Individual Childrens Theater Script Description Page

Classic Children's Theatre Scripts and Youth Theater Plays
for Young Audiences of All Ages -
Professionally Developed and Performance Proven by
Award Winning Playwright - Michele L. Vacca
Quality stageplays created with humor and distinctive style -
Excellent for university, professional, community, school play productions
or drama / language arts-in-education programs -

Visit "Playlist / Descriptions" above for
Complete list of On Stage! classic stageplays and play scripts
For theatres, schools and family audiences.

Hansel and Gretel have heard all the stories about the mysterious witch in the forest, and only partially believe them to be true, until they're lost in the woods and actually meet her.

Madame Hagatha Grundilly Sweetbriar is the zaniest witch anyone could ever hope (or not hope) to encounter. Accompanied by her broom, Shibboleth, and assisted by her two apprentices, Dizzy Weirdeena and Rasputin Machiavelli Vampiro III, she lures Hansel and Gretel to her delectable gingerbread, candy and ice cream house in the heart of the forest. There she holds them captive, threatening to bake them into gingerbread. Hansel is put into a giant cage, and ordered to eat cake and candy and cookies twelve times a day. Poor Gretel has to do all the chores.

Dizzy and Rasputin are bored, now that Gretel does most of their work, and they begin to feel a bit sorry for Hansel and Gretel, who at one point try to explain what a father is like.

One day while the witch is off haunting, the children's father arrives, searching for them. Dizzy and Rasputin decide to help Father save Hansel and Gretel. Rasputin disguises Father as a tree, (it's the only spell he knows, and he hasn't quite mastered it yet).

Madame Hagatha returns, cackling and snickering; "Today is the day!" meaning that today is the day she's going to bake - GINGERBREAD! She then lights the oven. A moment later she asks Gretel to check and see if the oven is hot enough. Gretel, acting upon Rasputin and Dizzy's advice, pretends not to understand, and goes to elaborate lengths to appear to be as unintelligent as possible. During the following scene, Hagatha becomes so aggravated that she demonstrates the proper way of "checking" the temperature of the oven, and places her head inside. When everyone else screams - Booo!, she falls inside, and Gretel slams the door.

After all the excitement is over, Hansel and Gretel ask - with father's permission - if Dizzy and Rasputin would like to go home with them. The two former apprentices joyfully accept - "a real Father!" - who then leads them all safely home. (Note: In most productions the witch pops out of the oven to take a curtain call, thus removing any vestige of doubt that the oven might possibly be real.)

Photo Credit: HANSEL & GRETEL Production Photos - Classics On Stage! (Chicago)

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