Classic Children’s Tales for Theater Adaptation
Classic Children’s Tales for Theater
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
This story tells of the meeting between three bears and a girl named Goldilocks, because of her blonde hair. A family of bears, consisting of a father, a mother, and their young son, lives in a small house in a forest.
One day, while waiting for their soup to cool, the bear family goes for a walk. Goldilocks finds the house empty. Filled with curiosity, she enters. Since she’s hungry, she begins to taste the soup. She likes the teddy bear’s soup, finding the others either too hot or too cold. Then, feeling sleepy, she tries each of the three chairs and prefers the teddy bear’s, finding the others either too hard or too soft. Goldilocks decides to go to sleep, and after testing the three beds, finally lies down in the teddy bear’s bed, which is just her size.
The three bears return home while Goldilocks is still asleep. They wake her up, and depending on the version of the story, she is frightened and flees. The bear family resumes their breakfast after Papa Bear repairs his chair. The moral of the story may differ, but it can be summarized as the idea that the privacy of others should be respected.
Little Red Riding Hood
A girl walks through the woods to deliver food (wine and cake, depending on the translation) to her sickly grandmother.
A mean wolf wants to eat the girl and the food in her basket. He secretly stalks her behind trees, bushes, shrubs, and patches of grass. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood, and she naively tells him where she is going. Meanwhile, he goes to the grandmother’s house and gains entry by pretending to be the girl.
When the girl arrives, she notices that her grandmother looks very strange.
The wolf tries to flee, but stones cause him to collapse and die. (Sanitized versions of the story have the grandmother shut in the closet instead of being eaten, and some have Little Red Riding Hood saved by a lumberjack as the wolf advances on her, rather than after she is eaten, where the woodcutter kills the wolf with his axe).
The tale makes the clearest contrast between the safe world of the village and the dangers of the forest, conventional antitheses that are essentially medieval, though no written versions are as old as that.
The Three Little Pigs
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. One pig built a house of straw, while the second pig built his house with sticks. They built their houses very quickly and then sang and danced all day because they were lazy. The third little pig worked hard all day and built his house with bricks.
A big bad wolf saw the two little pigs while they danced and played and thought, “What juicy, tender meals they will make!” He chased the two pigs, and they ran and hid in their houses. The big bad wolf went to the first house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in minutes. The frightened little pig ran to the second pig’s house, which was made of sticks. The big bad wolf now came to this house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in hardly any time. Now, the two little pigs were terrified and ran to the third pig’s house, which was made of bricks.
The big bad wolf tried to huff and puff and blow the house down, but he could not. He kept trying for hours, but the house was very strong, and the little pigs were safe inside. He tried to enter through the chimney, but the third little pig boiled a big pot of water and kept it below the chimney. The wolf fell into it and died.
The two little pigs now felt sorry for having been so lazy. They too built their houses with bricks and lived happily ever after.