Description

Ancient Civilisations Assembly – The Bigger Picture: When? and Where?

Cast size: 30 (easily adjustable up or down). Duration: Around 15 mins not including music suggestions

Ancient Civilisations Assembly is based on six ancient civilisations – that is, the four river civilisations:

• Sumer (Mesopotamia)
• China
• India (Indus Valley)
• Egypt

plus

•  Greece
• Rome

It is a summary of places and dates to give the ‘Bigger Picture’.

Sample Text:

Music 1 The Who – Who are You?

(Children file in, in speaking order, seating themselves along two rows of fifteen, facing the audience)

Narrator:             Good morning and welcome to our assembly on Ancient Civilisations!

Child 1:                 So you’ve all heard of

Child 2:                 The Ancient Sumer Civilisation

Child 3:                 The Ancient China Civilisation

Child 4:                 The Indus Valley Civilisation

Child 5:                 The Ancient Egypt Civilisation

Child 6:                 The Ancient Greece Civilisation

Child 7:                 The Ancient Rome Civilisation

Child 8:                 (To Audience) Right?

Narrator:             (To Audience) Can we hear that again? You didn’t sound very sure. You have all heard of these famous ancient civilisations, right?

(Narrator waits for response from audience)

Narrator:             (Pulling a face) Excellent! I can see our work here is done!

(Narrator starts to walk away; Child 9 runs after him/her)

Child 9:                 Wait! What are you doing? They (pointing to audience) might have heard of these ancient civilisations. And they could probably tell you a few facts about each.

Child 10:              Like, er … Ancient Egypt had pyramids!

Child 11:              And, er … Julius Caesar didn’t die in his sleep!

Child 12:              And, um, … there were some pretty weird creatures in Ancient Greek Myths

Child 13:              Like flying horses

Child 14:              And nasty ladies with snakes instead of hair

Child 15:              And

Narrator:             (Interrupting) Yes, yes! Your point being?

Child 16:              Well I bet there aren’t too many in the audience who could say which civilisation came first?

Child 17:              Or which was the largest?

Child 18:              Or where in the world the Sumerians were based?

Child 19:              Or when they peaked?

Child 20:              Or … oh so many things!

Narrator:             (Scratching head) Hmm. You may be right.

Child 21:              It’s one thing to know these ancient civilisations existed but ..

Child 22:              Well, it’s all a bit vague isn’t it?

Child 23:              Especially on the when and where front, right?

Child 24:              So how about we try to paint a complete picture

Narrator:             You mean, cover all six civilisations?

Child 25:              Why not?

Narrator:             (Looking at watch) Well, there’s the small matter of how long this will all take?

Child 26:              Easy! We’ll be done

Narrator:             Before midnight?

Child 27:              (Laughing) Way before midnight!

Child 28:              I mean, all we want to give you today

Child 29:              Is ..

Whole Cast:        (Together) The bigger picture!

(Whole cast cheers)

Please note: The script is available in word document format on the purchase of Performing Rights Certificate. The scripts remain free of performance rights for staging in the classroom but as an assembly, in front of a non-paying audience, you need to buy a single Performance Rights Certificate to cover you for the play you are purchasing.