Water Quest

Characters will display a small cap which has a stick display.

Characters:
Questy, the boy and Quest, the girl
Cynic
Smart Aleck
Others: Dreamerzz, Snoozerzz, Hard Workerzzz, Lazy Bonerzzz, Topperzz,

Other roles:
Cloud 1,2,3
Mr Water and Mr Electricity
Teacher 1,2,3

[Sounds of bubbles and movement like water- children moving around together…
Blub, blub, blub…
Two children, one boy and one girl step out of the bubbles that are flowing around]

Questy (Boy): Most often, I just don’t know what goes on…
School lessons, classes, they all float around like bubbles around my head…water bubbles

Quest (Girl): And most often, I can’t see beyond!
Sigh, School!

I’d rather be playing in the rains, in the monsoon puddles,

Quest: I’d rather be cycling in the roads with no huddles

Questy: I’d rather be sketching a waterfall, not studying history!
Quest: I’d rather be sitting under apple trees dreaming of water bubbles…
Not reading chemistry!

Sudden military like chant. Teacher enters; Children fall into a classroom like pattern

Teacher 1:                   H2O!
H2O is a chemical combination of two atoms of hydrogen and one oxygen atom. However, it’s not as simple as putting together two parts of the elements together and getting what you want…

[She pauses, and with a lot of drama says]
It needs an explosion

[A sudden clang or a bang is heard. Can be created using a musical instrument, or clang plates etc]

[The children from the classroom “explode” and fall apart. They then move into a round, earth like formation. Blue light or blue cloth signifying the earth maybe used…something that’s bobbing and moving around and is looking like it is teeming with life.

A group sings]
Many different elements, Essential to thee
Moving inside life forms, Abundant and free
Many different components, of life that we see
Amongst which water swims and envelopes thee

Cynic: Isn’t all of this a bit too poetic?

Smart Aleck: Nothing wrong with poetry!
Especially if a teacher thinks so!
And the class nods…

[Shift to classroom formation again:
A different teacher recites]

Teacher 2:
“The dew-drop carries in its eye
Mountain and forest, sea and sky
with every change of weather…” [Voice fades]

Smart Aleck: Robert Graves wrote thus, and such is how we learn to make a fuss.
Dew drops poetry…
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dew-drop-and-diamond/

Quest:
Coming to think of it, what’s wrong with that?
It does seem about dewdrops, silly!
But now it seems to me,
Its about water, it’s about climates and the sea
Its, its…what we learn in Geography!!

Cynic: Great!
Poetry to Geography!
And back to school again! (Yawns loudly)

Topperzz: What do you mean? Just lap it up!
Learn it up! Like this!! (He recites in text book fashion)

Clouds!
Clouds are formed when water reaches its condensation dewpoint and freezes around condensation neuclei present in the troposphere

There are many types of clouds.
They are categorized based on altitude, shape and size

Some are named:

Cirrus clouds
Stratus clouds
Cumulus clouds

Questy:  Oh no! Again, a set of names to learn up, a set of words to turn in
A set of definitions to shoot off, and a set of marks to earn out

Smart Aleck:
Oh common! This can be fun… (Motions to the wings)

[Suddenly, a bunch of clouds appear. They can use prop cut-outs of shapes of clouds, or also perhaps use cotton]

A group whisper begins

Cirrocumulous, Cirrostratus, cumulonimbus
Altostratus, Altocumulous, nimbostratus, stratocumulous

Cloud 1, 2 and 3 stand on platforms of different levels and speak together:

I’m here, I’m here, and I’m here!

Cloud 1: I’m right above, I’m wispy my love
Frozen droplets of water

Cloud 2:
…and I’m all fluff, fluff, fluff..
Formed by the rising up
Of hot airy stuff
Which cools as it goes up
And enters cooler parts of atmospheric stuff
And I form up- puff, puff, puff!

Cloud 3:
Strat, straight, straight, strat!!
I’m Horizontal, I’m me, I’m Stratus!!

Quest, Queste and Lazybonezz: How did you all get up there?

Hardworkerzz: Who took you up?

Clouds: Honey! We’re so glad you asked!!

From down- up, up, up-  round and round we go!

This story would sound like your pages of chemistry!
Water in the solid, liquid and gas states…
The lighter the bubbles get, they go wheee!!!

The great grand-Sun
No, not that one!
The big orange one above…
With her bright light heat,
Takes us right above
From seas, rivers, lakes, lands, off we go!

Queste: ...and then, and then?

Quest:
And then, it rains!
When you whiz around too fast or slow- when you collide!
[Clouds may imitate this action]

Queste: Earth gets her water back, and we get puddles to play in…Yippee!

Smart Aleck:
Not all of it is puddles to play
A good lot of it will go through earth’s sand, soil and clay

Some water stays up in lakes and sea
Some goes down where you can't see

Under the ground, below the rocks
This is our water stock!

[A teacher appears suddenly. The children are a bit scared! They back off…
She speaks to them in a kind voice...]

Teacher 3:
But Smart Aleck did you know?
That the water that stayed up lakes and shores,
Slowly and steadily over time
Went down below, trickling through earth’s mines?

Smart Aleck, a little wary:
Ma’am… No, I didn’t know! (Sheepishly)

Quest and Questy:
How did this water go
Riding down and down, through rock and pore?

How did all this water move
From above the rivers, streams and pools?

Teacher, triumphantly and kindly:
All thanks to gravity!

All children in chorus:
Gravity? Who is that?

Teacher:
Gravity, is a little man, he’s a little pushy,
He pushes and pulls and is the most controlling
But hey, he’s slow; he’s not rushy…
He makes you stick to mother earth
And he holds you down so you don’t take upper berth
And by doing this so you don’t fly off
And so he’s really making you cushy!

Children in awe:
Wow! You rhyme…And you make it simple!
How do you know so much?

Cynic: I have this dim memory of someone like gravity man figuring in physics class!

Teacher laughs: Oh well, gravity man is a smaller member of a larger family called Force. I’m sure you heard of them in various classes! I’m sure you felt them in your class when the teacher asked you to do things you didn’t like… and I’m sure he reared his ugly head in your homes!

Children [Mock sad]:
Yes, we did!

Teacher: So can you trace other cousins of the gravity man?

Topperzz: Force is mass* acceleration!

Teacher: [Laughs]Very good indeed!
But what are the types of forces and whereupon do they act little one?

Hard Workerzz:
When you turn a tap, you need force,
When you shut the door, you need to force

Snoozerzz: To get the couch from your brother,
To tie your laces together…you need force!

Dreamerzz: Oh wait! I got one!
To pull carts we need force, to ride cars we use force! Its something extra we need to add…

Together:
When you want to get it done, and its getting nowhere done,
You just got to apply force!

Quest: ummm, so, when we want water to go from one place to another, and it doesn’t move, what kind of force should we use?

Teacher laughs: What made you think of forcing water around suddenly?

Quest: It wasn’t sudden at all… it has been water day all through!
It’s also been a day of subjects we study in school popping in and out!
…and all of them strangely, being very interesting too!

Cynic: I faintly remember reading about capillary force which makes water ‘rise’
It’s a force that forces water through vacuumed vertical heights…
But this faint force, will it work with gigantic pipes?

Which travel through hills and far distances to bring us please
Water to our bodies, homes, cars and trees?

Questy: So what forces water into our tubes and taps?
How and from where does this water gush and flow?
What brings a whole city this clear liquid delight?
Water, which also makes our states fight!

Smart Aleck: You want to know what waters the whole city?
What makes it travel for miles and miles and flows out through our water pipes
It’s a force called electricity!

[Two new characters land up on stage and start playing tug-o-war with intense focus]

Teacher: Smarty pants is right!
Increased urban and modern spaces means a constant need of two essentials.

Energy and water!

And in water’s case, to get water, we need to use more energy!!
Energy as we understand it, better translates to the form of Power to us urban folks.

[This tussle continues in the back]

In days to come, o little ones, we’ll be seeing a dwindling of these two…
They’ll continue to be pulled apart and we’ll all be fighting too

Smart Aleck:
Oh! By the way, there’s a lot more to say,
But this can be story for another day
About this fight that’s on,
But soon needs a referee I say!

Energy needs grow and soar
And water resources become few and poor
This tussle is a but scary
But with a little thought we could make this wrestle not so scary

Let’s find small ways, let’s discuss
Let’s not make a fuss, that small things may not be big, for us
To make a change, to see results

[The above lines can be matched with interesting theatrical pull and push, and a growing energy head with some hold-up masks/head props and how uncontrollable it is…]

Questy: We’ve been thinking water; we’ve been seeing water…
I think this is a sign of two.

One the importance and connectedness of water to everything,

Second, an urgency of what we are doing with our water,

How we understand our water too!


All together:
The time has come to find out
Connections between water and what we study before time’s out
Connections between our world and what we study before its time out

The time has come my friends, to quest and carry out
Gaps in our living, our days and nights in & out
Resources of ours we take for granted and turn a blind eye out

Let’s look at ways to save and face
The current reality
Let’s ask and base our actions for our daily race
On informed reality!