A Time To Hear: A Musical Stage Play

By S. J. Knight

In the tiny lakeside community of Banayim, Galilee, the villagers long for the promised Messiah to save them from poverty and Roman rule. Meanwhile their work, quarrels, and gossip go as usual. Young Dan, the motherless son of Shepherd Ammiel, is confused. Who is the Messiah? When will he come? And what does it all mean? However more immediate more worries crowd his mind. Will his father remarry? What about Aunt Etta and her lazy brother-in-law, Bukki?

Suddenly Dan's narrow world expands as he meets his father's first love, the gentle Anna of Cana, her scornful Greek brother, Loukanos, and irrepressible young cousin, Johanan, and the enigmatic Blind Mordecai.

When startling news comes of a bold prophet preaching in the wilderness of Judea, the family are determined to discover whether this is indeed their Messiah. They set out on a journey - a journey which will change everything. Each of them will hear more, learn more and lose more than they could ever have expected.

All of them will find more than they ever could have imagined.

Based on the novel by S.J. Knight, this uplifting musical stage play is a pleasure to read for its own sake. Written for a flexible number of participants of all ages, it is particularly suitable for production by youth, church, and amateur groups. The book is thoughtfully arranged with script on right-hand pages, accompanied by sketches, comments and personal note space on the left. Directors will find the optional cuts helpful. Music scores are included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Apr 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514442135

S. J. Knight

S. J. Knight is a published author and former Australian Broadcasting Commission radio scriptwriter, who has written a wide range of material over many years, including bible plays for young and old, and seven children’s books. In more recent years the author’s true passion was found in writing scriptural novels for adult readers. The first of these was A Time To Hear, which began as a serial for a magazine, and was later adapted as a musical stage play (now published by Xlibris to benefit amateur performance groups). “The characters were so real to me that I had to find out what happened to them – and then what happened next … I ended up with a trilogy. A Time To Hear, A Time to See and A Time to Speak.   A Time To Act is a segue from these books, in which a few previous characters reappear. I hope it will be the first of a second trilogy. As a writer I’m a time traveller. I love being transported back to the reality and physicality of the biblical world, which to me is always there, on the other side of an unseen door, waiting to be experienced. Stepping through that door helps 21st Century readers to see the scriptural records shining in their full original context, and to better appreciate their relevance to modern lives. In writing about ordinary people in extraordinary times – people just like us – I hope to inspire in others a similar sense of immediacy, empathy, and connection with the great events of scripture.”