Photos supplied by Madja, an Egyptian musician.
Ms. Dudette Poppins, Hollywood movie director, along with her extremely competent Assistant, is searching for a script for a new movie, "The Mystery of King Tut".
Ms. Poppins must choose from three possible plots, each one with a different solution to the mystery of how the Pharaoh Tutankhamon, ruler of ancient Egypt, died when he was only 19 years old.
Was it Tut's royal wife, the imperious and cruel Queen Akhnesenaten? Or perhaps the mutinous General Horemheb is the guilty party! Amon, the King of the Gods, is another likely suspect. Which script will Ms. Poppins choose?
Meet the cast and then come to Apollo and find out!
Hey, nine year olds! How would you like to become
the ruler of the most powerful country in the world? That's what happened to Tutankhamon,
the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. He had to give up learning to read and write and take
on the heavy yoke of being king when he was the same age as a fourth grader!
Queen Akhnesenaten is the wife of Tut, daughter of Nefertiti. She married
Tutankhamon at the age of 12. However, few people know that this marriage was
meant to steal the throne from her husband! Akhnesenaten’s two main moods are
annoyed and furious. She is beautiful, unmerciful, arrogant, and has a musical
talent. She despises everyone in the palace except for her favorite slave, Mara,
and Joy, Tut’s nurse. Queen Akhnesenaten finds slaves (especially Pepi)
disgusting, her mother (who wants to rule all Egypt) loathsome , and Tut,
her husband, to be worth less than sand!
Nefertiti’s name means “the Beautiful Woman has
Come,” and Queen Nefertiti has been a symbol of
beauty for thousands of years. In fact, she was so
beautiful that she won the heart of the Pharaoh
Amenhotep IV and ruled as his equal for many
years. When he died, to keep her power, she had
her daughter Akhnesenaten married to the new
king, Tutankhamon. Nefertiti is plotting to murder
Tut in order to regain the throne of Egypt.
Ramose is not only one of Pharaoh Tutankhamon’s best friends, but also is his
“loyal” bodyguard. As the bodyguard, he is not very excited about his job.
He slacks a little, and takes a break once in a while when he is not supposed to.
He doesn’t always apply himself in his job. Ramose sometimes acts like Tut’s personal
valet. At other times, he gets distracted and his inattention may put the king in
danger. He may even have been stalling right when someone murdered the pharaoh!!!
The real General Horemheb was a brilliant military
commander who saved Egypt from attacking enemies. He became the Pharaoh of Egypt
about 10 years after Tutankhamon died and ruled for almost 50 years! In our play,
General Horemheb hates Tut and wants people to worship him for being a great general.
He has a very big ego and thinks he is one of the greatest generals of all time.
He wants to become the Pharaoh, and stages a mutiny to overthrow King Tut.
The High Priest of Amon is a priest who was promoted to
the position of high priest by the god Amon. His interests are money, money, and more
money. All he wants to do is collect treasure from the other priests and keep it all to
himself. He is good at singing, convincing Amon to give him money, and stealing money
from other priests.
Isis was a very elegant goddess of Egypt.
She had a very sophisticated and self – centered personality. It was believed that
she was the mother goddess and wife of Osiris, the god of the underworld. Isis and
Osiris were the only two gods who were shown with the body of a human (the other Gods
had the head of a human and body of an animal, the head of an animal and body of a
human, or the head and body of an animal) but still had the powers of gods and
goddesses. Isis was believed to have magical powers and frequently casts spells
on the “insignificant” humans. Could one of her spells have killed King
Tut? Sisi
Divine is a very sophisticated and powerful person. She’s intelligent and knows
a lot about Egyptian history, as well as King Tutankhamen and the discovery of
his tomb. But Sisi is also a very magical character that seems to be able to get
her way, even when people don’t agree at first. The “normal” humans cannot figure
out the trick Sisi Divine uses to convince them to watch her script, a proposal
for Dudette Poppins’ new movie. Or is it really a trick at all?
Pepi is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy (never sad,
never mad) who often thinks that he is better than all of the other slaves because
his great-great-great-uncle-twice-removed was Pepi ll, a past Pharaoh. Pepi’s best
friend is Tut since they were raised together as children. Pepi also likes to mimic
people and is quite sarcastic and is not always polite to his superiors. He is also
a big sports fan and loves racing, hunting, playing games, and also likes money.
The Yes-Man is a soldier in General Horemheb’s
military and is forever agreeing with him -- whether he understands the general
or not! He hopes to get a higher position in the army. Surprisingly, Horemheb
doesn’t get tired of the Yes-Man’s constant agreement. Although he is normally
a very nice person, the Yes-Man is willing to do just about anything to get a higher
position in the military -- even killing King Tut.
Nurse Joy raised King Tut and is always demanding
respect from the slaves and King Tut. She is always whining and complaining, for she
is completely unappreciated! She is very, very boring, and Tut does not get along well
with her.
Aten is the god of the sun. She thinks that she is
the most powerful god of all. Aten has magical powers like all the Gods, but sometimes
gets a little carried away. She and Amon are always in a feud. They spend 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week fighting over who is most powerful.
Amon is the King of the Gods. There are many temples in his honor. One is
in Karnak, ancient Egypt’s capitol. The name Amon means "What is hidden,"
"What is not seen," or "What cannot be seen." In the play, Amon is determined
not to lose power because Aten, the sun god, was just made supreme god by a
recent pharaoh. He is always ordering humans around and casting powerful spells.
He has a constant rivalry with Aten.
Nakht is a royal musician who is loyal to King Tut.
She is capable of playing beautiful music but only does so when scared out of her wits.
She likes to eat, play games, and doesn’t seem to listen to anyone when playing games.
Nakht loves snakes and has a pet asp that she has de-fanged. This slave is also a
”know-it-all” who doesn’t really know anything.
Majda is a slow, dim-witted slave who is constantly
forgetting her job. She also forgets Tutankhamon’s name, preferring to call him
“Tut”.Majda enjoys eating, playing games, and playing bad music on her kazoo. She
is an expert at being an unfair game referee, and she is always trying to do Nurse
Joy’s job. Majda’s favorite pastimes are playing with Nakht, her fellow slave,
and Tut.
Mara is a loyal slave, but is also sneaky and very
stuck-up. She is the favorite slave of the beautiful Queen Akhnesenaten. She prides
herself as being better than most of the other slaves and shows it often. She doesn’t
like the other slaves, or for that matter, King Tut. This could turn out to be a
problem in the end for Tut.
Pablo Picasso was the most famous painter of the 20th century.
Born in Spain, he lived in France for most of his career. Picasso
believed he was the best artist who ever lived, even better than
Michaelangelo! In the play, Picasso is stunned that the Egyptians don’t
recognize him. Conjured back from the dead by Sisi Divine, Picasso is
actually supposed to be a mummy, but he continues to paint in several scenes,
oblivious to all that is happening around him.
The Movie Director is an impatient person, who values
her own opinion above everyone else’s. She isn’t considerate of others, and thinks
that she is superior. Her short temper gets her into arguments with the assistant.
Although the movie she is trying to produce is about Egypt, she knows nothing at
all about Egyptian history. Without he assistant, she wouldn’t have even thought
about making an Egyptian movie. On top of all this, her life long enemy, the
Movie Critic, who has been against her from the moment she saw her first movie,
is on the set and making trouble.
The Movie Critic from
The Hollywood Times is Ms.
Dudette Poppins’ lifelong and worst enemy. He sneaks onto the set where the movies
are being filmed to get a preview of new movies. The Security Guards are constantly
trying to catch him and arrest him. The Movie Critics real name is Meatloaf Smith. He
is a descendant of Meatloaf Smith III, the famous Broadway critic. His hobbies are
spying on movies, tormenting his lifelong enemy, the Movie Director, and giving movies
bad reviews.
The Assistant Director is an intelligent person who
is meek enough to keep his job, although he could definitely improve the work done
in the studio if he took over. He majored in the study of ancient civilizations,
with a focus on Egyptology. When he heard that a Movie Director was making a movie
on Ancient Egypt, the Assistant jumped to the job. With all of his knowledge on
Ancient Egyptian history, he was easily hired for the job as the Assistant.
Howard Carter was an archaeologist who made one of the most amazing discoveries
in the history of archaeology. He found the long lost tomb of the Pharaoh
Tutankhamon, the only Egyptian tomb that survived almost undisturbed by grave
robbers. In the play, his great-grandson, Howard Carter IV, tries to fool the
Movie Director into thinking that HE is the man who found the tomb.
When the Assistant Director figures out the scam, Howard Carter IV is dragged
away by the security guards … but not before he sings the silly song, “King Tut”.
The Security Guard’s real name is Mr. Need A. Brain Born.
He is not very smart, but he is a (hopefully) loyal guard to the famous movie director
Dudette Poppins and her smart assistant. He is not the best security guard, but he is
a great clown. He even graduated from clown school!
The Security Guard in training is a clumsy, awkward
officer. She is totally disorganized, and with her partner, is constantly blowing her whistle while arresting people. Not being very bright, she sometimes talks back to the movie director and frequently takes a long time to answer the security calls. Security Guard
in training doesn’t have a very pure heart, but she is very innocent and easily confused.