THE FORESTER

a king greedily cuts down trees. by this he brings the wrath of 2 powerful gods

THE FORESTER

 

Characters:

Narrator- opens the play

Pan- half goat half man, god of the forest

Artimis- goddess of the hunt, carries a bow

King- loyal follower of Aires

Queen- wife to the king

Prince- believes his father is always right

Servant- works for the king

Aires- god of war, carries a sword

Athena- goddess of wisdom and war, carries a spear

Zeus- king of the gods

Hera- goddess of marriage, Zeus’s wife

Apollo- god of sun

Aphrodite- goddess of love

Poseidon- god of the sea

Hermes- messenger god

Dionysus- god of wine, always has a cup in hand

 

Setting: ancient Greece, a feel of myths and magic

Scene 1- A forest

Scene 2- A palace

Scene 3- Olympus, cloudy/heaven like

Scene 4- A forest

 

Scene 1: in the forest.

Narrator- In a time of magic and myth, gods and goddesses, titans and monsters, a Greek king wages a massive war. Favored by Aires, the god of war, the king is victorious in his conquest. However this war of his requires much wood. Miles of forest fall to his axe. The god of the wilds Pan and goddess of the hunt Artimis are enraged by this.

(Exit Narrator)

(Enter Prince, King, and Queen)

Queen- What a lovely day.

King- Yes, thank Apollo, the sun is shining bright today.

Prince- Are these the woods you plan to harvest father?

King- Yes. The men will start chopping them down tonight.

Queen- Such a shame, it is so nice here.

Prince- Mother, you know father needs wood for our war.

Queen- Yes son, I know. Still it is a shame.

King- These woods belong to me, I will do as I please with them!

Queen- What if you anger the gods by cutting down so many trees?

King-(laughs) Hahaha. I am favored by Aires; the gods will do nothing, for he is great. They dare not anger him.

Queen- My husband you must not say such things. Aires is but one god, you should not provoke the others.

Prince- Father is king! He may speak as he pleases. No one dares cross Aires or father, man or god. (Laughs)

(Enter servant)

Servant- My lord, the General a waits you at the palace.

King- Wonderful! Come son, wife, let us go and meet the General.

(Exit King, Queen, Prince, and Servant)

(Enter pan)

Pan- That filth! How dare he think to destroy these woods.  Already he has hacked down tree after tree. Men need trees to survive, but he goes too far!

(Enter Artimis)

Artimis- My brother, let us go and smite this vile king!

Pan- Ah! Dear sister, you have heard of his plan to destroy this forest?

Artimis- Of course and I will not allow it!

Pan- What shall we do?

Artimis- I shall feather this forester between the eyes!

Pan- What of Aires? He favors this king and would bring his wrath on us!

Artimis- silence coward! I fear him not.

Pan- I am no coward! He is war, we are great, but he would destroy us.

Artimis- Let fear rule you then! I shall defend our kingdom!

Pan- I fought the Titians with Zeus, I am god of nature! Do not mistake reason for fear. I will help you slay this dastard, but I think we should do it quickly before Aires hears of our plan.

Artimis- Good! There is the passion, and I agree, we should end him now! Come; let us deal with this king.

(End scene 1)

Scene 2- The Palace.

( In this scene gods and goddesses are not able to be seen or heard by the humans. The humans and gods are always on opposite sides of the stage.)

(Enter king, Queen, and prince)

King- That was a good meeting!

Queen- Yes, the General Seems to have everything well handled

Prince- Of course he does. Father picked him to lead our army himself.

King- I am quite proud of the General. Thank Aires for such a competent man!

(Enter Pan and Airtimes)

Artimis- (with her bow drawn) Now let us end this forester’s blasphemy.

(Enter Aires)

Aires- Lower your bow dear sister. The king is under my protection. Fire and face my wrath!

Artimis- Do not dare talk down to me!

Pan- The king has destroyed miles of our kingdom! He will suffer our wrath.

Aires- Fools! I am Aires; you stand not a chance against me! (Draws swords)

(Enter Athena)

Athena- (spear in hand) Stay your hand!

Aires-  You dare interfere, goddess of wisdom?

Athena- Be silent swine! I am not some lesser god you may order about. I am as great as you, and wiser by far.

Aires- Why are you here?

Athena- To stop this. Violence will not fix this. Reason, Logic, and Clear judgment should be our tools. We are civilized after all, let us act it.

Aires- What are you proposing?

Athena-  No proposal, by Zeus’s order the three of you will follow me to Olympus, were we will hear both sides and settle this.

Artimis- I need no one to interfere.

Athena- Sister, I understand your anger, but dare not to defy the pantheon.

Pan- let us follow her, we cannot fight all the gods and goddesses. Calm yourself Artimis, we shall plead our case. They will see us to be right.

Athena- You are wise dear Pan. I am please one of you has retained their wisdom.

(End scene 2)

Scene 3 :  Olympus.

(Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Poseidon, Athena, Hermes, and Dionysus sit in a half circle. Zeus and Hera sit in the center of the half circle. Artimis, Pan, and Aires stand before the gods.)

Zeus- Fellow gods and goddesses, thank you for meeting on such short notice.

 Hermes- You are the boss big guy, we can hardly ignore your call.

Zeus-  Thank you for that Hermes. We are here to help our comrades solve their quarrel.

Poseidon- What is the conflict?

Athena- Artimis, Pan please tell the court what angers you so.

Hera- Yes dears, what is the matter?

Artimis- Pan and I have dominion over the wilds.

Dionysus- That is true, for you are goddess of the hunt, and he is god of the forests. (Takes drink)

Apollo- Yes, this is known to us. Please continue.

Pan- Humans need wood to survive. We accept this willingly. But this king has chopped down miles of forests!

Hermes- What is the problem though? What do trees matter.

Artimis- They give the world oxygen. They allow us to live! They shield the world from sun and wind, provide homes for creatures. The world needs them to survive.

Pan- And they are part of our kingdom. What if men took all the water from the sea dear Poseidon? Would you not bring down your wrath?

Poseidon- They would not live!

Pan- The woods are our sea.

Poseidon- Your point is valid and well made.

Artimis- We deserve the right to protect and punish! This king must pay.

Zeus- We will see. Aires, if you would speak now.

Aires- As you wish father. The king is my most loyal follower. He is a great leader. He is an awesome fighter. For that I favor him and give my protection.

Apollo- Why does he chop so many trees down?

Aires- His people need wood for fire, housing, and tools. His army needs wood for arrows, boats, catapults, wagons, and so on for his war in my honor.

Hera- Does he honor Pan or Artimis?

Poseidon- Does he give tribute to any gods or goddesses?

Aires- He pays tribute to only me.

Zeus- What do you think dear wife?

Hera- The woods are Pan’s and Artimis’s kingdom. They have the right to protect it.

Apollo- Yes, but the king is a favorite of Aires.

Athena- let us compromise. The king needs wood, Pan and Artimis need their trees. I say make the king plant three trees for every one he cuts down.

Hermes- Clever. They both win then.

Zeus- Do you agree to this Pan, Artimis, Aires?

Pan- Yes, it is acceptable.

Artimis- I will agree.

Aires- sister Athena, your wisdom is undeniable. I will agree.

Zeus- Very well. Aires, Pan, and Artimis, you three tell the king. If he refuses to follow the compromise, he is under Pan’s and Artimis’s mercy.

Aires- He will do it, I will make it clear.

Zeus- Then go now. We are done here.

(End Scene 3)

Scene 4: The forest.

(Enter king, Prince, and Queen.)

King- Were are the men? Why are these trees still here!

(Enter Pan)

Pan- I sent them away king.

King- you…you are the god Pan!

Pan- Yes, and I am unpleased with you.

(Enter Artimis)

Artimis- I also am displeased.

Queen- The goddess of the hunt….

Prince- What does it matter if you are pleased or not? Aires favors us!

(Enter Aires)

Aires- Silence fool. I favor your father. You are a spineless imbecile. Speak with respect to the gods.

King-(drops to one knee) My lord, what warrants your visit this day?

Aires- you’re foresting has angered Pan and Artimis. I have saved you from their wrath, but the gods have decried that for every one tree you fell, three must be planted in its place.

King- I will do as you wish lord.

Aires- Do this and you will suffer them not.

Pan- Fail to do this and we will be back.

Artimis- We will keep an eye on you, forester king.

(Exit Pan and Artimis)

Aires- I may not be able to save you again, so do not tempt their wrath. They are backed by the other gods and Zeus.

(Exit Aires)

Queen- I told you, you risked angering the gods.

King- Yes dear, I should have listened. Son!

Prince- Yes father?

King-  Go fined the General. Tell him the gods demand three trees to be planted for every one they cut down. Hurry boy, Aires himself has ordered us to do so.

(End Scene 4)

-End Play-

Author's Note

this was for my creative writing class. its on another profile but i cant delete the account because it wont send me my info.

Reviews

[SM Davis]

I like this!! I don't have any experience writing a play or screen play, but I do have experience in my acting days reading them. Can I make one suggestion? In your parenthesis, also add the look on their faces or their emotions as you would like for them to be seen. It helps the actors know where and how the writer wants them in the scene. Also add the lighting (or lack there of).

Nicely done! You sure you want to go into the military? I think you'd be much more help to the sitcom writers in hollywood! :0) (kidding...I know the value of such service and the gain such sacrifice brings....) Just don't ever stop writing kiddo!

[Roger Ferguson II]

thank you

[Ray]

I haven't read the whole thing, I had to admit that I didn't quite hook up on the story line but your writing is pretty good, there's some talent there, you just need to adapt your writing to WHAT you're writing. I've got a couple of suggestions for you :

1. Your language in some parts goes more toward "sophisticated" and "thoughtful", but there are some elements that, after you've used this more sophisticated language seems no really "vulgar" but out of place and that will keep an audience or reader from taking you seriously.
For example :

(a) don't use "chopping" but "cutting" instead
(b) "it is so nice here" would fit it better if it was something like "it's such a lovely place"
(c) "already he has hacked down tree after tree" - it's a bit out of place too, especially the word "hacked". Try and find something else, it could give your play a better flow !
(d) you wrote "dastard" and I think you meant "b*****d" which also doesn't fit in the context of the play...try to find synonyms, there are lots of them, and perhaps one that would go along with the flow
(e) "you are the boss big guy" - it's a bit out of place too
I think you sort of get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

2. You made a couple of spelling mistakes (which happens to everyone, and I make a LOT of them when I write so here are a couple I found in your writing :

(a) Aires = I don't know if you purposely changed the name, but the right name is Ares (without an "i")
(b) a waits = awaits (it's not detached)
(c) Titians = Titans (again I don't know if you purposely choose the name)
(d) Artimis = Artermis ("")
(e) "let us act it" = let us act LIKE it.

3. You're writing a play, so if someone's laughing, you don't need to add "hahaha". All actions are in Italic/parenthesis so don't worry about making your character laugh.

So this is some basic ideas to help you refine your writing. I mean it's alright cause most writings are not perfect. If you want me to review anything else and give you some tips don't hesitate =)

Don't worry : it was still good =)

[Just Me]

For a stage play you need to put directions for actions, how to say certain lines, facial expressions, and movements into the paranthese -- in case I didn't spell that right I ment these things ( )

I liked this, especially the way you had the dialogue structured so it sounded stiffer and older than modern-day speech. This had an interesting storyline and it certainly sounded like an actual Greek myth. Nicely writing.

[Roger Ferguson II]

thank you. originally i had a lot of stage detail in it, but then i felt that leaving it open to the director and actors interpretation would be more appropriate.

[wolf!man]

amazing

[neverstopdieing]

this is freaking bad a*s, i really liked it.

[battheman]

you did very well on this. it is a good play

[fairylord]

if you added some fairies to this it would be 10xs better

[moon!goddess]

i love how you capture Artemis in this piece, though she would not have been as kind as she was and no male god could have swayed her otherwise.

[pepperlady]

by far one of the best plays i've seen in months, well read. marvelous darling

[greenthumb]

great message, im glad todays youth like you are worried about our earth, good story too

[gaypride]

omg i just find this so fantastic. save our trees! save our planet! save the forest! =) wonderful