The Parasol Production

[LightningTopaz]

Ash and co. and the Brocklings

in

"The Parasol Production"


A brown haired boy sighs as he studies the cursor blinking patiently on the PC screen. <i>Write a dramatic adaptation of a folk or fairy tale, tape the performance, and show it to the class--I thought I'd be able to write a play easily....</i> he muses as he types "Little Red Riding Hood" on the top line, but then reconsiders. <i>Why does it sound so easy, yet it turns out to be so hard? Especially when a chance to perform your play at the culture festival is on the line?</i> He re-types "Little Red Riding Hood" on the top line again, adds "Magician" as the first role, but then deletes it. <i>Nah--a magician would be too over the top...</i>

"How's the homework coming, Forest?" a male voice asks.

Forest whirls around and smiles when he sees an older boy with similar features to him standing in the doorway. "Brock, just the guy I needed to see!" he laughs as he pulls up a chair by the desk, allowing Brock and a pink humanoid creature to see the screen. "I'm trying to write an adaptation of a folk tale as a play, but everything I've come up with to adapt 'Little Red Riding Hood' re-invents the wheel."

"Why not adapt it in a completely different style of play?" Brock suggests.

"Like what?" Forest asks.

"I've been reading about an ancient style of theater popular in Johto many years ago..." Brock explains, showing Forest a novel called "Star of the Gekijo". "'Star of the Gekijo' is about this girl who wants to make it big on a Gekijo stage at the height of the form's popularity a thousand years ago. At that time, thousands of plays--both original and based on myth and legend--were written and performed until its decline two hundred years ago."

"Is that style still performed today at all?" Forest asks, interested.

"Fortunately, yes--a revival in the form was sparked a hundred years ago, and it is still performed in Ecruteak City, Celestic Town, and all across Fiore today, just to name a few places." Brock replies. "My point is, 'Little Red Riding Hood' just might work as a Gekijo play."

"How?" Forest asks. "What is a Gekijo play like?"

"Well, to start, Gekijo plays typically have a narrator, a small ensemble of actors, a chorus, and prop people changing the sets." Brock explains.

"So good bye Red Riding Hood, hello Crimson Parasol. " Forest muses as he deletes 'Little Red Riding Hood' and writes 'Crimson Parasol' as his play's title. He then skips a few lines and writes "Characters", then writes "Akane", "Oka-san", "Oba-san", and "Taiyou and Tsuki, the prop people" on his list. "And the Mightyena is turning into a Raikou." he adds as he writes "Langi, the Raikou" on his cast list.

"Is a Beautifly going to be in the play, Forest?" a younger girl asks.

"Well..." Forest is unsure.

"I won't be in it unless I can play a Beautifly!" the girl threatens.

Forest sighs and writes "Nabi, the Beautifly" in the cast list. "Okay, Mia, you can be a Beautifly...."

"If a Squirtle is in this play, I am so in!" another boy comments as he watches Mia take the pink humanoid to her room.

"Sure, Bobby!" Forest smiles as he writes "Chelona, the Squirtle" onto his cast list.

Brock, meanwhile, reads from his book. "Unlike most ancient theater traditions, girls could act and be in the chorus. Gekijo plays were very musically oriented, so choruses included musicians as well as speakers."

"What kind of instruments were there?" Forest wonders.

Brock looks a little farther down the page. "There was always a Pokeflute or whistle, a drum, and a gong, but harps and fiddles were not unheard of." Inspired, Forest types "Arran Seluna, the Emerald Singer, teller of tales" on his cast list. "If you didn't get any of the main instruments, you got some kind of percussion, including but not limited to wood blocks, bells, tambourines, finger cymbals, chimes, and shakers. Some productions even had the narrator play an instrument."

"No prizes for who gets the whistle." Forest muses as he adds "Jelan Mirana, the Ruby Flute" and "Loras Kimbore, the Sapphire Dancer" to his cast list. Sure enough, a whistle playing the tune "Off to Pastoria" drifts down the hall. The performer, a black haired boy, enters the room and makes himself comfortable on a deep red beanbag chair, playing the song all the while.

"Bravo!" Bobby applauds. "Now play 'The Dancing Pikachu', Ash."

"Now that, I'll do one better." Ash smiles as he invites a black haired girl to join him in the room. Once the girl is comfortable with a fiddle, the two of them play "Rock on the Mountain, "The Clefairy's Dance", and "Happini's Star".

"Sorry to interrupt the concert, but what about my play?" Forest asks over the applause.

"For one thing, where are we going to get a chorus?" Bobby asks as Forest types "Woodsman" and "Chorus of Arran's apprentices" to finish the cast list.

"And how big should it be?" Forest looks to Brock for the answer.

"Gekijo choruses typically had about twelve to forty people, but more elaborate productions had even more." Brock replies.

"Okay, so Brock, Ash and Dawn are playing Arran, Jelan, and Loras..." Forest muses. "Bobby's playing the Squirtle, Mia's playing the Beautifly...Mom could play the mom in the play...."

"Do I get a part?" a girl about Forest's age asks as she walks in the room.

"You could be Akane, Terra..." Forest offers.

"Sure!" Terra replies.

"Keep in mind that lines in a Gekijo play were flowery and stylized, and movement was often synchronized to the instruments." Brock explains as Forest begins writing the script. "The gong usually announced the entrance of the villian, punctuated by the flute or whistle mimicing a female scream."

"I can do that!" Ash then proceeds to blast a high note that sounds eeriely like a human scream, complete with the pink humanoid banging a frying pan for effect.

Everyone laughs. "Something like that." Brock chuckles.

"What was that scream?" A brown haired woman peeks in the room, concerned.

"I was only showing the kids how a whistle mimics a human scream, Lola." Ash sheepishly explains, fingering his instrument.

"Well, don't whistle scream in here." Lola warns before turning to leave.

"Would you want to play the mom in the play, Mom?" Forest calls after Lola.

"Maybe--if you do a good job writing the script." Lola replies before tending to the laundry.

"And why stop with just us?" Bobby asks, excited. "We could ask our friends to help!"

<i>This is going to be a fun play!</i> Forest thinks as he writes the script, unaware of the chaos that will ensue.

 

[LightningTopaz]

<i>A few days later...</i>

"Goodness, what is all this?" a man with slightly graying brown hair gasps as he watches the living room transform into a set not unlike the ones seen in a Gekijo theater long ago.

"Stuff for the play I'm writing, Dad." Forest explains as Dawn measures a girl. "We're turning 'Little Red Riding Hood' into a Gekijo play--that's a style of play that was popular in ancient Johto, and still performed in Ecruteak City and the surrounding areas today."

"I see..." the man notes at the crowd of children Ash and Dawn are measuring. "Did you check with your friends before you did this?"

"He did, Flint, sweetie." Lola assures the man as she is measured for her costume. "I watched him make the calls and made the list of who was participating."

"'Chorus of Arran's apprentices' is boring!" Terra complains as she reads over the finished script, which Forest is about to print.

"Well, what should I change it to?" Forest asks.

"How about...." Terra thinks for a moment. "The Mavrica Chorus?" she suggests, typing this into the cast list.

"That sounds cool!" Forest smiles before running upstairs. He returns with a toy clapboard and fills in the information for his production.

The flowing notes of a harp get Flint's attention. He whirls around to see Brock, now clad in a green tunic with silver swirls, black leggings, and deep brown shoes. "That's a nice costume..."

"It's my 'fantastic' form of my storyteller persona, Arran Seluna, when we perform at faires and fantasy conventions." Brock explains. "The normal form has items that wouldn't exist in a fantastic setting, so I felt this form would be appropriate for performing in the Gekijo style."

"Ooh, thanks for reminding us..." Dawn leaves her tape measure in the care of a child and dashes into a closet to change. Ash sets aside his clipboard of measurements and ducks into a spare room, also to change.

"May I do my introduction when Ash and Dawn finish changing?" Brock asks Forest.

"Sure--I'll give the members of the chorus their instruments and give them their scripts." Forest replies as he staples together a set of paper collecting in the printer tray and gives it to a boy as Brock improvises around the A minor scale to warm up.

Flint finds his easy chair and settles in as Ash, now wearing a red tunic with a white shirt underneath, red leggings, gloves on his hands, and boots on his feet, walks past with his script and a gold whistle cradled in one arm. Dawn, now wearing a loose white tunic and royal blue skirt, is not far behind, tuning a violin as she walks by.

After Forest gives everyone a script and the chorus members an instrument, he retrieves his clapboard. "'Crimson Parasol' public rehearsal one, take one!" he announces, clapping the clapboard.

Brock appears an a spotlight a few seconds later, playing his harp. "Hello, and welcome...I am Arran Seluna--wanderer among worlds and gatherer of song and story. In my home world, I am called 'The Emerald Singer' because whenever my companions and I arrive in a new town, I am singing..." He proceeds to play a happy melody and dance around the "stage" as he sings <i>Come one, come all--come and hear my stories!</i> Flint laughs at this, but Brock continues. "Then the townsfolk, young and old, rich and poor, all come from their houses and join me in the town square, eager to hear what tales I have to tell."

He plays some more as he continues "Today I have a new twist on an old favorite--you yourselves learned this story from a teller of tales that lived long ago, but where he learned it from, we may never know." He pauses his song for a moment. "It just shows that you just can't keep a good story at home, can you?" Flint smiles and nods in agreement as Brock continues. "The old favorite concerns a young girl in red, a fearsome Mightyena, and a woodsman that saved both the girl and her grandmother from a horrible fate--I speak, of course, of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. Yet when that story came to the western region of your world, Little Red Riding Hood transformed into Crimson Parasol."

After playing a little more, he interjects "Now, with a little help from my companions--Jelan Mirana, the Ruby Flute..." Ash appears in the top left spot of the right side of the "stage". He brandishes his whistle like a sword for a moment. "Loras Kimbore, the Sapphire Dancer...." Dawn appears in the right top corner and takes her instrument. "and my apprentices, which comprise the Mavrica Chorus..." The spotlight expands to include about thirty other kids, all clutching wood blocks, bells, finger cymbals, chimes, and other percussion. "I will tell you the tale of Crimson Parasol, not unlike how it was told in the western region many moons ago." With that, he plays a flowing introduction as the boy playing Taiyou and the girl playing Tsuki hold up a gold and a silver disc and rotate them counterclockwise as Dawn joins in with Brock's song and Taiyou and Tsuki exit to the right.

The song continues for a moment before a girl begins "Many many moons ago..."

"On an island in a land far away..." a boy continues.

"There was a mountain capped with snow..." a girl adds, jingling her bells for emphasis.

"Below that mountain, was a green valley..." a boy adds, shaking his shaker to mimic leaves.

"In the valley was a meadow of tall grass..." another boy continues. Those kids with shakers shake them for effect.

"and on that meadow sits a cottage." a girl concludes. The boy and the girl playing Taiyou and Tsuki bring on a screen with an Oriental style scene of a house on a meadow as the fiddle and harp continue to play.

"In that cottage long ago..." a girl interjects.

"Lived a mother..." a boy adds.

"Oka-san!" the kids chorus as the fiddle and harp abruptly stop. Lola then walks in the scene from the left, her footsteps in sync with the slow beat from the woodblocks and bells. Flint smiles as she bows to him.

"And with the Oka-san..." a girl adds.

"There lived a small daughter." a boy replies. At this, Terra skips on carrying a deep red parasol with gold trim, the woodblocks, chimes, and finger cymbals providing a beat for her steps. She bows to both her "audience" of Flint and the group's Pokemon, and to Lola.

"This is Crimson Parasol...." a boy begins.

"She has a feather head..." a girl adds, jingling her bells to mimic laughter as Terra feigns giggling.

"She has a wandering eye..." a boy agrees as Terra looks around in feigned wonder.

"Listen well, Akane-chan..." Ash cautions.

"Listen to your Oka-san." Dawn agrees as the lights shift over to the scene.

"Listen to me, Akane, my love...I would like you to visit your Oba-san that lives to the west." Lola begins as the boy and the girl playing Taiyou and Tsuki appear carrying a table with a tea set and a basket on it.

"Yes, Oka-san." Terra replies.

"Bring her this basket of fruit and cakes." Lola continues, offering the basket to Terra.

"How delicious--fresh fruit and sweet cake!" Terra comments.

"Pay attention, Akane--don't go into the southern jungle." Lola warns as Dawn and Brock begin a drone in B minor. "It is dark, and dangerous, and what's more, Raikous are on the prowl there..." Ash adds a shuddering note for effect.

"Yes Oka-san" Terra replies.

"Do not linger to pick flowers..." Lola continues, prompting those kids with chimes to jingle them. "Do not chase the Beautiflies..." Ash interjects with the notes that match 'Ai-yai-yai, I'm your little Beautifly!', making the Pokemon laugh. "and do not sit and dream upon the stones in the field." The girl with the drum does a soft roll for effect. "Take your crimson parasol and go now, before the sun grows hot."

"Yes, Oka-san." With that, Terra opens the parasol and skips off stage left to the beat of the woodblocks, bells, and finger cymbals as the lights go down and Lola exits to the left, buying the children playing Taiyou and Tsuki time to clear the stage.

Brock appears in his spotlight as he and Dawn conclude the drone. "And so, Akane set out on the journey west, to her Oba-san's house...but alas..."

"But alas..." the kids echo.

"Akane-chan was a very scatterbrained little girl. No sooner did she see the cool foilage of the southern jungle, she forgot all about her Oka-san's warnings and went straight into the woods!" Brock continues, adding an upward glissando for effect as the lights come up on a screen with a jungle scene on it. Taiyou and Tsuki carry on a prop tree and exit, buying Mia time to hide behind it.

"No, no!" half the kids chorus.

"Don't take this path, Akane-chan!" Ash warns.

"Don't go into the jungle, Akane-chan!" Dawn agrees.

"No, no!" the other half of the chorus echoes. Terra then enters to the beat of the wood blocks and bells, and stops by the tree. Mia then dances out to the beat of bells and chimes.

"Oh, a flower! A lovely dancing flower." Terra comments as Mia dances around. "I will pick it and take it to Oba-san." She sets the parasol aside and tries to grab Mia.

"Halt! Don't touch!" Mia demands, making Terra back away.

Ash then begins what sounds like an improvisation in B minor as Mia continues dancing. "No-thank-you-very much! I am no earthly bud! No blossom of the mud! I'm here...I'm there!" she begins. "I'm Princess of the Sky! Small foolish child, use your eyes! For I am Nabi, the Beautifly, the monarch of the summer skies!" Flint laughs when he realizes that Ash's improvisation is really a stylized version of the song "Beautifly".

Terra is about to say her next line when the screen falls over backwards with a crash and splits in two. "Oh no!"

"Cut!" Forest calls and runs to salvage the screen, which has split in half.

"We worked all day yesterday on that screen..." the girl playing Tsuki sighs as she picks up pieces of the screen.

Brock breaks character long enough to quip "We are having technical difficulties, please stand by." before setting his harp aside and running to help with the cleanup.

"You were doing so well, too." Flint agrees.

"Will we have to do my scene again?" Mia worries.

"We can't if we don't have a set." Forest replies.

"Did you catch my inside joke?" Ash smiles at Flint as he pockets his whistle.

"Took me a minute to figure out if it was a real song or you just playing random notes." Flint replies. "But the melody of the chorus gave it away."

"I'm just grateful that it wasn't the cottage screen that fell." Lola sighs with relief before reporting "The table and tea set and the tropical tree are okay." to the prop kids.

"May I make a suggestion?" Flint asks Forest.

"What?" Forests asks as he throws away pieces of the damaged screen in the trash.

"Could you maybe have Akane chase the Beautifly a little more?" Flint replies.

"Okay." Forest replies.

"What about my number? Can that stay?" Ash asks.

"'Beautifly' can stay--it is quite appropriate for that part." Flint replies as he watches the crowd clean up.

 

[LightningTopaz]

<i>The next day...</i>

The doorbell rings just as Forest is putting the finishing touches on a new screen. "Coming!" he calls as he races for the door.

"Will you need me for the rehearsal today?" Lola asks as she brings in some props and bells.

"Nah--we're going to do Mia's scene and Bobby's scene--and maybe do Dawson's big entrance." Forest replies as he opens the door, where a boy with yellow brown hair, a boy with dull red hair, and a girl with black hair stand on the stoop. "Dawson! Haru! Mizuki! Come on in!" he smiles as he lets the three children in.

"Kiara and Twila are on their way, and the rest of the chorus is coming too." Dawson reports.

"What do Mizuki and I need to bring on this time?" Haru asks.

"That same tree we used for Mia's scene, this tree with the red flower, and this one with the pink flower." Forest explains as Flint brings in the three trees.

Dawson catches Brock in the hallway. "Hey, Brock, would you mind teaching me how to do a realistic Raikou's roar?"

"Well, first let me hear you do a Raikou's roar." Brock replies.

"Arr-arar..." Dawson growls, his roar noticeably weak.

Brock thinks for a moment. "Not bad, but it needs a bit more oomph in it--enough to scare Terra."

"I get to scare Terra????" Dawson is excited. He tries his roar again just as Terra walks in the room.

"That's not scary..." Terra giggles. "Brock, show Dawson how you REALLY do a Raikou's roar!"

"RAAAAWRRRGGGHHHH!!!!" Brock replies in a perfect imitation of a Raikou's roar that makes Dawson jump in surprise.

"Whoa...what's your secret?" Dawson asks as he recovers from the shock.

"Easy--found a recording of a Raikou and listened to it, then practiced mimicing it." Brock replies as he retrieves his script and harp. "Try channeling my roar when your big entrance comes up, okay?"

"Gotcha!" Dawson replies as he receives his script from Forest.

"No matter how many times you do that, it scares me--even though I know it's coming." Terra smiles before running to retrieve her parasol from the pile of props. Ash and Dawn are nearby and in costume, playing a set of tunes to pass the time in waiting for the kids to arrive.

Once everyone has arrived, Brock has gotten into costume, and everyone is in position, Forest shows Flint and the Pokemon his clapboard. "'Crimson Parasol' public rehearsal two, take one!"

Brock appears in a spotlight, clutching his harp. "And so, Akane set out on the journey west, to her Oba-san's house...but alas..."

"But alas..." the kids echo.

"Akane-chan was a very scatterbrained little girl. No sooner did she see the cool foilage of the southern jungle, she forgot all about her Oka-san's warnings and went straight into the woods!" Brock continues, adding an upward glissando for effect as the lights come up on a screen with a jungle scene on it. Taiyou and Tsuki carry on a prop tree and exit, buying Mia time to hide behind it.

"No, no!" half the kids chorus.

"Don't take this path, Akane-chan!" Ash warns.

"Don't go into the jungle, Akane-chan!" Dawn agrees.

"No, no!" the other half of the chorus echoes. Terra then enters to the beat of the wood blocks and bells, and stops by the tree. Mia then dances out to the beat of bells and chimes.

"Oh, a flower! A lovely dancing flower." Terra comments as Mia dances around. "I will pick it and take it to Oba-san." She sets the parasol aside and tries to grab Mia as the finger cymbals, wood blocks, and bells keep the beat.

"Halt! Don't touch!" Mia demands, making Terra back away.

Ash then begins what sounds like an improvisation in B minor as Mia continues dancing. "No-thank-you-very much! I am no earthly bud! No blossom of the mud! I'm here...I'm there!" she begins. "I'm Princess of the Sky! Small foolish child, use your eyes! For I am Nabi, the Beautifly, the monarch of the summer skies!" Flint smiles--he knows that Ash's improvisation is really a stylized version of the song "Beautifly".

"My deepest apologies, Sky Princess--the shadows confused my eyes." Terra replies with a bow as Ash stops his song. "Please excuse this unworthy Akane-san!"

"Very well, but don't do it again." Mia warns before turning to leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an audience with the sakura." With that, she dances off as Ash resumes his impovisation around "Beautifly".

Dawn joins in as a girl interjects "Beautifly, flutter by!"

"Flash and flitter!" a boy agrees.

"Skip and skitter!" a girl continues.

"Green, black and blue," another girl adds.

"Skim and hide!" a boy concludes.

"Green, black and blue, make the colors in the sky!" the chorus says in sync with the melody as Ash and Dawn finish.

Brock reappears in his spotlight, playing the chorus to "Beautifly" one last time on his harp before continuing. "An encounter with a haughty Beautifly...do you think that stopped Crimson Parasol?"

"No..." Flint replies.

"In fact, she went on, further into the jungle." Brock intones as his spotlight blinks off, buying Haru and Mizuki time to clear the stage and bring on the second tree. Bobby crawls onstage in time to the drum and bells some seconds later, and lies down when he sees Terra.

"One foot, two foot, three foot four..." a girl comments over a melody from Dawn and the drum.

"Now a little, then a little, again a little more." a boy agrees.

"Easy does it, slow as mush." another boy says.

"Never hurry, never rush." another girl comments as Dawn concludes her song.

"But what is this?" Terra asks, feeling around Bobby's back for a moment. "I don't need my eyes to tell me--this a cool stone. I will take it to Oba-san for her garden."

She is about to try and lift Bobby when Bobby gets back on all fours. "Here, here! What are you doing?

"Oh! I thought you were a stone!" Terra giggles in feigned embarrassment.

"A stone? Hmph--I am Chelona, the Squirtle." The drum and bells begin as Bobby crawls off. "Leave me alone, I am not a stone! A stone is no one, I am Chelona, the slow one. Biding my time, making my way, inch by inch, day by day." When he is completely offstage, he adds "So leave me alone, I am not a stone!" Flint laughs at this.

"I beg your pardon, noble Squirtle." Terra muses as she picks up the parasol and skips off to the beat of wood blocks, finger cymbals and bells. Haru and Mizuki bring on the third tree as the lights are down. As Dawson tiptoes into position, Dawn begins a tense melody with some accents from Brock.

"Listen, what is that?" a girl asks as Ash joins in the song with a shuddering trill.

'Only a bird in the treetop high..." a boy replies.

"Hush, who goes there?" another boy asks as the wood blocks and bells join in the tense melody.

"Only a girl on the jungle path." a girl replies before she perks up "Listen, listen, sounds in the bush." The drum joins in with the feverish melody.

"Look! A shadow falls!" another girl cries. At this, Ash blasts a high note that sounds like a female scream and Twila sounds the gong, prompting Dawson to spring out at Terra with a roar. Terra gasps and rears back in surprise, but inadvertantly hits the screen, making it fall over with a crash.

"Cut!" Forest calls as he dashes to help survey the damage.

"Not again..." Dawn sighs as Mia confirms that the screen has once again split in two.

"Maybe you ought to have something strong to hold the screen up?" Flint suggests. "I could supply some wood braces that were meant to hold screens like that up..."

"That's a great idea." Brock smiles.

"Did I roar okay?" Dawson asks Brock as he helps clean up pieces of the screen.

"It was better than your initial attempt, but a little more practice wouldn't hurt." Brock replies as he sets his harp aside and helps with the clean up.

Ash sighs. "Why is it that the set has to fall over at the pivotal points in the play?"

"Well find a way to keep that from happening on performance day." Dawn assures Ash. "Plus, I think I found someone to play Oba-san."

Ash sighs--first the set falls again, and now Dawn has procrastinated on finding an important role?

 

[alster08]

There os room for more detail after quates. For examle

(NO DETAIL)"Dont do that" scolded the teacher.

(Detail)"Dont do that" solded the teacher pointing her rinkly fingers in Bobs direction.


The rest is good and its not a bad fic.

 

[LightningTopaz]

I've revised Episode 1 with a little detail, just need to do 2 and 3.

 

[Flame_]

It's not Perfect but I like it, I'll read it.

 

[LightningTopaz]

Like I said, I've been revising the episodes with more detail.