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Soundtrack

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The “Pato” Play (2024-25)

• Third graders perform a skit in Spanish, saying rhymes and playing a soccer game at recess. Later, they decide to go out to a restaurant to eat, where they see some startling “Breaking News” on TV.
• Second graders pretend to star in this “Breaking News” segment, but the reporters have trouble staying focused and being professional. They do their makeup, drink Cuban coffee, and take personal phone calls on live TV. One call informs the world that Pato Malo has stolen Pato’s sock pajamas.
• Fourth graders take over from this point to theatrically explain how and why this occurred. Play synopsis as follows:

ACT 1: Pato (Duck) does not show up for the first day of school. The narrators try to explain why, but also note that it is “a long story”. This explanation begins with a dramatic entrance by the “Evil Fruit Gang” (including Bad Apple), of which Pato Malo (Bad Duck, aka Pato’s evil twin) is the leader.

ACT 2: Pato Malo is arrested for chewing bubble gum in Singapore (selling gum is illegal there). There is a trial, but he is thrown in jail. His first call is to his brother (Pato) who doesn’t answer the phone. The second phone call is to his “Evil Fruit Gang” buddies. They help him escape, and to get back at his brother for not helping him, Pato Malo steals his brother’s lucky sock pajamas and jets off to Thailand.

ACT 3: Pato (Duck) calls his #BFF Oso (Bear), and the two work together to track down the pjs. They end up recruiting Spain’s Army to assist in the mission. Along the way, and while floating down the Amazon River in Peru, they chance upon the DOOR to EcuaDOR. After that, everything just falls into place. Because in Stuffed Animal Land, it always works out in the end.

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In Depth…

The play begins this year in a typical classroom setting. Students notice that their classmate Pato is absent (allusion to the first month of the year, when he was MIA), and inquire about his whereabouts; this murmuring interrupts the lesson, much to the teacher’s frustration. The narrators explain to the audience that in order to answer where Pato is, they need to start from the beginning, as it is a Very Long Story.

You see, one day, Bad Duck (aka “Evil Pato”) is roaming the streets of Singapore with his rotten-to-the-core Fruit Gang, while chewing gum. Unfortunately for him, chewing gum is illegal there (#truestory), and he is arrested and brought before a judge. Despite hiring the best defense attorneys, he is sentenced to jail — or in Stuffed Animal Land, The Dreaded Time-Out Chair.

He makes a call from jail to his identical twin brother [the ‘good’ Pato], but Good Pato is singing in the shower and doesn’t pick up. This makes Bad Duck very angry. “I tried to be good, but it’s no use!” and he goes back to the Fruit Gang. The Fruit Gang is playing MarioKart and Bad Apple is winning when the phone rings. They come up with a plan to get Bad Duck out of jail. At this point, Good Pato has no idea that his brother is mad at him.

We get a feel for the sense of the humor embedded throughout in the Fruit Gang dialogue here: Orange is always making ridiculous knock, knock jokes; everyone looks at their Apple iPhones EXCEPT for Apple when the phone rings; etc.

After Bad Duck escapes from jail, he makes a beeline for Good Duck’s house, for the sole purpose of stealing his sock pajamas. Once they finds the pjs, Bad Duck runs back to the getaway vehicle, while the rest of the gang does a celebratory dance at the scene of the crime. Whoops! A chase scene ensues shortly thereafter, as Pato realizes that his brother is at fault.

NOBODY touches his pajamas, and the rest of the play is about the adventures surrounding how Pato gets them back. His sock pajamas are his lucky charm, and he is very attached to them. What no one knows at this point is that Pato is trying to write a novel, and he needs his pajamas to accomplish said task. Ergo, the task is interrupted as he goes on a whirlwind chase around the globe — mission possible, just not likely — trying to track down the pjs (when all he really wants to do is sit down and write).