Lights come to stage left at the wall.
Children: (sitting in front of wall –worried and whispering)
Guards: (sitting on the bench outside the dungeon – “asleep”)
Li: (standing and moving to center stage, very excited) So, what are we going to do?
Jiang: (standing and going to join Li, very excited) The Emperor, who is to be obeyed, just said that Deng should lose his head!
Chou: (runs to join them, upset) Mother and Father are going to be very angry.
Yan: (rushes to center stage) What? How can you worry about getting in trouble with our parents? Deng is about to become history.
Chou: Too bad they didn’t take me. (holds his neck) They’d never be able to chop off my head.
Li: Why in the world not? Oh, that’s right. You have a very strong neck.
Chou: (jumping up and down) Come with me. I’m going to see what I can do to help Deng.
Children: (move to the wall.)
Chou: (moves “through” the wall while the others watch for the guards)
Deng: (comes out to join the others)
Wong & Min: (get up and go into the dungeon, they drag out Chou downstage to the right and off, struggling and mumbling)
Yan: Do you think it will work?
Jiang: I hope so. Nothing more we can do now, but wait.
Off Stage: Whack – Whack – Whack – Whack
Wong & Min : (bring Chou upstage center, struggling and mumbling )
Sung: (to each other) How can this be happening? The Emperor says off with his head! But his head won’t come off.
Ming: The Emperor always must be obeyed. He will be having our heads instead.
Guards: (push Chou into the dungeon space dejectedly)
Peng: (stops pacing, throws up his hands) It probably doesn’t matter how we get rid of this unfortunate citizen as long as we get rid of him. Let’s think.
Guards: (huddle for seven seconds)
Sung: (excited! Jumping up and down) I know. Let’s bury him in a pit. I’ll get the shovels!! (exits downstage center and down the steps to get the shovels)
Peng: (excited also) Excellent idea!
Guards: (sit down to wait outside the wall/dungeon – they sleep)
Children: (standing and moving to center stage)
Jiang: Too bad he isn’t trying to bury me.
Li: Why is that?
Jiang: Don’t you remember? (holds his neck) I have a very long neck.
Yan, Li, Chou, Deng: Oh, yes. (nodding to each other)
Jiang: I’ll see what I can do.
Children: (move back to their wall.)
Jiang: (moves “through” the wall while the others watch for the guards)
Chou: (comes out to join the others) Wow! These guards are serious! They really tried to whack off my head!!
Sung: (comes back with a shovel.)
Peng & Sung: (reach into dungeon and drag out Jiang)
Sung: (roughly take Jiang with them down stage and down the steps) Come with us!
Chou: Do you think we can fool them again?
Yan: If we don’t, our fate is sealed.
Bo & Ming: (stay outside the dungeon)
Off stage – Peng: Dig that hole deeper!!
Off stage – Sung: I’m digging as hard as I can
Peng, Sung, Ming: (rush in, dragging Jiang back up steps to center stage)
All guards jump up in surprise and amazed with fear!
Min: You’re not going to believe this.
Wong: Don’t tell us. Your plan didn’t work. He’s still alive.
Sung: We buried him as deep as we could, but his head was always above the ground. You can see he is very much still alive.
Guards: (throw Jiang back in the dungeon)
Bo: The Emperor who is not very understanding will not understand why you have not followed his orders.
Ming: I’m not going to be the one to tell him.
Peng: Wait a minute. You haven’t tried everything yet. Let’s think.
Guards: (huddle)