Script: Mary Anning

Mary Anning the script

Mary Anning passes seashells  to the audience.

MARY: HI, I’m Mary Anning. Has anyone ever been to the beach? Well when I was little girl I

used to play on the beach all the time, I loved finding all different shells.

In fact did you know if you hold the shells up to your ear you can hear the ocean,

like you’re really there!

While Mary is handing out the shells.

The company are creating the atmosphere of the beach.

MARY: When I was a child I loved exploring the beach,

and finding fun things to do. In fact I love exploring so much that I found something

very special. But first, let me ask you all, how old do you think the world is?

Mary asks the children

MARY: Well I can in fact tell you the earth is hundreds of millions of years old.

And I am the woman who discovered it.

MARY: one day I was on the beach and I saw a strange shape in a rock.

I took out my hammer and started to dig

Company make digging noises very viscously, kind of like dogs.

MARY: I’ve found something! Company go back to making the atmosphere of the beach. Do you want to see what it is ? (PAUSE) No you don’t ! (PAUSE) You do ! Well if you really want to!

In small groups company form into the fossils Mary found. It is a thirty foot long skeleton of a plesiosaur. Company walk around as the plesiosaur. Creating noises of it and its body language.

MARY: what I found was the first ever discovery of this kind of plesiosaur. It had shark teeth and flippers from a fish. Now, just one thing left to do, What should I call it ?

Mary takes suggestions from the children and then decides on one of the suggestions.

SYLVIA: Look around at all of the sea, the coral, the fish everything around that brings the sea so much beauty and then look at that (pollution based items appear). The colour drains, the light fades; should we let something so beautiful die? I don’t think so.

We’ve lost - no we’ve taken, we’ve eaten - more than 90% of the big fish in the sea. Who gave us the right? We wouldn’t like it if we started being eaten - served with chips and ketchup. When I first came down here, it wasn’t like this. Without the ocean there would be no life on Earth. No humans, no animals, no oxygen, no plants, no TV!

ACTOR How can we help them?

SYLVIA Well firstly we’ll need to clear all this mess up. But we’ll need some help. Are there there anymore fish around that would lend us a hand?  Great! Alright fishies, we need your help. Can you help us clear up all this rubbish around us, as quickly as possible, can you do that for me?