Sleeping Beauty in the Wood

Visual Story

A visual resource for children and young adults with

Autism, Aspergers, Sensory Processing Disorder and associated conditions.

This resource is intended to help prepare any visitors for a new experience and to help them to become familiar

with the surroundings and situation. The show The show lasts for 1 hour and 10 minutes including an interval. There are two puppeteers who also play a few characters, and some puppets in the show. The show has live music and sometimes the characters talk directly to the audience. Sometimes the characters ask questions to the audience. You may join in as much or as little as you like. What happens This is an adaption of the story of Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm. The show is a story about a King and a Queen who are desperate for a child, and one day their wish is granted by a magical crab! But when one of the fairies isn’t invited to the new baby Rose’s christening, she angrily casts an evil spell saying that on Rose’s 15

th birthday she will prick her finger on a

spinning wheel and die. Luckily another fairy uses her spell to change the spell so that instead of Rose dying everyone will fall asleep for 100 years. The only thing that could awake them is a for a prince to kiss Rose. Many prince’s try and get into the palace, but all fail, until the arrival of a prince from the Far East exactly 100 years after Rose has fallen asleep.

Characters As this is a puppetry show, most of the characters are played by puppets. The main puppet characters are: Rose-The King and Queen’s Daughter Reggie and Gwendolyn- The King and Queen. At some points they are played by these puppet heads and at other points by the puppeteers. Otto- The prince who awakens Rose from her sleep.

Fairies- There are six good fairies that are played by feathers Skeleton- There is also a skeleton puppet in the show. Some of the characters are played by the puppeteers themselves: Reggie and Gwendolyn- The King and Queen, as well as being puppets are sometimes played by the puppeteers. The evil Witch- Is played by the female puppeteer with a big nose and glasses on behind a screen so we see her shadow.

In this section information that is particularly important such as warning of loud noises is in blue font. Play notes The show begins with the male performer on stage playing the guitar, and whistling a tune.

The female performer appears from the table under him and she tries to hide from him. They begin to tell us the story, and use a sheet hanging over the wood to project images.

We see Gwendolyn, the Queen, take a bath and a magical crab visits her to tell her that she is going to have what she wants more than anything- a baby!

After telling Reggie the good news, Gwendolyn and Reggie get into bed. At this point the puppeteers stop playing the characters themselves and it is the puppet heads, but still use human hands and feet.

Gwendolyn, the Queen becomes pregnant under the bed sheet. We see the bump get bigger and bigger!

The Queen gives birth to the baby and it flies into the audience! The baby is a piece of white sheet tied up. Reggie and Gwendolyn decide to hold a party for the 7 magical fairies to welcome the birth of their daughter, Rose. They can only find 6 gold coins to use for plates so decide to only invite 6 of the fairies.

The fairies come to the party and each give Rose a gift, such as love. The 7

th Fairy finds out about the party and arrives at the

palace. She declares that she is going to give Rose a present anyway.

The fairy casts a spell on Rose that on her 15th birthday

she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and will die! Luckily, one of the 6 fairies hadn’t yet given Rose her gift, so changes the spell to be that when Rose pricks her finger she will not die, but instead that everyone will fall asleep for 100 years.

The King and Queen order for every spinning wheel to be destroyed in order to keep Rose safe. They collect them all together and have a big fire.

We see Rose grow older and older, and the sheet grows taller with her, we then see her as a puppet.

It’s Rose’s 15th Birthday and we see her celebrate with

her parents and she gets given a balloon, which makes her float, and also a new skirt.

After celebrating Rose’s birthday, the King and Queen go away on holiday, leaving Rose in the palace. Rose decides to explore the entire house while they are gone. The puppeteers pull out the drawers from the chest of drawers on stage and we see inside they have wooden figures of different places in the house. As they place a gold coin into the spinning wheel, the figures begin to move!

The light on the drawers means that we see them projected bigger on the screen behind.

Rose meets many people but they are all too busy to spend time with her. Rose climbs a spiral staircase and finds a door that she has never been through before!

Inside she sees the 7

th fairy working on a spinning

wheel, which is something she has never seen before!

Being curious, Rose asks the fairy if she could have a go, and when the fairy finds out that she is 15, she agrees. Rose pricks her finger and we see blood being projected onto the screen on the stage. The puppeteers sing a song as everyone in the palace falls asleep. Rose gets put to sleep in a hammock bed at the front of the stage.

The King and Queen return for their holiday and fall asleep.

The male performer sets the alarm clock on stage. On the projector we see the vines and plants grow all over the palace while everyone is sleeping.

We see many men try to fight their way through the hedges to get in, but all fail. A skeleton puppet does a dance on stage.

Watch to see its head and its arms and legs separate from its body!

Exactly 100 years after Rose fell asleep, the handsome Prince Otto arrives at the palace after travelling all the way from the Far East.

Prince Otto fights his way through the hedges and into the castle. He climbs the spiral staircase and finds Rose sleeping. He thinks she is beautiful. The alarm clock goes off, loud ringing sound! Rose wakes up and sees Otto. They fall in love.

Everyone else in the palace wakes up and sees that Otto has saved them and fallen in love with Rose. Rose and Otto get married.

The puppeteer will talk to members of the audience in this scene. You can join in talking to them if you want to. This is the end of the show. The actors will now come on stage and bow. The audience will clap to show that they enjoyed the show. You can join in if you want to, or sit quietly if you would rather. You can now leave the auditorium. We hope that you enjoyed the show at the Little Angel Theatre!