Сценарий по рассказу О.Генри "Чародейные хлебцы"

Characters:

O. Henry - Шумейко Никита

Miss Martha Meacham – Даша Рябоконь

Miss Martha’s friend – Грачева Диана

Blumberger (a draughtsman) – Вязмитинова София

Young man – Борщевский Глеб

O. Henry (to the audience): Hello, dear friends. Do you know who I am? No!? Let me introduce myself. I am a writer. People all over the world know my pen- name O. Henry but my real name is William Sydney Porter. I live in the USA and write short stories.

Today I want to tell you one of my stories. It is called “ Witches’ Loaves”.

Miss Martha Meacham keeps a small bakery on the corner. She is forty, she has two thousand dollars in a bank, two false teeth and a kind heart. Although she is still unmarried, she hopes to get married some time.

Two or three times a week a man comes into her shop to buy bread, and very soon she begins to take an interest in him.

Scene 1

The setting is a bakery. Miss Martha and her friend are drinking tea and chatting. Blumberger comes into the shop.

Miss Martha Meacham: Good morning sir! Can I help you? What would you like?

Blumberger: I’d like two loaves of stale bread.

Miss Martha Meacham: Anything else?

Blumberger : No, thank you. That’s all. Good bye. (He leaves the shop)

Miss Martha’s friend: What a strange man! He speaks with a strong German accent. Do you know him?

Miss Martha Meacham : Unfortunately I don’t. He comes into my shop two or three times a week and always buys only two loaves of stale bread. But how polite and well- mannered he is! (Dreamily) I’m sure that he is an artist and very poor.

Miss Martha’s friend : Why do you think so?

Miss Martha Meacham : I saw red and brown stains on his hands.

Miss Martha’s friend : Poor thing! He doesn’t have enough money!

Miss Martha Meacham : Of course he lives in a little cold room where he paints his pictures. He eats stale bread and only thinks of the tasty things to eat in my bakery.

Together: Poor thing!

Miss Martha Meacham : (Dreamily) I’d like to share all good things I have with this man.

Miss Martha’s friend : How are you going to test your theory about his occupation?

Miss Martha Meacham : I have a wonderful idea! Do you remember one day I bought a painting at a sale.

Wait! I’ll try to find it. Look! (She shows a picture.) It is an Italian painting! A beautiful palace near the lake is shown in it.

Miss Martha’s friend : And what? What are you going to do with it?

Miss Martha Meacham : (Proudly) I’m going to put it against the shelves. I am sure that an artist will notice it and that way I’ll find out his profession!

Scene 2

O. Henry: Two days late the man came into the shop again.

Blumberger : Two loaves of stale bread, if you please. You have a fine picture here, madam.

Miss Martha Meacham : (wrapping up the bread) Yes? I love art and painting. Do you think it is a good picture?

Blumberger : The palace is not in good drawing. The perspective of it is not true. Good bye, madam.

Miss Martha Meacham : He must be an artist! (taking the picture back). (Dreamily) How kind his eyes are behind his glasses! How clever he is! To be an artist- and to live on stale bread!

O. Henry: Often now when he comes, he talks for sometime with Miss Martha.

Scene 3

(Miss Martha and her friend are drinking tea, eating tasty things and chatting in the bakery.)

Miss Martha Meacham : (Regretfully) You know, he continues buying stale bread, never a cake, never a pie, never anything else.

Miss Martha’s friend : May be he prefers stale bread?

Miss Martha Meacham : (Sad) He begins to look thinner! But what can I do for him? How could I help him? May be I’ll give him some tasty things?!

Miss Martha’s friend : You know, dear all these artists are so proud!

Scene 4

O. Henry: One day the man came as usual.

Blumberger : Two loaves of stale bread, please.

(A great noise is heard from the street.)

Blumberger : What’s going on?? What a terrible noise!

(The man hurries to the door.)

Miss Martha Meacham : (to herself) I have a bright idea! He’ll be happy!

(Miss Martha takes some fresh butter from the shelf; with a bread knife she makes a deep cut in each of the stale loaves and puts a big piece of butter there. When the man turns to her, she is putting the loaves into a paper bag).

The man has gone. Miss Martha is smiling to herself. She is singing and dancing.

Scene 5

The bell is ringing loudly. Two men come in. An unknown young man and the artist.(His face is red; his hat is on the back of his head; he looks absolutely furious.)

Blumberger : (shouts angrily) Dummkopf! Tausendonfer! Fool!

(The young man tries to draw him away.)

Blumberger : I shall not go before I tell her! (knocking on the counter.) You have spoilt my work! I’ll tell you! You are a stupid old cat!

Miss Martha stands back against the shelves and lays one hand on her heart.

The young man: (taking his companion by the collar.) Come on! You’ve said enough.

(He draws the angry man offstage and then comes back.)

I think, I must tell you madam why he is so angry. That’s Blumberger. He is a draughtsman. I work in the same office with him. He has been working hard for three months drawing a plan for a new City Hall. It was a prize competition. He finished inking the lines yesterday. You know, a draughtsman always makes his drawing in pencil first. When it is finished he rubs out the pencil lines with stale bread. Blumberger always bought the bread here. Well, today, well you know madam, that butter isn’t well. Blumberger’s plan isn’t good anything now except to cut up into railroad sandwiches.

Miss Martha goes offstage. She takes off her best clothes and puts on the old ones she wore before.

Whole cast comes on stage.

Curtain.