Description

Women’s World Cup Football 2023 – What it takes to be a winner

5 mini plays – 6 speakers each

Duration: Around 5 minutes each

This set of 5 mini plays or group readers is intended to promote the concepts behind PRIDE – standing for Positive Mental Attitude, Respect, Intelligent Choices, Dreams and Effort (Education). In short, the promotion of healthy, positive self-esteem among young people, highlighting the fact that ‘being the best’ takes time, effort and all-round commitment.

Sample Text:

Play 1:  Positive Mental Attitude

Fan:                 But you’ve already got the skills! You don’t need to practice!

Coach:             (Snorting) Oh really?

Fan:                 Yeah, really!  You girls are, after all, the best in the world. Course, for the rest of us it’s different. It wouldn’t matter how many hours I spent practicing, I’d still be bottom of the heap! My school mates always said I was rubbish and they were right!

Coach:             So. Let’s talk about the real issue here.

Fan:                 Which is?

Coach:             Positive mental attitude.

Play 2:  Respect

Fan:                 Hey! About that autograph! I know you’re busy but come on! Have a bit of respect for your number one fan!

Player 1:          (Laughing) Respect? You wouldn’t recognize respect if it came up and shook you by the hand!

Coach:             Besides. You’ve got to earn it first!

Fan:                 I could do that!

Player 2:          Yes, but you’ve also got to give respect, too.

Play 3 Intelligent Choices

Fan:                 So. About that autograph?

Player 1:          You again! You don’t give up! I admire your determination.

Coach:             That will certainly stand you in good stead! Let’s just hope you apply it when making important choices in life.

Fan :                Like?

Coach:             Well, like what you’re going to do with your life.

Fan:                 Oh that’s easy. It’s football for me, all the way! No difficult choice there. What? Between a life of study and the life of a superstar? (Scratching chin) Hmm, let’s see! Loadsa books or ….. loadsa money, celebrity, flash cars, smart clothes, …Yup! I think the superstar has it!

Player 1:          You make it sound so glamorous!

Player 2:          We wish!

Play 4:  Dreams and Goals

Coach:             Silence! Where is my normal team of prize athletes? Enough of this dreaming nonsense and on with proper business.

Fan:                 (Sulkily) No harm in dreaming!

Coach:             Only when those dreams are based in reality.

Player 4:          Coach is right. We are all living the dream. And that means a lot of hard work.

Player 3:          Which is fine ‐ if that’s what it takes.

Coach:             I’m not saying we shouldn’t have dreams – just think of Martin Luther King’s

great speech – “I have a dream ..” But we all need goals too. Something concrete

to work on!

Fan:                 Sounds uncomfortable to me!

Coach:             I’m sure it does! About time someone tried to discipline you!

Play 5:  Effort and Education

Coach:             Looks like my players have learnt something today.

Fan:                 And why should that surprise you?

Player 1:          It doesn’t! We never stop learning, even as adults.

Player 2:          And why should you ever want to stop learning? Education is what helps us

achieve what we want.

Player 3:          It opens all those doors that would remain closed otherwise.

Coach:             It enables each and every one of you to fulfill your destiny.

Player 4:          Not just by wishing, or dreaming, but by sheer hard work.

Note from the author: I have ‘tweaked’ the script I originally wrote for the men’s world cup to make this a representation of women’s football. At the time of writing this, I feel the same basic principles apply both for men and women, boys and girls, to being a success in life. It may not yet be an equal playing field but we are getting there! I address the issue of girls/women ‘being on catch up’ in my Women’s World Cup Assembly/Class Play i.e. women being given the same recognition in the world of football – it took until 1991 for FIFA to give formal recognition of a women’s world cup! But for the purposes of these five mini plays, I decided to keep the basic requirements for success in life and sport, the same for boys and girls.

Other scripts written on the FIFA Women’s World Cup:

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Assembly or Class Play – Cast of around 30 (some doubling up required as all 32 competing countries are represented) … with a little help from those Wannabees alias Spice Girls! Duration: Around 15 – 20 minutes