Domingo Siete

Scene 1

(In the village)

Narrator: Long ago there were two hunchbacks. One was kind and hardworking (points to Juan(a)) but the other was mean and lazy. (Narrator kicks Antonio/a in the butt)(exits)

Mean village children: (teasing Juan(a) and Antonio/a) Hunchbacks! Hunchbacks! Dirty old hunchbacks!

Antonio/a: I'm tired of these mean kids. Let's beat 'em up! (yelling at kids) Yaaaaar! (kids recoil) (Antonio/a chases kids stage right) (kids exit stage right)

Juan(a): No, let's just go to the forest and cut some wood.

Antonio/a: Ay! How sick I am today. It is better if you go and cut the wood this week.

Juan(a): Okay. You stay here at home and rest.

(Antonio/a remains stage right, lies down)(Juan(a) exits stage left)

Scene 2

(In the forest)

(Juan(a) is chopping wood)

Juan(a): (stretching, in a tired voice) I'm tired from chopping. Home is far away, and someone may steal my wood. I'll just eat my tortillas and sleep here by this little spring. (lies down)(begins to snore)

Fairies: (offstage right)

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres!

Juan(a): (waking up, sits up) What's that? Who's that?

Fairies: (coming onstage right)

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres!

Juan(a): (gets up, crosses stage right to Fairies) Who are you?

Fairy 1: We're fairies, of course, and this is our woods.

Fairy 2: Why do you come to bother us?

Fairy 3: What do you want, oh mortal?

Juan(a): Mostly I was just camping in your woods.

Fairies: (recoiling) Eeeew!

Juan(a): But I can help you. Listen to me:

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis.

Fairy 3: That is fun!

Fairy 4: I like those words!

Fairy 5: They rhyme!

Fairy 6: Let's sing!

Fairy 7: And dance!

Juan(a) and all Fairies: (holding hands in a ring and dancing in a circle)

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis.

(all stop singing and dancing)

Fairy 3: Hey, look at Juan(a)'s back!

Juan(a): How did you know my name?

Fairy 4: By magic, of course.

Fairy 5: We're fairies, in case you forgot.

Fairy 3: Let's cure Juan(a)'s back.

Fairy 6: Touch it with your magic wand.

Fairy 7: Okay. (Upstages Juan(a), pulls out the hump, tosses it offstage so that audience can notice). (Steps back, touches Juan(a) with wand.) You are cured!

Juan(a): (stands up straight, tall, and strong) Thank you! It is so nice to be healthy and strong.

(huge clomping sounds and guffawing from offstage)

Fairy 1: The ogres are coming!

Fairy 2: (to Juan(a) Quickly!

Fairy 3: Climb that tree!

Fairy 4: Otherwise the Ogres will kill you!

(all Fairies exit)

(Juan(a) climbs the tree, either completely out of sight, or else to a high perch.)

Scene 3

(Still in the forest)(If Juan(a) climbed to a perch in Scene 2, then Juan(a) is still perched there)

(Three ugly and huge Ogres enter, sit themselves at the base of the tree, and begin to chat)

Ogre 3: Well, amigos, what evil have you done this year?

Ogre 1: Well, I blinded a whole village. And they are so blind, they cannot even see the sun!

(All the ogres laugh and poke each other in the ribs)

Ogre 2: Ha! You think that was terrible! I struck my kindgom dumb!

Ogre 3: What does that mean?

Ogre 2: Not "dumb" like you. "Dumb", as in "can't speak". And so dumb are they, that even the children cannot speak! (If anyone in the audience are making noise at this point, Ogre 2 may address this line directly to them)

(All the ogres laugh even louder than before)

Ogre 3: Well, amigos, I made my people so deaf that they cannot even hear the trumpeting of the elephants!

(Or, if anyone in the audience is making noise at this point, Ogre 3 may instead say, directly to the noisemakers)

Well, amigos, I made my people so deaf that they cannot even hear children in the audience!

(All the ogres laugh louder than ever, rolling on the ground in merriment)
(Juan(a), still in the tree, trembles in horror)

Ogre 1: Good thing they don't know how easily they could get their sight back.

Ogre 2: You are going to tell us, no? I also have a secret cure for the dumbness of my people.

Ogre 3: And I have a secret cure for the deafness of my people.

Ogre 1: Amigos, to cure the blindness of my people, just collect the early morning dew, rub it on the eyes of the blind, and they will be cured.

Ogre 3: What a great secret! To cure the deafness of my people, go to the Hill of the Bells, place the people next to the magic rock, and strike it with a hammer. The sound will cure the deaf.

Ogre 2: To cure the dumbness of my people, go pick flowers of the cenizo plant, which blooms only after a good rain, and make cenizo tea. Whoever drinks cenizo flower tea will be cured not only of dumbness, but of every known sickness.

Ogre 1: Dawn is approaching.

Ogre 3: Let's go.

Ogre 2: See you next year.

(Ogres exit)

(Juan(a) climbs down from tree)

Juan(a): I will go and cure those poor people the Ogres talked about.

Scene 4

(Somewhere on the road)

(Juan(a) enters stage right. Blind Villager(s) enter stage left. They meet center stage)

Villager 1: Who goes there!

Juan(a): I have brought you a cure for blindness!

Villager 2: Impossible!

Villager 3: Give it to me! I want to see!

Juan(a): See here, then.

(Juan(a) dips finger in some water (this may be pantomimed) and rubs it on the eyes of the blind villager(s))

Villager 1: I'm cured!

Villager 2: I'm cured, too! I can see!

Villager 3: Thank you! Thank you!

(All hold hands and dance with glee in a circle)

(The dancing circle moves stage right)

(Dumb villagers enter stage left)

(Juan(a) and other dancers stop dancing)

Juan(a): (speaking to the cured villagers) Look, those people walk but do not speak!

Villager 1: They are from the next kingdom. The whole kingdom has been struck dumb by an evil Ogre.

Juan(a): Let's cure them with this Cenizo tea I made this morning!

(Juan(a) and the cured Villagers give the Dumb Villagers tea. Dumb Villagers drink, and begin to speak)

Villager 4: I can speak!

Villager 5: I can speak, too!

Villager 6: To be, or not to be - that is the question...

Villager 1: Hey! Wrong tradition! Shakespeare isn't Mexican!

Villager 6: Sorry, I got carried away.

All Villagers: Hooray! We're cured!

(All Villagers and Juan(a) join hands and dance with glee)

Juan(a): Hey!

(Villagers pause their celebration)

Villager 5: Yes?

Juan(a): I heard there is another Kindgom, of the deaf.

Villager 5: Yes, there is. It's right next to the Hill of the Bells.

Juan(a): Well, we've got work to do. Let's go cure them all! Who will help me find them and lead them up to the Magic Rock?

All Villagers: We will!

Juan(a): Okay, let's go!

(all exit)

Scene 5

(back home at the village)(same place as scene 1)

(Antonio/a is lazing around, maybe lying in bed)

Juan(a): Hey, Amigo!

Antonio/a: Hi, how are you? Did you get the wood cut yet? I've been so tired.

Juan(a): Yes, I cut the wood. I had amazing adventures, too. I saw fairies, and ogres, and I cured whole kingdoms...

Antonio/a: Hey, your hump is gone! You're not a hunchback anymore!

Juan(a): Yes, I sang a nice song to the fairies, and they cured me.

Antonio/a: Maybe they'll cure me, too! I'm going to the fairies!

Juan(a): I'm not so sure that's a good idea...

Antonio/a: Why not?

Juan(a): Remember those music lessons we took, and you were always too lazy to practice?

Antonio/a: Yeah, I hate practice. It's too much work.

Juan(a): Well, the fairies really like beautiful music...

Antonio/a: (rudely) Look, I've had enough listening to you. Shut up, will you? I'm going!

(Antonio/a exits)

Juan(a): (to the audience) I tried to warn him/her...

Scene 6

(In the forest)(Same place as scene 2)

Antonio/a: (Looking at the tree) This must be the magic tree that Juan(a) told me about.

(huge clomping sounds and complaining, grumbling, and arguing from offstage)

Antonio/a: Must be those Ogres I heard about. Time to get up the tree.

(climbs tree)

Ogre 1: Amigos, someone cured all the blindness in my kingdom. Only we knew the secret cures, so which one of you told?

Ogre 2: It wasn't I, because in my kingdom the dumb can now talk.

Ogre 3: And my deaf people can now hear! (Angrily) A woodcutter came and cured them all.

Ogre 1 & Ogre 2 (together): That was who cured my people!

(Enter Fairies, singing and dancing)

Fairies:

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis!

Ogre 3: Look, the fairies aren't afraid of us anymore.

Ogre 2: Their song is more powerful now that they know both parts.

Ogre 1: I'd still like to mash them up and eat them.

Ogre 2: Sorry, it's humans for supper from now on.

(Fairies, still singing, dance over to the tree)

(Ogres edge away from the Fairies)

Fairies:

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis!

Antonio/a: (loudly and rudely) Hey, fairies! Cure my hump!

(Fairies continue singing and dancing; they form a dancing circle around the tree)

(Ogres stand nearby, watching Antonio/a and the Fairies with great interest)

Fairies:

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis!

Antonio/a: (louder now, and angry) Hey, fairies!

(Antonio/a starts climbing down from the tree)

Fairies:

Lunes y Martes y Miércoles tres,
Jueves y viernes y sábado seis!

(Antonio/a is on the ground now, by the tree, surrounded by dancing Fairies)

Antonio/a: (exasperated, very angry, shouting) Y Domingo Siete!

(Fairies immediately stop singing and dancing. Fairies and Ogres stand as still as if they'd been turned to stone, looking at Antonio/a)

Fairy 1: Our song has been ruined!

Fairy 2: Doesn't even rhyme.

Fairy 3: This one is very rude.

Fairy 4: And lazy, too. The other one chopped a whole pile of wood, remember?

Fairy 5: This one didn't even chop one little stick.

Fairy 6: Shall we protect this one from the Ogres?

Fairy 7: Protect a lazybones who shouts and can't even rhyme? I don't think so.

Fairy 1: Let's go!

Fairy 2: All yours, evil Ogres!

Fairy 3: Have fun!

(Fairies exit)

(Ogres close in on Antonio/a)

Ogre 1: It's the woodcutter who cured our people!

Ogre 2: Traitor!

Ogre 3: Meddler!

Ogre 1: You insignificant spider! Take this!

(Ogres chase Antonio/a around for a little while, whacking him/her with slapsticks, then chase him/her offstage)

The End

Main Characters:

Juan or Juana (Woodcutter 1 )
Antonio or Antonia (Woodcutter 2)
Fairy 1
Fairy 2
Fairy 3
Fairy 4
Fairy 5
Fairy 6
Fairy 7
Ogre 1
Ogre 2
Ogre 3
Villager 1
Villager 2
Villager 3
Villager 4
Villager 5
Villager 6

Other Characters:

Narrator (has only 1 line, at the beginning) (You may omit this character) (Or, if you are the director, you may take this role yourself)
Village children (no individual lines)

Props:

Axe
Wood to chop
Climbable tree in Scenes 2, 3, and 6
3 slapsticks

Costumes:

The woodcutters are both hunchbacks. Juan(a) is cured by the fairies. A sweatshirt with a wad of cloth velcroed inside will work; make sure the Fairy practices removing the "hump".

Notes:

In the folk story the woodcutters have no names. You may pick the names to match the sexes of your actors/actresses. Here their names are given as

Juan(a), meaning Juan or Juana, depending on the sex of your player
Antonio/a, meaning either Antonio or Antonia., depending on the sex of your player.

You may need to mark up the kids' scripts if this is confusing to them.

"Lunes y Martes i Miercoles tres" means "Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three". "Jueves y viernes y sábado seis" means "Thursday and Friday and Saturday six". "Domingo Siete" means "Sunday Seven".
Here is how to prounounce the Spanish words:

Lunes is pronounced "LOON-ace".
Martes is pronounced "MART-ace".
Miércoles is pronounced "mee-AIR-coal-ace"
Jueves is pronounced "HWEV-ace".
Viernes is pronounced "bee-AIR-nace".
Sábado is pronounced ¨SAH-bah-doe".
Domingo is pronounced "doe-MING-oh".
"y" is prounounced "eee", as in "easy" or "Easter".
"tres" is pronounced sort of like "trace" or "tress".
"seis" rhymes with "tres" in this story.
"siete" is pronounced "see-EH-tay".
"Juan" is pronounced "HWAN"; "Juana" is pronounced "HWAN-a".
"Antonio" is pronounced "on-TONE-ee-oh". "Antonia" is pronounced "on-TONE-ee-ah".
"Amigos" is pronounced "ah-MEE-gohs".
"Cenizo" is prounounced "sen-EE-zoh".

You only need two fairies. If you don't have 7 fairies, just give the other fairies' lines to fairies 1 and 2.
You only need two villagers, not all 6. Just give Villager 2's and Villager 3's lines to Villager 1, and Villager 5's and Villager 6's lines to Villager 3.
"Domingo Siete" is one of Mexico's best known tales. Any malapropism made by a Mexican will draw the comment, "y salió con su Domingo Siete" ("and they came out with their 'Sunday Seven'"), meaning that that they said or did something foolish.

Authors: Ashley Heska and Leo Heska
Based on a Mexican folk tale

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