Description
“The Promise” is a scriptural rendition of Gods promise to send the Redeemer and is written to be presented as a choral reading. Since it was written for High School speech students, the cast members or readers are offered in such a way as to allow a great deal of flexibility, depending on the number of participants in the production.
Only MALE SOLO 3, MALE CHORUS, FEMALE CHORUS, AND ALL must remain constant; the other parts may be adjusted in any way the director chooses.
The staging of the production depends on the place of its presentation, other physical features, and the availability of such things as lighting, costuming, etc. It can be elaborately done with the use of tableaus, fully costumed, etc. Or, it can be as simply done as dressing the readers in black, depending totally on their voices to provide the drama of the story line.
When my speech class presented “The Promise” in chapel at Christmas, the readers wore black, used voices which created characterization and varying moods, and relied on simple choreography to dramatize the changing scenes (such as marching when the Roman conquest is explained).
You have the wonderful words from the Scriptures compiled in a narrative for presentation as a choral reading. May God bless you as you use your gifts of creativity to present this choral reading in a rendition that is uniquely yours.
–Myra Shofner
Sample of script
MALE SOLO 1:
This is the story of a promise made and a promise kept. The story spans a period of over four thousand years and stretches from the Garden of Eden to the Garden Tomb.
ALL:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.
MALE CHORUS 2:
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he placed the man whom he had formed.
MALE SOLO 1:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
MALE SOLO 3:
Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.
MALE SOLO 2:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And this sneaky snake slithered smoothly into the path of Eve and said,
MALE SOLO 4:
Did God really tell you not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden?
MALE CHORUS:
And the woman said unto the serpent,
FEMALE SOLO 1:
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said,
MALE SOLO 3:
You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
MALE CHORUS:
And the sly slippery serpent said unto the woman,
MALE SOLO 4:
You shall not surely die: For God knows that the very day you eat its fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
ALL:
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and ate, and gave also some to her husband and he ate it.
MALE CHORUS:
And the eyes of them both were opened and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And God said to Adam,
MALE SOLO 3:
Because you listened to Eve, your wife, and ate of the tree, the ground is cursed. You will sweat and toil as you cultivate it and you shall return to the ground and become the dust from which you were taken.
MEN:
And God said to Eve,
MALE SOLO 3:
You will bear children in pain and sorrow and you will be submissive, to your husband.
MALE CHORUS:
And to the serpent God said,
MALE SOLO 3:
You will be cursed above every animal and will be resigned to crawl about on your belly in the dust. You are the enemy of the offspring of the woman. And one day her descendent will come forth. You will hate Him and kill Him, but He will crush your head and overcome Death.
MALE SOLO 5:
And God drove them out of the Garden, and they had no access to the Tree of Life.
ALL:
Thus judgment fell upon Adam and Eve. But listen. Even in the judgment the Lord God gave a promise of redemption,
FEMALE SOLO 1:
One day a Son will come forth.
FEMALE SOLO 2:
Satan will hate him.
FEMALE SOLO 3:
Satan will kill him.
FEMALE SOLO 1:
But he will crush the head of Satan.
SOLO 2:
He will overcome Death.
ALL:
What a promise!
MALE SOLO 5:
And Adam lived to be one hundred and thirty years old and a son was born to him, in his own likeness after his image; and Adam called his name Seth.
MALE CHORUS:
And to Seth was born Enos, and to Enos, Cainan, and to Cainan Ma..ha..la..lay..el. And to Ma..ha..la..lay..el, Jared, and to Jared, Enoch, and to Enoch, Methuselah, and to Methuselah, Lamech, and to Lainech, Noah.
MALE SOLO 6:
Noah?
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