🏆 Winner of "THE WRITERS AWARD" from the EFTO for 2014! 

Engage Students with Powerful Historical Plays 🎭

Theatre is a transformative teaching and learning tool, and our collection of historical plays brings the stories of wartime struggles, sacrifices, and triumphs to life for students in grades 5 to 12. These age-appropriate plays cover significant events from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, providing a unique opportunity to engage students in historical thinking through real events, names, and places. 

Plays Included:

• Letters From the Great War, 1914-1918 (Grades 7 to 12) ✉️
• Waiting for D-Day, 1939-1945 (Grades 5 to 12) ⏳
• Remembering Korea, 1950-1953 (Grades 7 to 12)
• A Trio of Wars, A Gift of Peace (Grades 5 to 12) 🎁
• Four Questions About Peace (Grades 5 to 12) ❓

Each play includes scenes from both the home front and overseas, making history come alive for both participants and audiences. The comprehensive teacher guide offers practical tips for auditions, production, staging, costumes, props, and more, ensuring a successful and engaging experience for all. 

Every November 11th, schools across Canada hold Remembrance Day Services to honor the tragedy of war and the benefits of peace. However, teaching the history of Canada’s war efforts can be challenging due to the sensitive nature of the topic and the lack of coverage in the elementary curriculum. This resource helps educators provide a meaningful understanding of Canada’s unique wartime history, transforming the brief observance into an imaginative and educational experience. 

Why Choose Our Plays?

• Age-Appropriate Content: Tailored for students in grades 5 to 12. 🎓
• Historical Accuracy: Incorporates real events, names, and places. 🕰️
• Engaging and Educational: Helps students develop a deeper understanding of Canada’s wartime history. 🌟
• Comprehensive Teacher Guide: Includes everything needed for a successful production. 🎭

Veterans have praised these plays for honoring their experiences and bringing history to life for younger generations. As one veteran, Patrick O’Keeffe, said, “This has been a great tribute for us veterans, because it brings home our experiences. My father was in the first war, and I was in the second. Now my grandchildren will understand.”

Transform your Remembrance Day observance with our powerful and educational plays and help students appreciate the bravery and sacrifices of Canada’s veterans. 🍁

Introduction & Planning Notes:

Includes:

• Why a Play for Remembrance Day?
• Teacher’s Guide
• Making it Work for You
• Audition Application
• Dramatic Skills
• Costumes, Props and Sets
• Staging Your Production
• The Ceremony of Remembrance
• Reflections on my Learning
• Double Use Rubric – Teacher and Student
• Classroom and Research Bibliography
• Acknowledgements 

Five Plays:

Letters From the Great War, 1914-1918 (Grades 7 to 12) 

Plot Summary:

The play opens in Scene One: The Call in a town square somewhere in Canada where young

Canadians in three separate groupings announce their intention of ‘joining up.’ They are: youthful scholar Michael, determined Black Canadian Jeremiah Jones, and spirited Grace MacPherson. In trying to convince a loved one they are doing the ‘right thing,’ they each promise to write home. As they join the enlistment line, the choir in the town square sings “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”

The “I’ll write home as often as I can” theme provides the structure for the rest of the play, in which the characters deliver their ‘letters’ in a series of interconnected monologues, highlighting and personalizing different aspects of the war experience. The setting is indicated by the scene title. The three young Canadians who were introduced in Scene 1 are integrated throughout the play. Scene 2: The Trenches ends in a modern dance entitled “No Man’s Land Waltz.” Scene 3: The Munitions Factory at The Home Front concludes with the singing of “Till the Boys Come Home “(Keep the Home Fires Burning). Michael, Jeremiah, and Grace meet up in Scene 4: The Hospital, which ends with a moving choral ren­dition of “In Flanders Fields.”

Michael, Jeremiah, Grace, and Soldier Talbot Papineau lead Scene 5: Ceremony of Remembrance. The Cast and Crew enter the stage during the Honour March to solemn but moving music. The laying of the wreathe is followed by the Last Post and the Moment of Silence, which ends with the singing of “O Canada.”

Waiting for D-Day, 1939-1945 (Grades 5 to 12)

Plot Summary:

After the choir sings “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B,’” Scene 1: The Homefront

reveals street life in a busy Canadian neighbourhood which has been affected, like so many, by the war. While children’s play is absorbed with aspects of war, the Russell family discuss the world situation on June 5, 1944, as Maggie and neighbour Francine prepare to work the night shift at the munitions factory. Joe, the twelve-year-old son of Betty and absent soldier Captain Paul, borrows his Grandpa’s WWI helmet and leads the neighbourhood children in an after-dinner game of “Storming Fortress Europe.” He exhorts different groupings of friends to take on varied roles using a strategy that Grandpa himself says “General Eisenhower and the rest of the Allied Command should listen to.” Child paratroopers drop behind enemy lines us­ing linen napkins filched from the laundry line. An armful of toy boats is lined up to represent various types of ships in the Royal Navy convoy. The neighbourhood infantry is preparing their attack just as Mothers start calling their children in for bedtime. Joe and his mother Betty end the scene looking at the moon thinking of their loved one as Captain Paul is on the other side of the ocean (stage) looking at the moon thinking of them. The choir sings “We’ll Meet Again.”

Scene 2: On the Convoy Ship opens with General Eisenhower, General Sir Bernard

Montgomery and General Harry Crerar making the decision to commence with Operation

Overlord despite the bad weather. Eisenhower relays his message to the troops. “…The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people march with you.” The soldiers tease each other about their “sea legs” and express varied motives for joining the army as well as differing attitudes about the task in front of them. Captain Paul and his assistants on deck talk about the immense resources gathered to begin the fight and then give a pep talk to the soldiers. The soldiers are emboldened and ready to go, leaving the performance space by storming down the centre isle and through the audience.

 Scene 3: The Dance of Juno Beach is a modern dance symbolizing the battle with its three groupings of support: Air Force, Navy, and Infantry. 

Scene 4: The Invasion Has Begun returns to the home front, where Joe returns from his morning newspaper run with the exciting news that the Invasion has finally successfully started. The family gathers around the paper to read the firsthand reports which are based on actual newspaper articles. They are united in their hope that this is the beginning of the end. The choir sings “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller. 

Scene 5: The Ceremony of Remembrance is led by Joe, General Crerar, Betty, and Soldier Pat. The Cast and Crew enter the stage during the Honour March to solemn but moving music like “Hymn to the Fallen’” from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” The laying of the wreathe is followed by the Last Post and the Moment of Silence, which ends with the singing of “O Canada.” 

Remembering Korea, 1950-1953 (Grades 7 to 12) 

Plot Summary: 

Tony and his gang of friends, Mathieu, Vern, Digger, and brothers Charlie and Brian are having an end-of summer high school reunion picnic in Scene 1: The News before they head off to jobs or further schooling. Their future directions seem clear. The party is interrupted by an important CBC radio broadcast by Prime Minister St. Laurent urging all able-bodied men to join the Korean War effort. The whole gang decides to sign up together for a variety of different reasons, much to the anguish of Tony’s mother and younger sister Katie, and the pride of their girlfriends Irene and Susan. 

In Scene 2: Recruitment Centre Colonel Jim Stone and his cohort discuss whether this “action” will be more like the disaster of Hong Kong in ’41 or the success of Italy in the late 40’s. In either case, Col. Stone resolves that the soldiers will get the training they need. The choir hints at the distance between families with the song “Goodnight Irene.” The gang of new soldiers and their friends hold a Scene 3: Jive Goodbye Dance Party. 

Once in Scene 4: Korea the soldiers are greeted by the strange but true sight of a choir singing “If I’d known You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake.” They are surprised by the “Land of the Morning Calm” which appears both less calm and more mountainous than expected. Bill Boss, a Canadian war correspondent, covers the story of the Battle of Kap’yong (Gapyeong), where this group of young soldiers figures prominently. As a counterpoint to the awarding of the US Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation for their efforts in this crucial battle to save Seoul we learn that Charlie is likely dead. 

In Scene 5: Seoul Bill Boss then meets up with a youthful Pierre Berton who is interviewing Red Cross worker Muriel White. Berton also interviews Mrs. Tak, a Korean refugee, with the assistance of translator Dickie and Tony who are momentarily on re-assigned duties from the front. 

During Scene 6: Night Patrol the Chinese propaganda machine broadcasts its message across the valley as the soldiers take a break. They dream out loud of home and peace. Later, it becomes clear that Digger, who has just decided to ask Susan to be his “girl” and who is on his last night patrol, has been killed. Throughout, Katie’s monologues about what she reads or doesn’t read in the newspaper provide a counterpoint to how the Korean War is fading from view at home.

When the remaining friends finally reach Scene 7: Homecoming, no crowd greets them except the family and loyal girlfriends. Susan collapses when she hears the news that Digger has been killed just before the Armistice. Despite their sorrow the group confirms what their sacrifice meant to the democratic “free world” and the South Korean people. The choir sings “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” 

The play is followed by Scene 8: Ceremony of Remembrance, which includes a reflection on what the Korean and other wars of Canadian involvement have meant to us. All the Cast and Crew enter the stage during the Honour March to solemn but moving music. The laying of the wreathe is followed by the Last Post and the Moment of Silence, which ends with the singing of “O Canada.”

A Trio of Wars, A Gift of Peace (Grades 5 to 12) 

Plot Summary: 

Three Storytellers, who are suggestive of angels or a modern version of “Father Time” follow three families through the First, Second, and Korean Wars, highlighting the similarities and differences between the experiences. The play is visually organized along a timeline with the action for each era and family occurring at the same spot on the stage. The conversation between the storytellers is interspersed to clarify historical details as well as articulate general ideas about war and peace at a level appropriate for children. 

The three family groupings introduced in Scene 1: The Call to Enlist include a WWI family whose university-bound son willingly goes off to what is expected to be a short and adventurous war; a WWII working class family whose carpenter father joins the army due to a growing worry that Hitler and Hirohito will overcome us all; and a 1950’s picnicking family whose son joins up for Korea in memory of his father who died in WWII. The choir sings “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” 

Scene 2: The Reasons Why has the three storytellers comparing the world to a playground and the differing contexts of the wars to age-appropriate playground examples. This scene ends in a stomp-inspired “Bully Dance” symbolizing the fascist bullies of WWII.

The men who signed up in Scene 1 re-appear in Scene 3: The War Front where each group emphasizes what the war is like for them, mentioning details of particular battles or aspects of the battlefields specific to that war. 

Scene 4: The Home Front explores the deprivations, efforts and worries of those assisting the war effort from afar. The choir opens the scene with “Keep the Home Fires Burning.” The scene ends with the cessation of hostilities and the gift of peace. Of the three men, the Korean soldier safely returns home, the WWII father is seriously wounded, and the WWI son’s death is symbolized by the delivery of the telegram and broken watch delivered to his mother. 

The Storytellers briefly discuss the active meaning of “peace” from a child’s perspective and lead the Scene 5: Ceremony of Remembrance. All the Cast and Crew enter the stage during the Honour March to solemn but moving music. The laying of the wreathe is followed by the Last Post and the Moment of Silence, which ends with the singing of “O Canada.”

Four Questions About Peace (Grades 5 to 12) 

Plot Summary:

The play opens with two student narrators observing the signs of November. “As soon as November begins there are certain things you can expect to see. Like bright red poppies on dark coats, old war movies on TV, grey skies and bare trees that seem to match the stories your grandparents tell you. It makes you think a lot. It makes you wonder. And questions just kind of POP into your head!” With that, four dancers, dressed in question marks, pop out of the audience to a lighthearted yet thought provoking instrumental music piece. The ballet-style Dance of the Four Questions is the visual representation of the Narrator’s deliberations. These four questions provide a framework for the scenes which follow. At the same time the questions are imaginatively answered through improvisation-style dramatizations or dramatic re-enactments. 

Scene 1: What does “peace” really mean?

Three basic peaceful scenes are explored – in the family, in the playground, in society – each of which ends in the opposite of peace. For example, apparent family harmony evolves into a series of disagreements which concludes when the parent finally yells, “Can’t we have any peace and quiet around here!” 

Scene 2: How did our peacekeeper reputation begin?

Lester B. Pearson steps on stage to recount how his earlier experiences in WWI and WWII lead him to work for peace. The crisis over the Suez Canal, where he effectively halts diplomats from Israel, France, and Britain from going to war with Egypt’s Colonel Nasser, is re-enacted. 

Scene 3: Where do Canadians keep the peace?

Soldiers are seen performing a variety of peacekeeping, and peacemaking duties in six vignettes which take place all over the world. These include Cyprus (1992), Golan Heights (1991), Namibia (1990), and the Balkans (1991). As well, reporter Christie Blatchford makes an appearance when she interviews soldiers involved in de-mining activities in Afghanistan in 2006. Directors may also consider adding a vignette to reflect current world locations of Canadian involvement. 

Scene 4: How can we make peace in our world?

The actors from Scene 1 explore each of the scenarios – in the home, on the playground, in society – in a concrete context related to students’ lives. In this way they provide relevant answers that promote Canadian values and world peace.

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