AUDIENCE PARTICIPATIONS

The Big Wheel
Trapper Trails

Divide the audience into four groups to respond to the following words.

Big Wheel=                  Spin, spin

Canoe =                  Paddle, paddle

Airplanes =                    Zooooom

Cars =               Rattle, rattle, bang

Practice as you assign parts

Man has invented many different things that go and have provided him with transportation down through the years. The Indian made his CANOE, which took him from place to place and served his purpose well.  Men like Henry Ford invented CARS, which today are the most popular type of transportation. There were men like the Wright Brothers who pioneered the invention of the AIRPLANE. And then there is a group of people called the BIG WHEELS who really don’t go any place or do anything, but they like to feel important.

This story is about one of those BIG WHEELS who just sat and spun his wheels and felt so important while he was doing nothing at all. Everyone around him was working on new and better types of CANOES, designing new and more efficient CARS, and designing and testing new and faster AIRPLANES. But our BIG WHEEL just sat around feeling important, not doing anything to help anybody, while everyone else was doing the work.

Somehow he always seemed to get by and fool people into thinking that he was important because everyone around him was making progress. The BIG WHEEL depended on their brains and energy to make him look good. Finally, one day something happened that changed things overnight for the BIG WHEEL.

Everyone who had been working on the CANOES, the CARS, and the AIRPLANES decided it was time to teach BIG WHEEL a lesson. They were tired of him doing nothing except acting important. So they all became very busy and didn’t pay any attention to him. When something came up, the BIG WHEEL found he couldn’t rely on the others to answer questions and make him look important. Finally, the BIG WHEEL realized that he could not accomplish anything without help from others. He realized he was making no contribution to the world at all. He was just sitting there spinning his wheels while the others accomplished a lot of CANOES, CARS, and AIRPLANES. BIG WHEEL felt very bad.

It was a terrible feeling when BIG WHEEL finally realized something he should have known all along. If you’re going to get any place in this world, you can’t expect other people to do all the work. You must learn to do your part and paddle your own CANOE.

• If you have blue eyes, whenever you hear the word BLUE pat the top of your head.
• If you have brown eyes, whenever you hear the word BROWN pat the top of your head.
• If you hear the word LEFT and you’re left-handed, clap your hands.
• If you’re right-handed, clap when you hear RIGHT.
• If you’re under 20, stomp your feet when you hear the word NEW.
• If you’re over 20, stomp your feet when you hear the word OLD.
• If you’re a male, stand up when you hear MAN.
• If you’re a female, stand up when you hear WOMAN.

At this point the Narrator should practice with the audience, calling out the cue words having them respond with the appropriate action. The Narrator begins the story slowly and picks up speed Narrator pauses after each key word.

One day a MAN and a WOMAN went looking for a NEW car. Their OLD one, which was a muddy BROWN was not running well. It LEFT much to be desired in the way of speed and safety, and they wanted another one RIGHT away. They wanted a bright BLUE one.

As they walked into the dealership, the WOMAN noticed a BLUE sports car on the showroom floor. “Darling” she said, “Look at that lovely NEW car RIGHT over there. Wouldn’t it be perfect for us?’

“You may be RIGHT. It’s a lot better looking than our OLD BROWN buggy. Unfortunately there’s one problem. I’ve LEFT all my money at home,” said the MAN.

“You LEFT it at home?” asked the WOMAN.

“Yes, it’s RIGHT in the pocket of my NEW BROWN suit.” said the MAN.

“Your NEW BROWN suit? Why I took that suit to the cleaners just this morning and I didn’t notice any money in any of the pockets,” said the WOMAN.

 “But I’m certain I LEFT my money in the inside RIGHT pocket of my NEW BROWN suit,” the MAN said as he scratched his head in wonder.

“Now wait a minute. Are you saying I’m not RIGHT? Are you saying I’m lying about this? MAN, oh MAN, oh MAN! You have a lot of nerve!” shrieked the WOMAN.

“Let’s not argue. We’re here to look at cars, and that BLUE one in the corner is a RIGHT nice model. And just think, if we buy the NEW BLUE car, we’ll never have to worry about our OLD BROWN one again!”

After looking at the price of the NEW BLUE-car, and figuring out what they could get as a trade on their OLD BROWN one, the MAN and the WOMAN decide buying a NEW car would be the RIGHT move for them. But before they LEFT the dealer, they started questioning their decision. Would they be better off with their OLD BROWN car if the NEW BLUE one didn’t run RIGHT? Or what about a NEW BROWN one? How long before they thought of the NEW car as and OLD car?  and would they ever feel BLUE about trading in their BROWN auto? BLUE or BROWN, OLD or NEW, what was RIGHT and which car did they want to be LEFT with?

The MAN and the WOMAN were so confused that they decided to sell their car and buy themselves bicycles. And that’s just what they did. And they knew it was RIGHT...LEFT...RIGHT... LEFT (The narrator continues alternating between right and left until the audience realizes they are applauding the end of the story.)