Summary: A readers' theater presentation for Christmas Eve.

Style: Light-hearted.              Duration: 7min

Actors: 1M, 1F, 2C

 

Characters:
(1) Man
(2) Woman
(3) Boy
(4) Girl

(2) In the beginning…

(3) In the beginning…

(4) In the beginning…

(1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

(3,4) And it was good.

(2) Then God planted a garden

(1) A lovely garden

(3) With trees

(4) And flowers

(3) With fruits

(4) And vegetables

(1,2) It was a wonderful place.

(2) God put a man and his wife in the garden.

(1) “Take care of it, and while you’re at it, why don’t you name the animals.”

(3) “Hmm, odd looking animal. Pointy things on its head, and four hangy-down things under its belly. I think I’ll name you… Fred! (4 shakes head, stamps foot) What!? Hey, don’t have a cow, man! Cow? Cow? Hey, that’s it, cow. I’ll call you a cow.” (4 smiles and nods)

(2) And every evening God’s friend Adam told God what he’d done that day, and what he’d called the animals.

(1,2,3,4)And it was good.

(1) But then problems came.

(2) Satan…

(3) Boo!

(4) Hiss!

(2) Satan convinced Adam and Eve to disobey God.

(4) No, no!

(3) Not that!

(1) Yes, and God booted them out of the garden.

(4) That lovely garden.

(3) And it was no longer good.

(2) And Adam had to face the sin of the world.

(1) Anger

(4) I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!

(2) War

(1) Fire one! Fire two! Fire three!

(3) Direct hit, Admiral! And there were no survivors.

(1) Greed

(4) This is my candy. And that’s my candy, too!

(3) Ma! Suzie took my candy!

(2) Stealing

(3) Oh, look! Billy left his new bike out. Well, it’s mine now!

(1) Lying

(2) But officer, I was only doing 35 miles per hour.

(1) Lust

(2) Never mind. This is a family program.

(3) Death

(1) Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

(4) But God had not forgotten His friend, Adam.

(3) In the fullness of time…

(1,3) In the fullness of time…

(1,2,3) In the fullness of time…

(4) Something new was about to happen.

(2) “God so loved the world that He gave his only son”

(1) Cut to a small town in a backwater country in the middle East.

(2) There,

(3) In a stable

(4) Cramped

(3) Dirty,

(4) Smelly,

(2) The cry of a baby is heard.

(4) (sung) Hush little baby, don’t say a word. Papa's going to buy you a mocking bird.

(1) A baby is born

(2) What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?

(1) What child? Why, it’s my son. You, the alto section, go tell someone.

(3) And soon the wire service was burning up with the news,

(2) And reruns of “Leave it to Beaver” were being preempted,

(4) And the word was being twittered across the globe…

(1) Stop! That’s not what happened.

(4) It’s not?

(1) No. The angels told a small group of illiterate laborers…

(2) Shepherds

(4) That a baby…

(3) The savior of the world

(4) Was born in Bethlehem.

(2) The only others who figured it out were an old man and an old woman in the temple

(1) And a bunch of heathen astrologers from Bangladesh.

(3) (with accent) We are come to see the new king!

(1) (aside) New king? There can be no new king! After all, I'm the king. And it's good to be the king. (direct) Tell you what. You go find the new king, then let me know. I have a surprise for him!

(2) So they found the new king.

(3) And gave him birthday presents --

(1) Gold,

(4) Frankincense,

(2) Myrrh.

(1) And gave Herod a surprise

(3) By not coming back.

(2) This little child grew up

(3) And taught us how to live

(4) And that God loves us

(1) And in the fullness of time

(1,2) In the fullness of time

(1,2,3) In the fullness of time

(1,2,3,4)In the fullness of time he paid the price for our sins.

(2) He was God's gift to us

(1) And because of him,

(1,3) And because of him,

(1,3,4) And because of him,

(2) We can one day live with God in his wonderful creation.

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© Copyright John Shekleton, all rights reserved. The script may not be reproduced, translated or copied in any medium, including books, CDs and on the Internet, without written permission of the author.

This play may be performed free of charge, on the condition that copies are not sold for profit in any medium, nor any entrance fee charged. In exchange for free performance, the author would appreciate being notified of when and for what purpose the play is performed. He may be contacted at:
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