Wotta Lotta Bother!

Content details

(Scroll down for song samples, characters and plot summary)

Explore the ups and downs of the school day, through the eyes of a group of children who’ve been ‘kept in’ at play time! The horror that is Monday morning registration, the anguish of learning grammar, healthy lunches, the torture of listening to infants enjoying an afternoon play, the frustration of wanting more ‘attitude’ from one's fairytale characters! And celebrate having friends to share life’s every twist and turn.

Songs include

It Ain’t So Easy (Keeping Our Noses Clean) Monday Morning Routine Red Riding Hoodie Commas, Colons & Speech Marks New School Dinners I Wish I was An Infant Again Every Single Step Of the Way

To move between songs use on the player above

Sample piano score

Download a sample piano score (JPG)

Characters

Speaking parts in order of appearance:

Joe, Holly, Dan, Amelia, Rachel and Sam  Inside and in trouble! (Names should be changed to those of the actors playing these characters.)
Teacher  Will she make it unscathed through Monday morning registration?
12 children  Not if they have anything to do with it!
A mum  On a mission to bend an ear or two..
Red Riding Hoodie (and posse) The worst thing the Brothers Grimm ever created!
3 boys and 3 girls Would-be disco dates, trying to negotiate the hazards of English grammar.
4 school cooks  Thanks a bundle Jamie Oliver.
5 dinner ladies  May need to reconsider their job description.
8 diners  Burger King is the nearest they’ve come to fine dining.
2 infants  Wide-eyed and innocent? Beware, looks can be deceiving.
2 parents  Looking at their little darlings through rose-tinted specs.
Teacher  Looking at her class through even rosier-tinted specs.
Teaching Assistant  Rose-tinted specs are definitely the ‘must have’ fashion item of the moment.
6 more infants  Experts in pulling wool over eyes.

Plot summary

For children and adults, making it to the end of a school day is never plain sailing! From the first ring of the bell in the morning to home time, there’s never a dull moment. ‘Wotta Lotta Bother’ provides hilarious snapshots of such moments, which are guaranteed to strike a chord with teachers, pupils and parents.

Join five children who have been ‘kept in’ over lunchtime to make amends, in various ways, for a catalogue of minor misdemeanours! As they sharpen a mountain of blunt pencils, wash dirty paint pots, tidy bookshelves and do those dreaded lines, they discuss the incidents that have lead to this thoroughly unfair and unjustified detention!

However, their discussion does lead them to appreciate that a typical day at school is an adventure, and one rarely makes it to the end of an adventure unscathed. Through delightful sketches and songs, and a host of wonderful characters, we unearth; the horror that is Monday morning registration, bottom-numbing assemblies, the consequences of not paying attention to your grammar and punctuation, how Jamie Oliver’s new standards for school lunchtimes might be a blessing in disguise, and why infants seem to have such an easy life!

The conclusion is made that any storm can be weathered, and enjoyment can be found in any journey, so long we have people to care for us and look out for us along the way.

‘Wotta Lotta Bother’ is the perfect way to celebrate all we hold dear about our school, and the people who make our time there so memorable.