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$: Adapted by Susan Pargman - pioneerdrama.comScript_Preview\71002_POLLYANNA_Script_S… · RIGHTS MUST BE PURCHASED BEFORE REPRODUCING THIS SCRIPT POLLYANNA Adapted by Susan Pargman$
Adapted by Susan Pargman

© Copyright 2001, Pioneer Drama Service, Inc.

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RIGHTS MUST BE PURCHASED BEFORE REPRODUCING THIS SCRIPT

POLLYANNA

Adapted by Susan PargmanBased on the story “Pollyanna” by Eleanor Porter

CAST OF CHARACTERS # of lines

POLLYANNA WHITTIER ................................................................252About 10 years old, this young lady has seen a great deal of suffering in her short life already: losing her mother at an early age, losing her father at 10, and living most of her life in material poverty. Her father taught her to find the good in every situation, regardless of what it was, and, because of her childlike faith, she’s determined to do just that. Orphaned, she has come to live with an aunt whom she has never met. They are opposites in just about every way imaginable, except for their need of each other. Pollyanna is the quintessential optimist.

MISS POLLY HARRINGTON .........................................................146Youngest sister of Pollyanna’s mother, around 30 years of age, she lives alone in the family mansion in Beldingsville, Vermont. She has suffered the loss of both her sisters as well as her parents and deals with the pain by shutting herself away emotionally from the rest of the human race. She blames her losses on the failures of others and holds bitter grudges against them. She even shunned the love of Dr. Thomas Chilton, with whom she was romantically involved at one time, in favor of living a life devoted to controlling her own little world, population one, in an effort never to suffer the pain of loss again. She remains aloof from her household servants, even OLD TOM who has known her longer than anyone else alive.

NANCY .......................................................................................80Miss Harrington’s “hired girl,” she runs errands, cleans the house and helps the cook. Now she is assigned to help care for Pollyanna as well. Nancy has a big heart and takes to Pollyanna the moment they meet. She is protective of those she loves, so much so that she finds herself slightly on the worrisome side. She is young enough to still look forward to having her own family some day, but in the meantime fills her days as a hired servant working for Miss Harrington.

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MUSIC

Music plays during each scene change. All music should be of the period. Try to make the piece reflect the mood of the upcoming or preceding scene. It's easy to find Scott Joplin ragtime music in any store, so that may be a good choice. Selections from the era may include any sort of Scott Joplin ragtime music as well as popular period pieces such as: "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag;' "Till The Clouds Roll By;' ''Alexander's Ragtime Band;' "Danny Boy;' etc.

COSTUMES

POLLYANNA'S bright costume colors, which reflect her vibrant personality, are in contrast to MISS HARRINGTON'S no-nonsense costumes until the second act, when they begin to match one another more. Women wore long dresses, girls mid-calf. Men usually wore jackets and suits; boys wore knickers and caps. Women and men, both, wore hats regularly when going into town. Good examples of period costume may be found in the movie "Music Man."

FLEXIBLE CASTING

Some characters may be doubled by the same actor. Possible doubles include MONIQUE or MRS. MCCLEARY /LORETTA or MRS.BENTON; JACK PAYSON/DR. MEAD; GILBERT /WINKLE/DR. MEAD; CONDUCTOR'S VOICE/any male character.

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Having profit. Something to show for your time. (Scrutinizing.) What an extraordinary child you are!

POLLYANNA: Then just being glad isn' t prof-itable? MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly not! POLLYANNA: Oh, dear! Then you wouldn' t like it, of course. I'm

afraid now that you won't ever play The Game. MISS HARRINGTON: Game? What game? POLLYANNA: Why the one that Father- (Catching herself, suddenly

cresifallen.) N ... nothing. May I go to my room now? I'd like to read, if I may. (There is a long silence.)

MISS HARRINGTON: (Softening a little.) You do like your room, don' t you? It serves you well? Now that the screens are in?

POLLYANNA: Oh, I love my room. Even if it hasn' t got the carpets and curtains and pictures that I'd been want-

MISS HARRINGTON: What's that? POLLYANNA: (Ashamed of herself.) N ... nothing, truly. I didn't mean

to say it. MISS HARRINGTON: Probably not, but you did say it, so suppose

we have the rest of it. POLLYANNA: But it wasn' t anything, only that I'd been kind of

planning on pretty carpets and lace curtains and things, you know. But of course-

MISS HARRINGTON: Planning on them! POLLYANNA: I ought not to have, Aunt Polly. It was only because

I'd always wanted them and hadn't had them, I suppose. I shouldn't have got to planning all through the hall that first day how pretty my room would be here, just because of all the pretty things you have, Aunt Polly. And it only took me a few minutes before I was being glad that the bureau didn't have a looking-glass because then it didn't show my freckles; and there couldn' t be a nicer picture than the one out my window there and you've been so good to me that-

MISS HARRINGTON: (This is the first time she has used her name.) That will do, Pollyanna. You have said quite enough, I'm sure.

POLLYANNA: (Nearly in tears.) Yes, ma'am. May I go to my room now?

MISS HARRINGTON: Nancy, Nancy! (She rings the bell and NANCY hurries ON DOWN LEFT.)

NANCY: Yes, Miss Harrington? MISS HARRINGTON: I would like you to move my niece's things

downstairs this morning to the room directly beneath.

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MRS. DURGIN She's been a cook with the Harrington family long enough to have known Pollyanna's mother as a young girl. She doesn' t especially approve of Miss Harrington's behavior, but doesn' t think it 's her business to meddle.

OLD TOM Gardener at the Harrington home. He's a compassionate and wise old man who has been with the family almost as long as they 've been a family. He has a positive outlook on life and his mature confidence stands in contrast to Nancy 's worrisome attitude. Sort of a "weathered " version of Pollyanna.

JIMMY BEAN An orphan like Pollyanna, but without a relative to take him in, he is 10 years old going on 11. He ended up at the Beldingsville Orphan's Home a year ago, but has taken it into his own hands to get himself adopted. He narrates the whole story, telling it as he sees it, in a way speaking the mind of the audience. Like the audience, he doubts Pollyanna's wisdom and sincerity in the beginning, but eventually comes around by the end.

JOHN PENDLETON In his mid-40's, he's the male equivalent to Polly Harrington. He once had designs on Jenny, Polly 's oldest sister and Pollyanna's mother. When she married and moved away, his heart was broken. Over the years he has become a hermit and has no plans of making any changes to that arrangement. He finds solace in writing books and travelling the world alone. He resents any intrusion on his privacy and is aware that Miss Harrington blames him somewhat for the loss of her sister.

DR. THOMAS CHILTON Mid-30s to 40 years old, he was once involved romantically with Polly Harrington, and still loves her from afar. He has accepted his lot in life and continues to serve as town doctor out of a sense of duty and purpose. He is intelligent and kind, as well as patient and humble, but he's let his life drift into a safe sort of routine. It takes a vibrant youngster like Pollyanna to open him up to taking the risks of life again.

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DR. CHILTON: God bless you, little girl. And I'm thinking that it is the doctor, quite as much as his patients, that needs a draught of your tonic!

POLLYANNA: Then I'm glad that Mrs. Snow needed her medicine today. Thank you, Doctor Chilton! (She rushes OUT DOWN RIGHT.)

DR. CHILTON: Thank you, Pollyanna. (BLACKOUT. MUSIC UP, continues through monologue.)

End of Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Along a country road. Played on JIMMY BEAN 'S platform. JIMMY BEAN is dressed in his orphan clothes. SPOT COMES UP and he and POLLYANNA play the next scene in the SPOT.

JIMMY BEAN: It was right about this time that I came into the picture. Pollyanna had taken to bringing stray kittens and mangy dogs into Miss Harrington's house to care for, and so it was only natural that she should take to me. She was on her way home from Mrs. Snow 's. Pollyanna had taught Mrs. Snow how to play The Glad Game. To be sure, she wasn' t too good at it at first since she'd been so sorry for herself for so long, but with Pollyanna around being glad about most everything, Mrs. Snow was learning fast. I was a-feelin' sort o'sorry myself that day and had just about made up my mind to run away from the Orphan's Home once and for all. And there wasn't nobody that was goin' to make me change my mind. And that's when Pollyanna came along. (MUSIC FADES.)

POLLYANNA: (ENTERS DOWN RIGHT carrying her empty basket.) Hullo!

JIMMY BEAN: Hullo, yerself. POLLYANNA: Now, you don' t look as if you'd be glad even for calf's

foot jelly! (JIMMY BEAN takes a moment to be stunned by that remark, then goes back to whittling.) My name's Pollyanna Whittier. What's yours?

JIMMY BEAN: Jimmy Bean. POLLYANNA: Good! Now we're introduced. I'm glad you did your

part. Some folks don' t know how, you know. I live at Miss Polly Harrington's house. Where do you live?

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# of lines

MRS. DURGIN ...............................................................................5She’s been a cook with the Harrington family long enough to have known Pollyanna’s mother as a young girl. She doesn’t especially approve of Miss Harrington’s behavior, but doesn’t think it’s her business to meddle.

OLD TOM ......................................................................................9Gardener at the Harrington home. He’s a compassionate and wise old man who has been with the family almost as long as they’ve been a family. He has a positive outlook on life and his mature confidence stands in contrast to Nancy’s worrisome attitude. Sort of a “weathered” version of Pollyanna.

JIMMY BEAN ...............................................................................25An orphan like Pollyanna, but without a relative to take him in, he is 10 years old going on 11. He ended up at the Beldingsville Orphan’s Home a year ago, but has taken it into his own hands to get himself adopted. He narrates the whole story, telling it as he sees it, in a way speaking the mind of the audience. Like the audience, he doubts Pollyanna’s wisdom and sincerity in the beginning, but eventually comes around by the end.

JOHN PENDLETON .......................................................................78In his mid-40’s, he’s the male equivalent to Polly Harrington. He once had designs on Jenny, Polly’s oldest sister and Pollyanna’s mother. When she married and moved away, his heart was broken. Over the years he has become a hermit and has no plans of making any changes to that arrangement. He finds solace in writing books and travelling the world alone. He resents any intrusion on his privacy and is aware that Miss Harrington blames him somewhat for the loss of her sister.

DR. THOMAS CHILTON .................................................................43Mid-30s to 40 years old, he was once involved romantically with Polly Harrington, and still loves her from afar. He has accepted his lot in life and continues to serve as town doctor out of a sense of duty and purpose. He is intelligent and kind, as well as patient and humble, but he’s let his life drift into a safe sort of routine. It takes a vibrant youngster like Pollyanna to open him up to taking the risks of life again.

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PASTOR MALDEN Here's a pastor trying to serve in a town where people hold grudges and prefer the Bible verse "Woe unto you" over "Rejoice and be glad." No wonder he's confused. His epiphany comes when Pollyanna tells him to count the joyful texts for once in his life.

MRS. SNOW A seasoned hypochondriac, around 50 years of age, she finds meaning in life by maintaining complete control over her daughter, Millie. She complains in order to garner pity in the form of gifts from her neighbors. But in reality, the pity they feel is for her daughter.

MILLIE SNOW Bitterly serving her mother's needs all her life, she has developed a deep sense of sarcasm and views most of life in a dark, dreary manner, according to her own sense of meaningless existence.

JACK PAYSON A sometimes-employed rough-edged man in his mid-20s.

MRS. PAYSON She's rough around the edges, but sincere and long-sighted enough to see through the eyes of a child when given the opportunity. Like everyone else in that town (a microcosm of America) she's been living her life for herself for so long, she is drowning in self-pity. With the chance to help someone else for a change, she makes the effort and finds the victory.

LORETTA Unfortunate enough to be Mr. Pendleton's housekeeper, she meets his verbal jabs with choice phrases of her own, although usually under her breath.

MRS. BENTON A dignified and somewhat shy widow. Pollyanna's friend. Her definition of "risk" is to wear a bright blue scarf with her black widow 's dress.

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JIMMY BEAN: Nowhere. POLLYANNA: Nowhere! Why, you can't do that! Everybody lives

somewhere. JIMMY BEAN: Well, I don't (Pause.) just now. I'm huntin' up a new

place. POLLYANNA: Oh, where is it? JIMMY BEAN: Silly! As if I'd be a-huntin' for it if I knew! POLLYANNA: Where did you live before? JIMMY BEAN: Well, if you ain't the beat 'em for askin' questions! POLLYANNA: I have to be, else I couldn't find out a thing about you.

If you'd talk more I wouldn't talk so much. JIMMY BEAN: All right, then, here goes! I'm Jimmy Bean and I'm

ten years old goin' on eleven. I come last year to live at the Orphans' Home; but they 've got so many kids, there ain't much room for me, an' I wasn't never wanted, anyhow, I don't believe. So I've quit. I'm goin' to live somewheres else. But I hain't found the place, yet. I'd like a home, just a common one, y 'know, with a mother in it, instead of a matron. If ya has a home, ya has folks, an' I hain't had folks since Dad died. So I'm a-huntin' now. I've tried four houses, but they didn't want me, though I said I expected to work, 'course. There! Is that all you want to know, Miss Busybody?

POLLYANNA: Why, what a shame! And didn't there anybody want you? Oh, dear! I know just how you feel, because after ... after my father died, too, there wasn't anybody but the Ladies Aid for me, until Aunt Polly said she'd take ... I know just the place for you. Aunt Polly 'll take you. I know she will! Didn't she take me? And didn't she take Fluffy and Buffy when they didn't have anyone to love them, or any place to go? And they're only a cat and a dog. Oh, come! I know Aunt Polly 'll take you! You don't know how good and kind she is! Come with me, Jimmy Bean! (They EXIT DOWN RIGHT. BLACKOUT.)

End of Scene Nine

Scene Ten

The Harrington mansion sitting room, a few minutes later. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL. MISS HARRINGTON is on sofa, fumbling with

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ONSTAGE ACT TWO: Harrington sitting room: Rich Victorian furnishings, chairs, sofa, sofa pillows, needlepoint on stand, table with flowers and one with empty vase, hand bell. Mr. Pendleton's front room: Wheelchair, table, sitting room chair, lamp with removable hanging crystal fobs. Town Square: Park bench, potted pinkflowering plants, mirror on barbershop wall, fruit and vegetable displays, sign pointing to railway station.

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Two: Small sampler with needle and threads attached (POLLYANNA); basket with jar of jelly (MISS HARRINGTON).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Three: Doctor 's bag and stethoscope (DR. CHILTON); feather duster (LORETTA); basket with jar of jelly (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Four: Flowers (OLD TOM); tray of medicines (NANCY); medical bag (DR. MEAD); bright blue scarf (MRS. BENTON); crutches (MR. PENDLETON).

BROUGHT ON ACT TWO, Scene Five: Wheelchair (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Six: Letter (JIMMY BEAN); flowers (JOEY AND EMILY PAYSON); "Welcome Home" signs (TOWNSPEOPLE); crutches (POLLYANNA); luggage (DR. CHILTON).

SOUND EFFECTS

Chugging of train, train whistle and brakes, old-fashioned telephone ringing, car squealing and loud thump.

SPECIAL LIGHTING

Many of the scenes open with a freeze-action pose lit with "SepiaTone" lights to replicate the look of an old-time photo. This can be done with amber lighting.

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POLLYANNA: I do say so! (EXITS DOWN LEFT.) NANCY: It's just mighty hard to figure most times ... (EXITS DOWN

LEFT. BLACKOUT. MUSIC.)

End of Scene Six

Scene Seven

Afternoon in the Harrington mansion sitting room, about a week later. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freezeframe. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. MISS HARRINGTON is instructing POLLYANNA how to needlepoint. POLLYANNA is mistakenly tangling her fingers into the back side of her sampler.

MISS HARRINGTON: Then you bring your needle back through the stitches you made on the other side. That puts a neat, clean finish to the project and hides the loose ends. (Emphatically.) You must never leave any loose ends dangling.

POLLYANNA: Aunt Polly, I don't mean to be ungrateful, but (Holds up sampler to show sewn-in fingers.) I don't know if sewing is something I can ever be glad for. But I'm very happy that you want to teach me.

MISS HARRINGTON: It is my duty to teach you and your duty to learn. I trust that eventually you will find this instruction profitable.

POLLYANNA: (Wrapping her arms around her aunt.) You can trust that right now I find that I'm very happy being here with you, Aunt Polly.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Resisting POLLYANNA'S affection.) But you must also find that your time spent in educational endeavors is profitable.

POLLYANNA: Do you mean that it 's not enough, then, that I should just be happy?

MISS HARRINGTON: That is precisely what I mean. There is more to life than just being "happy:'

POLLYANNA: So I must be fro-fit-a-ble as well? MISS HARRINGTON: The word is "profitable;· and certainly you

must. POLLYANNA: What is being profitable? MISS HARRINGTON: Why it's ... it's just ... being profitable.

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# of lines

PASTOR MALDEN ........................................................................40Here’s a pastor trying to serve in a town where people hold grudges and prefer the Bible verse “Woe unto you” over “Rejoice and be glad.” No wonder he’s confused. His epiphany comes when Pollyanna tells him to count the joyful texts for once in his life.

MRS. SNOW ................................................................................21A seasoned hypochondriac, around 50 years of age, she finds meaning in life by maintaining complete control over her daughter, Millie. She complains in order to garner pity in the form of gifts from her neighbors. But in reality, the pity they feel is for her daughter.

MILLIE SNOW ................................................................................7Bitterly serving her mother’s needs all her life, she has developed a deep sense of sarcasm and views most of life in a dark, dreary manner, according to her own sense of meaningless existence.

JACK PAYSON ................................................................................4A sometimes-employed rough-edged man in his mid-20s.

MRS. PAYSON ...............................................................................5She’s rough around the edges, but sincere and long-sighted enough to see through the eyes of a child when given the opportunity. Like everyone else in that town (a microcosm of America) she’s been living her life for herself for so long, she is drowning in self-pity. With the chance to help someone else for a change, she makes the effort and finds the victory.

LORETTA .......................................................................................6Unfortunate enough to be Mr. Pendleton’s housekeeper, she meets his verbal jabs with choice phrases of her own, although usually under her breath.

MRS. BENTON ..............................................................................5A dignified and somewhat shy widow. Pollyanna’s friend. Her definition of “risk” is to wear a bright blue scarf with her black widow’s dress.

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PRODUCTION NOTES

PROPERTIES

ONSTAGE, ACT ONE: Town Square: Park bench, potted pinkflowering plants, removable mirror on barbershop wall, fruit and vegetable displays, sign pointing to railway station. Harrington sitting room: Rich Victorian furnishings, chairs, sofa, sofa pillows, needlepoint on stand, tables with flowers, hand bell and lamps. Dr. Chilton's office: Desk, chair, medical bag, bottles of medicine and " tonic;' telephone.

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene One: Mrs. Snow 's wheelchair, hat with broken brim (MILLIE); stick and hoop (CHILD); purses, brooms, bags of groceries (TOWNSPEOPLE), hat (MONIQUE).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Two: Bible (PASTOR MALDEN); broom (GILBERT); cloth shopping bag (NANCY ); purse (MISS HARRINGTON).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Three: Luggage (TRAIN PASSENGERS); tin lunch pail, trunk check (POLLYANNA); telegram (NANCY); new-looking train trunk (OLD TOM).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Four: List (MISS HARRINGTON); dish towel (MRS. DURGIN); lunch pail (POLLYANNA); train trunk (OLD TOM).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Six: Bible (PASTOR MALDEN); broom (MR. WINKLE); cloth shopping bag, same bag filled with groceries (NANCY ); basket with jelly, hair bow (POLLYANNA); wheelchair (MILLIE); hat with veil (MRS. SNOW).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Seven: Small sampler, needle and threads attached (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Eight: Empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Nine: Empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Ten: Embroidery, needle (MISS HARRINGTON); empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

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to eat. She has to guess it mor 'n half the time. Only it ' ll be somethin' cheap. She knows that without no tellin'.

POLLYANNA: I know. You have to look for cheap things when you're poor. Father and I took meals out sometimes. We had beans and fish balls most generally. We used to say how glad we were that we liked beans. Does Mr. Pendleton like beans?

NANCY: Like 'em! What if he does, or don't? Why, Miss Pollyanna, he ain't poor. He's got loads of money, John Pendleton has. From his father. There ain't nobody in town as rich as he is. He could eat dollar bills, if he wanted to, and not know it.

POLLYANNA: As if anybody could eat dollar bills and not know it, Nancy, when they come to try to chew 'em!

NANCY: Ho! I mean he's rich enough to do it. He ain't spendin' his money, that's all. He's a-savin' it.

POLLYANNA: Oh! For the heathen! How perfectly splendid. That's called denying yourself and taking up your cross. I know. Father told me.

NANCY: Some says he's crazy, and some just cross and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet.

POLLYANNA: How can he keep such a dreadful thing? I should think he'd throw it away!

NANCY: And everybody says he's mysterious. Some years he just travels, week in and week out, and it 's always in heathen countries, Egypt and Asia, and the Desert of Sarah, you know.

POLLYANNA: Oh, a missionary. NANCY: Well, I didn't say that. When he comes back he writes

books, queer, odd books, they say, about some gimcrack he's found in them heathen countries. But he don't never seem to want to spend no money here, leastways, not for just livin'.

POLLYANNA: Of course not, if he's saving it for the heathen. But he is a funny man, and he's different, too, just like Mrs. Snow. Only he's a different different.

NANCY: Well, I guess he is, rather. POLLYANNA: I'm gladder'n ever now, anyhow, that he speaks to

me. NANCY: Well, you just keep on bein' glad, child. You can be glad

for all the rest of us, too, cuz sometimes it's mighty hard to figure. POLLYANNA: That it is, till you get better at The Game, and I

know you will, the more you play it. That's the way it works. NANCY: If you say so.

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DR. MEAD An elderly specialist from New York City, he has the professional warmth of a tall peak in Alaska and the tact of a mosquito.

TOWNSPEOPLE Includes MRS. MCCLEARY, MONIQUE, JOEY PAYSON (almost 6), EMILY PAYSON (around 5), GILBERT the barber, MR. WINKLE the grocer, TRAIN PASSENGERS, CONDUCTOR (OFFSTAGE voice), VARIOUS ADULTS, TEENS and CHILDREN.

SYNOPSIS OF SCENES

TIME: Circa 1910.

PLACE: Beldingsville, Vermont.

ACT ONE

Scene One: Morning in the Town Square, segue to JIMMY BEAN'S platform.

Scene Two: Morning in the Town Square, one year earlier.

Scene Three: Afternoon in the Town Square, the next day.

Scene Four: Sitting room of the Harrington mansion, same day.

Scene Five: JIMMY BEAN'S platform.

Scene Six: Morning in the Town Square, one month later.

Scene Seven: Afternoon in the sitting room of the Harrington mansion, about a week later.

Scene Eight: Morning in DR. CHILTON'S office.

Scene Nine: A few minutes after the previous scene, JIMMY BEAN'S platform (along a country road).

Scene Ten: A few minutes after previous scene, sitting room of the Harrington mansion.

ACT TWO

Scene One: JIMMY BEAN'S platform, about a week later.

V

embroidery, finding herself tangling her fingers into the back of it, as POLLYANNA did earlier. After a second or two, POLLYANNA-still carrying her basket-and JIMMY slip IN DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA hides JIMMY behind her back.

POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly! I 've got something for you. MISS HARRINGTON: Did you wipe your feet off before you came

in? POLLYANNA: (She and JIMMY wipe their feet on the inside rug.) Yes,

Ma' am, I wiped my feet. MISS HARRINGTON: Did you take the jelly to Mrs. Snow? POLLYANNA: Yes, Ma'am, and on the way home I found something

that's even nicer than Fluffy or Buffy for you to bring up. MISS HARRINGTON: (Still fiddling with embroidery, not looking up.)

What is it, Pollyanna? You know we already have more pets than we need.

POLLYANNA: Well, just look up here! (JIMMY jumps out into full view.) It 's a real, live boy!

MISS HARRINGTON: (Needlepoint falls to the floor as she stands in shock.) Pollyanna, what does this mean? Who is this dirty little boy? Where did you find him?

POLLYANNA: There, if I didn't forget to tell you his name! And he is dirty, too, isn't he? But I reckon he'll improve all right by washing, and ... Oh, I 'most forgot again. This is Jimmy Bean, Aunt Polly.

MISS HARRINGTON: Well, what is he doing here? POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly, I just told you! He's for you. MISS HARRINGTON: For me? This is by far the most absurd thing

you've done yet. As if tramp cats and mangy dogs weren't bad enough, must you also bring home ragged little beggars from the street?

JIMMY BEAN: I ain't a beggar, marm, an' I don't want nothin' o' you. I was calculatin' to work, of course, for my board an' keep.

MISS HARRINGTON: How did you get into my house? POLLYANNA: He came home with me! Aren't you glad? JIMMY BEAN: I wouldn't have come to your old house, anyhow, if

this here girl hadn't a' made me, a'tellin' me how you was so good an' kind that you'd be just dyin' to take me in. So there!

POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly. Why, I thought you'd be glad to have him here! I sure thought you'd be glad-

MISS HARRINGTON: Pollyanna! Will you stop using that everlasting word "glad"! It 's "glad," "glad," "glad" from morning

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# of lines

DR. MEAD .....................................................................................5An elderly specialist from New York City, he has the professional warmth of a tall peak in Alaska and the tact of a mosquito.

TOWNSPEOPLE ...............................................................................Includes MRS. MCCLEARY (4 lines), MONIQUE (4 lines), JOEY PAYSON (almost 6; 3 lines), EMILY PAYSON (around 5; 2 lines), GILBERT the barber, MR. WINKLE the grocer, TRAIN PASSENGERS, CONDUCTOR (OFFSTAGE voice; 1 line), VARIOUS ADULTS, TEENS and CHILDREN.

SYNOPSIS OF SCENESTIME: Circa 1910.


ACT ONE

Scene One: Morning in the Town Square, segue to JIMMY BEAN’S platform.




Scene Five: JIMMY BEAN’S platform.



Scene Eight: Morning in DR. CHILTON’S office.

Scene Nine: A few minutes after the previous scene, JIMMY BEAN’S platform (along a country road).


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vi 51

Scene Two: Same time frame as previous scene, sitting room of Harrington mansion.

Scene Three: Later that same day, MR. PENDLETON'S front room.

Scene Four: Two weeks later, afternoon, sitting room of the Harrington mansion.

Scene Five: That evening, sitting room of the Harrington mansion.

Scene Six: Ten months later, afternoon, JIMMY BEAN 'S platform, segue into Town Square.

vi

till night until I think I should grow wild! Get that beggar out of my house! (EXITS DOWN LEFT in a rage.)

POLLYANNA: But Aunt Polly, I thought you'd be glad to have me gla ... Jimmy Bean, I want you to know how sorry I am.

JIMMY BEAN: Sorry, nothin'. I ain't blamin' you. POLLYANNA: I won't give up, though. I know there's somebody out

there just hankerin' to get a boy like you. JIMMY BEAN: It sure don't look that way. POLLYANNA: We just gotta find the right place and the right folks.

I'll keep lookin'. You'll make somebody a real fine boy. JIMMY BEAN: I don't eat much, and I'll work real hard. POLLYANNA: Silly. That's not all there is to bein' somebody 's boy.

You gotta do more than that. JIMMY BEAN: Do more? Like what, Miss Knows-It-All? POLLYANNA: Things like lettin' 'em read ya stories at night and

tuck you into bed. JIMMY BEAN: (Pleased, but hiding his eagerness.) Read stories? I

s'pose I could let 'em do that. What else? POLLYANNA: Well, if ya really want to know, ya gotta bring your

ma flowers every now and then, and ya gotta go to baseball games with your pa.

JIMMY BEAN: Really? Baseball games? POLLYANNA: You might even have to play catch-ball with him

every now and then, just to keep him happy. JIMMY BEAN: You think I could? POLLYANNA: Well, sure! That's all part of being a son. It 's loads of

work, but somebody 's gotta do it. JIMMY BEAN: I could do all that stuff for 'em. I could do it. I'm

right strong for my size. POLLYANNA: I believe you could do it, Jimmy Bean. JIMMY BEAN: Play catch-ball, huh? POLLYANNA: Yup. JIMMY BEAN: I could do all that. But what your aunt said about

me bein' a beggar, it just ain't true. I can do loads of work. POLLYANNA: Oh, she didn't mean a bit of what she said. But you

gotta admit, you are a mite dirty. JIMMY BEAN: Well, that's easy enough to see, but I ain't no beggar! .

(BLACKOUT.)

End of ACT ONE

30

She's coming home today from the hospital, and most all the town has come out to welcome her back. Funny, ain't it? The way a little pair of crutches in a missionary barrel can turn so many folks around to bein' glad. It makes you wonder how them crutches ever got put there in the first place. (SOUND EFFECT: Train whistle. MUSIC FADES OUT as LIGHTS FADE UP on town scene. The TOWNSPEOPLE are assembled DOWNSTAGE RIGHT, waiting for the train. JIMMY joins the crowd.) That must be her now!

MRS. PAYSON: There she is, kids! Right over there. See her? (TOWNSPEOPLE react joyously as POLLYANNA ENTERS DOWN RIGHT on crutches with DR. CHILTON and MISS HARRINGTON.)

PAYSON KIDS: (Bringing her flowers.) Pollyanna! Hi! (Etc.) POLLYANNA: Hi, Joey. Hi, Emily. Thank you for the flowers. Can you

carry them for me? EMILY PAYSON: Let me carry 'em for you. JOEY PAYSON: (Touching crutches.) What are those things? POLLYANNA: These are my very own crutches. JOEY PAYSON: (A little worried.) What do you have to have those

for? POLLYANNA: So that I can come and visit you, of course. If I didn't

have 'em, I couldn't come over and play. You want me to come over and play, don't you?

PAYSON KIDS: Sure do. (Etc.) POLLYANNA: Then I can be very glad for crutches. JOEY PAYSON: Me, too. EMILY PAYSON: Then I 'm glad for crutches, too! (BLACKOUT.

MUSIC COMES UP FULL.)

END OF PLAY

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settle this thing right now, once and for all. I 've got something besides the weather to think of. I don't care whether the sun shines or not.

POLLYANNA: No, sir. I thought you didn't. That's why I told you. MR. PENDLETON: Yes, well... Eh? What? POLLYANNA: I say, that's why I told you. So you would notice it,

you know. That the sun shines, and all that. (MR. PENDLETON looks up to see the sunshine.) I knew you'd be glad it did if you only stopped to think of it. And you didn't look a bit as if you were thinking of it.

MR. PENDLETON: Well, of all the ... (Concerned for her.) See here, why don't you find someone your own age to talk to?

POLLYANNA: I'd like to, sir, but there aren't very many around here, Nancy says. Still I don't mind so very much. I like old folks just as well, maybe better, sometimes ... being used to the Ladies Aid, so.

MR. PENDLETON: Humph! The Ladies Aid, indeed! Is that what you took me for?

POLLYANNA: Oh, no, sir. You don't look a mite like a Ladies Aider. Not that you're not just as good, of course. Maybe better. You see, I 'm sure you're much nicer than you look!

MR. PENDLETON: (Hiding his reaction to this humorous remark.) Well, of all the ... Perhaps I ought to tell you now that I have noticed the sun shining today.

POLLYANNA: But you don't have to tell me. I know you know it now. I can see it in your eyes, and in your smile!

MR. PENDLETON: Humph! Impertinence! (EXITS DOWN LEFT.) POLLYANNA: But my name's not Pertinence, it 's Pollyanna. People

sure do mix me and that Pertinence girl up an awful lot. NANCY: (ENTERS UP RIGHT with her bag full of groceries.) Sakes

alive, Miss Pollyanna. Did that man speak to you? POLLYANNA: Why, yes. He always does now. NANCY: He always does? Goodness! Do you know who he is? POLLYANNA: I reckon he forgot to tell me. You see, I did my part

of the introducing, but he didn't. NANCY: But he never speaks to anybody, child. He hain't for years, I guess, except when he just has to, for business and all that. He's John Pendleton. He lives all by himself in the big house on Pendleton Hill. He won't even have any one ' round to cook for him. Comes down to the hotel for his meals three times a day. I know Sally Miner who waits on him, and she says he hardly opens his head enough to tell what he wants

19

ACT TWO

Scene One: JIMMY BEAN’S platform, about a week later.


Scene Three: Later that same day, MR. PENDLETON’S front room.



Scene Six: Ten months later, afternoon, JIMMY BEAN’S platform, segue into Town Square.

SETTINGSThe action of this play takes place in the Town Square of Beldingsville, Vermont, the sitting room of the Harrington mansion, DR. CHILTON’S office and MR. PENDLETON’S front room. There is also a small platform for the narrator, JIMMY BEAN, jutting out from the stage DOWN RIGHT. The Town Square is the main set, and the action there takes place CENTER STAGE. A wall of flats spans the UPSTAGE wall, and on those flats are painted the entrances to various shops. Several of these have their own functional entrances: UP RIGHT is WINKLE’S grocery store, with fruit and vegetable displays out front. Next to it, UP RIGHT or UP RIGHT CENTER, is the bank, which also has a door. Finally, UP LEFT is GILBERT’S barber shop, which has a door and also a removable mirror on the outside wall. The other shops can all just be painted on the flats. A sign points OFF RIGHT indicating the train station. In the middle of the square, CENTER STAGE, sits a park bench with a few potted pink-flowering plants next to it. The Harrington sitting room is set up EXTREME DOWN LEFT. Lights will be down on this set during Town Square action and, conversely, down on the Town Square during sitting room scenes. The sitting room consists of a rich Victorian sofa and one or two chairs with pillows, a needlepoint in progress on a stand, coffee tables with flowers on them and a hand bell and lamps and other furnishings as desired or available. Two temporary sets are put up and taken down EXTREME DOWN RIGHT. In ACT ONE, Scene Eight, DR. CHILTON’S office will appear there, consisting of a desk and telephone and various bottles of tonic. In ACT TWO, Scene Three, JOHN PENDLETON’S front room can be created with a high-quality but austere-looking chair, perhaps leather, a coffee table and a lamp or two. There is one entrance DOWN RIGHT and another entrance DOWN LEFT.

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vii50

it would mean that I was begging his pardon, and that all would be as before. He hasn't been here in many long years.

POLLYANNA: And are you? Are you begging his pardon? MISS HARRINGTON: On my knees. POLLYANNA: So, you were the woman's hand and heart he wanted

so long ago? It's like a miracle. MISS HARRINGTON: My darling, I am thinking that one of the very

gladdest miracles you ever did has been done today. And, if Dr. Thomas Chilton will have me, as stubborn and prideful as I am, then it will be a miracle, indeed.

POLLYANNA: He will, Aunt Polly. He still loves you. MISS HARRINGTON: Does he, dear? POLLYANNA: He told me so. Not using your name, exactly, but I

know he meant you. He had to mean you. MISS HARRINGTON: If only that is so. POLLYANNA: It is so! I just know it more than I 've ever known

anything I ever have known. I think now I'm so glad for you that I don't mind even my legs not working! (BLACKOUT. MUSIC UP and then continues at a low volume under JIMMY BEAN'S speech.)

End of Scene Five

Scene Six

Ten months later, afternoon. JIMMY BEAN speaks from his little platform LIT by SPOT.

JIMMY BEAN: Doctor Chilton took Pollyanna away on the train to a big hospital many miles away. After being there for some time, we got this letter from her. (Pulls letter out of his pocket.) It says: "Dear Aunt Polly and all my friends: Oh, I can, I can, I can walk! I did today all the way from my bed to the window! It was six steps. My, how good it was to be on legs again! Everyone cried, but I don't see why. I wanted to sing and shout and toss a hundred pillows in the air! Now I don't mind being here for ten months. Pretty soon they say I shall go home. I wish I could walk all the way there. I never want to ride anywhere anymore. I'm glad I lost my legs for awhile now, because you never know how perfectly lovely legs are until you haven't got them. With heaps of love to everybody. Pollyanna:·

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sighing heavily. POLLYANNA gazes at him for a moment, then speaks.)

POLLYANNA: Don't you like being a minister? PASTOR MALDEN: Don't I like ... Why, what an odd question! Why

do you ask that, my dear? POLLYANNA: Nothing ... only the way you looked. It made me think

of my father. He used to look like that sometimes. PASTOR MALDEN: Did he? POLLYANNA: Yes, and I used to ask him, just as I did you, if he was

glad he was a minister. PASTOR MALDEN: Well, what did he say? POLLYANNA: Oh, he always said he was, of course, but 'most always

he said, too, that he wouldn't stay a minister a minute if ' twasn't for the rejoicing texts.

PASTOR MALDEN: The what? POLLYANNA: Well, that's what Father used to call 'em. Of course the

Bible didn't name 'em that, but it's all those that begin "Be glad in the Lord;' or "Rejoice greatly;' or "Shout for joy;· and all that, you know ... such a lot of 'em. Once when Father felt 'specially bad, he counted 'em. There were eight hundred of 'em.

PASTOR MALDEN: Eight hundred? POLLYANNA: Yes, that told you to "rejoice and be glad;' you know. PASTOR MALDEN: Oh, and so, your father liked those "rejoicing

texts"? POLLYANNA: Oh, yes, He said he felt better right away, that first

time he thought to count 'em. He said, "If God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it, some:· Don't you think so, Pastor Malden?

PASTOR MALDEN: Eight hundred? POLLYANNA: That's how many he counted. PASTOR MALDEN: (Thoughtfully.) I believe I have some counting

to do, if you'll excuse me. Good day, my dear. (He EXITS DOWN LEFT and POLLYANNA turns her back to watch him. At the same time, MR. PENDLETON ENTERS DOWN RIGHT, coming from just having had his lunch, heading back home. He attempts to slip past POLLYANNA, but she turns in time to see him and runs after him to talk.)

POLLYANNA: How do you do? The sun has certainly come out nicely this morning.

MR. PENDLETON: See here, little girl, we might just as well

18

SETTINGS

The action of this play takes place in the Town Square of Beldingsville, Vermont, the sitting room of the Harrington mansion, DR. CHILTON'S office and MR. PENDLETON'S front room. There is also a small platform for the narrator, JIMMY BEAN, jutting out from the stage DOWN RIGHT. The Town Square is the main set, and the action there takes place CENTER STAGE. A wall of flats spans the UPSTAGE wall, and on those flats are painted the entrances to various shops. Several of these have their own functional entrances: UP RIGHT is WINKLE'S grocery store, with fruit and vegetable displays out front. Next to it, UP RIGHT or UP RIGHT CENTER, is the bank, which also has a door. Finally, UP LEFT is GILBERT'S barber shop, which has a door and also a removable mirror on the outside wall. The other shops can all just be painted on the flats. A sign points OFF RIGHT indicating the train station. In the middle of the square, CENTER STAGE, sits a park bench with a few potted pink-flowering plants next to it. The Harrington sitting room is set up EXTREME DOWN LEFT. Lights will be down on this set during Town Square action and, conversely, down on the Town Square during sitting room scenes. The sitting room consists of a rich Victorian sofa and one or two chairs with pillows, a needlepoint in progress on a stand, coffee tables with flowers on them and a hand bell and lamps and other furnishings as desired or available. Two temporary sets are put up and taken down EXTREME DOWN RIGHT. In ACT ONE, Scene Eight, DR. CHILTON'S office will appear there, consisting of a desk and telephone and various bottles of tonic. In ACT TWO, Scene Three, JOHN PENDLETON'S front room can be created with a high-quality but austere-looking chair, perhaps leather, a coffee table and a lamp or two. There is one entrance DOWN RIGHT and another entrance DOWN LEFT.

vii

ACT TWO Scene One

MUSIC UP, HOUSE LIGHTS UP. SPOT COMES UP on JIMMY BEAN, dressed in "proper clothes" again, on his platform, about a week later. MUSIC plays throughout monologue.

JIMMY BEAN: After Miss Harrington turned me down flat, we were truly stumped about how to find me a family. Pollyanna could hardly find a thing to be glad over, me being homeless and all, so she took a walk in the Pendleton woods to think about it. Just as she got about halfway through, Mr. Pendleton's dog came yapping and yipping and runnin' up to her and dashing away again. Pollyanna figured the little guy needed follerin', so she did. What she found made her cry out loud! There was Mr. John Pendleton lying at the bottom of a ledge with a broke leg! He sent her back to his house for help and to call Doctor Chilton, and before long, help came. Well, Mr. Pendleton was right grateful for Pollyanna's help, and Doctor Chilton said she was quite some little nurse and no one could have done better'n she did. Aunt Polly never even knowed about the accident that day and what Pollyanna did to save Mr. Pendleton, until about a week later. (BLACKOUT. MUSIC FADES.)

End of Scene One

Scene Two

The Harrington mansion sitting room. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL. POLLYANNA is working on a needlepoint.

MISS HARRINGTON: (ENTERS DOWN LEFT with a basket containing a jar of jelly. ).Have you finished up with your three rows of cross-stitch today?

POLLYANNA: No, Ma'am, not yet. You see, every time I switches my colors, and tries to tuck away all the loose ends like you said, they keep coming right back!

MISS HARRINGTON: Every time you "switch" your colors.

31

ACT TWO

Scene One: JIMMY BEAN’S platform, about a week later.


Scene Three: Later that same day, MR. PENDLETON’S front room.



Scene Six: Ten months later, afternoon, JIMMY BEAN’S platform, segue into Town Square.

SETTINGSThe action of this play takes place in the Town Square of Beldingsville, Vermont, the sitting room of the Harrington mansion, DR. CHILTON’S office and MR. PENDLETON’S front room. There is also a small platform for the narrator, JIMMY BEAN, jutting out from the stage DOWN RIGHT. The Town Square is the main set, and the action there takes place CENTER STAGE. A wall of flats spans the UPSTAGE wall, and on those flats are painted the entrances to various shops. Several of these have their own functional entrances: UP RIGHT is WINKLE’S grocery store, with fruit and vegetable displays out front. Next to it, UP RIGHT or UP RIGHT CENTER, is the bank, which also has a door. Finally, UP LEFT is GILBERT’S barber shop, which has a door and also a removable mirror on the outside wall. The other shops can all just be painted on the flats. A sign points OFF RIGHT indicating the train station. In the middle of the square, CENTER STAGE, sits a park bench with a few potted pink-flowering plants next to it. The Harrington sitting room is set up EXTREME DOWN LEFT. Lights will be down on this set during Town Square action and, conversely, down on the Town Square during sitting room scenes. The sitting room consists of a rich Victorian sofa and one or two chairs with pillows, a needlepoint in progress on a stand, coffee tables with flowers on them and a hand bell and lamps and other furnishings as desired or available. Two temporary sets are put up and taken down EXTREME DOWN RIGHT. In ACT ONE, Scene Eight, DR. CHILTON’S office will appear there, consisting of a desk and telephone and various bottles of tonic. In ACT TWO, Scene Three, JOHN PENDLETON’S front room can be created with a high-quality but austere-looking chair, perhaps leather, a coffee table and a lamp or two. There is one entrance DOWN RIGHT and another entrance DOWN LEFT.

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148

And so they 've been comin' every day to tell her how glad she's made them, hopin' that'll help some. You see, she's always wanted everybody to play The Game with her. But most especially you. (NANCY assumes she will now be punished for speaking out as she did. She is shocked by MISS HARRINGTON's response.)

MISS HARRINGTON: Thank you, Nancy. I have been a fool. I've been looking for something that's been right in front of my face all along, and I couldn't see it. Not until now. Nancy, it 's time for an old fool to learn a new Game. (EXITS DOWN LEFT.)

NANCY: Well, I'll believe anything now! You can't stump me with anything I wouldn't believe now! Oh, Miss Polly! (BLACKOUT. NO MUSIC.)

End of Scene Four

Scene Five

Harrington sitting room, later that evening. The lights are low. POLLYANNA is in a wheelchair. MISS HARRINGTON is seated next to her. A SOFT SPOT highlights them.

MISS HARRINGTON: Are you feeling better, dear? POLLYANNA: A little. Did you thank Mr. Pendleton for bringing me

this fine chair? MISS HARRINGTON: I thought you'd like to do that yourself when

you're up to it. You had many callers today. Do you remember Mrs. Payson?

POLLYANNA: I reckon I do. She lives up Pendleton Hill, and she's got the prettiest little girl and a boy almost six. She's awfully nice. And so's her husband, only sometimes they fight. What is "divorce;· Aunt Polly? I'm afraid it means they 're going to move away.

MISS HARRINGTON: But they aren't going to move away, dear. They 're going to stay right there together.

POLLYANNA: They are? Then they 're not getting a ... a divorce? Oh, I'm so glad. Then they 'll be there when I go up to see ... Oh. I keep forgetting that my legs don't work and I won't get to go up there again or see Mr. Pendleton.

MISS HARRINGTON: Oh, perhaps we'll drive up there sometime. But listen! Mrs. Payson said to tell you they were

48

Harrington's niece, and I've come to live with her. That's why I'm here with the jelly this morning. (MILLIE giggles uncontrollably.)

MRS. SNOW: What are you snickering about? MILLIE: I find Miss Pollyanna very amusing. MRS. SNOW: She's not here to amuse you. She's come to visit with

me. POLLYANNA: And to bring you some jelly. (POLLYANNA hands

MILLIE the jelly and MILLIE gives it to her mother.) MRS. SNOW: Very well... thank you. Your aunt is very kind, of

course, but my appetite isn't very good this morning, and I was wanting lamb. I never slept a wink last night. Not a wink.

POLLYANNA: Oh, dear, I wish I didn't. You lose such a lot of time just sleeping. Don't you think so?

MRS. SNOW: Lose time sleeping? POLLYANNA: Yes, when you might just be living, you know. It

seems such a pity we can't live nights, too. MRS. SNOW: Well, if you ain't the amazin' young one. Here, come

closer now so that I can see what you look like. POLLYANNA: Oh, dear. Then you'll see my freckles, won't you? And

just when I was being so glad that you couldn't see them. (POLLYANNA moves over to MRS. SNOW who lifts her veil to see better.) There! Now you can ... oh! I'm so glad you wanted to see me, because now I can see you! They didn't tell me that you were so pretty!

MRS. SNOW: Me ... pretty? POLLYANNA: Why, yes! Didn't you know it? MRS. SNOW: Well, no, I didn't. POLLYANNA: Oh, but your eyes are so big and dark, and your hair's

all dark, too, and curly. I love black curls, and you've got two little red spots in your cheeks. Why, Mrs. Snow, you are pretty. I should think you'd know it when you looked at yourself in the glass.

MRS. SNOW: The glass! Yes, well, I hain't done much prinkin' before the mirror these days and you wouldn't either if you was as sickly as I am.

POLLYANNA: Why, no, of course not. But wait, just let me show you. (Grabs the mirror that hangs in front of the barber's shop door and brings it over. On second thought, she puts it down on the bench.) I reckon maybe, if you don't mind, I'd like to fix your hair just a little before I let you see it. May I fix your hair, please?

16

POLLYANNA

ACT I Scene One

Beldingsville, Vermont, circa 1910. Morning in the Town Square.

AT RISE: STAGE is black. PERIOD MUSIC BEGINS. (Scott Joplin's ragtime music, for example. [See PRODUCTION NOTES.]) BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. The town square is full of people. They are frozen in space as if in an old photograph. In a moment they will be busy at all sorts of activities: child rolling hoop through street, adults chatting and doing business at the stores, barbershops, hat shops, teens flirting, etc. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL. MUSIC plays under at low volume. The actors remain frozen for one line of the music, then LIGHTS COME UP FULL and action begins. The following exchanges are quick and energetic.

MRS. MCCLEARY: (MILLIE SNOW pushes MRS. SNOW along in a wheelchair. Their demeanor is cheerful and animated. They meet MRS. MCCLEARY DOWNSTAGE CENTER. MILLIE'S hat brim is broken.) Good morning, Mrs. Snow. Good morning, Millie.

MILLIE/MRS. SNOW: Good morning, Mrs. Mc Cleary. Good morning.

MRS. MCCLEARY: Why, Millie, your hat brim is broken. MILLIE: (Inspects her brim.) Why, so it is. (Decides .) And I'm plumb

glad about that, too! Keeps the sun out of my eyes better that way. (They go on their way. PASTOR MALDEN meets up with MRS. DURGIN.)

PASTOR MALDEN: How nice to see you, Mrs. Durgin. You're looking well.

MRS. DURGIN: Thank you, Pastor Malden. That was quite a windstorm we had the other night, wasn't it?

PASTOR MALDEN: It certainly was. Took the roof clean off my house.

MRS. DURGIN: Oh, my! I'm so sorry to hear that. PASTOR MALDEN: Not at all. I'm really very glad it did. We needed

a bit more sunlight in the living room, and now we've got it! (NANCY meets with MONIQUE.)

1

Pendleton had met with an accident. But, I do not care to be sending jelly to John Pendleton, Pollyanna.

POLLYANNA: I know. He is cross outside. So I suppose you don't like him. But I wouldn't say 'twas you sent it. I'd say 'twas me. I like him. I'd be glad to send him jelly.

MISS HARRINGTON: Does he know who you are, Pollyanna? POLLYANNA: I reckon not. I told him my name, once, but he never

calls me it. Never. MISS HARRINGTON: Does he know where you live? POLLYANNA: Oh, no. I never told him that. MISS HARRINGTON: Then he doesn't know you're my niece? POLLYANNA: I don't think so. MISS HARRINGTON: Very well, Pollyanna, you may ... you may

take the jelly to Mr. Pendleton as your own gift. But understand: I do not send it. Be very sure that he does not think I do!

POLLYANNA: Yes'm ... No'm ... Why not, Aunt Polly? MISS HARRINGTON: Never mind why, Pollyanna. That is between

Mr. John Pendleton and myself. POLLYANNA: (Probing suspiciously.) What's between you and Mr.

Pendleton? MISS HARRINGTON: I said, "Never mind;' Pollyanna, and I meant

it. (EXITS DOWN LEFT.) POLLYANNA: (Trying to figure it out.) There's something between

Aunt Polly and Mr. Pendleton? A "secret something" between Aunt Polly and Mr. Pendleton. Between Aunt Polly and ... (Suspecting love between them.) Oh! Wait ' ll I tell Nancy! (BLACKOUT. MUSIC.)

End of Scene Two

Scene Three

Later that same day, MR. PENDLETON'S home, represented by a sitting room chair, a table and a lamp with some sort of removable hanging crystal fobs. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. MR. PENDLETON is in a wheelchair. LORETTA, his nurse/housekeeper is fussing about with straightening things. DR. CHILTON is examining him.

33




End of Scene Four

Scene Five









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16

POLLYANNA

ACT I Scene One












1











End of Scene Two

Scene Three


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2 47

MONIQUE: Bonjour, my friend. How are you this morning? NANCY: I'm right well, Miss Monique. Oh! I heard 'bout your terrible

accident over at the Beauty Parlor the other day. MONIQUE: Oh, it was nothing. Pas du tout. NANCY: Not the way I heard it. I heard the new girl cut off a little

more than you bargained for! MONIQUE: Yes, it's true. But I'm really rather glad she did, you see. NANCY: You're glad about it? MONIQUE: Mais, oui! (MONIQUE removes her hat to reveal a

completely bald head.) Now that I don't have to comb my hair, I'm hardly ever late to work! ("Business" continues as SPOT COMES UP on JIMMY BEAN and he begins to speak. He is on a platform of his own jutting out from the STAGE DOWN RIGHT. LIGHTS SLOWLY FADE from the MAIN STAGE during the first part of his speech. PEOPLE EXIT naturally from MAIN STAGE. MUSIC continues quietly under his monologue.)

JIMMY BEAN: Hi, my name is Jimmy Bean or Jimmy Bean Pendleton, now. Sometimes I forget that I've got a new name. Lookin' round this town, you might think that these folks have always been mighty "glad" sort of folks, but that isn't at all true! It wasn't long ago that this town was sufferin' pretty bad. It was sufferin' from what most people are sufferin' from in most all other places, and that is a terrible lack of gladness and a terrible heap of sorriness. Seems that most everybody was goin' around full of sorriness for themselves. Nobody knew anythin' about how to be glad. Not Mrs. Snow, not Nancy nor Mr. Pendleton. And particularly not Miss Polly Harrington! It all started when Pollyanna came to stay. Poor Miss Harrington, she had no idea what she was in for, or she might never have agreed to "do her duty." That's what she called it, at least. (BLACKOUT.)

End of Scene One

Scene Two

Morning in the Town Square, a year earlier. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. PASTOR MALDEN is sitting on the public bench

2

DR. CHILTON: Do hold still, John, and stop your fussing. You're worse than patients half your size!

MR. PENDLETON: I'm not the one doing the fussing. It's you. DR. CHILTON: Me? MR. PENDLETON: Yes, you and all your confounded expensive

instruments that I'm paying you to probe me with. I wish you'd all get out of here and leave me alone!

DR. CHILTON: And your housekeeper should leave you as well? MR. PENDLETON: Especially her! DR. CHILTON: How do you expect to eat any meals or keep the

house tidy? MR. PENDLETON: I lived for many years without keeping my house

" tidy:' LORETTA: I can attest to that. MR. PENDLETON: This woman you've hired has disarranged every

room of my house. I can't find a confounded thing! LORETTA: ( To DR. CHILTON.) I've only been regulating the house

as you asked me to, sir. MR. PENDLETON: Why must I have her here? DR. CHILTON: Doctor's orders. It 's part of your prescription for

healing. MR. PENDLETON: Which book of yours says I need a pill like her

around? DR. CHILTON: Book of Genesis: "It's not healthy for man to live

alone." MR. PENDLETON: You're quite a one to be preaching to me about

living alone! (There is a KNOCK on the door.) LORETTA: There's someone at the door, sir. Shall I get it? MR. PENDLETON: Look how helpful she is! No, thank you, my dear.

I'm planning to jump right up out of this chair and answer the door myself.

LORETTA: I just thought that perhaps ... DR. CHILTON: Pay him no mind, Miss. Of course you may answer

the door. (She opens the door to find POLLYANNA standing there with the basket of calf 'sfoot jelly.)

LORETTA: It's a little girl, sir. With some ... POLLYANNA: Some jelly. LORETTA: With some jelly. Shall I show her in? DR. CHILTON: Just in time! Come in, Pollyanna. You're the best tonic

this patient of mine could hope for! POLLYANNA: (Comes in.) It's a beautiful day today, and the sun is

shining, Mr. Pendleton.

34

that my niece has taught them to play. Some game that I have never even heard of before. Why don't I know about it? Why are perfect strangers appearing at my doorstep? What does this all mean?

NANCY: (Restrained intensity.) It means that ever since last June that blessed child has jest been makin' the whole town glad, and now they're turnin' 'round an' trying to make her a little glad, too.

MISS HARRINGTON: Glad of what? NANCY: Just glad! That's The Game! MISS HARRINGTON: There you go like all the rest, Nancy. What

game? NANCY: (Challenging, at last.) I'll tell you, Ma'am. It 's a game Miss

Pollyanna's father learned her to play. She got a pair of crutches once in a missionary barrel when she was wantin' a doll. An' she cried, of course, like any child would. It seems 'twas then her father told her that there wasn't ever anything but what there was something about it that you could be glad about; and that she could be glad about them crutches.

MISS HARRINGTON: Glad for crutches! NANCY: Yes'm. That 's what I said, and Miss Pollyanna said that's

what she said, too. But he told her she could be glad, 'cause she didn't need 'em.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Realizing that POLLYANNA needs them now.) Oh-h-h.

NANCY: And after that she said he made a regular game of it: finding something in everything to be glad about. And she said you could do it, too, and that you didn't seem to mind not havin' the doll so much, 'cause you was so glad you didn't need the crutches. And they called it the " just bein' glad" game. That 's The Game, Ma'am. She's played it ever since.

MISS HARRINGTON: But, how ... why hasn't she told me about The Game?

NANCY: Beggin' your pardon, ma' am, you told her not to speak of her father, so she couldn't tell you. It was her father's game, you see. She wanted to tell you, first off. She wanted somebody to play it with, you know. That's why I begun to play it, so she could have someone.

MISS HARRINGTON: And, these others? NANCY: Oh, everybody most knows it now, I guess. Anyhow, I should

think they did from the way I'm hearin' of it everywhere I go. Now since she's hurt, everybody feels so bad, 'specially when they heard that she can't find anything to be glad about.

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POLLYANNA: Why, thank you! (NANCY EXITS UP RIGHT. MR. PENDLETON ENTERS DOWN LEFT on his way to the hotel for lunch. POLLYANNA cuts in front of him.) 'Tisn't quite as nice as yesterday, but it's pretty nice.

MR. PENDLETON: See here, child, who are you and why are you speaking to me every day?

POLLYANNA: I'm Pollyanna Whittier, and I thought you looked lonesome. I'm so glad you stopped. Now we're introduced, only I don't know your name yet. You didn't do it right. You're supposed to tell me your name now.

MR. PENDLETON: Well, of all the ... (MR. PENDLETON EXITS DOWN RIGHT. MRS. SNOW and MILLIE ENTER DOWN LEFT. MILLIE is pushing MRS. SNOW in her wheelchair while she complains and fusses. They are both in foul moods. MRS. SNOW wears a hat with a veil over her face. POLLYANNA spies them and skips over to meet them.)

POLLYANNA: How do you do, Mrs. Snow? I'm from Miss Polly Harrington and I was just coming to your house.

MILLIE: What for? POLLYANNA: Because I'd like to see Mrs. Snow. MILLIE: Well, if that's true, you're the first one that ever " liked"

to see her. MRS. SNOW: Keep that young 'un away from me, Millie. She's likely

to be carryin' the influenza. MILLIE: (Sarcastic.) I don't think it's the influenza she's carrying,

Mother. POLLYANNA: (Keeping her distance.) How do you do, Mrs. Snow?

Aunt Polly says she hopes you are comfortable today and she's sent you some calf 's-fot jelly.

MILLIE: You see, it 's jelly! MRS. SNOW: Dear me! Jelly? Of course, I'm very much obliged, but

I was hoping 'twould be lamb broth today. POLLYANNA: Why, I thought it was chicken you wanted when

folks brought you jelly. MRS. SNOW: What? POLLYANNA: It's just that Nancy said it was chicken you wanted

when we brought you jelly, and lamb broth when we brought chicken. But maybe it was the other way and Nancy forgot.

MRS. SNOW: Well, Miss Impertinence, who are you? POLLYANNA: "Pertinence?" Oh, that isn't my name, Mrs. Snow.

And I'm so glad it isn't, too. That would be worse than "Hephzibah," wouldn't it? I'm Pollyanna Whittier, Miss Polly

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have a look at her, he would know whether his friend could help or not.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Self-protection.) Doctor Chilton is not welcome in this house, as I am sure you know.

MR. PENDLETON: But if there is the least bit of hope for her ... MISS HARRINGTON: Good day, Mr. Pendleton. MR. PENDLETON: (Confronting her with her own selfishness.) If

there is the least bit of hope for her, I should think it is worth moving Heaven and Earth to get it, even if it does mean letting Thomas Chilton come through that front door.

MISS HARRINGTON: Doctor Mead is one of the finest physicians in the country and I have complete confidence in him.

MR. PENDLETON: Then you accept his prognosis? MISS HARRINGTON: Well, I... he's a pillar in the medical

community. MR. PENDLETON: Doctor Chilton says this treatment is quite new.

Perhaps the old "pillar" hasn't heard of it yet! MISS HARRINGTON: That will be quite enough! Is there anything

else you'd like to tell me before you leave? MR. PENDLETON: (Under his breath.) You have no idea ... MISS HARRINGTON: Pardon me? MR. PENDLETON: (Trying to get a handle on his anger.) Yes. I have

a message for Pollyanna. Will you tell her, please, that I have seen this Jimmy Bean of hers and that he is going to be my boy hereafter. Tell her I thought she would be glad to know. I shall adopt him.

MISS HARRINGTON: You will adopt Jimmy Bean? MR. PENDLETON: Yes. I think Pollyanna will understand. You will

tell her I thought it might help her play The Game? MISS HARRINGTON: Why ... of course. MR. PENDLETON: Thank you. (He EXITS DOWN LEFT. NANCY

ENTERS DOWN LEFT.) MISS HARRINGTON: Nancy! NANCY: (Defensive.) I told them all to go home. MISS HARRINGTON: The entire town seems to be babbling about

some sort of a 'game" that Pollyanna has taught them to play. Some game that has widows wearing bright scarves, pastors counting hundreds of "somethings:· A game that draws husbands and wives back together who were on the brink of divorce and causes the likes of John Pendleton to adopt an orphan boy as his own son! All because of some game

46

times a day regular for a month now, and all that food must be goin' somewheres.

POLLYANNA: I am glad of that. The bigger I get, the more errands I can do for you and Mrs. Durgin. Like taking this calf's-foot jelly to Mrs. Snow.

PASTOR MALDEN: Ah, you're taking jelly to Mrs. Snow? Just yesterday my wife brought her some chicken.

POLLYANNA: Does she like chicken? PASTOR MALDEN: I'm not sure, but she did mention that she

would have preferred lamb broth. You never can tell with Mrs. Snow. Well, ladies, I'd best be going. I have a sermon to write for Sunday, and I believe a nice, inspirational walk in the woods (Thinking of his embarrassing moment.) alone is in order.

POLLYANNA: See you later, then. (PASTOR MALDEN EXITS DOWN RIGHT.)

NANCY: I'm so sorry to be tuckin' this job off on you, poor lamb. POLLYANNA: But I'd love to do it, Nancy. NANCY: Well, you won't after you've done it once. POLLYANNA: Why not? NANCY: Because nobody does. If folks wasn't sorry for her there

wouldn't be a soul go near her from morning to night, she's that cantankerous. All is, I pity her daughter, Millie, what has to take care of her.

POLLYANNA: But why, Nancy? NANCY: Well, in plain words, it's just that nothin' what ever has

happened, has happened right in Miz Snow 's eyes. Even the days of the week ain't run to her mind. If it's Monday, she's bound to say she wished 'twas Sunday; and if you take her jelly you're pretty sure to hear her say she wanted chicken. But if you did bring her chicken, she'd be just hankerin' for lamb broth!

POLLYANNA: Why, what a funny woman. I think I shall like to go see her. She must be so surprising and ... and different. I love "different" folks.

NANCY: Well, Miz Snow 's different, all right. At least I hope so, for the sake of the rest of us! I'd better get on rriy way now and pick up these groceries for Mrs. Durgin, and when we're both done, we'll meet back at this here bench.

POLLYANNA: Yes, Nancy. I'll be waiting right here where you said. I know my duty!

NANCY: You're starting to sound more like your Aunt Polly every day.

14

CENTER STAGE. He appears troubled by what he is reading in his Bible.

PASTOR MALDEN: (Almost mumbling.) Fire and brimstone. (He shifts in his seat uncomfortably as GILBERT, the barber, comes out to sweep the walkway in front of his shop. PASTOR MALDEN is unaware of GILBERT'S presence. He stands and tries again, with more determination.) Fire and brimstone! (GILBERT looks up from his sweeping, just a bit curious about what the PASTOR might be doing. PASTOR MALDEN screws up his courage as well as his face and puts as much deep, rumbling vocal fire and expressive body language into it as he can muster.) Fire! And! Bah-Rim-Stone-ah! (He turns suddenly to meet the wide-eyed stare of GILBERT, who then quickly takes his broom and himself to safety within his shop. PASTOR MALDEN is humiliated. MISS HARRINGTON and NANCY ENTER DOWN LEFT on their way into town for a shopping expedition. NANCY carries an empty cloth shopping bag, MISS HARRINGTON a purse.)

MISS HARRINGTON: (Complaining aloud to herself.) Of course this all had to happen on Mrs. Durgin's day off.

NANCY: (She's heard all this before.) Yes, Ma'am. MISS HARRINGTON: I don't know how I'm expected to get

everything ready in one day. This is most inconvenient. NANCY: (Trying to reassure.) Well, I've got the room all ready for her,

at least. That's something. But you know, Miss Harrington, it really does get awfully hot way up there in the attic. Couldn't we give her a room down-

MISS HARRINGTON: Just open the windows, Nancy. NANCY: I did. But now the room is full of flies! MISS HARRINGTON: I've ordered window screens to be made. Until

then, keep the windows shut. The heat will kill off the flies and you can sweep them out in the morning. Oh, hello, Pastor Malden.

PASTOR MALDEN: Good morning, Miss Harrington. Miss Nancy. MISS HARRINGTON: Have you had a chance to think over what we

discussed at our meeting the other day? PASTOR MALDEN: In fact, I was just sitting here reading the

passage that you recommended. MISS HARRINGTON: Splendid! Those are some of my favorite

chapters, you know. PASTOR MALDEN: Are they?

3

MR. PENDLETON: (Sarcastic.) Thank you for the weather report. POLLYANNA: My, your house looks so much cleaner and tidier than

when I was here before. Would you like some calf's-foot jelly? MR. PENDLETON: Never ate it. POLLYANNA: Didn't you? Well, if you didn't, then you can't know

you don't like it, can you? You just can't know. MR. PENDLETON: Well, there is one thing I do know: that I've got

a bothersome doctor and a meddling housekeeper and that I'm liable to be stuck here with them both till doomsday!

POLLYANNA: Oh, no. Broken legs don't last. So yours won't last till doomsday at all. I should think you'd be glad of that.

MR. PENDLETON: Oh, I am. POLLYANNA: And you didn't break but one. You can be glad 'twasn't

two! MR. PENDLETON: From that standpoint, I suppose I should be glad

I wasn't a centipede and didn't break fifty. POLLYANNA: Oh, that's the best yet! I know what a centipede is.

They've got lots of legs. MR. PENDLETON: Of course, I can be glad for all the rest, too. The

doctor who pokes me with his instruments and the housekeeper who hides everything I own.

POLLYANNA: That's right, sir. Only think of how it would be if you didn't have them.

MR. PENDLETON: I'm thinking just that. POLLYANNA: And with you lying around here like this, too! MR. PENDLETON: (Losing patience.) As if that wasn't the very thing

at the bottom of the whole matter! Because I am lying here like this. And you expect me to say I'm glad about it all? A woman who disarranges the whole house and calls it "regulating" and a man who aids and abets her and calls it "doctoring," meanwhile expecting me to pay them for it, and pay them well, too!

POLLYANNA: Yes, I know that. That part is too bad, about the money, when you've been saving it, too, all this time.

MR. PENDLETON: When I've been ... eh? POLLYANNA: Saving it. Buying beans and fish balls, you know. Say,

do you like beans? Or do you like turkey better, on account of the sixty cents?

MR. PENDLETON: Look here, child, what are you talking about? POLLYANNA: About your money, you know. Denying yourself and

saving it for the heathen. You see, I found out about it.

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MISS HARRINGTON: Our last pastor used them nearly every Sunday.

NANCY: God rest his soul. PASTOR MALDEN: Well, I have been giving it a lot of thought and

I believe I have come to a conclusion. You see, the idea of-MISS HARRINGTON: I'm sorry, Pastor Malden. I can't discuss this

with you right now. PASTOR MALDEN: Are you all right, Miss Harrington? MISS HARRINGTON: It's just that I find myself quite distracted at

the moment. You see, I have just received word that my niece's father has passed away.

PASTOR MALDEN: You have a niece, Miss Harrington? I didn't know that you had a-

MISS HARRINGTON: And since I am the child's only living relative, it is my duty to take her in and bring her up properly.

PASTOR MALDEN: Excuse me for asking, but what about the child's mother? Hasn't she got a mother?

MISS HARRINGTON: Her mother was my eldest sister, Jenny. Jenny died nine years ago.

PASTOR MALDEN: I'm so sorry. It must have been especially hard on the little girl's father.

MISS HARRINGTON: Oh, he had a great deal of help raising the child. The Ladies Aid Society of the church all pitched in. Jenny and he were missionaries in a little chapel out west.

PASTOR MALDEN: (Impressed.) A man of the cloth. MISS HARRINGTON: And a rather tattered cloth it was. They lived

out of missionary barrels full of secondhand clothing and worthless cast-off goods.

PASTOR MALDEN: How very sad. MISS HARRINGTON: Oh, not to their way of thinking. He convinced

her that the whole thing was a 'great adventure:· PASTOR MALDEN: There was a time when I thought the same

thing. MISS HARRINGTON: My sister could have done so much better.

Lord knows she had a wealthy enough suitor right here in town. PASTOR MALDEN: So, why didn't she marry the wealthy suitor? MISS HARRINGTON: My point exactly! I'll never forgive that man! PASTOR MALDEN: No, I didn't mean to say-MISS HARRINGTON: And the result is ... the result is, the world has

another orphan to feed. But I know my duty.

4

Why, Mr. Pendleton, that's one of the ways I knew you weren't cross inside. Nancy told me.

MR. PENDLETON: "Nancy" told you. Well, may I inquire who "Nancy" is?

POLLYANNA: Our Nancy. She works for Aunt Polly. MR. PENDLETON: Aunt Polly? Well, who is Aunt Polly? POLLYANNA: She's Miss Polly Harrington. I live with her. MR. PENDLETON: (Practically choking on the name.) Miss Polly

Harrington! You live with her? POLLYANNA: Yes, I'm her niece. She's taken me to bring up, on

account of my mother, you know. She was her sister. And after Father went to be in Heaven, there wasn't anyone left for me down there but the Ladies Aid, so she took me in. (MR. PENDLETON cannot respond. He is shocked over the realization that Pollyanna is the daughter of the only woman he ever loved.) I reckon maybe I'd better go now. I hope you'll like the jelly.

MR. PENDLETON: And so you are Miss Polly Harrington's niece? POLLYANNA: Yes, sir. I suppose you know her. MR. PENDLETON: Oh, yes. I know her. But, you don't mean that it

was Miss Polly Harrington who sent that jelly to me? POLLYANNA: No, sir. She didn't. She said I must be very sure not

to let you think that she did send it. MR. PENDLETON: I thought as much. POLLYANNA: (Prying.) Are you very much interested in my Aunt

Polly? I mean, whether it was her who sent the jelly or not? DR. CHILTON: (Protecting.) Perhaps my patient needs a bit of rest,

my dear. MR. PENDLETON: (Solemnly.) No, Doctor. I'd like to talk to Miss

Pollyanna Whittier alone, if you don't mind. (DR. CHILTON and LORETTA EXIT DOWN RIGHT.) Pollyanna, please come here. When I just now found out who you were, you reminded me of something I have tried for long years to forget. But I've found that the more I try to forget, the more vividly I seem to remember. Pollyanna, years ago I loved somebody very much. I hoped to bring her some day, to this house. I pictured how happy we'd be together in our home all the long years to come.

POLLYANNA: (Anticipates that he is talking about her Aunt Polly.) Yes ...

MR. PENDLETON: But ... well, I didn't bring her here. Never mind why. I just didn't, that's all. And ever since then, this great gray pile of stone has been a house, never a home.

36

NANCY: Yes, Ma' am. The street is full of 'em. They're all wanting to know about Miss Pollyanna.

MISS HARRINGTON: Please tell them that we're doing all we can, and that if there are any developments, we will let them know.

NANCY: Shall I tell that to Mr. John Pendleton as well? MISS HARRINGTON: He's here? NANCY: You want me to dismiss him, Ma'am? I can just tell him

that-MISS HARRINGTON: No, Nancy. You may show Mr. Pendleton in. NANCY: Are you sure, Miss Harrington? (She nods.) Yes, Ma'am.

(NANCY leaves to get MR. PENDLETON.) MISS HARRINGTON: Lord, give me strength. (MR. PENDLETON

ENTERS DOWN LEFT on crutches.) MR. PENDLETON: (The relationship is strained.) How do you do,

Miss Harrington? Thank you for allowing me to inquire about your niece.

MISS HARRINGTON: Not at all, Mr. Pendleton. MR. PENDLETON: I've brought a wheelchair over for Pollyanna to

use. Please tell her I don't need it anymore and thought she ... uh, she would ... (His voice trails away as he finds it difficult to imagine POLLYANNA confined to a chair.)

MISS HARRINGTON: (Softening, seeing the pain he is in.) Yes, thank you. That's very kind.

MR. PENDLETON: I don't need to tell you how sorry I am. I heard you'd had another doctor in to see her today. I wondered, does he hold out any hope for her recovery?

MISS HARRINGTON: Doctor Mead has prescribed certain medicines for the pain and Doctor Warren shall be looking in on her regularly. But he says the paralysis is permanent.

MR. PENDLETON: Have you spoken to my physician, Doctor Chilton?

MISS HARRINGTON: (Bristling at the sound of DR. CHILTON'S name, but maintaining control.) Doctor Warren is our family 's physician. He is quite capable, I am sure.

MR. PENDLETON: I only mention it because Doctor Chilton has a friend who deals with spinal injuries of this sort, and he feels there could be some hope, after all. If only you would allow him to see the girl.

MISS HARRINGTON: That will not be necessary. MR. PENDLETON: (Trying to force the issue.) If he could just

45

folks The Glad Game was what Pollyanna liked more than anythin' else in the whole world.

End of Scene Five

Scene Six

Morning in the Town Square, one month later. BRING UP SEPIATONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. As LIGHTS COME UP, we see PASTOR MALDEN sitting on the public bench CENTER STAGE as before. He is silently rehearsing his sermon.

PASTOR MALDEN: (Almost mumbling.) Woe unto you. (He shifts in his seat uncomfortably as WINKLE, the grocer, comes OUT UP RIGHT to arrange fruits and vegetables in front of his store. PASTOR MALDEN is unaware of WINKLE'S presence. He stands and tries again, with more determination.) Woe unto you! (WINKLE looks up from his work, just a bit curious about what the pastor might be doing. PASTOR MALDEN screws up his courage as well as his face and puts as much of his deep, rumbling vocal fire and expressive body language into it as he can.) Wo ... hoe unto you ... hooooo! (He turns suddenly to meet the wide-eyed stare of WINKLE, who then quickly takes himself to safety within his store. Again, PASTOR MALDEN is humiliated. NANCY and POLLYANNA ENTER DOWN LEFT. NANCY carries her empty cloth shopping bag. POLLYANNA carries a basket of calf's-foot jelly and is dressed in a pretty yellow dress, with a bow in her hair.)

POLLYANNA: Look, there's Pastor Malden. Good morning, Pastor Malden.

PASTOR MALDEN: Good morning, dear. Don't you look just fine in those bright new clothes your Aunt Polly bought you? Just like the little lady that you are.

POLLYANNA: (Curtsies.) Thank you very much, I'm sure. PASTOR MALDEN: You remind me of one of Old Tom's sunflowers

this morning: bright and pretty and growing taller every day. POLLYANNA: Am I really getting taller? NANCY: Well, it seems so to me. We've been feeding you three

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true. But never mind that. It's about the little girl I come. I heard about the accident, and it broke me all up. Maybe you don't know it, but I 've seen a good deal of that little girl of yours. We live on the Pendleton Hill road, and she used to go by often. Only she didn't always go by. She came in and played with the kids and talked to me, and my man, when he was home. She seemed to like it, and to like us. She didn't know, I suspect, that her kind of folks don't generally call on my kind. Maybe if they did call more, Miss Harrington, there wouldn't be so many of my kind. Be that as it may, she came, and she didn't do herself no harm, and she did do us good. A lot o' good. How much she won't know, nor can't know, I hope. Cause if she did, she'd know other things that I don't want her to know. But it's just this. It's been hard times with us this.year, in more ways than one. We've been blue and discouraged, my man and me, and ready for 'most anything. We was reckoning on getting a divorce about now, and letting the kids ... well, we didn't know yet what we would do with the kids. Then came the accident, and what we heard about the little girl 's giving up hope and all. And we got to thinking how Pollyanna used to come and sit on our doorstep and train with the kids and laugh and just be so glad. She was always being glad about somethin' and then, one day, she told us why, and about The Game, you know, and she tried to coax us to play it.

MISS HARRINGTON: The game? MRS. PAYSON: Well, we've heard now that she's fretting her poor

little life out of her, because she can't play it no more ... that there's nothing to be glad about. And that's what I came to tell her today. That maybe she can be a little glad for us, 'cause we've decided to stick to each other and play The Game ourselves. I know she would be glad, because she used to feel kind of bad at things we said sometimes. Just how The Game is going to help us, I can't say that I exactly see, yet. But maybe 'twill. Anyway, we're going to try, cause she wanted us to. Will you tell her?

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, I will tell her. And thank you for coming, Mrs. Payson. (Offers her hand. MRS. PAYSON is surprised, but takes it and they shake hands. MRS. PAYSON EXITS DOWN LEFT.) Nancy! (NANCY, who has been waiting just outside the door the whole time, quickly ENTERS DOWN LEFT.)

NANCY: Yes, Ma'am? MISS HARRINGTON: Are there any more visitors today?

44

even trying. Only, sometimes it's almost too hard ... like when your father goes to Heaven, and there isn't anybody but Ladies Aid left.

NANCY: You poor lamb: Well, let's get you up to your room now, or Miss Harrington will have my hide, and there won't be nothin' glad in that, let me tell you!

POLLYANNA: Oh, yes. I 'm so glad I 'm going to have my very own room! Is it as lovely as everything else is in this heavenly house? Are there pictures on the walls and carpets on the floor? I love carpets!

NANCY: No, Miss. No carpet. And no pictures. Not even a lookingglass.

POLLYANNA: I 'm sure it 's ... it 's going to be a very nice room. And I can be glad there isn't any looking-glass, cause where there isn't any looking-glass, I can't see my freckles!

NANCY: Yes, Miss Pollyanna. Follow me. (They EXIT DOWN LEFT. BLACKOUT.)

End of Scene Four

Scene Five

MUSIC COMES UP and continues through JIMMY 'S monologue. SPOT COMES UP on JIMMY BEAN on platform DOWNSTAGE RIGHT.

JIMMY BEAN: It was just like Pollyanna to find somethin' in that little room to be glad about. After seein' the view just outside her windows, she decided she was glad there weren't any pictures on the wall, cuz the pretty pictures in the windows were more than enough. From up in her room she looked down on Old Tom's vegetable garden. And past the fence, she could even see some snow up on some mountains way off in the distance. So she had a hard time keepin' those windows shut. Miss Harrington was mighty shook up when she saw flies in the house, though, on account of all those germs. Miss Harrington pretty soon got Pollyanna on a regular schedule of educatin'. Mrs. Durgin was teachin' her about cooking, and she was takin' music lessons from a private-like teacher. But what Pollyanna liked most was runnin' errands into town with Nancy. Because sittin' and visitin' and teachin'

12

NANCY: (A double meaning.) That poor little girl. MISS HARRINGTON: The child will be arriving on tomorrow 's train. PASTOR MALDEN: Tomorrow? This is rather sudden, isn't it? MISS HARRINGTON: Without a doubt, it is a most inconvenient

time to be receiving a new member of the household. But, I know my duty.

PASTOR MALDEN: And the child's name ... what is the little girl's name?

MISS HARRINGTON: (Distastefully.) Her name is Polly-anna. PASTOR MALDEN: Named for you, Miss Harrington? MISS HARRINGTON: A ridiculous name. Named for my late sister

Anna and myself. "Polly-anna", a ridiculous name! (MISS HARRINGTON EXITS UP RIGHT as NANCY and PASTOR MALDEN look on.)

PASTOR MALDEN: (Worried for the girl's welfare.) Nancy, is Miss Harrington the only living relative that this girl can stay with?

NANCY: I 'm afraid so, Pastor. PASTOR MALDEN: Well, I'd say things are about to change in the

Harrington household. NANCY: Let 's hope so, Pastor. MISS HARRINGTON'S VOICE: (From OFF UP RIGHT.) Nancy! I

require your assistance! NANCY: Let 's hope so ... (EXITS UP RIGHT and PASTOR MALDEN

EXITS DOWN LEFT. BLACKOUT. MUSIC UP.)

End of Scene Two

Scene Three

Afternoon in the Town Square, the next day. People are gathered DOWN RIGHT, waiting to meet the train. Included are MRS. PAYSON, her little son JOEY and daughter EMILY and several TOWNSPEOPLE. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. SOUND EFFECTS: Rhythmic chugging of a train as it slows into the station. The brakes squeal to a stop.

CONDUCTOR'S VOICE: (From OFFSTAGE DOWN RIGHT.) Beldingsville, Vermont. All passengers disembark at

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POLLYANNA: It takes a woman's hand and heart, or a child 's presence, to make a home. My father always said that.

MR. PENDLETON: Your father ... Oh, yes. Well, I have had neither. POLLYANNA: Do you wish you had that woman's hand and heart

all this time? MR. PENDLETON: Why, yes, Pollyanna. POLLYANNA: Oh, I 'm so glad! Then it 's all right. Now you can take

us both, and everything will be lovely. MR. PENDLETON: Take you both? POLLYANNA: Well, of course, Aunt Polly isn't won over yet, but I 'm

sure she will be if you tell it to her just as you did to me, and then we'd both come, of course!

MR. PENDLETON: Polly Harrington ... come here? POLLYANNA: Would you rather go there? Of course, the house isn't

quite so pretty, but it's nearer to-MR. PENDLETON: What are you talking about? POLLYANNA: About where we're going to live, of course. I thought

you meant here, at first. You said it was here that you had wanted Aunt Polly 's hand and heart all these years to make a home. But if you'd rather go-

MR. PENDLETON: My dear child. There has been a terrible misunderstanding.

POLLYANNA: There has? What? MR. PENDLETON: It was your mother's hand and heart that I

wanted long years ago. POLLYANNA: My mother's? MR. PENDLETON: I had not meant to tell you, but perhaps it 's

better, after all, that I do now. I loved your mother, but she didn't love me. After a time she went away with your father. I did not know until then how much I cared for her. When she left, the whole world suddenly seemed to turn dark and distant. I decided then that I would never allow my heart to feel that kind of pain again, and in the end, I became a cross, crabby, unlovable, unloved old man.

POLLYANNA: That's not true, Mr. Pendleton. That's only the part people see. The best part is what they don't see.

MR. PENDLETON: There you go again. How can you look at a miserable old fossil like myself and see anything beyond the hardened man that I am?

POLLYANNA: My father showed me how. MR. PENDLETON: Your father must have been a miracle worker.

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Beldingsville. Beldingsville, Vermont. (PASSENGERS make their way off the train and EN TER DOWN RIGHT. POLLYANNA is carrying a tin lunch pail and chatting nonstop, highly animated, to MRS. MCCLEARY. She wears a red and white checkered dress and a straw hat.)

POLLYANNA: This is where I get off. I'm going to live with my Aunt Polly. I never met my Aunt Polly but, you know, that's what makes me so glad! It will be such a surprise to meet her and I know she'll be so very glad to meet me, too. She doesn't have any children of her own and now I haven't got any parents, so that makes us both orphans in a way, don't you think? I know I'll be very glad to meet my Aunt Polly. My father told me she has a very comfortable house with lots of rooms. That's what Heaven's like, you know. Lots of big houses with lots of rooms. That's where my father is. And my mother, too. They 're both heavenly angels now.

MRS. MCCLEARY: (Sorry for herself.) I have a very small home, myself.

POLLYANNA: (Ponders a moment.) Well, that's something to be glad for!

MRS. MCCLEARY: A small house? (JACK PAYSON and a small, curious crowd are starting to gather around and listen.)

POLLYANNA: Well, sure! A small house is ever so much easier to keep clean. Father and I lived in a small house and there was nothing to it when it came to cleaning it up. We just made up the sofa each morning and washed up the breakfast things. The Ladies Aid Society brought us our dinner each night and Father and I washed up the dishes. We had more time for stories that way. Father always read me stories.

JACK PAYSON: Humph! POLLYANNA: (Turning to JACK PAYSON.) Did your father read you

stories, too? JACK PAYSON: (With disdain.) My old man never read me a story

in his life. I don't even think he knew how to read. POLLYANNA: Then you have a great deal to be glad about. JACK PAYSON: Be glad? That my old man couldn't read? POLLYANNA: Well, sure! Just think of all the stories that you have

yet to read! There must be hundreds of stories you've never even heard before like "Jonah and the Whale" and "Daniel and the Lions" and maybe even about "Noah and his Big Ole Ark:' That should make anyone glad.

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Someone who could spin straw into gold. (POLLYANNA gasps.) Have I frightened you, child? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to.

POLLYANNA: Why, Mr. Pendleton, it 's a baby rainbow. A real rainbow come in to pay you a visit! Oh, how pretty! How did it get in?

MR. PENDLETON: Where? POLLYANNA: Right here on your shoulder! A little baby rainbow. MR. PENDLETON: Oh, that. I suppose it got in through the prism

on the edge of this lamp. A shaft of white light, shining through the crystal, gets broken up into all its component colors.

POLLYANNA: It's the sun playing The Game! The sun knows how to play The Game!

MR. PENDLETON: The Game? POLLYANNA: My father's game, making plain things into glad

things. It takes plain old white sunshine and turns it into a beautiful rainbow right on your shoulder. Look how it dances on you. It's like you're living in a rainbow.

MR. PENDLETON: It's only a matter of physical science, my dear. POLLYANNA: It's a miracle. MR. PENDLETON: (Referring to POLLYANNA herself.) Yes. You're

right. It is a miracle. (Removing crystal from lamp.) Here you are. Since you love rainbows so much, you may take this portable rainbow home with you.

POLLYANNA: May I? MR. PENDLETON: Show it to your Aunt Polly and your Nancy. And

tell them that old Mr. John Pendleton hopes they're very glad to receive it.

POLLYANNA: Oh, thank you. It's the most wonderful present I've ever had in all my life! I'll think of you every time I see it.

MR. PENDLETON: I'm pleased that you're pleased with the gift. Now, you'd better go. It's dangerous to keep Miss Polly Harrington waiting.

POLLYANNA: Well, before I go, may I ask you a question? MR. PENDLETON: Of course. POLLYANNA: Did you really mean it, about wanting to make your

house a real home? MR. PENDLETON: I really meant it. I've wanted it for a long time,

but only came to realize it quite recently. POLLYANNA: I can get it for you.

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PASTOR MALDEN IN DOWN LEFT and waits protectively, just a little worried about MISS HARRINGTON'S state of mind.) It's all right, Nancy. Thank you.

PASTOR MALDEN: Good afternoon, Miss Harrington. MISS HARRINGTON: Pastor Malden. PASTOR MALDEN: I thank you for seeing me at such a time as this,

and I wondered if you might give a message to your niece for me. MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly. What is the message? PASTOR MALDEN: Just tell her this: I counted them myself, and

there were even more than eight hundred. MISS HARRINGTON: Even more than ... I'm sorry, I don't

understand. PASTOR MALDEN: Yes, I know it sounds odd, but if you'll pardon

me, I would rather not explain. Your niece will know just what I mean, and I felt that I must tell her now, I know how to play her game. Not very well yet, but, you know, I'm sure I'll get better as I go along. People always do. That's what she told me, and I believe it's true. Thank you, and pardon me, please, for any seeming rudeness in my call.

MISS HARRINGTON: You are very kind. PASTOR MALDEN: But it is you who are kind. I want you to give

her that message from me. Will you? MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly. Certainly I will. And thank you for

coming by. (PASTOR MALDEN EXITS DOWN LEFT. MISS HARRINGTON sits down just before NANCY and MRS. PAYSON burst through the DOWN LEFT door.)

NANCY: I told you she ain't havin' no visitors! Miss Harrington, I tried to tell her ...

MRS. PAYSON: And I told you I'll ask her about it myself, thank you. (To MISS HARRINGTON.) I want to see the little girl. Pollyanna.

MISS HARRINGTON: I'm afraid she's not able to see anyone right now.

MRS. PAYSON: But I've got something I have to tell her. MISS HARRINGTON: I'm sorry. She's very weak and needs to rest.

Is there something I can do for you? (MISS HARRINGTON waves NANCY out of the room, realizing this may be a private matter. NANCY EXITS DOWN LEFT.) MRS. PAYSON: My name is Mrs. Payson. Mrs. Jack Payson. I presume you've heard of me. Most of the good people in this town have. And maybe some of the things you've heard ain't

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POLLYANNA: Why, Aunt Polly, aren't you? Aren't you awfully glad you're rich?

MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly not. I hope I could not so far forget myself as to be sinfully proud of any gift the Lord has seen fit to bestow upon me. Certainly not of riches.

POLLYANNA: Well, then, you couldn't know that it was hardest to play The Game with missionary barrels.

MISS HARRINGTON: I wouldn't know a thing of that. Mrs. Durgin, I shall have my tea in the library. (MRS. DURGIN EXITS DOWN LEFT.) Nancy, show the child to her room. As I said, I shall be up in half an hour to inspect your belongings. Please have your things unpacked by then. (EXITS DOWN LEFT.)

POLLYANNA: I don't think Aunt Polly knows how to play The Game.

NANCY: Miss Harrington ain't the game-playing sort, in case you didn't notice. What game are you talking about, child?

POLLYANNA: The Glad Game. We began the game on some crutches that came in a missionary barrel.

NANCY: Crutches! POLLYANNA: Yes, you see, I'd wanted a doll, and Father had

written them so; but when the barrel came, the lady wrote that there hadn't any dolls come in, but the little crutches had. So she sent 'em along as they might come in handy for some child, sometime. And that's when we began it.

NANCY: Well, I must say, I can't see any game about that. POLLYANNA: Oh, yes, the game was to just find something about

everything to be glad about, no matter what ' twas. And we began right then, on the crutches.

NANCY: But I can't see anything to be glad about getting a pair of crutches when what you wanted was a doll.

POLLYANNA: There is! There is! I couldn't see it either, at first. That's why I cried. Father had to tell me. Oh, I spoke of Father again. But it was him who had to tell me what was so glad about crutches.

NANCY: Well, then, suppose you tell me. POLLYANNA: Why, just be glad because you don't need them! You

see, it's just that easy when you know how. NANCY: Of all the queer doings! POLLYANNA: But it's not queer at all. It's lovely. And we've played

it ever since. And the harder it is, the more fun it is to get 'em out. And lots of times now, I think of them without

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NANCY: (ENTERS DOWN LEFT quietly. She is hesitant to speak.) Miss Harrington, there's a lady here that says she wants to see Miss Pollyanna. Says her name is Mrs. Benton. I told her the girl couldn't see anybody, so she wondered if she might speak to you instead?

MISS HARRINGTON: Must I see someone now? NANCY: She says she won't stay long ... it's about the girl. She says

she might be able to help. MISS HARRINGTON: Oh, I suppose so. Yes, Nancy. You may show

her in. (NANCY brings MRS. BENTON IN DOWN LEFT and then leaves. MRS. BENTON is dressed in widow's black, but wears a bright blue scarf. She is very refined.) Good afternoon, Mrs. Benton.

MRS. BENTON: Miss Harrington, I was so very sorry to hear of your niece's accident, and I just came over to see her.

MISS HARRINGTON: I'm sorry, but she sees no one yet. A little later, perhaps.

MRS. BENTON: Yes, I know that, but I thought perhaps you'd give her a ... a message.

MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly, I'd be very happy to. MRS. BENTON: (Refers to the bright blue scarf around her collar.)

Would you please tell her that I've put on this. The little girl has been trying for so long to make me wear some color that I thought she'd be glad to know I'd begun. If you'll just tell Pollyanna, she'll understand.

MISS HARRINGTON: You want me to tell her that you're wearing a scarf?

MRS. BENTON: Yes, please. A bright blue scarf, if you will. I was told that she was feeling rather downhearted. So I thought that if I wore this, it might help her to play her game again. (NANCY ENTERS DOWN LEFT.)

MISS HARRINGTON: Play? Her game? NANCY: Excuse me, Miss Harrington, but Pastor Malden is here to

see you. MRS. BENTON: Well, then, I had better be going. Thank you. Be sure

to give the little girl my message. (EXITS DOWN LEFT.) NANCY: Shall I show the pastor in? MISS HARRINGTON: The pastor? NANCY: He says he has a message for Miss Pollyanna. MISS HARRINGTON: Did I call for the pastor? NANCY: No, Ma'am. He's calling on you. He says he's got something

he needs Miss Poll yanna to know. MISS HARRINGTON: Then show him in. (NANCY shows

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Aunt Polly! It's you at last. I don't know how to be glad enough that you let me come live with you in your beautiful, beautiful home!

MISS HARRINGTON: (At a loss for a moment, but composes herself enough to take control of the situation.) How do you do? Please be good enough to come around in front of me and stand erect in a proper manner so that I can have a look at you.

POLLYANNA: (Comes around front.) Well, I'm not very much to look at, on account of the freckles.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Taking it all in while maintaining the control of a military commander.) You have a trunk, I assume?

POLLYANNA: Oh, yes, indeed, Aunt Polly. I've got a beautiful trunk that the Ladies Aid gave me. I haven't got so very much in it... of my own, I mean. But there were all Father's books and Mrs. White said she thought I ought to have Father's books, on account of that Father- (OLD TOM has ENTERED DOWN LEFT during last dialogue, carrying trunk. He witnesses MISS HARRINGTON'S overreaction, but keeps his emotions in check.)

MISS HARRINGTON: Young lady! There is one thing that must be understood right away. And that is, I do not care to have you talking of your father to me.

POLLYANNA: Why, Aunt Polly, I don't know what you mean ... MISS HARRINGTON: Nancy will take you upstairs to your room.

(MRS. DURGIN is troubled by what she has just seen. Only moments ago, she was amused by the girl's responses.)

POLLYANNA: (A little stunned, but figuring it out.) I... I reckon I'm glad you don't want me to talk about Father. It 'll be easier for me, maybe, if I don't talk about him. Probably, anyhow, that's why you told me not to talk about him?

MISS HARRINGTON: Tom will take your trunk up to your room. I shall be up in half an hour to look over your things. Whatever pieces of clothing are not suitable to be worn, I shall give to the Orphan's Home, of course. (OLD TOM EXITS DOWN LEFT.)

POLLYANNA: I'm afraid you'll think they're worse than the Ladies Aid did, and they said they were "shameful." Did you ever have to dress out of a missionary barrel, Aunt Polly? (MISS HARRINGTON reacts in horror at the thought.) Oh, of course you didn't. I forgot. Rich folks never have to have them. How awfully glad you must be to be rich!

MISS HARRINGTON: I'm surprised at you, making a speech like that to me!

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JACK PAYSON: Ah, what do you know about anything anyway? You're just a kid.

TOWNSPERSON: What do you know about anything? You're just an old grump! (PEOPLE laugh and disperse as POLLYANNA looks around for a second, then sits on the bench at CENTER to wait. After a moment, MR. PENDLETON ENTERS UP RIGHT CENTER from the bank and crosses towards DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA jumps off bench and catches up with him.)

POLLYANNA: How do you do, sir. Isn't this a nice day? MR. PENDLETON: (Confused but curious.) Did you speak to me? POLLYANNA: Yes, sir! I say, it's a nice day, isn't it? MR. PENDLETON: Huh? Oh .... (Dismisses the girl as an annoyance

and EXITS DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA sits back on bench to wait. Several TOWNSPEOPLE ENTER and mime different business, blocking POLLYANNA from view as NANCY and OLD TOM ENTER DOWN LEFT. NANCY carries a telegram.)

NANCY: Oh, Tom, I think that was mean of Miss Harrington to send me and not to come herself!

OLD TOM: That's just her way, Miss Nancy. I've gotten used to it over the years. You will, too.

NANCY: Lord, I hope not. Now, the telegram says to look for a red checkered dress and a straw hat. Keep your eyes peeled so we don't miss the poor thing. (TOWNSPEOPLE move to reveal POLLYANNA on the bench.) Oh, heavens be praised! There she is! Come on, Tom. Are you Miss Pollyanna Whittier?

POLLYANNA: (Jumps up and runs to NANCY and hugs her enthusiastically.) Oh, I'm so glad, glad, glad to see you! Of course I'm Pollyanna and I'm so glad you came to meet me! I hoped you would.

NANCY: (Confused. How does she know her?) You ... you did? You did? POLLYANNA: Oh, yes! I've been wondering all the way here what you

looked like. And now I know, and I'm glad you look just like you do look!

NANCY: (Realizes she has confused her with Aunt Polly.) Uh, this is Tom. Maybe you have a trunk?

POLLYANNA: Yes, I do. A brand-new one! The Ladies Aid bought it for me and wasn't it lovely of them when they wanted so much to get a carpet for the church instead? Of course, I don't know how much carpet a trunk could buy, but it ought to buy some anyhow ... as much as half an aisle, don't you think? I've got a trunk check here I'm supposed to give you so we can go get my trunk. Here it is!

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MR. PENDLETON: You're talking in riddles again. Get what? POLLYANNA: Get your house to be a home. All you need is a child's

presence. Not me, you know, but another one. MR. PENDLETON: As if I would want anyone but you. POLLYANNA: But you will, you know. You're so kind and good!

Think of all that money you save for the heathen! MR. PENDLETON: Once and for all, let us end that nonsense. I've

tried to tell you half a dozen times, there is no money for the heathen. I never sent a penny to them in my life! There!

POLLYANNA: Oh, I'm so glad! That is, I don't mean that I'm not sorry for the heathen, only just now I can't help being glad that you don't want the little heathen boys, because all the rest of the people in church want them. And so, I'm glad you'd rather have Jimmy Bean. Now I know you'll take him!

MR. PENDLETON: Take who? POLLYANNA: Jimmy Bean. He's the child's presence, you know. And

he'll be so glad to be it. I have to tell him right away! (She rushes OUT.)

MR. PENDLETON: Pollyanna! I never said I'd ... Oh! That girl. (DR. CHILTON rushes IN DOWN RIGHT, followed by LORETTA.)

DR. CHILTON: John, what is it? What's wrong? (He starts to take pulse, using stethoscope, etc.)

MR. PENDLETON: Overdose. DR. CHILTON: But I haven't prescribed any pills. MR. PENDLETON: (Indicating POLLYANNA.) No. Overdose of your

" tonic." She was just telling me about a "Jimmy Bean" that she wants me to meet.

DR. CHILTON: I believe I know the little fellow. Lives at the orphanage. Really quite a pleasant boy. I'm out to the orphanage often, what with all the acci- (SOUND EFFECTS: There is a squeal of brakes and a loud thump from outside. LORETTA, who has been watching out the window, turns suddenly and interrupts.)

LORETTA: Doctor Chilton! Oh, Doctor! There's been an accident. She's been hit by an automobile out on the road! (She rushes OUT. DR. CHILTON grabs his bag.)

DR. CHILTON: My God! (DR. CHILTON rushes OUT and MR. PENDLETON goes as Jar as he can in his wheelchair and shouts out the doorway.)

MR. PENDLETON: Don't just stand there, woman! Do something to help her! Don't just let her lie there like that! She's not moving. She's not moving. Oh, Pollyanna, don't leave

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NANCY: Here, sweetheart. You just give that to Old Tom. POLLYANNA: Yes, sir. Here you go. OLD TOM: (Delighted.) I can't get over how much like your mother

you are, Little Miss. I used to know her when she was even littler than you be.

POLLYANNA: (In awe.) You knew my mother, really? When she was just a little Earth Angel and not a heavenly one? Oh, please tell me about her. I want to know everything!

NANCY: There will be plenty of time for that. Tom needs to be getting at your trunk and I need to be getting you off to home to meet your aunt. (TOM EXITS DOWN RIGHT to go get trunk.)

POLLYANNA: You mean, you aren't my auntie? NANCY: Oh, no. I never thought of you taking me for her. We ... we

ain't a bit alike, neither! No, we ain't. POLLYANNA: But who are you? You don't look a bit like a Ladies

Aider. NANCY: Ladies Aid? I'm Nancy, the hired girl. POLLYANNA: That's a real pretty name, Nancy. NANCY: Oh, it isn't really. It 's just a plain old name. Not fancy like

"Clarissa Maybelle" or "Florabelle Estelle." POLLYANNA: I like it just fine because it's you. Anyhow, you can be

glad it isn't "Hephzibah." NANCY: Hephzibah? (TOM ENTERS DOWN RIGHT carrying the new

trunk.) POLLYANNA: Yes. Mrs. White's name is that. Her husband calls her

"Hep" and she doesn't like it. She says that when he calls out "Hep ... Hep" she feels just as if the next minute he was going to yell "Hurrah!" and she doesn't like to be hurrahed at!

NANCY: Well, if that don't beat all! Say, you know, I shan't never hear plain old "Nancy" now that I don't think o' that "Hep ... Hep" story and giggle. My, I guess I am glad.

POLLYANNA: (A bit worried.) So, if you're just plain Nancy and not my Aunt Polly, I wonder ... is there an Aunt Polly?

OLD TOM: You bet your life there is. POLLYANNA: Oh, that's all right then. And do you know? I'm glad

after all that she didn't come to meet me; because now I've still got her coming, and I've got you besides.

OLD TOM: I call that a pretty slick compliment. Why don't you thank the little lady?

NANCY: Oh, yes. Of course. I thank you for that compliment, Miss Pollyanna. Shall we go now? You're going to want to see your new home.

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us now. Not now. (BLACKOUT. SOMBER MUSIC to suit the mood at this point.)

End of Scene Three

Scene Four

Harrington sitting room, afternoon, two weeks later. OLD TOM ENTERS with cut flowers and places them in a vase. NANCY ENTERS with tray of medicines.

OLD TOM: I saw that big-city doctor finally got here. Took him nearly two weeks!

NANCY: He's a specialist. From New York. Miss Harrington hopes he'll give her some good news.

OLD TOM: Did he say how she is yet? Is she hurt bad? NANCY: There ain't no tellin'. She lay back all white and still that

she might easy be dead; but Miss Polly said she wa'n't dead. And Miss Polly had oughter know, if anyone would. She keeps up night after night a-listenin' and a-feelin' for her heartbeats and her breath.

OLD TOM: Just about the whole town is outside waitin' to hear news about the girl. What can we tell them? Where is she hurt?

NANCY: I don't know, I don't know. There's a little cut on her blessed head, but tain't bad, that ain't, Miss Polly says. It 's her legs. They won't move. She says she's afraid it's infernally she's hurt.

OLD TOM: I guess you mean internally, Nancy. NANCY: I don't know, I don't know. Seems as if I just couldn't stand

it till that doctor gits out o' there. I wish I had a washin' to do. The biggest washin' I ever did see, I do, I do!

OLD TOM: There, there, now. Let's just go on outside and tell all them good folks to go on home. Tell 'em the girl can't see anybody right now. (OLD TOM and NANCY EXIT DOWN LEFT. MISS HARRINGTON ENTERS DOWN LEFT with DR. MEAD.)

MISS HARRINGTON: What is your diagnosis, Doctor Mead? DR. MEAD: As you know, the patient received a slight cut on the

head, and one or two bruises. The legs are not broken, no bones or ligaments damaged, but there's a small injury to the patient's spine.

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MISS HARRINGTON: (Rambling along similar to the way POLLYANNA always does.) So that's it. Only a small injury to the spine, you say. I'm so relieved. She knows she can't move right now, but she seems to think it 's a permanent condition. I tried to tell her how things really are, but she keeps saying something about being a life-long invalid like Mrs. Snow. I just haven't been able to make her understand. She's been so terribly despondent these days, too. It 's all because she can't go out visiting anymore. But I'm so glad it 's only the spine and not her legs after all.

DR. MEAD: You don't understand, Miss Harrington. The patient is correct. The paralysis is permanent. There's nothing more I can do, other than administer some drugs to dull the pain. The patient will never walk again.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Once his prognosis sinks in, she unleashes her anger on the doctor.) Pollyanna! Her name is Pollyanna!

DR. MEAD: Miss Harrington, you'll want to keep your voice down. MISS HARRINGTON: How can you tell me she'll never walk again?

You just said it 's only a small injury. DR. MEAD: Even a small injury to the spine is a permanent one.

I'm not saying she can't live out her full life-span, it 's just going to have to be from a wheelchair. That's the best I can offer.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Regaining a slight sense of control; rejecting the doctor, as if she could just as easily reject his prognosis.) Thank you for coming, Dr. Mead. I appreciate your coming from such a long distance.

DR. MEAD: I'm sorry the prognosis couldn't have been a better one. MISS HARRINGTON: (Forcing him out with her words.) Good day,

Doctor. (DR. MEAD EXITS DOWN LEFT. After a moment alone, MISS HARRINGTON breaks down.) Oh, Jenny, why did you have to leave me? You were the only one I had left in the world. When you died, I vowed I would never love anyone ever again, and now look what you've done to me! I can't even face the day until I know that she's all right. My meals are boring unless she's there biting her sliced bread into shapes of kittens and birds and who knows what? When I go out shopping I find myself thinking, "Oh, wouldn't Pollyanna love this?" or, "wouldn't she look sweet in that?" You've spoiled everything, Jenny. Why did you have to send her here? What possible purpose could such a child have in a place like this?

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POLLYANNA: (Mirthfully.) And my dear, dear Aunt Polly! NANCY: (Grimly.) Yes. And your dear, dear Aunt Polly. (BLACKOUT.

MUSIC.)

End of Scene Three

Scene Four

The Harrington mansion sitting room, the same day. It is decorated with all the delicate finery of that era. A large needlepoint frame fitted with a canvas stands to one side, only halfway completed. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL and MUSIC OUT. MISS HARRINGTON, holding a small handwritten list, is pacing nervously as the LIGHTS COME UP.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Paces, then stops to call loudly.) Mrs. Durgin! Mrs .... (Stops and composes herself; goes to table, rings bell and waits impatiently.)

MRS. DURGIN: (ENTERS DOWN LEFT, wiping her hands on a small towel. She has been preparing lunch.) Yes, Miss Harrington?

MISS HARRINGTON: Nancy and the child are due to arrive any moment. Is the room prepared?

MRS. DURGIN: (Hiding her disapproval.) Yes, Ma'am. We swept all the flies out this morning and shut the windows.

MISS HARRINGTON: Just make sure to keep them shut until the window screens arrive. Flies carry a multitude of diseases.

MRS. DURGIN: Yes, ma'am. (Uncomfortable silence.) Will there be anything else?

MISS HARRINGTON: (Refers to list.) Yes, Mrs. Durgin. I have made out a schedule for the child's education. Both you and Nancy will take part in teaching her how a household is to be managed. She will be learning Mathematics and English Grammar from a private tutor, and I have employed a classical piano teacher who will-

POLLYANNA: (She and NANCY have ENTERED DOWN LEFT, unnoticed, during previous speech. POLLYANNA, still holding her lunch pail, slips from NANCY'S protective grasp and rushes to her aunt, clasping her in a bear hug from behind.) Oh, Aunt Polly!

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NOTES

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POLLYANNA: That's right. Every time I switches my colors, they all tie up in each other somethin' awful.

MISS HARRINGTON: You can put your stitching away for the time being and take this jar of jelly over to Mrs. Snow's.

POLLYANNA: Am I ever gla ... I mean, yes, Ma'am. (Timidly asking.) Aunt Polly, please would you mind very much if I took Mrs. Snow 's calf's-foot jelly this week to someone else? I'm sure Mrs. Snow wouldn't mind. Just this once?

MISS HARRINGTON: Dear me, what are you up to now? You are the most extraordinary child! What is it about this jelly?

POLLYANNA: Nothing truly that you would mind, I'm sure. You let me take the jelly to her, so I thought you would to him, this once. You see, broken legs aren't like ... like lifelong invalids, so his won't last forever as Mrs. Snow's does, and she can have all the rest of the things after just once or twice.

MISS HARRINGTON: Him? He? Broken leg? What are you talking about?

POLLYANNA: Oh, I forgot. I reckon you didn't know. I found him in the woods, you see, and I had to unlock his house and telephone for the men and the doctor and hold his head and everything. And of course then I came away and haven't seen him since. But when Mrs. Durgin made the jelly for Mrs. Snow this week I thought how nice it would be if I could take it to him instead of her, just this once. Aunt Polly, May I?

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, yes, I suppose so. Who did you say he was?

POLLYANNA: The man? It was Mr. John Pendleton. MISS HARRINGTON: (Shocked at the sound of his name.) John

Pendleton? POLLYANNA: Yes. Nancy told me his name. Maybe you know him. MISS HARRINGTON: Do you know him? POLLYANNA: Oh, yes. He always speaks and smiles, now. He's only

cross outside, you know. I'll take the jelly now. MISS HARRINGTON: Pollyanna, wait! I've changed my mind. I

would prefer that Mrs. Snow had that jelly today, as usual. That is all. You may go now.

POLLYANNA: Oh, but Aunt Polly, hers will last. She can always be sick and have things, you know; but his is just a broken leg, and legs don't last. I mean, broken ones. He's had it a whole week now.

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, I remember. I heard Mr. John

32

going to stay together and play The Game, just as you wanted them to.

POLLYANNA: Did she? Did she really? Oh, I am glad of that. MISS HARRINGTON: She hoped you'd be glad. That's why she came

by. And Pastor Malden and Mrs. Benton, they came by, too, so that you would be glad. The pastor told me to tell you he counted more than eight hundred. They all want you to play The Game with them, and be glad for them.

POLLYANNA: Why, Aunt Polly, you spoke just as if you knew. Do you know about The Game, Aunt Polly?

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, dear. Nancy told me. I think it's a beautiful game. I'm going to play it now, with you.

POLLYANNA: You? I've really wanted you most of anybody, all the time.

MISS HARRINGTON: And I have more glad news for you. I am going to ask Doctor Chilton to come see you tomorrow. He may be able to help you walk again. He has a friend who does just this sort of doctoring.

POLLYANNA: Doctor Chilton fixed Mr. Pendleton's broken leg, and I know he can fix me, too.

MISS HARRINGTON: He'll certainly try, my dear. POLLYANNA: If you loved Doctor Chilton the way I do, you'd know

he could do it for sure. MISS HARRINGTON: What did you say? POLLYANNA: It's just that I love Doctor Chilton and I know he can

do it if he says he can. Do you love Doctor Chilton, too, Aunt Polly? MISS HARRINGTON: What an odd thing to say, dear. POLLYANNA: Well, do you? MISS HARRINGTON: There was a time, a long time ago, when

Doctor Chilton and I were ... well, we were very much in love. POLLYANNA: You? And Doctor Chilton? What happened? MISS HARRINGTON: This is very difficult for me to talk about. POLLYANNA: You can tell me, Aunt Polly, because I love you. What

happened? MISS HARRINGTON: We quarreled. POLLYANNA: What was the quarrel about? MISS HARRINGTON: What was it? What's any lovers' quarrel, after

it's over? A silly wrangle over the size of the moon or the depth of a river, maybe. It might as well be, so far as its having any real significance compared to the years of misery that follow. And because of my pride, I told him that the next time I asked him to enter my house, it would be a miracle because

49

MRS. SNOW: Why, I suppose so, if you want to. But 'twon't stay, you know. (POLLYANNA takes up the cause enthusiastically, removing MRS. SNOW'S hat and re-doing her hair into a nicerlooking style, pulling the bow from her own hair and clipping it in MRS. SNOW'S hair, chatting the whole time.)

POLLYANNA: Oh, thank you. I love to fix people's hair. I shan't do much today, of course. I'm in such a hurry for you to see how pretty you are, but some day I'm going to take it all down and have a perfectly lovely time with it. (Finishes off by picking a pink flower and placing it in MRS. SNOW'S hair.) There! Now I reckon we're ready to be looked at. (Hands her the mirror.)

MRS. SNOW: Humph! I like red flowers better than pink ones. But then, it'll fade, anyhow, before night, so what's the difference?

POLLYANNA: But I should think you'd be glad they did fade, 'cause then you can have the fun of getting some more. I just love your hair fluffed out like that, don't you?

MRS. SNOW: Hmmm. Maybe. Still, 'twon't last, with me tossing back and forth on the pillow as I do, sick all of my days.

POLLYANNA: Why, it would be kind of hard to do it then, wouldn't it?

MRS. SNOW: Do what? POLLYANNA: Be glad about things. MRS. SNOW: Be glad about things? When you're sickly as I am?

Well, I should say it would. If you don't think so, just tell me something to be glad about, that's all!

POLLYANNA: Oh, goody! That'll be a hard one, won't it? It's all the more fun, though, always when 'tis hard. I got it!

MRS. SNOW: Did you, really? Well, what is it? POLLYANNA: This one was very hard, but I thought how glad you

could be that other folks weren't like you, all sick like this, you know.

MRS. SNOW: Well, really! Take me home, Mille. Now. MILLIE: I think it's a very glad thought, Mother! (Starts to roll MRS.

SNOW OFF toward home.) MRS. SNOW: You would. What do you suppose she meant by that,

anyway? (Looks in the mirror.) That little thing has got a knack with hair, and no mistake. I declare, I didn't know it could look so pretty. But then, what 's the use? (They EXIT DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA sits on the bench, as instructed to do earlier. After a moment, PASTOR MALDEN ENTERS DOWN LEFT, looking quite dejected. He seats himself on the bench next to POLLYANNA and pats his Bible on his knee distractedly,

17

NOTES

viii

POLLYANNA: That's right. Every time I switches my colors, they all tie up in each other somethin' awful.

MISS HARRINGTON: You can put your stitching away for the time being and take this jar of jelly over to Mrs. Snow's.

POLLYANNA: Am I ever gla ... I mean, yes, Ma'am. (Timidly asking.) Aunt Polly, please would you mind very much if I took Mrs. Snow 's calf's-foot jelly this week to someone else? I'm sure Mrs. Snow wouldn't mind. Just this once?

MISS HARRINGTON: Dear me, what are you up to now? You are the most extraordinary child! What is it about this jelly?

POLLYANNA: Nothing truly that you would mind, I'm sure. You let me take the jelly to her, so I thought you would to him, this once. You see, broken legs aren't like ... like lifelong invalids, so his won't last forever as Mrs. Snow's does, and she can have all the rest of the things after just once or twice.

MISS HARRINGTON: Him? He? Broken leg? What are you talking about?

POLLYANNA: Oh, I forgot. I reckon you didn't know. I found him in the woods, you see, and I had to unlock his house and telephone for the men and the doctor and hold his head and everything. And of course then I came away and haven't seen him since. But when Mrs. Durgin made the jelly for Mrs. Snow this week I thought how nice it would be if I could take it to him instead of her, just this once. Aunt Polly, May I?

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, yes, I suppose so. Who did you say he was?

POLLYANNA: The man? It was Mr. John Pendleton. MISS HARRINGTON: (Shocked at the sound of his name.) John

Pendleton? POLLYANNA: Yes. Nancy told me his name. Maybe you know him. MISS HARRINGTON: Do you know him? POLLYANNA: Oh, yes. He always speaks and smiles, now. He's only

cross outside, you know. I'll take the jelly now. MISS HARRINGTON: Pollyanna, wait! I've changed my mind. I

would prefer that Mrs. Snow had that jelly today, as usual. That is all. You may go now.

POLLYANNA: Oh, but Aunt Polly, hers will last. She can always be sick and have things, you know; but his is just a broken leg, and legs don't last. I mean, broken ones. He's had it a whole week now.

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, I remember. I heard Mr. John

32

going to stay together and play The Game, just as you wanted them to.

POLLYANNA: Did she? Did she really? Oh, I am glad of that. MISS HARRINGTON: She hoped you'd be glad. That's why she came

by. And Pastor Malden and Mrs. Benton, they came by, too, so that you would be glad. The pastor told me to tell you he counted more than eight hundred. They all want you to play The Game with them, and be glad for them.

POLLYANNA: Why, Aunt Polly, you spoke just as if you knew. Do you know about The Game, Aunt Polly?

MISS HARRINGTON: Yes, dear. Nancy told me. I think it's a beautiful game. I'm going to play it now, with you.

POLLYANNA: You? I've really wanted you most of anybody, all the time.

MISS HARRINGTON: And I have more glad news for you. I am going to ask Doctor Chilton to come see you tomorrow. He may be able to help you walk again. He has a friend who does just this sort of doctoring.

POLLYANNA: Doctor Chilton fixed Mr. Pendleton's broken leg, and I know he can fix me, too.

MISS HARRINGTON: He'll certainly try, my dear. POLLYANNA: If you loved Doctor Chilton the way I do, you'd know

he could do it for sure. MISS HARRINGTON: What did you say? POLLYANNA: It's just that I love Doctor Chilton and I know he can

do it if he says he can. Do you love Doctor Chilton, too, Aunt Polly? MISS HARRINGTON: What an odd thing to say, dear. POLLYANNA: Well, do you? MISS HARRINGTON: There was a time, a long time ago, when

Doctor Chilton and I were ... well, we were very much in love. POLLYANNA: You? And Doctor Chilton? What happened? MISS HARRINGTON: This is very difficult for me to talk about. POLLYANNA: You can tell me, Aunt Polly, because I love you. What

happened? MISS HARRINGTON: We quarreled. POLLYANNA: What was the quarrel about? MISS HARRINGTON: What was it? What's any lovers' quarrel, after

it's over? A silly wrangle over the size of the moon or the depth of a river, maybe. It might as well be, so far as its having any real significance compared to the years of misery that follow. And because of my pride, I told him that the next time I asked him to enter my house, it would be a miracle because

49

MRS. SNOW: Why, I suppose so, if you want to. But 'twon't stay, you know. (POLLYANNA takes up the cause enthusiastically, removing MRS. SNOW'S hat and re-doing her hair into a nicerlooking style, pulling the bow from her own hair and clipping it in MRS. SNOW'S hair, chatting the whole time.)

POLLYANNA: Oh, thank you. I love to fix people's hair. I shan't do much today, of course. I'm in such a hurry for you to see how pretty you are, but some day I'm going to take it all down and have a perfectly lovely time with it. (Finishes off by picking a pink flower and placing it in MRS. SNOW'S hair.) There! Now I reckon we're ready to be looked at. (Hands her the mirror.)

MRS. SNOW: Humph! I like red flowers better than pink ones. But then, it'll fade, anyhow, before night, so what's the difference?

POLLYANNA: But I should think you'd be glad they did fade, 'cause then you can have the fun of getting some more. I just love your hair fluffed out like that, don't you?

MRS. SNOW: Hmmm. Maybe. Still, 'twon't last, with me tossing back and forth on the pillow as I do, sick all of my days.

POLLYANNA: Why, it would be kind of hard to do it then, wouldn't it?

MRS. SNOW: Do what? POLLYANNA: Be glad about things. MRS. SNOW: Be glad about things? When you're sickly as I am?

Well, I should say it would. If you don't think so, just tell me something to be glad about, that's all!

POLLYANNA: Oh, goody! That'll be a hard one, won't it? It's all the more fun, though, always when 'tis hard. I got it!

MRS. SNOW: Did you, really? Well, what is it? POLLYANNA: This one was very hard, but I thought how glad you

could be that other folks weren't like you, all sick like this, you know.

MRS. SNOW: Well, really! Take me home, Mille. Now. MILLIE: I think it's a very glad thought, Mother! (Starts to roll MRS.

SNOW OFF toward home.) MRS. SNOW: You would. What do you suppose she meant by that,

anyway? (Looks in the mirror.) That little thing has got a knack with hair, and no mistake. I declare, I didn't know it could look so pretty. But then, what 's the use? (They EXIT DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA sits on the bench, as instructed to do earlier. After a moment, PASTOR MALDEN ENTERS DOWN LEFT, looking quite dejected. He seats himself on the bench next to POLLYANNA and pats his Bible on his knee distractedly,


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v52

PRODUCTION NOTES

PROPERTIES

ONSTAGE, ACT ONE: Town Square: Park bench, potted pinkflowering plants, removable mirror on barbershop wall, fruit and vegetable displays, sign pointing to railway station. Harrington sitting room: Rich Victorian furnishings, chairs, sofa, sofa pillows, needlepoint on stand, tables with flowers, hand bell and lamps. Dr. Chilton's office: Desk, chair, medical bag, bottles of medicine and " tonic;' telephone.

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene One: Mrs. Snow 's wheelchair, hat with broken brim (MILLIE); stick and hoop (CHILD); purses, brooms, bags of groceries (TOWNSPEOPLE), hat (MONIQUE).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Two: Bible (PASTOR MALDEN); broom (GILBERT); cloth shopping bag (NANCY ); purse (MISS HARRINGTON).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Three: Luggage (TRAIN PASSENGERS); tin lunch pail, trunk check (POLLYANNA); telegram (NANCY); new-looking train trunk (OLD TOM).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Four: List (MISS HARRINGTON); dish towel (MRS. DURGIN); lunch pail (POLLYANNA); train trunk (OLD TOM).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Six: Bible (PASTOR MALDEN); broom (MR. WINKLE); cloth shopping bag, same bag filled with groceries (NANCY ); basket with jelly, hair bow (POLLYANNA); wheelchair (MILLIE); hat with veil (MRS. SNOW).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Seven: Small sampler, needle and threads attached (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Eight: Empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Nine: Empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT ONE, Scene Ten: Embroidery, needle (MISS HARRINGTON); empty hand basket (POLLYANNA).

52

to eat. She has to guess it mor 'n half the time. Only it ' ll be somethin' cheap. She knows that without no tellin'.

POLLYANNA: I know. You have to look for cheap things when you're poor. Father and I took meals out sometimes. We had beans and fish balls most generally. We used to say how glad we were that we liked beans. Does Mr. Pendleton like beans?

NANCY: Like 'em! What if he does, or don't? Why, Miss Pollyanna, he ain't poor. He's got loads of money, John Pendleton has. From his father. There ain't nobody in town as rich as he is. He could eat dollar bills, if he wanted to, and not know it.

POLLYANNA: As if anybody could eat dollar bills and not know it, Nancy, when they come to try to chew 'em!

NANCY: Ho! I mean he's rich enough to do it. He ain't spendin' his money, that's all. He's a-savin' it.

POLLYANNA: Oh! For the heathen! How perfectly splendid. That's called denying yourself and taking up your cross. I know. Father told me.

NANCY: Some says he's crazy, and some just cross and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet.

POLLYANNA: How can he keep such a dreadful thing? I should think he'd throw it away!

NANCY: And everybody says he's mysterious. Some years he just travels, week in and week out, and it 's always in heathen countries, Egypt and Asia, and the Desert of Sarah, you know.

POLLYANNA: Oh, a missionary. NANCY: Well, I didn't say that. When he comes back he writes

books, queer, odd books, they say, about some gimcrack he's found in them heathen countries. But he don't never seem to want to spend no money here, leastways, not for just livin'.

POLLYANNA: Of course not, if he's saving it for the heathen. But he is a funny man, and he's different, too, just like Mrs. Snow. Only he's a different different.

NANCY: Well, I guess he is, rather. POLLYANNA: I'm gladder'n ever now, anyhow, that he speaks to

me. NANCY: Well, you just keep on bein' glad, child. You can be glad

for all the rest of us, too, cuz sometimes it's mighty hard to figure. POLLYANNA: That it is, till you get better at The Game, and I

know you will, the more you play it. That's the way it works. NANCY: If you say so.

20

DR. MEAD An elderly specialist from New York City, he has the professional warmth of a tall peak in Alaska and the tact of a mosquito.

TOWNSPEOPLE Includes MRS. MCCLEARY, MONIQUE, JOEY PAYSON (almost 6), EMILY PAYSON (around 5), GILBERT the barber, MR. WINKLE the grocer, TRAIN PASSENGERS, CONDUCTOR (OFFSTAGE voice), VARIOUS ADULTS, TEENS and CHILDREN.

SYNOPSIS OF SCENES

TIME: Circa 1910.


ACT ONE

Scene One: Morning in the Town Square, segue to JIMMY BEAN'S platform.




Scene Five: JIMMY BEAN'S platform.



Scene Eight: Morning in DR. CHILTON'S office.

Scene Nine: A few minutes after the previous scene, JIMMY BEAN'S platform (along a country road).


ACT TWO

Scene One: JIMMY BEAN'S platform, about a week later.

V

embroidery, finding herself tangling her fingers into the back of it, as POLLYANNA did earlier. After a second or two, POLLYANNA-still carrying her basket-and JIMMY slip IN DOWN LEFT. POLLYANNA hides JIMMY behind her back.

POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly! I 've got something for you. MISS HARRINGTON: Did you wipe your feet off before you came

in? POLLYANNA: (She and JIMMY wipe their feet on the inside rug.) Yes,

Ma' am, I wiped my feet. MISS HARRINGTON: Did you take the jelly to Mrs. Snow? POLLYANNA: Yes, Ma'am, and on the way home I found something

that's even nicer than Fluffy or Buffy for you to bring up. MISS HARRINGTON: (Still fiddling with embroidery, not looking up.)

What is it, Pollyanna? You know we already have more pets than we need.

POLLYANNA: Well, just look up here! (JIMMY jumps out into full view.) It 's a real, live boy!

MISS HARRINGTON: (Needlepoint falls to the floor as she stands in shock.) Pollyanna, what does this mean? Who is this dirty little boy? Where did you find him?

POLLYANNA: There, if I didn't forget to tell you his name! And he is dirty, too, isn't he? But I reckon he'll improve all right by washing, and ... Oh, I 'most forgot again. This is Jimmy Bean, Aunt Polly.

MISS HARRINGTON: Well, what is he doing here? POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly, I just told you! He's for you. MISS HARRINGTON: For me? This is by far the most absurd thing

you've done yet. As if tramp cats and mangy dogs weren't bad enough, must you also bring home ragged little beggars from the street?

JIMMY BEAN: I ain't a beggar, marm, an' I don't want nothin' o' you. I was calculatin' to work, of course, for my board an' keep.

MISS HARRINGTON: How did you get into my house? POLLYANNA: He came home with me! Aren't you glad? JIMMY BEAN: I wouldn't have come to your old house, anyhow, if

this here girl hadn't a' made me, a'tellin' me how you was so good an' kind that you'd be just dyin' to take me in. So there!

POLLYANNA: Oh, Aunt Polly. Why, I thought you'd be glad to have him here! I sure thought you'd be glad-

MISS HARRINGTON: Pollyanna! Will you stop using that everlasting word "glad"! It 's "glad," "glad," "glad" from morning

29

# of lines

DR. MEAD .....................................................................................5An elderly specialist from New York City, he has the professional warmth of a tall peak in Alaska and the tact of a mosquito.

TOWNSPEOPLE ...............................................................................Includes MRS. MCCLEARY (4 lines), MONIQUE (4 lines), JOEY PAYSON (almost 6; 3 lines), EMILY PAYSON (around 5; 2 lines), GILBERT the barber, MR. WINKLE the grocer, TRAIN PASSENGERS, CONDUCTOR (OFFSTAGE voice; 1 line), VARIOUS ADULTS, TEENS and CHILDREN.

SYNOPSIS OF SCENESTIME: Circa 1910.


ACT ONE

Scene One: Morning in the Town Square, segue to JIMMY BEAN’S platform.




Scene Five: JIMMY BEAN’S platform.



Scene Eight: Morning in DR. CHILTON’S office.

Scene Nine: A few minutes after the previous scene, JIMMY BEAN’S platform (along a country road).


iv 53

PASTOR MALDEN Here's a pastor trying to serve in a town where people hold grudges and prefer the Bible verse "Woe unto you" over "Rejoice and be glad." No wonder he's confused. His epiphany comes when Pollyanna tells him to count the joyful texts for once in his life.

MRS. SNOW A seasoned hypochondriac, around 50 years of age, she finds meaning in life by maintaining complete control over her daughter, Millie. She complains in order to garner pity in the form of gifts from her neighbors. But in reality, the pity they feel is for her daughter.

MILLIE SNOW Bitterly serving her mother's needs all her life, she has developed a deep sense of sarcasm and views most of life in a dark, dreary manner, according to her own sense of meaningless existence.

JACK PAYSON A sometimes-employed rough-edged man in his mid-20s.

MRS. PAYSON She's rough around the edges, but sincere and long-sighted enough to see through the eyes of a child when given the opportunity. Like everyone else in that town (a microcosm of America) she's been living her life for herself for so long, she is drowning in self-pity. With the chance to help someone else for a change, she makes the effort and finds the victory.

LORETTA Unfortunate enough to be Mr. Pendleton's housekeeper, she meets his verbal jabs with choice phrases of her own, although usually under her breath.

MRS. BENTON A dignified and somewhat shy widow. Pollyanna's friend. Her definition of "risk" is to wear a bright blue scarf with her black widow 's dress.

iv

JIMMY BEAN: Nowhere. POLLYANNA: Nowhere! Why, you can't do that! Everybody lives

somewhere. JIMMY BEAN: Well, I don't (Pause.) just now. I'm huntin' up a new

place. POLLYANNA: Oh, where is it? JIMMY BEAN: Silly! As if I'd be a-huntin' for it if I knew! POLLYANNA: Where did you live before? JIMMY BEAN: Well, if you ain't the beat 'em for askin' questions! POLLYANNA: I have to be, else I couldn't find out a thing about you.

If you'd talk more I wouldn't talk so much. JIMMY BEAN: All right, then, here goes! I'm Jimmy Bean and I'm

ten years old goin' on eleven. I come last year to live at the Orphans' Home; but they 've got so many kids, there ain't much room for me, an' I wasn't never wanted, anyhow, I don't believe. So I've quit. I'm goin' to live somewheres else. But I hain't found the place, yet. I'd like a home, just a common one, y 'know, with a mother in it, instead of a matron. If ya has a home, ya has folks, an' I hain't had folks since Dad died. So I'm a-huntin' now. I've tried four houses, but they didn't want me, though I said I expected to work, 'course. There! Is that all you want to know, Miss Busybody?

POLLYANNA: Why, what a shame! And didn't there anybody want you? Oh, dear! I know just how you feel, because after ... after my father died, too, there wasn't anybody but the Ladies Aid for me, until Aunt Polly said she'd take ... I know just the place for you. Aunt Polly 'll take you. I know she will! Didn't she take me? And didn't she take Fluffy and Buffy when they didn't have anyone to love them, or any place to go? And they're only a cat and a dog. Oh, come! I know Aunt Polly 'll take you! You don't know how good and kind she is! Come with me, Jimmy Bean! (They EXIT DOWN RIGHT. BLACKOUT.)

End of Scene Nine

Scene Ten

The Harrington mansion sitting room, a few minutes later. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freeze-frame. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP FULL. MISS HARRINGTON is on sofa, fumbling with

28

ONSTAGE ACT TWO: Harrington sitting room: Rich Victorian furnishings, chairs, sofa, sofa pillows, needlepoint on stand, table with flowers and one with empty vase, hand bell. Mr. Pendleton's front room: Wheelchair, table, sitting room chair, lamp with removable hanging crystal fobs. Town Square: Park bench, potted pinkflowering plants, mirror on barbershop wall, fruit and vegetable displays, sign pointing to railway station.

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Two: Small sampler with needle and threads attached (POLLYANNA); basket with jar of jelly (MISS HARRINGTON).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Three: Doctor 's bag and stethoscope (DR. CHILTON); feather duster (LORETTA); basket with jar of jelly (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Four: Flowers (OLD TOM); tray of medicines (NANCY); medical bag (DR. MEAD); bright blue scarf (MRS. BENTON); crutches (MR. PENDLETON).

BROUGHT ON ACT TWO, Scene Five: Wheelchair (POLLYANNA).

BROUGHT ON, ACT TWO, Scene Six: Letter (JIMMY BEAN); flowers (JOEY AND EMILY PAYSON); "Welcome Home" signs (TOWNSPEOPLE); crutches (POLLYANNA); luggage (DR. CHILTON).

SOUND EFFECTS

Chugging of train, train whistle and brakes, old-fashioned telephone ringing, car squealing and loud thump.

SPECIAL LIGHTING

Many of the scenes open with a freeze-action pose lit with "SepiaTone" lights to replicate the look of an old-time photo. This can be done with amber lighting.

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POLLYANNA: I do say so! (EXITS DOWN LEFT.) NANCY: It's just mighty hard to figure most times ... (EXITS DOWN

LEFT. BLACKOUT. MUSIC.)

End of Scene Six

Scene Seven

Afternoon in the Harrington mansion sitting room, about a week later. BRING UP SEPIA-TONE LIGHTS and begin scene with freezeframe. Hold freeze for a few seconds, then BRING LIGHTS and action UP F U L L and MUSIC OUT. MISS HARRINGTON is instructing POLLYANNA how to needlepoint. POLLYANNA is mistakenly tangling her fingers into the back side of her sampler.

MISS HARRINGTON: Then you bring your needle back through the stitches you made on the other side. That puts a neat, clean finish to the project and hides the loose ends. (Emphatically.) You must never leave any loose ends dangling.

POLLYANNA: Aunt Polly, I don't mean to be ungrateful, but (Holds up sampler to show sewn-in fingers.) I don't know if sewing is something I can ever be glad for. But I'm very happy that you want to teach me.

MISS HARRINGTON: It is my duty to teach you and your duty to learn. I trust that eventually you will find this instruction profitable.

POLLYANNA: (Wrapping her arms around her aunt.) You can trust that right now I find that I'm very happy being here with you, Aunt Polly.

MISS HARRINGTON: (Resisting POLLYANNA'S affection.) But you must also find that your time spent in educational endeavors is profitable.

POLLYANNA: Do you mean that it 's not enough, then, that I should just be happy?

MISS HARRINGTON: That is precisely what I mean. There is more to life than just being "happy:'

POLLYANNA: So I must be fro-fit-a-ble as well? MISS HARRINGTON: The word is "profitable;· and certainly you

must. POLLYANNA: What is being profitable? MISS HARRINGTON: Why it's ... it's just ... being profitable.

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# of lines

PASTOR MALDEN ........................................................................40Here’s a pastor trying to serve in a town where people hold grudges and prefer the Bible verse “Woe unto you” over “Rejoice and be glad.” No wonder he’s confused. His epiphany comes when Pollyanna tells him to count the joyful texts for once in his life.

MRS. SNOW ................................................................................21A seasoned hypochondriac, around 50 years of age, she finds meaning in life by maintaining complete control over her daughter, Millie. She complains in order to garner pity in the form of gifts from her neighbors. But in reality, the pity they feel is for her daughter.

MILLIE SNOW ................................................................................7Bitterly serving her mother’s needs all her life, she has developed a deep sense of sarcasm and views most of life in a dark, dreary manner, according to her own sense of meaningless existence.

JACK PAYSON ................................................................................4A sometimes-employed rough-edged man in his mid-20s.

MRS. PAYSON ...............................................................................5She’s rough around the edges, but sincere and long-sighted enough to see through the eyes of a child when given the opportunity. Like everyone else in that town (a microcosm of America) she’s been living her life for herself for so long, she is drowning in self-pity. With the chance to help someone else for a change, she makes the effort and finds the victory.

LORETTA .......................................................................................6Unfortunate enough to be Mr. Pendleton’s housekeeper, she meets his verbal jabs with choice phrases of her own, although usually under her breath.

MRS. BENTON ..............................................................................5A dignified and somewhat shy widow. Pollyanna’s friend. Her definition of “risk” is to wear a bright blue scarf with her black widow’s dress.


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MUSIC

Music plays during each scene change. All music should be of the period. Try to make the piece reflect the mood of the upcoming or preceding scene. It's easy to find Scott Joplin ragtime music in any store, so that may be a good choice. Selections from the era may include any sort of Scott Joplin ragtime music as well as popular period pieces such as: "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag;' "Till The Clouds Roll By;' ''Alexander's Ragtime Band;' "Danny Boy;' etc.

COSTUMES

POLLYANNA'S bright costume colors, which reflect her vibrant personality, are in contrast to MISS HARRINGTON'S no-nonsense costumes until the second act, when they begin to match one another more. Women wore long dresses, girls mid-calf. Men usually wore jackets and suits; boys wore knickers and caps. Women and men, both, wore hats regularly when going into town. Good examples of period costume may be found in the movie "Music Man."

FLEXIBLE CASTING

Some characters may be doubled by the same actor. Possible doubles include MONIQUE or MRS. MCCLEARY /LORETTA or MRS.BENTON; JACK PAYSON/DR. MEAD; GILBERT /WINKLE/DR. MEAD; CONDUCTOR'S VOICE/any male character.

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Having profit. Something to show for your time. (Scrutinizing.) What an extraordinary child you are!

POLLYANNA: Then just being glad isn' t prof-itable? MISS HARRINGTON: Certainly not! POLLYANNA: Oh, dear! Then you wouldn' t like it, of course. I'm

afraid now that you won't ever play The Game. MISS HARRINGTON: Game? What game? POLLYANNA: Why the one that Father- (Catching herself, suddenly

cresifallen.) N ... nothing. May I go to my room now? I'd like to read, if I may. (There is a long silence.)

MISS HARRINGTON: (Softening a little.) You do like your room, don' t you? It serves you well? Now that the screens are in?

POLLYANNA: Oh, I love my room. Even if it hasn' t got the carpets and curtains and pictures that I'd been want-

MISS HARRINGTON: What's that? POLLYANNA: (Ashamed of herself.) N ... nothing, truly. I didn't mean

to say it. MISS HARRINGTON: Probably not, but you did say it, so suppose

we have the rest of it. POLLYANNA: But it wasn' t anything, only that I'd been kind of

planning on pretty carpets and lace curtains and things, you know. But of course-

MISS HARRINGTON: Planning on them! POLLYANNA: I ought not to have, Aunt Polly. It was only because

I'd always wanted them and hadn't had them, I suppose. I shouldn't have got to planning all through the hall that first day how pretty my room would be here, just because of all the pretty things you have, Aunt Polly. And it only took me a few minutes before I was being glad that the bureau didn't have a looking-glass because then it didn't show my freckles; and there couldn' t be a nicer picture than the one out my window there and you've been so good to me that-

MISS HARRINGTON: (This is the first time she has used her name.) That will do, Pollyanna. You have said quite enough, I'm sure.

POLLYANNA: (Nearly in tears.) Yes, ma'am. May I go to my room now?

MISS HARRINGTON: Nancy, Nancy! (She rings the bell and NANCY hurries ON DOWN LEFT.)

NANCY: Yes, Miss Harrington? MISS HARRINGTON: I would like you to move my niece's things

downstairs this morning to the room directly beneath.

22

MRS. DURGIN She's been a cook with the Harrington family long enough to have known Pollyanna's mother as a young girl. She doesn' t especially approve of Miss Harrington's behavior, but doesn' t think it 's her business to meddle.

OLD TOM Gardener at the Harrington home. He's a compassionate and wise old man who has been with the family almost as long as they 've been a family. He has a positive outlook on life and his mature confidence stands in contrast to Nancy 's worrisome attitude. Sort of a "weathered " version of Pollyanna.

JIMMY BEAN An orphan like Pollyanna, but without a relative to take him in, he is 10 years old going on 11. He ended up at the Beldingsville Orphan's Home a year ago, but has taken it into his own hands to get himself adopted. He narrates the whole story, telling it as he sees it, in a way speaking the mind of the audience. Like the audience, he doubts Pollyanna's wisdom and sincerity in the beginning, but eventually comes around by the end.

JOHN PENDLETON In his mid-40's, he's the male equivalent to Polly Harrington. He once had designs on Jenny, Polly 's oldest sister and Pollyanna's mother. When she married and moved away, his heart was broken. Over the years he has become a hermit and has no plans of making any changes to that arrangement. He finds solace in writing books and travelling the world alone. He resents any intrusion on his privacy and is aware that Miss Harrington blames him somewhat for the loss of her sister.

DR. THOMAS CHILTON Mid-30s to 40 years old, he was once involved romantically with Polly Harrington, and still loves her from afar. He has accepted his lot in life and continues to serve as town doctor out of a sense of duty and purpose. He is intelligent and kind, as well as patient and humble, but he's let his life drift into a safe sort of routine. It takes a vibrant youngster like Pollyanna to open him up to taking the risks of life again.

iii

DR. CHILTON: God bless you, little girl. And I'm thinking that it is the doctor, quite as much as his patients, that needs a draught of your tonic!

POLLYANNA: Then I'm glad that Mrs. Snow needed her medicine today. Thank you, Doctor Chilton! (She rushes OUT DOWN RIGHT.)

DR. CHILTON: Thank you, Pollyanna. (BLACKOUT. MUSIC UP, continues through monologue.)

End of Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Along a country road. Played on JIMMY BEAN 'S platform. JIMMY BEAN is dressed in his orphan clothes. SPOT COMES UP and he and POLLYANNA play the next scene in the SPOT.

JIMMY BEAN: It was right about this time that I came into the picture. Pollyanna had taken to bringing stray kittens and mangy dogs into Miss Harrington's house to care for, and so it was only natural that she should take to me. She was on her way home from Mrs. Snow 's. Pollyanna had taught Mrs. Snow how to play The Glad Game. To be sure, she wasn' t too good at it at first since she'd been so sorry for herself for so long, but with Pollyanna around being glad about most everything, Mrs. Snow was learning fast. I was a-feelin' sort o'sorry myself that day and had just about made up my mind to run away from the Orphan's Home once and for all. And there wasn't nobody that was goin' to make me change my mind. And that's when Pollyanna came along. (MUSIC FADES.)

POLLYANNA: (ENTERS DOWN RIGHT carrying her empty basket.) Hullo!

JIMMY BEAN: Hullo, yerself. POLLYANNA: Now, you don' t look as if you'd be glad even for calf's

foot jelly! (JIMMY BEAN takes a moment to be stunned by that remark, then goes back to whittling.) My name's Pollyanna Whittier. What's yours?

JIMMY BEAN: Jimmy Bean. POLLYANNA: Good! Now we're introduced. I'm glad you did your

part. Some folks don' t know how, you know. I live at Miss Polly Harrington's house. Where do you live?

27

# of lines

MRS. DURGIN ...............................................................................5She’s been a cook with the Harrington family long enough to have known Pollyanna’s mother as a young girl. She doesn’t especially approve of Miss Harrington’s behavior, but doesn’t think it’s her business to meddle.

OLD TOM ......................................................................................9Gardener at the Harrington home. He’s a compassionate and wise old man who has been with the family almost as long as they’ve been a family. He has a positive outlook on life and his mature confidence stands in contrast to Nancy’s worrisome attitude. Sort of a “weathered” version of Pollyanna.

JIMMY BEAN ...............................................................................25An orphan like Pollyanna, but without a relative to take him in, he is 10 years old going on 11. He ended up at the Beldingsville Orphan’s Home a year ago, but has taken it into his own hands to get himself adopted. He narrates the whole story, telling it as he sees it, in a way speaking the mind of the audience. Like the audience, he doubts Pollyanna’s wisdom and sincerity in the beginning, but eventually comes around by the end.

JOHN PENDLETON .......................................................................78In his mid-40’s, he’s the male equivalent to Polly Harrington. He once had designs on Jenny, Polly’s oldest sister and Pollyanna’s mother. When she married and moved away, his heart was broken. Over the years he has become a hermit and has no plans of making any changes to that arrangement. He finds solace in writing books and travelling the world alone. He resents any intrusion on his privacy and is aware that Miss Harrington blames him somewhat for the loss of her sister.

DR. THOMAS CHILTON .................................................................43Mid-30s to 40 years old, he was once involved romantically with Polly Harrington, and still loves her from afar. He has accepted his lot in life and continues to serve as town doctor out of a sense of duty and purpose. He is intelligent and kind, as well as patient and humble, but he’s let his life drift into a safe sort of routine. It takes a vibrant youngster like Pollyanna to open him up to taking the risks of life again.

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