Sleeping Beauty’s Sisters

What happens after Sleeping Beauty gets married to her Prince? In this play, she doesn’t remember her parents and begins seeking answers about their identities. The Little Mermaid begins a similar search, looking for answers about her mother. In the end, these two fairy tale princesses discover they have a lot more in common than they could’ve ever imagined.

Hayley Cotton is a Performing Arts teacher and actor who discovered her passion for writing at a young age. She never imagined she would be writing scripts for young actors, but it has easily become one of her favorite creative outlets. Her love of fairytales and the devising process have led to all of the scripts you can find of hers on Drama Notebook.

Excerpt from the play:

CHARACTERS:

NARRATOR
AURORA, SLEEPING BEAUTY
THE PRINCE
KING TRITON
ARIEL, THE LITTLE MERMAID
THE SEA WITCH
JETSAM, AN EEL
AQUATA, ONE OF ARIEL’S SISTERS
ADELLA, ANOTHER OF ARIEL’S SISTERS

Settings: Queen Aurora’s Castle, The Ocean Market, King Triton’s Castle, the beach

AURORA and PRINCE take center stage, sitting. The PRINCE has a scrapbook. They mime a conversation during the following narration.

NARRATOR: Once upon a time, a very specific time, 6 months, 13 days, 5 hours, and 18 seconds after Sleeping Beauty got married – Aurora was listening to her Prince talk about his family.

PRINCE: And this is my mother when she was a child. I think she’s where I get my sense of humor from – I mean look at how she’s wearing her crown!

AURORA: *trying to smile, but feeling a little heartbroken* Yeah…she does look like quite the goofball.

PRINCE: It’s too bad you never got to meet her.

AURORA: *distracted, staring out the window* Uh-huh….

PRINCE: *putting down the scrapbook* Aurora, are you ok?

AURORA: Oh yeah. I’m sorry. I just wish I knew more about my parents. I barely remember a thing about them.

PRINCE: Well, why don’t you look through their stuff at your castle? I doubt they took everything with them.

AURORA: For what?

PRINCE: For anything! You’re bound to find some pictures or some journals or something from when they were alive.

NARRATOR: So Aurora went off to her castle and began searching through her parents’ things.

AURORA acts out digging around in drawers, under beds, etc. the PRINCE exits.

NARRATOR: She searched every inch of her castle, only to find a single, torn photograph.

AURORA: *holding a picture out in front of her with a tear at the bottom* Well that’s definitely my Mother. I remember her long, golden hair. But is that….my father? Are they standing on the beach?

NARRATOR: While Aurora sat staring at this photograph of her parents, under the sea Ariel was at the Underwater Market purchasing more forks to add to her collection of things from the human world.

AURORA exits. ARIEL, JETSAM, and the SEA WITCH enter.

ARIEL: I can’t believe he sold me 8 forks for 3 seashells! What a deal! *she trips over JETSAM*

JETSAM: Hey! Watch it!

ARIEL: Oh, excuse me, I’m so sorry!

SEA WITCH: *laughing* My goodness, you’re just as clumsy as your mother.

ARIEL: Wait…you knew my mother?

SEA WITCH: Of course, I did! Everyone knew your mother, little girl.

ARIEL: Tell me more about her! Please! I never got to meet her, and father refuses to talk about her!

SEA WITCH: *starting to leave* Oh darling, I really shouldn’t be telling you anything….

ARIEL: Please! Just tell me one thing about her – just one!

SEA WITCH: Well I suppose one little tidbit won’t hurt anyone. *looking around to make sure no one is listening* Your mother wasn’t like the rest of us my dear.

ARIEL: What do you mean?

SEA WITCH: She wasn’t like you and me.

ARIEL: But what do you mean not like you and me?

SEA WITCH: *pretending to look at an imaginary watch* Oh look at the time, I’m afraid Jetsam and I have work to do. Come Jetsam.

JETSAM: Farewell!

The SEA WITCH and JETSAM leave in a hurry, while ARIEL yells after them.

ARIEL: WAIT! *to the audience* What does she mean my mother wasn’t like the rest of us? What made her different? I have to talk to father.