Act III, Scene I
Think Different - A Play within a Play

Note to teachers and parents: If you haven't read the Introduction to this play experience, please go to this link before starting this scene with the students. Keep in mind that this play is meant to be overacted and that your students will need to fill in many of their parts.

You may want to visit the sites listed in this play to make sure they are appropriate for your students and the site addresses have not changed.

Setting and Where We Are in Our Adventure at This Time: Great Computer Hint <http://www.washington.org/>. (GC will let you decide where you are on the map.)

Please fill in the scene at this time, here.... Don't forget to do this. :

Additional characters for this scene:

Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
William Shakespeare

Curtain: (to the audience) The curtain rises beautifully and gracefully once again. No curtain was ever so beautiful or so graceful, don't you agree? I hear some very historic characters will visit with us today to put on a show right here on the Washington Mall.

And for those who weren't here for our last scene, our student group, (teacher's name) and our leader Great Computer, are currently touring Washington, DC. The group has walked to the Old Post Office for lunch.

Teacher: (Add your teacher's name here) We did find the Old Post Office, didn't we? It's so easy to walk around this area if Washington, DC when you follow directions.

Student #5: (Remember to change the names to the names of students in your class) This doesn't look like a Post Office to me.

Great Computer: Well, what is it? Tell us, Student #35.

Student #35: I-I think it's a shopping mall. There are lots of restaurants here, too.

Student #5: Restaurants. Yeow! We can get some real food here. Five servings of fruits and veggies for me. (moans to audience) I think I have the Great Cheeseburger disease.

Curtain: (standing, of course because it has risen, and talking to the audience) Just to fill those of you in who joined us mid-adventure - our students decided before the trip that they only wanted to eat cheeseburgers. Now, after journeys to Mars, the Sun, and Washington, they are growing a bit tired of their favorite food. (in a rather haughty voice) As I always say, a well-rounded diet and exercise is all one needs to maintain a svelte figure like mine. (acts like a model for the audience).

Teacher: Well class, guess what? I brought box lunches for you because I knew you'd want your favorite meal. You must recall that you voted down fruits and vegetables.

Students 15, 17, and 19: Yum. Yum. Yum. Fruits and veggies. We are dying for celery, carrots, apples.

Students 21, and 13: Oranges, bananas.

Students 23 and 11: Potatoes, beans, and broccoli.

Great Computer: Okay students, from now on no cheeseburgers--just fruits and vegetables.

Einstein: (entering and looking at the audience). Do you think perhaps there might be some point to all this? (hesitates and then adds) I think not. Perhaps these students simply love to say the names of the veggies and fruits?

Shakespeare: (to Einstein and the audience) I fear this may be much ado about nothing.

Edison: (entering and speaking to Einstein and Shakespeare): Don't be too hasty, my friends. The point perhaps is trying to get these kids to think in different ways. Like I did when I (fill in something Edison did because he thought creatively). GC Hints: Edison National Historic Site <http://www.nps.gov/edis/home.htm> and Thomas Edison (Edison Elementary School) <http://www.minot.k12.nd.us/mps/edison/edison/edison.html>

Einstein: Or like me when I (fill in). GC Hint: Albert Einstein (MacTutor History) <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Einstein.html>

Teacher: Look class, gather round, we have some very important guests with us today. I'd like all of you to meet Mr. Albert Einstein, Mr. Thomas Edison and Mr. William Shakespeare.

Student #3: (whispering to the audience) I think Edison must be at least (fill in) years old now.

Student #5: (also whispering to the audience) And Einstein must be (fill in).

Student # 9: (to audience) But (looks amazed and lifts eyebrows several times) William Shakespeare must be about (fill in ) years old! This is indeed rather confusing.

Student #11: (to the audience) I don't think such whispering is very polite, but I also think our visitors may not really be here because Edison died in (fill in) and Einstein in (fill in) and Shakespeare must also be dead. Oh well, that doesn't matter. They look like pretty nice guys to me.

Student #1: Mr. Shakespeare, I'm excellent at acting. Do you think I could star in "Romeo and Juliet" or in (name another Shakespeare play). GC Hint: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare that is if you need to know the names of some of the plays.

Shakespeare: Well, perhaps later, but now, E & E and I are designing a new play called, "Creating the Future."

Einstein: Your teacher and GC have invited us because of the acting abilities in the class.

Edison: And because of their creative thinking. Correct, Will?

Shakespeare: Correct. The stage is dim. There isn't much to be seen when Student #7 sets the stage for us. I want you to know that it is the year 2028, and all of us have returned here to the mall in Washington, DC for our 30th reunion of this very day. Continue Student #7

Student #7: (explains what the area looks like in 2028) GC Hint: Use the mall map to help you and expand your thinking from there. GC Hint: Act III, Scene I <http://www.washington.org/>.

Great Computer: As we contemplate the future, we need to think about what we want to do for our world as we move on through the years.

Teacher: We will give you each a challenge to solve on our stage. When you are called upon, you can select from one of the E & E topics to comment upon. You will tell us about your occupation and accomplishments as they relate to that topic. You will tell us what you have done to bring about positive change in your field and perhaps even in the world.

Edison: Try these topics: energy, architecture and housing, invention, education, art, music, drama, and sports.

Einstein: And these: space travel, government, science, health, safety, civil rights, world leaders, and world peace.

Edison: And keep in mind, dear students, that it's not so much how smart you are, as my friend Einstein said many times, but how curious you are and how willing you are to stick to solving a problem.

Shakespeare: (to the audience) I am the director as you might have guessed. (to the students) As director of this production, I ask Students #29 and #27 to provide computer-generated graphics and music to set the stage for the scene as Student #7 indicated it was to be or not to be.

Student #27 and #29: Here we go.....

Student #17: I'll take architecture and housing. I think houses will be like those that Frank Lloyd Wright built because he wanted them to fit with the land where they were built. Did you know that one of his houses is built on a waterfall?

This all means that the houses are now (fill in), which I, Student #17 designed so that everyone could have a nice home and so that we would not harm the environment. How did I accomplish that? I (fill in).

Students #? (All students, if time permits, will select one of the topics and tell about what they have accomplished in their chosen field.)

Shakespeare: Simply wonderful. Cut. It's ready to go. You have invented the future. A positive future.

Einstein: Now I'll tell you my ideas about the future of travel. (fill in)

Edison: Did you know that I and a partner founded the General Electric Company (GE) before I even invented the light bulb? Interesting, eh? That's the confidence you need, kids!

Do you students know how many tries it took me and my assistants to invent a light bulb that worked? Student #26, please look that up. My aging memory is failing me.

Student #26: It took you (fill in) tries, but you did it, and that's what counts. (GC Hint: Look on the Edison Elementary site listed above.)

Edison: (winks at audience) I'm rather famished. I'd love to devour one of your cheeseburgers. Didn't have those in my day. I could have invented a cheeseburger cooker in my invention factory. I invented the invention factory, by the way, too. Imagine....

Einstein: Did you know that I was so famous in my day that letters addressed to Einstein, USA could find me? I don't think you can do that today, but I'll keep in touch, relatively speaking. Did you know that the time at the top of a mountain is different from the time at the bottom? I'll leave you with that one.

GC: Let's thank our guests and move on. Next stop is - here's the GC Hint: <http://www.si.edu/natzoo/>.

Edison: (to Einstein as they walk off) I really think my idea of the phonograph led you to your ideas about relativity.

Einstein: (to Edison) That's impossible.

Edison: (to Einstein) Nothing is impossible. And also, how could you have done your work without my light bulbs?

Einstein: (to audience) I think, perhaps, that I could have invented a light bulb if I had put my mind to it. Don't you think so, audience?

Curtain: (scans the audience with a somber look) Is there an audience out there?

Shakespeare: Oh well. All the world is a stage, all's well that ends well - still.

Curtain: The curtain falls down.

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