Description

Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? This 30 minute comedy with a message will entertain but also inform in a way the audience will remember. Excellent for outreach as well.

Cast:    9

• Set I:
  • Donna, young female
  • Norm, young male
• Set II: (in order of age, youngest to oldest)
  • Mary, female
  • Billie, male
  • Ruby, female
  • Annie, female
  • Michael, male
  • Sarah, female
  • Poppa, father

Bible Reference:    Psalm 95

Set:

• Set I takes place off to the side
• Set II is main stage area
  • a table and some chairs
  • a window may be hung at Stage Right, (or it may simply be mimed

Lighting:        standard

  Sound:     wireless mics if available

Song:     none

SFX: 

• turkey “gobbling”

Costumes:

• Set I regular clothing
• Set II dressed in old coveralls, dresses, 1930’s style

Props:

• feathers
• axe

Special Instructions:   none

  Time:     30

Cast:
Set I:
Donna, young female
Norm, young male

Set II: (in order of age, youngest to oldest)
Mary, female
Billie, male
Ruby, female
Annie, female
Michael, male
Sarah, female
Poppa, father

Sample of script:

Donna and Norm come to Set I from opposite sides

Donna: Hey Norm, hows life?

Norm: Actually I just escaped.

Donna: Escaped?

Norm: Yeh, we are having my grandparents for the holiday and mom wanted me to clean my room.

Donna: Seems like a reasonable request.

Norm: I cleaned my room last summer. Couldn’t find things for months.

Donna: Maybe we should start all over. How are ya doin’?

Norm: Doin’ well Donna, no complaints actually.

Donna: No complaints? Well, that’s something to be thankful for I guess.

Norm: Truly is. And what about you?

Donna: Well, Norm, I am thankful that it’s Thanksgiving.

Norm: Thankful it’s Thanksgiving? What’s to be thankful for Thanksgiving?

Donna: Norm, do you have any idea just how this whole Thanksgiving thing began?

Norm: Yep, my mom told my dad her parents were coming to visit.

Donna: No, like I mean, how it really began, first time.

Norm: Oh, first time you mean? Wow, like that was way long ago. Likely back when my dad was a kid.

Donna: Not! First Thanksgiving was like way back in the sixteen hundreds!

Norm: No way! That was even before my dad was born. Likely my grandpa was there for the first celebration. Wonder which teams were playing?

Donna: Teams?

Norm: Likely the Saints and the Buccaneers is my guess.

Donna: Saints and Buccaneers? Playing what?

Norm: Four down football, what else? Football and Thanksgiving go together like . . . like, football and Thanksgiving.

Donna: Norm! Do you hear what you are saying? Don’t you know that the first Thanksgiving was like four hundred years ago! Have you never heard the stories about the Pilgrims and how they thanked God for looking after them, bringing them safely to this country?

Norm: What are you talkin’ about? Of course I know all that! This bunch of people came over in a ship, let’s see, name was, don’t tell me. . . . I remember, the Wallflower!

Donna: Mayflower try.

Norm: Or that, I knew it was something about a little import car.

Donna, does double take: A little car? What does the Mayflower have to do with a little import car?

Norm: I remember reading that when they got off the boat they drove away in a Mayflower Compact.

Donna, amazed: Mayflower Compact? The Mayflower Compact was the constitution they wrote out for governing the new colony.

Norm: You’re serious?

Donna: Take it to the bank.

Norm: Wow, so what kind of car did they drive . . or maybe they just took the airport bus?

Donna: Actually airplanes weren’t invented ‘til like a gazillion years later.

Norm: Sick! Hope someone told the guy driving the airport bus! Can you imagine him waiting around the airport for someone to fly in, need a ride to the hotel?

Donna: Uhhhhhh yeh! Anyhow! (thinks) Must have been something, that first Thanksgiving!

Norm: Wonder if Grandma cooked or if Grandpa phoned in for take out?

Donna: You are having trouble with time concepts aren’t you Norm? (thinks) Giving thanks. . . . . More than half of the people who came on shore died within the first few months. They had nothing other than what they made with their own hands. . . . .

Norm: Wow! And still they were thankful? For what? I mean I do know the governor of the colony was a butcher, so at least they would have something to eat, but . . . . .

Donna: The governor, a butcher, I never knew that.

Norm: Shows how much you know, Donna!

Donna: Tell, me, oh wise one, how do you know that the governor was a butcher?

Norm: Duhhhhhh! His name was . . .?

Donna: John Carver.

Norm: Thank you!

Donna, incredulous: And because the governor’s name was Carver you just naturally assume that he was a butcher?