Here are the opening pages of a play I wrote in mid-June for the play writing circle at the Ottawa Little Theatre. We have ceased meeting for the summer so I shall finish this play, which is named, People Want to Marvel.
It is about Dr. Seuss, the writer of children's books from the thirties on.
In looking into his background, I find that he was not the saintly kids' book writer we grew up thinking he was. Instead, he was a con-artist, a drinker, a university drop-out, and a philanderer.
I have written the play from the viewpoint of his dead wife, Helen Palmer Seuss, who committed suicide because of him and his adulterous ways.
I have tried to write it in Seuss's inimitable style using internal and end rhymes and trying for the trochaic rhythm he wrote in and using portmanteau words.
From Wikipedia:
Ted and Helen below at their house in La Jolla.
CHARACTERS
About Helen's death, Seuss's niece Peggy commented: "Whatever Helen did, she did it out of absolute love for Ted. Peggy called Helen's death "her last and greatest gift to him."
I have to wonder what Helen's niece might have said about her aunt's suicide if asked.
 |
| Audrey Stone Dimond Geisel |
  |
| Theodor "Ted" Seuss Geisel |
CHARACTERS
Helen
Palmer Seuss
NARRATOR
Theodor
“Dr. Seuss” Geisel
Audrey
Stone Dimond Geisel (also written Diamond)
SETTING:
To be determined
HELEN
My
name is Helen Palmer Seuss
I'm
not a shiksa, I'm a Jewess.
Older
than he by six measly years,
Go
ahead, leer, I have no fear
He
a tender 23 but no matter to me,
for
Ted did not like the patter
of
tiny, shiny little feet
so
family be damnly
it's
drawing and writing he likes
not
kids, cats, dogs or bikes
TED
GEISEL
You
have 'em, I'll entertain 'em,
HELEN
PALMER
he
said, before I was dead,
Mister
oh so cavalier Ted.
Thus
he and me, the bees knees
We
wrote children's tales,
I,
a kiddie writer, too
Caught
up with the true sky blue
and
yellow mellow fellows.
Along
with Ted, I wrote and wrote and he drew and drew
Both
of us concocting,
Nonsense
rhymes for you, hoo, hoo,
You
and your darling brood.
God
saw it and it was good.
TED
GEISEL
I
was born 1904, Theodor, no e, in Springfield, Mass.
One
fine day in the US of A.
A
Seuss and a Geisel, not mother/father torn
I
carried both names, Theodor Seuss Geisel,
And
along the way, college-bound,
At
Dartmouth college, into the fray myself I threw
Reconnoitering
Geisel family brew masters of lore
My
parental background to bring to the fore
when
party, party, hearty in the dorm
Me
and nine classmates did thereby imbibe
Drink,
drink, drunk, gin's not a sin,
My
forebears pleased to think, think, thunk
that
little Ted, Theo, Teddy, dear ME
Would
eschew common beer and have a ball
Steering
pupils and groupils to
drink
drink and drink some more
Anti-prohibitionist
hard alcohol.
NARRATOR
Dartmouth
was mad at this bad lad
No
fool, the school, they laid down the law,
DARTMOUTH
SCHOOL OFFICIAL
No,
no, no to cartooning and mooning.
T.
Geisel, don't sass us we've told your 'steemed paw and it stuck in his craw.
Like it or not, you better stop this folly,
And get on with school, by golly,
Drinking
in the dorm is not the norm
It's
simply BAD form!
Ted,
dead head Ted
You
will not last, you will not pass!
Cease
all nonsense or your ass is grass.
