher's goals on time and in a timely manner.
Fortunately, however, a wise nature time fairy shows up (Naturina Timeheart) and both children are kindly taken on a tour of nature's past, present and future where they are taught all about nature, the past and present intertwining of nature and human beings, what the future might yield for both and about how they can present symbols of nature in the Christmas play and through each of the characters in the story. For example, the character of Ebenezeer Scrooge in this environmental interpretation of the Christmas Carol story will be a ruthless property developer that represents the collective of man, man's past and present and man's destruction of nature, while Mother Nature who takes Ebeneezer to meet nature's ghosts of the past, present and future represents the collective voices of nature on earth. The first three characters from nature's past will feature an animal that is now extinct, a river that was dried up and forest that no longer exists, the present characters will be an animal on the endangered list, a tree from a forest that is just about to be cut down and destroyed and a river that is polluted, and the third future characters will feature an animal that is projected to be extinct in the coming decade, an extinct tree species that could not survive deforestation and a river that is overgrown with foliage as each time slot will contain characters that represent water, flora and fauna but some surprises await everyone involved when some local nature residents (animals etc.) and some nature beings from the Forever After Lands are invited to participate in the play and to attend by Naturina TImeheart and the two children. Written by Jill Thrussell
Developed from scenes in a script I wrote for another project earlier this year.
At the end of the play there will be a special song and dance performance finale which will involve some of the nature beings from the Forever After Lands who perform the song and dance with the children in the play.
Themes of this project include: friendship, time management, life goals, planning, nature, environmental activism, logical problem solving, goal congruence, teamwork, cause and effect, exploring correlations and relationships between humanity and nature, actions, decisions & consequences