It’s a short performance about an origin, traditional ways of celebrating and the meaning of St. Valentine’s Day.
1 ученик. St. Valentine’s Day, 14th February, has been a customary day for choosing sweethearts and exchanging love – tokens from time immemorial. Countless generations of young people have acknowledged St. Valentine as the friend and patron of lovers, and according to the British tradition which was known at least as early as the 14th century, so have the birds. In the “Parliament of Fouls” Chaucer refers to a once common belief that all the birds choose their mates on February 14th, a pleasant, if slightly inaccurate notion which still survives in some districts as a tale told to children.
2 ученик. It is true that nothing whatever is known about St. Valentine would suggest such a patronage. He is, indeed, rather a misty figure altogether. The first Valentine of all was a bishop, a Christian martyr, who before he was put to death by the Romans sent a note of friendship to his jailer’s blind daughter.
3 ученик. The Christian Church took his Saint’s Day February 14th, the date of an old pagan festival when young Roman maidens threw decorated love missives into an urn to be drawn out by their boy friends. The drawing of the names of young women from a box continued for centuries. The young man and woman who were paired by this method were once in the habit of giving presents to each other.
4 ученик (мальчик, читает перед девочкой, преклонив колено)
The rose is red, the violets are blue,
The honey’s sweet and so are you.
Thou are my love and I am thine,
I drew thee to my Valentine.
The lot was cast and then I drew,
And fortune said it should be you.
(Играет медленный вальс, мальчик приглашает девочку на танец и они танцуют)
5 ученик. People of all ages send valentines - serious and comic – to their own true lovers but also to family members and friends. Since the identity of the sender of it is traditionally a mystery, valentines are frequently unsigned and often are playfully addressed in disguised handwriting. (На сцену, где стоит почтовый ящик, выбегают учащиеся и бросают в него открытки. После этого на сцену выходит девочка, достает одну открытку из ящика и вслух медленно читает.)
I’ll be your sweetheart, if you’ll be mine.
All of my life I’ll be your Valentine.
Who could have sent it? (Задумчиво пожимает плечами. К ней выходят две подружки.)
1 подруга.If you want to discover the identity of the latter via you should sleep on a pillow with five bay leaves pinned to it and the person will be dreamed to you.
2 подруга.The first person of the opposite sex, whom you meet in the morning of St. Valentine’s day would become your true love. (Все уходят.)
1 ведущий. We hope you remember two true lovers Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher and the story of their love.
(На сцену выходят все участники представления, двое одеты в костюмы Тома Сойера и Беки Тэтчер. На сцене стоит парта, эти двое учащихся подходят к ней. В следующей песне солистом является Том Сойер, припев исполняет хор).
Oh, Susanna!
I came from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee,
I’m going to Louisiana
My Susanna for to see.
Refrain:
Oh, Susanna, oh, don’t cry for me,
I’ve come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee. (twice)
I had a dream the other night
When everything was still,
I thought I saw Susanna come
Descending down the hill.
Refrain.
The red, red rose was in her hand,
The tear was in her eye.
I said, ”I come from Dixie Land,
Susanna, don’t you cry.”
Refrain (twice).
Хор уходит, остаются Том и Беки. Они садятся за парту.
Tom: Do you like rats?
No, I hate them.
Tom: Well, I do too – live ones. But I mean dead rats to swing them round your head with a string.
Becky: No, I don’t like them anyway.
Tom: Were you ever at a circus?
Becky: Yes, and father will take me there again, if I am a good girl.
Tom: I have been at the circus many times. I am going to be a clown in a circus when I grow up.
Becky: Oh, that will be very nice.
Tom: I say, Becky, were you ever engaged?
Becky: What is that?
Tom: Why, engaged to be married?
Becky: No.
Tom: Would you like to?
Becky: I don’t know. What is it like?
Tom: Like? Why, it isn’t like anything. You only just tell a boy you won’t ever have anybody but him, ever, ever, ever, and then you kiss, and that’s all. Anybody can do it.
Becky: Kiss? Why must we kiss?
Tom: Well, that – well, they always do that.
Becky: Everybody?
Tom: Yes, everybody that is in love. Do you remember what I wrote?
Becky: Ye – yes.
Tom: What was it?
Becky: I shan’t tell you!
Tom: Shall I tell you?
Becky: Ye – yes, but not to-day.
Tom: Oh, I’ll tell it today.
(Шепчет ей на ухо. Потом просит повторить ее, и наконец, она тоже шепчет.)
Becky: I – love – you.
(Они вскакивают и бегают вокруг парты. Наконец, Том ловит ее, но Беки закрывает лицо фартуком. Том потихоньку убирает руки с ее лица и целует девочку.)
Tom: Now, it’s all over, Becky. After this you must love only me and walk only with me when we walk home.
Becky: Oh, it’s nice.
Tom: Of course, it’s very nice; when I was engaged to Amy Lawrence…
Becky: Oh, Tom, then I am not the first girl whom you are engaged to?
(Девочка плачет)
Tom: Oh, don’t cry, Becky. I don’t love her anymore.
Becky: Yes, you do, Tom, you do.
(Мальчик пытается обнять ее и утешить, но девочка сопротивляется.)
Tom: Becky, I – I love only you.
(Никакого ответа, только всхлипывания.)
Tom: (очень мягко) Becky! Becky, won’t you say something?
(Мальчик достает свое главное сокровище, медный шарик, и держит так, чтобы она могла его видеть.)
Tom: Please, Becky, won’t you take it?
(Девочка бьет его по руке, шарик падает. Том в отчаянии убегает. Беки убирает руки от лица, замечает отсутствие Тома и начинает его искать.)
Becky: Tom! Come back, Tom!
(Девочка убегает)
2 ведущий. Tom loved Becky very much, but he couldn’t tell about it like W. Shakespeare.
Sonnet 91
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body forth;
Some in their garments, though new – fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every human hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest;
But these particulars are not me measure,
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments’ cost,
Of more delight than hawks and horses be;
And, having thee, of all men’s pride I boast.
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.
3 ведущий. Valentine’s day remains, as ever, a day to express love, but present – giving on it was not confined to sweet – hearts. Early in the morning children used to go about singing:
(Ученики с песней наступают на него)
Good morrow, Valentine
Fist ‘tis yours, then ‘tis mine
Please to give me a Valentine.
(Ведущий дает им булочки в форме сердечка и они уходят)
They were given money, fruit or specially – made cakes known as Valentine’s Buns. They had to do it the earlier the better, often before sunrise, and any demand for largesse after the sun had risen, could be refused on the grounds that the asker was “sunburnt”.
(Все выходят на сцену и первый ведущий говорит)
This is the end of our story and we’d like to finish it with the old song.
My Bonnie.
My bonnie is over the ocean,
My bonnie is over the sea,
My bonnie is over the ocean,
O bring back my bonnie to me.Chorus:
Bring back, bring back,
Bring back my bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back,
O bring back my bonnie to me
O blow, ye winds over the ocean,
O blow, ye winds over the sea,
O blow, ye winds over the ocean,
And bring back my bonnie to me.Chorus.
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dream’d that my bonnie was dead.
Chorus.
The winds have blown over the ocean,
The winds have blown over the sea,
The winds have blown over the ocean,
And brought back my bonnie to me.Chorus:
Brought back, brought back,
Brought back my bonnie to me, to me
Brought back, brought back,
Brought back my bonnie to me.
Literature.
- “Customs and Festivals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.
- “A Dictionary of British Folk Customs” Christian Hole.
- “The American Book of Days”.
- “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” Mark Twain.
- “Sonnets” William Shakespeare.