Gimmiville

by Tim Chartier

This script can be used as a sidecoach narrative in which participants hear the story for the first time as they create movement spontaneously. The story can also be used as narration for a practiced, rehearsed mime piece.

Christmas, mime, greed, discontent, wrong meaning, lack of understanding.

Cast: 1 or more. Let the imagination roam.

Run-Time: 4+ depending on reading speed and acting

Sample of script:

Once upon a time, there was a village called Gimmie-ville. The villagers called themselves the Gimmies. Gimmies LOVED Christmas.

Gimmies looked very much like you and me--well, pretty much. (Gimmies enter. This line encourages creative costumes. Fun costumes create humor in this line.) Gimmies loved Christmas presents. And every Gimmie understood the rules of gift-giving. If two Gimmies exchanged gifts, several rules applied. First, if someone gave you a heavy gift, you were supposed to give a heavier gift in return. Next, if someone gave you a large gift, you were supposed to give an even larger gift in return. Now, if someone gave you an unwanted gift, you were STILL supposed to give them something nice in return. Obviously, giving a gift first had its advantages, so many Gimmies rushed to be the first-Gimmie-giver!!!

This Christmas season as every year, Gimmies exchanged heavy for heavier, large for larger, and even nice for bizarre gifts. As Christmas drew closer, the rate of Gimmie gift-giving increased.

Not every villager of Gimmie-ville could give gifts. Some Gimmies spent the season getting only those items needed to survive. Gimmies knew that if you did not receive a gift you did not need to give one. So, the struggling Gimmies were giftless. In the Christmas rush, Gimmie-ville seldom noticed the giftless Gimmies.

Three families in Gimmie-ville, the VonGimmies, the Gimmie-gers, and the McGimmies, loved Christmas as much as anyone. Each family prepared almost all year for the Christmas season.

Finally, Christmas morning arrived. The VonGimmie children were the first to awake. They ran from their rooms and awoke their parents. The bleary-eyed parents shuffled to the living room carpeted with gifts. Each VonGimmie tip-toed over the piles, cleared a small spot, and sat on the floor. After a nod from the parents, a frenzy of gift unwrapping began. 

Paper flew everywhere. Each gift was opened, viewed, and tossed aside. Within a few minutes, the VonGimmies knew what they got for Christmas.
Then the doorbell rang. The VonGimmies cleared a small path to the door.
"Who is it?" they asked.

"A fellow Gimmie in need of some help. Can you spare some old clothes that you no longer need? Just a little something you may toss aside for the new things you have received."

"We have nothing. We only have what we need. So please leave."
So the struggling, cold Gimmie left and the VonGimmies returned to their pile of wrapping paper. As they sat back down, one VonGimmie said, "I hate those type of Gimmies they are only interested in what they can GET!"

About this time, the Gimmie-gers awakened. In fact, the children had been awake for some time. However, the Gimmie-gers had a rule. "NO ONE awakens Mom and Pop Gimmie-ger UNTIL the little hand is on the eight and the big hand is on the twelve." At the moment, eight o'clock came, and the children pounced from their beds, ran from their rooms, and awoke their parents.

Want to see how the story unfolds? DramaShare members get this complete script— and access to our entire library—free! Not a member? You can still grab this individual script and bring it to life.