Princess Puffer's Perfect Present
1997 · Triopia Junior/Senior High School and area grade schools
A spoiled, conceited princess who has grown bored with every gift in the kingdom is taken on a journey that teaches her what Christmas is really about. Princess Puffer's Perfect Present is an original Christmas play written by Ken Bradbury for his 8th-grade Creative Arts class at Triopia Junior High School, performed during the 1997 holiday season.
The story opens in the day room of King Apathetica and Queen Callous, where their daughter, Princess Puffer, is demanding "the biggest, best, most expensive gift ever" — and finding that her parents have nothing left to buy her. Guided by a delightfully self-aware narrator named Juliann, who delights in showing the audience just how much power a narrator can have (often at the expense of poor Mumbojumb the Wizard, who keeps losing his pants), the play follows Puffer out of the castle and into the wider kingdom. There she encounters a fairy godmother, a band of forest children, a parade of vain suitors, and, finally, a simple act of giving that proves the perfect present is no present at all.
The play was conceived to be played in the round on a gym floor, with young audiences seated on three sides, and was deliberately kept simple and warm in the spirit of stories like The Jungle Book. Its heart is summed up in one of its closing songs: "All you really need is love to have yourself a very merry Christmas — to give yourself's the greatest gift of all."
Songs
- "I'm Bored with My Presents" — Princess Puffer's complaint that she is bored with everything under the sun
- "If You Start with a Smile" — a comic cautionary number about the fate of frowners and grumps
- "All You Really Need Is Love" — the show's tender Christmas finale
Cast
- Princess Puffer — Lydia Andras
- Juliann (Narrator) — Mallory Rahe
- King Apathetica — Eric Guthrie
- Queen Callous — Shanita Mickens
- Prince Haughtyford — Matt Snodgrass
- Prince Leo Ego — Luke Williams
- Prince Arry Gant — Jerod Beard
- Prince Pseudocool — Gus Lakamp
- Baffelda, The Fairy Godmother — Julie Kleinschmidt
- Mumbojumb, The Wizard — Sean Anderson
- Gallahad — Josh Crews
- The Sprites — Jacob Meyer, Trista Taylor, Aaron Surratt, Rachel Scheer, Chandra Daniel, Elizabeth Clements, Shanita Mickens, Jane Anderson, Kara Bumgarner
- Stage Crew / Stage Managers — Matt Weimer, Jeremy Schoonover, Travis Deaver, Dylan Phelps
Production Notes
Princess Puffer's Perfect Present was the final project of the first-semester Creative Arts class at Triopia Junior High School in 1997. The cast — half of Triopia's 8th grade, along with two high school peer helpers — were students who had never performed a play before, having spent the back half of the semester studying play production.
The production toured the surrounding community in December 1997 as a Christmas gift to area schoolchildren. In addition to performances at Triopia, the cast traveled by bus to Winchester Grade School, Murrayville Grade School, Jacksonville North School, and Jefferson School in Jacksonville, performing for hundreds of children across several days. As Bradbury described it to a colleague, the show was "full of Kings, Queens, Princes, mythical beasts, and a very unusual collection of gnomes."
Director Ken Bradbury staged the show simply and portably: stage crew handled the flats, keyboard, amp, and PA system, while cast members managed their own costumes and props. His tour schedule famously warned the young company, "If you forget your costume on the day of a show, we'll strip you down and paint it on you!" and reminded them, "We have no understudies."