Ten Plays for Church

By Kevin Dodds

A collection of ten new and original short plays for the church, the school or the church hall. In fact anywhere where there is space to perform them.

A contemporary presentation of Jesus' Gospel stories, these charming but effective group of plays are ideal for simple enactment, as well as for private reading and study.

Workshops and study groups will find many exciting and challenging points for discussion, in this enthusiastic approach of the message of good and evil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467015561

Kevin Dodds

In 1978 Kevin Dodds attended the 'Mountview Theatre School' in London to study dramatic art as an actor. He is also a licensed 'Lay Reader' in the Church of England and it was whilst studying for the lay ministry that he sought to write 'Ten Plays for Church', thereby combining his love for the theatre with that of the Christian ministry. Kevin lives with his wife Jane, in Cornwall, England and together they have a young daughter, Jessica.

Book preview

Contents

INTRODUCTION

NOTES ON THE PLAYS

THE DEVIL’S SCHEME

THE EVIL-DOER

THE MOUNTAIN

THE JUSTIFIED

THE BATTLE

LIGHTS, CAMERA’S, ACTION

FORGIVENESS BUREAU

THE CLASS

THE RUIN

THE NEWS

About the Author

To Jane,

For her faith, belief and encouragement.

INTRODUCTION 

TEN PLAYS FOR CHURCH first began as an idea whilst training for the Lay Ministry as a Reader in the Church of England, back in 1994.

Together with my tutor and along with my fellow student, we were discussing the ministry of the Reader and what we ourselves could bring to the role. We were then charged with the task of writing a project on the subject. Struggling to see what I could offer in this role, it was suggested that because of my one year of training at a theatre school, (I still don’t know how the subject came into the conversation), that I could perhaps write a play in place of a sermon. My fellow student, who was much more ambitious and enthusiastic about this than I was, went onto suggest that if I were to write a number of plays, maybe they could be published.

Feeling a little dumb-struck and somewhat nervous, I agreed to write one play for my project, not really knowing what I was letting myself in for, particularly as I had had no experience of writing plays before and so I began to write what became the first play, ‘The Devil’s Scheme’.

Two years later I stopped at ‘The News’, being the tenth and last play of this collection. It was fun writing them. At times I admit, it was difficult to write the plays and yet at other times it seemed easy. It seemed easy because the subject and material for the plays were already there in the gospels.

Three of the plays are specifically based on three of Jesus’ parables. The remaining plays are based on the Christian way of life; the demands of ‘The Way’, struggles and ideals that are part of our journey as Christians, as we seek the kingdom of God. Only one play in this collection, ‘Lights, Cameras, Action’, is taken from the Old Testament from the creation story itself.

Where the writing of the plays became difficult, came about whilst trying to attempt to put these two thousand year old or more parables, into a modern context and setting.

So much has already been written on Jesus’ parables; it is a subject with which people will continue to write, discuss and debate for many years to come, as we try to interpret what we believe Jesus was trying to convey.

It has often been a charge said against Jesus’ parables and teachings that what was once relevant two thousand years ago, has little or no relevance to us today in our modern world. Yet a close look at what Jesus taught, reveal that the basic problems of life experienced then, are just the same if not similar, to the everyday problems we experience today and not just in Palestine either, but all over the world. The fact is, Jesus’ teachings and truths are still relevant today, because what Jesus spoke about in his time were about the ordinary every day busyness and worries, that still continue to trouble us today. This is why we still need his teaching today and in our lives. This is why we still need to be reminded of what Jesus said to his people then and to be able to apply that teaching to us and to our needs today.

Is there anything wrong in attempting to put Jesus’ parables and what he taught, into a modern context and setting? I don’t believe so. As I have said before, the way of life and the struggles that Jesus spoke and taught about, were the same in his time as they are now, and will always continue to be so.

Putting what Jesus said into a modern context and setting, is a method that many teachers and preachers have sought to do and have been trying to carry out down the centuries. These teachers of course were not seeking to change what Jesus said, for what he said cannot be changed. Their purpose surely was to show people a different way of looking at what Jesus said, in the hope that by this teaching, a chord may be struck by all who hear, in the hope that they are hearing God calling them to response and action. It is to this purpose and hope that ‘Ten Plays For Church’, have been written.

Jesus was a great storyteller, if not the greatest. When Jesus told his stories, the crowd flocked around him. The parables Jesus told were the sort of parables that compelled interest; parables of everyday experiences which made them easily understood, and yet within these same stories people still had to discover the truth for themselves. They still had to think about what Jesus said and what it meant to them and to consider for themselves what they were being called to do.

Jesus would have it no other way. Being the master storyteller he was, he knew that the parables he told had to be the sort of stories that compelled his hearers to draw their own conclusions. Jesus didn’t want his stories to disappear as quickly as he told them, he wanted his stories to be remembered and fixed in his hearers minds, stories that would stay in their memories throughout their lives, and it worked. People did remember them and eventually went onto record and write them down at least twenty to thirty years and more after Jesus’ death, in what we have now come to know as the gospels. Jesus wanted his people to think about what he was saying to them, and through the stories he told, he gave his hearers a choice. The choice of inaction or change and service.

When Jesus told his parables it affected people in different ways. Some of the stories he told shocked and angered some of his hearers. He didn’t tell his parables to judge his hearers, for Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world:

‘As for the person who hears my words but does