Princess

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Genre: Drama (Musical)

Period: Present day

Place: Suburban Australia (can be localised)

Length: Two Acts

Characters: 6 M; 8 F

Warnings: Some coarse language and sexual references

Scene Breakdown

Act 1

Prologue – Sarah speaks lit by a single spot. Sarah's Theme runs in the background.

I – Rev. David is preaching to the students about Psalm 13. However, in Sarah’s perception of what is happening, Rev. David takes on the appearance of her father (Bless'ed Father).

II – during the lunch break Sarah, still affected by what happened in the chapel, cannot really engage with her friends.

III – in class after lunch, the students discuss rules put in place by parents and other authority figures.

IV – in this scene we see the first overt signs of the abuse and the effect it is having on Sarah. Also in this scene, we see that Peter has progressed to rape, rather than just touching Sarah.

V – Sarah is on the phone with Katie, the one person she could talk to about what is going on but cannot bring herself to do it.

VI – Sarah is so badly shaken by the rape that she decides she has had enough and takes an overdose of her mother’s sleeping pills.

VII – a brief scene in the hospital, after she was found and “saved”. We see here that Peter is still abusing her even after the overdose.

Act 2

I – Three years later, Sarah is now a boarder at St Catherine’s but she is still feeling the effects of the abuse.

II – A class party to celebrate the final year turns sour when Tyler cheats on Sarah with Alicia.

III – Sarah first discovers that physical pain releases or at least lessens the emotional and psychological pain.

IV – Growing increasingly desperate, especially with Tyler now dating Alicia, Sarah cuts with increasing frequency.

V – In a final plea for help, she calls her mother, but rather than helping the situation, the phone call makes Sarah feel worse.

VI – This final sequence, following on the end of the song in the previous scene is meant to leave the audience unclear about whether or not it is a dream Sarah has when she has fallen asleep (after throwing herself down on the bed). In it, she reconciles with her younger self, and moves on, giving the audience the chance to hope that she might have a future.

Characters

Principal

Sarah Newman (1) – 14 – solos

Tyler Greene – 14-17 – sings

Katie Upton – 14-17 – solos

Megan Lacey – 14-17 – sings

Lauren McAullay – 14-17 – sings

Alicia Nielsen – 17 – sings

Daniel O'Brien – 14-17 – sings

Andrew Upton – 14-17 – sings

Michael Leyton – 14-17 – sings

Reverend David – late 30’s + – solos

Sister Sophia – late 20’s + – sings

Peter Newman – 40’s – solos

Angela Newman – 40’s – sings

Ensemble

Shadows

Students

Track List

• Sarah's Theme – Instrumental
• Bless'ed Father – All
• XXXX – All
• Me – Sarah

Production Notes

Plot Elements

I have given a lot of thought to the inclusion of the three different threads of the plot line (sexual abuse, self-harm and suicide). My research suggests that a high proportion of people who self-harm and eventually commit suicide have been sexually abused so these to me are not totally separate but rather they would interact, a bit like a plait as opposed to a plot tapestry. However, I have decided not to include pregnancy as the catalyst for the suicide because what I have read suggests that the self-harming can escalate into suicide, either intentional or accidental, in a lot of cases, regardless of a single triggering event. It will be left up to the director to show in the blocking the closeness between the teenage characters in Act 2. This would be important to show one aspect of how Sarah attempts to feel normal.