The Emperor's New Clothes Guided Reading Script

The Emperor's New Clothes Guided Reading Script

This is one of a collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories and includes Teaching Input, Discussion and Suggestions for Further Activities - i.e. ample content for a lesson. It can equally be used as a literary or PSHE resource.

The Ugly Duckling is also available with more to follow (scripts, not ducklings!)

It could also be used as a small play, for performance, with a few ‘tweaks’ and the addition of the music suggestions below.

The Emperor's New Clothes is also available as a play within a play. It is part of Fashion Assembly and tells the story via cast of 10. The assembly itself is for cast of 30 (easily adaptable up or down depending on number of fashion models used!)

Music

1.     Fashion - David Bowie

2.     You’re so Vain – Carly Simon

Cast of 6:

• Narrator
• Emperor
• Weaver 1 & 2
• Royal Adviser
• Street Child

Duration:        Around 10 minutes reading time 

Sample Text:

Narrator:             (To Street Child) Apart from you, you all went along with this charade – just so as to save face? Well, really!

Royal Adviser:   Yes, I know it looks bad

Narrator:             It most certainly does

Emperor:             But I wonder what you’d have done, especially as everyone else seemed to be going along with it?

Narrator:             But couldn’t you see you were being taken for a song and a dance?

Weaver 1:            It was quite funny!

Weaver 2:            Especially when the emperor here actually turned up to try on his new clothes

Weaver 1:            After having given us all that money and gold thread and

Emperor:             (Interrupting) Yes, yes. Must you rub it in? Haven’t I been humiliated enough?

Royal Adviser:   (Groaning) Oh, if only I had had the strength to admit to what I could see – as in, nothing! No cloth on the loom, no clothes, just air!

Emperor:             And what a lot of hot air you were! Coming back telling me how wonderfully the work was progressing. How delighted I was going to be with my new clothes!

Royal Adviser:   But I didn’t want to appear either unfit for my job or stupid.

Narrator:             And so, you ended up being both!

Street Child:       I’ll never understand grown-ups!