1519

Scene 1: The Paralyzing Prophecy

The arrival of Cortés and the fall of the Aztec Empire through prophecy and fear.

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🎭 Classroom Acting Instructions

📍 Stage Blocking

  • Moctezuma: Center stage, elevated if possible. Pace anxiously back and forth.
  • Aztec Advisor: Stage left, kneeling or bowing. Rise when giving urgent advice.
  • Cortés & Malintzin: Stage right, partially hidden. Whisper conspiratorially.
  • Narrators: Downstage corners, facing audience directly.

🎭 Emotional Cues

  • Moctezuma: Express TERROR and PARALYSIS. Tremble, speak fearfully.
  • Aztec Advisor: Show URGENCY and FRUSTRATION. Use emphatic gestures.
  • Cortés: Project CUNNING CONFIDENCE. Smile slightly.
  • Malintzin: Display INTELLIGENCE and CALCULATION.

⚔️ Battle Sequence: The Fall of Tenochtitlán

  1. Lights dim. Sound of drums or battle sounds.
  2. Aztec warriors (3-5 students) enter from stage left with cardboard shields.
  3. Conquistadors (3-5 students) enter from stage right with wooden swords.
  4. In SLOW MOTION, perform stylized battle: clash in center, Aztecs fall dramatically.
  5. Moctezuma collapses center stage as Cortés raises a flag.
  6. Freeze. Lights out. Narrator delivers final line in darkness.

Characters in this Scene:

Click a character to highlight their lines

Setting: The Aztec Court in Tenochtitlán. Moctezuma is pacing. The atmosphere is tense.

Narrator 1: We begin in 1519. The Aztec Empire is the master of the known world, stretching from ocean to ocean. They are wealthy and powerful, yet they live in terror.

Narrator 2: Their priests teach that the universe is fragile—that the sun will literally die unless it is fed the "precious water": human blood.

Moctezuma: (Looking at the sky, trembling) The omens are impossible to ignore. A comet in the sky... fire consuming the temple. And now, runners tell me "towers" are floating on the sea.

Aztec Advisor: Emperor, the strangers have skin like chalk and shirts made of iron. They ride beasts—like deer, but giant and without antlers.

Moctezuma: (Freezes) Iron... and beasts. As the calendar predicted. It must be Quetzalcoatl. The prophecy says he will return to judge us for our sins.

Aztec Advisor: Then we must strike first! We have thousands of warriors. We can crush them on the beach!

Moctezuma: No! You cannot fight a god. If we fight, we are doomed. Send them gold. Bring them here. Perhaps if we honor him, his wrath will pass.

(Cortés enters with Malintzin. They stand apart, watching Moctezuma.)

Cortés: (Whispering) Why does he hesitate? He has an army that could swallow us whole.

Malintzin: (Calculating) He is paralyzed by his own theology. He thinks you are a god returning to reclaim his throne.

Cortés: Then we are lucky.

Malintzin: It is not luck, it is opportunity. The tribes he conquered—the Tlaxcalans—they do not fear gods; they hate the Aztecs. If you promise them freedom, they will give you an army.

Cortés: Excellent. We will use their prophecy—and their enemies—against them.

Narrator 1: Fear paralyzed the Emperor, and the Empire fell. After a brutal siege, the great city of Tenochtitlán was destroyed in 1521.

Narrator 2: The Spanish won the war, but the land was broken. The indigenous people were enslaved, their temples burned, and their spirits crushed. They had lost their world, and they had not yet found a new one.

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The Fifth Sun
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