Pan+and+Echo+2

All for Love

media type="file" key="pan2.mp3" The Radio Play

SCENE 1 [FOREST IN GREECE]

__1. MUSIC: HAPPY, EXCITING, GREEK MUSIC__

2. NARRATOR: (DRAMATICALLY) A long time ago, in a forest far, far away…

3. NYMPH: (PAINFULLY) Uh…. Uh… Uh…

4. HERMES: Come on, you can do it! Just one more push!

5. NYMPH: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

__6. SOUND: BABY CRYING, HAPPY TRUMPET MUSIC__

7. HERMES: (EXCITEDLY) He’s out! He looks so great!

8. NARRATOR: The nymph had a completely different reaction…

9. NYMPH: (FRIGHTENEDLY) Oh… my son is a hideous hairball!

__10. SOUND: WOMAN (NYMPH) SCREAMING (HIGH PITCHED)__

11. NARRATOR: The nymph, who had just given birth, ran from the ugly son.

12. HERMES: (SIGH) Oh… She doesn’t know anything. I shall take you to Olympus, to show the other gods your greatness!

__13. SOUND: “WHOOSH” SOUND__

14. ZEUS: Oh… He just makes me laugh!

15. HERA: I will forever take him to my heart!

16. VARIOUS GODS: (EXCITEDLY) We shall name him Pan, the great god of nature!

17. NARRATOR: 20 years later, Pan had developed a very lonely and moody personality. One day, he saw a nymph named Echo. Right away, he fell in love with her…

SCENE 2

__1. SOUND: GREEK FLUTE PLAYING__

2. NARRATOR: Echo was a happy nymph who chattered all day long, leaving no time for Pan to win her with his song and poetry.

3. PAN: Echo is so beautiful! I must have her for my wife. (SIGH) Although, I could do without the prattling.

4. NARRATOR: But Echo had already lost her heart to Narcissus, a young, vain mortal.

5. ECHO: Narcissus is so handsome! I do love him so!

6. PAN: I keep trying to come up with the most beautiful poems and songs I can think of! Echo chatters so much, I cannot gain her love. She keeps following Narcissus wherever he goes! This is going to be a mess!

SCENE 3

1. NARRATOR: One day, Hera came down to earth to look for Zeus, who she thought was playing with the lovely nymphs. While she was walking through the forest, she came across a forest nymph. She addressed her.

2. HERA: Hello there, my good nymph. What is your name?

3. ECHO: My name is Echo. It’s pronounced with an ‘e’ as in Everest, a ‘ch’ as in school, but there is no ‘s’, and an ‘o’ as in...

4. HERA: I know how to pronounce your name, you silly girl. That does not matter to me. My real business here is to find what has become of my very impudent husband, who I think has come here to act stupid with those idiotic nymphs.

5. ECHO: Hey! I’m a nymph!

6. HERA: Who cares? I must find Zeus to stop him going away with one of them and making another kid. Oh how I hate kids, but enough of that. Have you seen anyone suspicious around, any man playing with nymphs, anything, anything at all?

7. NARRATOR: Of course, talkative little Echo went into this long prattle about this and got so off-subject that Hera forgot about Zeus.

8. ECHO: Well I don’t think so, unless you count those ugly satyrs who are always running after us. They are so out of fashion. I mean fur coats, yuck! The real fashion just came in. Have you heard about it? It’s the new rage. Special designer artisans have come up these beautiful gowns. Well, that’s what I think they’re called, but they are absolutely gorgeous. Everyone is wearing them. I am, do you like it? It’s got flowers with bumblebees because it’s near spring and I wanted to match. Oh and do you know Aristotle just discovered that bees carry this weird yellow stuff called pollen that can be found in flowers? Isn’t that wicked?

9. NARRATOR: Echo kept going on and on about random things that it detained Hera for so long that Zeus was able to sneak away. Once, during Echo’s constant chattering, she mentioned her meeting with Zeus, and Hera all of a sudden remembered. She became very angry.

10. HERA: How dare you! You have let my own husband sneak away, it is treachery! Why in all my years as a goddess I have never heard of such a thing! You must be punished severely. Yes that’s it. Let me think…hmmm…chained to a rock…

11. ECHO: Wait! Weren’t those taken by Poseidon and Zeus?

12. HERA: Oh… you’re right! Those jerks! Ah ha! I’ve got something classic, original. Oh, my brain even surprises me at times. To punish you, Echo, I shall make it so that you can never, ever, for the rest of your years form your own words. You shall only be able to repeat the words of others!

__13. SOUND: CREEPY LAUGH__

14. SOUND: WOMAN (ECHO) SCREAMING (SLOWLY FADING)

__SCENE 4 [NEAR A RIVER]

1__. SOUND: SOFT FOOTSTEPS IN DISTANCE AND SOFT GREEK FLUTE

2. NARRATOR: One day as Narcissus hunted in the woods, as usual, Echo silently trailed behind. Echo hoped to hear an endearing word from him that she could repeat, so she followed him until nightfall.

3. NARCISSUS: I am incredibly thirsty; I shall stop to rest and have a drink.

4. ECHO: Narcissus is my one true love. Even if he loves nobody but himself, I shall make him fall in love with me. Finally, after all this waiting for Narcissus to finish hunting, he has stopped to rest. This is my chance to show my feeling towards him.

__5. SOUND: SOFT TRICKLING WATER LIKE STREAM__

6. NARRATOR: As Narcissus bent down to drink, he stopped and looked at the mirroring surface of the water in which he saw a reflection.

7. NARCISSUS: Why, this is the most handsome face I have ever seen. I believe I have fallen in love with this stranger!

8. ECHO: Finally, Narcissus must have seen my beautiful reflection and fallen in love with me!

__9. MUSIC: VIBRANT, EXCITING MUSIC__

10. NARRATOR: Narcissus smiled and the handsome face smiled back at him. Joyfully he nodded and so did the stranger in the water. Little did he know that the handsome face in the water was his very own reflection!

11. MUSIC: DRAMATIC

12. NARRATOR: Narcissus looked in the eyes of the stranger's reflection and said…

13. NARCISSUS: I must see if you are worthy of me! I love you!

14. NARRATOR: Echo was astonished and forgot all the things she had been planning on saying. Now, able to speak, she eagerly repeated…

15. ECHO: I love you!

16. ECHO: I can't believe, at last I have told Narcissus how I really feel. I can't believe he loves me back! I long to tell Narcissus everything else I wished to tell him. If cruel Hera hadn't taken my gift of forming words away from me, I would have a deep conversation with Narcissus.

17. NARCISSUS: What? What was that? Was that a little bird chirping? Oh, I must be hearing things, now, from all of the beauty of this (ADORABLY) handsome stranger. I must be dreaming! Pinch me. Owwwwww!!!!!!!!!! My arm! You pesky squirrels, you! (SCOLDONG-LIKE)

18. SOUND: CHATTERING SQUIERRELS

19. NARRATOR: Echo was expecting that any minute now, Narcissus would come to sweep her off her feet and carry her to a beautiful place like Olympus, but she was wrong.

20. SOUND: ROMANTIC MUSIC, THEN SUDDEN CUT-OFF

21. NARRATOR: Narcissus neither saw nor heard Echo. He was spellbound by the handsome stranger in the water. He sat, content, smiling at himself, forgetting everything else around him.

__SCENE 5__

1. NARCISSUS: Oh, how lovely is the face I see, reflecting in this beautiful lake. I could stare at this appearance until the day I die!

2. NARRATOR: Little did clueless Narcissus know that the day of his death would come really soon. Narcissus sat by the lake and stared at the reflection so long, that eventually, he wasted away into nothing. Echo thought…

3. ECHO: Oh my lovely Narcissus! Why did you leave me? I should never have lost my heart to you. Stupid mortal! Not even knowing it was your own reflection in the lake!

4. NARRATOR: Echo, furious at her own self for falling for a brainless and self-centered mortal, wallowed and grieved in silence until she too, wasted away. Where Narcissus had lay, the beautiful Narcissus flower sprang up. Now, Echo had lost her mind. Whenever a person would speak, occasionally, they could hear Echo repeating. Pan had heard that Narcissus had died, and now he thought that no one else could steal Echo from him.

5. PAN: I wonder where Echo is. Hopefully she has paused her pointless blabbering and left time for me to sweep her off her feet with my brilliantly written poetry. I will dedicate all my work to her and I will not let anyone, like that pathetic Narcissus, steal her heart!

6. NARRATOR: Pan had learned of the true fate of Echo from a hunter wandering in the forest. Nothing good would occur.

7. MUSIC: “JAWS MUSIC”

__SCENE 6

1. PAN: Why, why did Echo have to die? Why couldn’t I die instead? My love, my only true love forever!__

2. SOUND: MAN CRYING

__3. NARRATOR: Pan suffered for many months over the loss of his love. He then however tried to calm himself by blaming Narcissus for Echo’s death.

4. PAN: Why did Echo bother to love this self-centered mortal? It is his entire fault that she died. He is so selfish, does not care for others, lets true problems slip through his fingers and ignores them. He is the one to blame!!!

5. NARRATOR: Soon Pan was so furious, that instead of stopping he kept on going blaming every person he could think of.

6. PAN: (ANGRILY) It is everyone’s fault, except mine!

7. PAN: (ANGRILY) It is Hera’s fault for taking her voice! It is Zeus’s fault for not stopping Hera! It is all of the nymphs’ faults for not comforting her! Everyone is to blame, for not caring for her, lending a helping hand, guiding her along, instead of letting her die of grief! Oh! How I wish she was back, to tell her how sorry I am!

8. NARRATOR: After many months of sadness and grief, Pan decided that it was best to forget about Echo, and go on living a regular life.

9. PAN: I should forget about Echo this morning! My pouting is getting me nowhere! I shall go on with life as if Echo never existed! I’ve got an idea! I should go off and find another nymph so that I will truly forget about Echo!

10. NARRATOR: And, so Pan did. He soon came across a beautiful nymph by the name of Syrinx. However, Syrinx was not as enthusiastic, but that is another story for another time.__

11. MUSIC: HAPPY, EXCITING, BUT SAD__