American Girl Modern Theater Kits

This article is about the modern-day play kits released in 1998. For the kit released in 1991 focused on three Historical Characters, see American Girls Theater Kit.

File:WhatAWorld-Cover.png

The cover of the What a World! production guide.

American Girl Modern Theater Kits are play kits for children, set during the modern day.^[1]

Overview

The kits included directions for putting on a roughly twenty-minute play with at least six characters. They included six scripts, a production guide, an advertising poster, and twenty paper tickets.

The production guide offers basic theater production tips: how to plan the play, details about the characters in the play (and the minimum amount of actors, with how to have some characters played by more than one person), using stage hands and other play assistants to give everyone a role, acting tips, theater terms, how to lay out the stage set, design costumes, using props, simulating sound effects, and occasionally information on how to make certain props or costumes. A black-and white page includes a flyer and program that can be copied. Scripts include tips for actors.

All three kits had the books and items illustrated by Abby Carter. For legal reasons, all theater kits include text that states the plays can be performed without royalties by young people at home or school. Any other performance rights are strictly reserved and any inquiries for rights should be addressed to the Library Editor at American Girl.

Plays

Check Under the Bed

Check Under the Bed is a mystery play about finding a missing check, which was lost at a hotel filled with quirky characters. The script was written by Judy Truesdell Mecca and is completely original to American Girl. Characters include:

Margaret Maloney: a professional mystery writer and the aside narrator
J. T. Maloney: Margaret's daughter, seeking mystery
Miss Peabody: The devoted but scatterbrained owner of the Peabody Hotel
Dr. Seymore Brockett: a down-on-his-luck scientist
Jane Crumb: A shy, mousey woman always cleaning up messes
Carlotta Vanderpepper: a dramatic but struggling actress

Harium Scarium

Harium Scarium is a comedy play about a day at the Fantastic Frills Hair Salon, which is visited by various fairy-tale and classic story characters. The script was written by Christina Hamlett and was originally printed as part of The Big Book of Skits in 1996 by Plays, Inc. (There are no major changes to the plot or characters.) Characters include:

Olivia: the owner of the Fantastic Frills Hair Salon.
Hilda: A hairdresser at the Fantastic Frills Hair Salon.
Goldilocks
Rapunzel
Briar Rose (of Sleeping Beauty)
Alice (of Alice in Wonderland)
Cinderella

Mentioned but unseen are Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, the daughter of King Midas, Little Miss Muffet, Little Red Riding Hood, and the witch/wicked stepmother from Snow White.

What a World!

What a World! is a sci-fi musical about a girl who spends a Saturday afternoon with an alien to alleviate her boredom and in the process learns to see her hometown differently. The script was written by Judy Truesdell Mecca and is an adaption of a play titled the same, from the book Plays that Teach, which she also wrote; the adaptation adds additional songs. Characters include:

Elizabeth Morrison: An ordinary girl wanting adventure on a Saturday afternoon.
Scout: Elizabeth's smart pet dog.^[2]
Mrs. Morrison: Elizabeth's mom.
Spacey the Alien: An alien girl and movie producer from the planet Glort. "Spacey" is what Elizabeth names her; her real name is unpronounceable and long.^[3]
Nurse Turnipseed and the Tongue Depressors: A head nurse and her singing group of nurses from Memorial Hospital.^[4]

The songs are to the themes of well-know folks songs ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat", "I've Been Working on the Railroad", and "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain") as well as a playground chant, making it easy for a child to learn or know the tunes.

References

↑ They were sold as American Girl Theater Kits; for ease of organization, they are listed here with the "Modern" addition to clarify that they are separate from the 1991 American Girls Theater Kit and the Theater Kits, which were both for Historical Characters.
↑ The original play has the dog named "Danny.""
↑ The original play has a male alien who goes by "Larry."
↑ The original play has this scene set at a school with a teacher.

[1] They were sold as American Girl Theater Kits; for ease of organization, they are listed here with the "Modern" addition to clarify that they are separate from the 1991 American Girls Theater Kit and the Theater Kits, which were both for Historical Characters.

[2] The original play has the dog named "Danny.""

[3] The original play has a male alien who goes by "Larry."

[4] The original play has this scene set at a school with a teacher.

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