 | An easy, flexible, 25-minute musical play for grades 1-5. Comes with the script, audio recording (with both a vocal and instrumental version of each song), and a teacher's guide. No music or drama experience needed! |
 | ✓ Funny script ✓ Catchy tunes ✓ Flexible casting ✓ Dumb jokes
Kids on a cross-town train wish they could travel, but they discover that the world can be found in the roots of their fellow passengers. Learn more! |
MusicalGr. 1-525 Min.
Musical Play: “We Come From Everywhere”
Complete Script & Audio: $45 (other items also available)
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Synopsis
Kids on a cross-town train wish they were going on a worldwide adventure, but they soon discover that they can "travel the world" just by learning more about the roots of their fellow passengers! We Come From Everywhere celebrates the diverse origins of people in the United States, from Native Americans to immigrants from all over the globe. Students learn that we come from a variety of places and cultures, exploring some of the historical reasons that specific groups migrated to this country, while they develop an appreciation of the opportunities and challenges of immigration.
Preview the script and songs!Key Concepts
We Come From Everywhere is a fun way to celebrate the diversity of our country and help students investigate and feel pride in their own family backgrounds. It is a great complement to your curriculum resources in elementary school family history and immigration. And, like all of our plays, this show can be used to improve reading, vocabulary, reading comprehension, performance and music skills, class camaraderie and teamwork, and numerous social skills (read about it!) -- all while enabling students to be part of a truly fun and creative experience they will never forget!
Aligned with national standards! View the standards and vocabulary.Publication Info
Author: Ron Fink (Composer) and John Heath (Book and Lyrics)
ISBN:
978-1-886588-21-9
© 2001
Bad Wolf Press, LLC
4 reviews for Musical Play: “We Come From Everywhere”
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The Show
We want you to know what you're getting, so the cast list and first third of the script are available here! Bad Wolf shows are written for flexibility and can be edited however you like to meet the needs of your actors, school, curriculum, parents, astrological chart, latest whim, etc. If you have questions about the portions of the script not shown, please contact us.
Casting
Flexible casting from 11-40 students. Use as many members of different families as desired (our list of characters is merely a suggestion). Actors can easily play several roles, or a single role can be divided between multiple actors. All parts can be played by any gender.
CHARACTERS:
Three Students (to introduce the show)
Four Kids on a train:
Charles, Maria, Pauline, Freddy
Passengers on the train, grouped by song:
George, Patrick, Louisa
Juan, Isabela
Melody, Min
Ian, Surf Dudes
Richard
Rachel
Jesse
Francesca, Marc
Peggy, Jim
and a Chorus made up of all students who are not playing roles at the time.
Script
This is the first one-third of the script.
(Three STUDENTS step forward and face the audience)
STUDENT #1: Today we're going to present to you a show about some of the historical reasons that different groups came to the United States.
STUDENT #2: But just remember that there are lots of other reasons, too!
STUDENT #3: We can't share all of them in our play, but it's important to know that every person is different and every family has its own story.
OPTIONAL (this can also be done at the end of the play)
Have a student (or 2, or 20!) come to the front of the stage and share a brief summary of his or her family history, such as:
"My name is Bobby and my grandfather came to the United States from India to attend a university."
Song 1
Listen to
a sample!
ENTIRE CLASS:
From right next door
From
far away
Both long ago
And yesterday
We come from here
We come from there
We come from everywhere.
There’s different skin
And different hair
There’re different things
We eat and wear
Still we have got
So much to share
We come from everywhere.
Some folks came to keep themselves from starving
And some heard the voice of freedom call
Some came for the gold or for the weather
And some did not ask to come at all.
From right next door
From far away
Both long ago
And yesterday
We come from here
We come from there
We come from everywhere.
(ALL snap to attention on the last beat.)
(STUDENTS sit down as if riding on a train. Some are reading magazines, listening to music on headphones, carrying packages, etc. Four TRAIN-RIDERS are closest to front of stage.)
FREDDY: Every school day it’s the same trip. I wish this train were going someplace fun instead of just across town to school.
CHARLES: Yeah. Imagine if the train were going to Africa.
MARIA: Or Greece.
PAULINE: Or Hong Kong!
FREDDY: Or Bakersfield.
CHARLES: Bakersfield?
FREDDY: I hear they’ve got great french fries.
MARIA: Wait a minute. I bet we have most of the world right here in this train.
PAULINE: What do you mean?
CHARLES: Maria’s right! People in the U.S. come from everywhere.
MARIA: Come on, let’s find out. We’ll ask people on this train where they’re from.
CHARLES: Great idea!
FREDDY: I hope somebody here is from Bakersfield—or at least has some french fries.
Song 2
Listen to
a sample!
(music plays while FOUR students move among passengers, pantomiming conversations. When the music stops, the students gather again next to each other.)
CHARLES: What did you find out?
PAULINE: I found somebody whose family came from Vietnam just a few years ago.
MARIA: I found someone from Australia.
FREDDY: I found some gum under one of the seats—look, it’s hardly been chewed!
OTHERS: Yuck!
CHARLES: Listen to this.
(Brings THREE PASSENGERS forward.)
I found three people who come from completely different places but they
have something really interesting in common.
GEORGE: Hi, I’m George. My grandparents came from Greece in 1920.
PATRICK: My family came over from Ireland 100 years ago.
LOUISA: We’re originally from a small town in Germany.
GEORGE: And all of our families entered the United States through Ellis Island.
FREDDY: What’s Ellis Island?
LOUISA: Ellis Island was the place in New York harbor where immigrants arrived by ship from Europe.
PATRICK: Their papers were inspected, their health was checked, and they had to answer questions about coming to the United States.
LOUISA: I often heard my grandparents speak of their first day in America—they were so nervous and excited.
Song 3
Listen to
a sample!
LOUISA:
Hello Ellis Island
Hello USA
Gonna make this my land
Starting from today.
GEORGE and LOUISA:
Apple of my eye-land
I am here to stay
Hello Ellis Island
Hello USA.
GEORGE, LOUISA, PATRICK:
Hello Ellis Island
Hello USA
You’re my place to try-land
Nothing’s in my way.
GEORGE, LOUISA, PATRICK, CHORUS:
Apple of my eye-land
I am here to stay
Hello Ellis Island
Hello USA.
(THEY return to their seats. STUDENTS speak. JUAN and ISABELA approach.)
CHARLES: Hey guys, these two people just came from Mexico when they were little kids.
FREDDY: Did they come through Ellis Island?
MARIA: Of course not. Ellis Island has been closed since 1954.
PAULINE: Besides, they wouldn’t come by ship. Mexico and the United States share a border over 2000 miles long.
FREDDY: I knew that.
Song 4
Listen to
a sample!
JUAN and ISABELA:
Our father came to work the fields
To find a better life
A place of opportunity
For two kids and a wife.
And we were taught to do our best
And we have surely tried
Though it's been tough, it's working out
And we can say with pride:
We are on our way
We are on our way
We are on our way.
Our father came to work the fields
To find a better life
A place of opportunity
For two kids and a wife.
Our parents left the life they knew
And worked hard every day
They say they'd do it all again
So they can hear us say:
We are on our way
We are on our way
We are on our way
We are on our way.
(THEY return to seats. STUDENTS speak)
PAULINE: Now that we’re talking about our families, I realize I don’t know where mine comes from.
CHARLES: Haven’t you ever asked your parents?
PAULINE: Yeah, but I keep getting different answers.
MARIA: Maybe you should ask them again.
PAULINE: Yeah. Can I borrow your cell phone?
FREDDY: Here, you can use mine.
(hands over phone)
MARIA (as MELODY and MIN approach): Listen up. I want to hear the story of this Chinese family.
MELODY: My ancestors came here from Canton in 1850 during the gold rush.
MIN: Merchants told us tales about Gum San, the mountain of gold in California.
Song 5
Listen to
a sample!
MELODY and MIN:
Every body’s buzzing with excitement
In our little Kwangtung town
Seven thousand miles across the ocean
Mounds of gold have just been found.
Nuggets even bigger than our chicken
Gold is lying everywhere
Got to get to ourselves to California
’Cause our fortune’s waiting there.
At Gum San
Golden Mountain
So we’ve been told
Gum San
Gotta find that
Mountain made of gold.
When I’m rich I’ll sail back to China
Buy some land and settle down
Maybe set my family up in business
In our little Kwangtung town.
MELODY, MIN, and CHORUS:
Gum San
Golden Mountain
So we’ve been told
Gum San
Gotta find that
Mountain made of gold.
Hello San Francisco
With your lovely bay
Never found my fortune
Guess I’m here to stay.
Gonna make this my land
Starting from today
Hello San Francisco
Hello USA.
(THEY return to their seats)
(This concludes the first one-third of the script.)
The Songs
Click on any song to listen to a snippet. Click the cart icon to purchase any track for $1.
Standards
Common Core and Other National Standards
History/Social Studies
- National History Standard 5 for K-4th
- National US History Standards, Eras 2, 4, and 6, for 5th-12th
- National Social Studies Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 9
Language Arts
- Common Core Reading Standards for Literature: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
- Common Core Reading Standards: Foundational Skills:
- Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards: Comprehension and Collaboration - K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
- Common Core Language Standards: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use - K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
- Common Core Standard 10: Range, Quality & Complexity: Range of Text Types for K-5th
National Core Arts Standards
- Music - Anchor Standards 4-6
- Theater - Anchor Standards 3-6
- Dance - Anchor Standards 1-6
Vocabulary
Ellis Island
“apple of my eye”
Canton
gold rush
Gum San
Jamestown
Orient
slave trader
kola tree
mail-order bride
vanity
hospitality
steamer
masses
yearning
throb
melting pot
Cherokee
caress
acrobat
pantomiming
Emma Lazarus
cajjh (verified owner) –
We Come From Everywhere is a fun musical addressing the topic of diversity in the U.S. It is gently handled, and highlights that we all have family stories about where we came from in the world and our commonalities.
The dialogue and vocals are fun, but the range of some songs is quite challenging, especially for younger (<10) singers.
TeachTigers (verified owner) –
We haven't had our play performance yet, but rehearsals are going very well, and I have to say that this is my favorite play from you so far. Love the songs.
Jay Stetzer (verified owner) –
I purchased this recently for my 3rd grade performing arts class, and they absolutely loved it! They first learned the songs– everybody… every song… and not at my insistence. They simply guzzled them down like hungry birds. When I introduced the script, the same thing happened.</p><p>The staging was easy to manage, and the helpful production notes were very useful to my budding directors. The topic prompted all the students to find out about their own immigration stories (there were quite a number of interesting anecdotes that they shared). Not only that, their parents registered great interest in the topic as a result of the play. All around, the story and the subject sparked a tremendous amount of interaction among students, teachers, and parents. I call that a winning combination! Thanks so much for making this production possible. Jay Stetzer, The Harley School.
Tom Thieme (verified owner) –
I teach second grade in South Pasadena, California. Teachers at my school are united in our conviction that our students should see our campus as one at which each of them is valued and wanted. I'm not one for injecting my personal politics into my teaching but when my students feel personally threatened, it's my job as a teacher to reassure them.
I do a musical with my students every year because I think performing before a large group of people is a very important life experience. I've turned to Bad Wolf almost exclusively to achieve this goal and I'll even take credit for suggesting a musical on test-taking they eventually brought to fruition. I was going to recycle a musical I'd already done this year but considering the current political climate that has sadly imposed itself on so many of my students, I felt "We Come from Everywhere" was not only a musical that fit neatly into our curriculum, but one that reinforced and reassured my kids of their own worth.
No matter what your political leanings are, if you have children in your class feeling vulnerable due to their own heritage, working on "We Come From Everywhere" is a good way to assure them that we as teachers are always on their side.