Sara Crewe - The Little Princess: Three-Act Playscript of the Classic Novel

Raised in India by her affluent and adoring father, Captain Ralph Crewe, Sara was sent to London to be educated at Miss Minchin’s Seminary for Young Ladies at the age of seven.

Impressed by Captain Crewe’s fortune, and wishing to keep Sara at the school as long as possible, Miss Minchin allows Sara luxuries far beyond those of her other parlour boarders—that is until the day of Sara’s eleventh birthday when Sara receives the devastating news of her adored father’s death.

Suddenly penniless, Miss Minchin banishes Sara to the garret to work as a servant alongside Becky, the seminary’s young scullery maid. Though starved and abused, Sara uses imagination and friendship—with Becky, Ermengarde, and Lottie—to make the best of her change in situation and fortunes. However, hope is on the horizon, in the guise of a monkey and his mysterious owner who lives next door…

3 Acts; Cast - 5 male, 3 female, 1 boy, and 14 girls; Setting - 1902, London

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 - 1924) was an English playwright and author, best known for her children's stories - in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Born near Manchester, England, her family emigrated to the USA in 1865, where she began writing to help earn money for the family. She is buried in Roslyn Cemetery, on Long Island, and a memorial sculpture - depicting her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon - was erected in her honour in Central Park's Conservatory Garden in 1936.