Possible Christian Acting Opprotunity

[Zachary T. Francis]

Hello. My name is Zach Francis. A few of you heard from me last
year about doing a play that is based off true stories of victims and
offenders and how it relates to the blood and reserection of Jesus
Christ. Due to some severe spiritual warfare, we were unable to do
the play last year. We are, however, going to try to preform the
play again next year. Below is brief summary and the characters we
need. If God is calling you to a play like this that is going to be
preformed at probably 3 churches (or more), please write me. This is
a big commitment, but the practice schedule is more spread out then
typical plays so it is easier for all of the cast members to be a
part of the play. Please e-mail me if you are interested.

Length of play: 2.5 hours

Plot Outline: David is not someone you would like. He is an
alcoholic that has spent 19 years in prison for convicted
manslaughter and has come out feeling mistreated by the justice
system. Getting out on parole, David moves to West Virgina to move
in with his sister Ginger. You soon see, however, that he has not
changed his drinking or his behavior. To make matters worse, his
daughter Naomi hears of his parole and moves to West Virgina
determined to do anything to make sure that he goes back to prison.
In the center of both of these stories is Joseph, an elder at Oak
Hill Christian Church who knows the kind of person David is but still
feels called by God to provide grace to him even though he may lose
his place in the church, his busniess, his standing in the community,
and even his marriage.

Characters Needed:

David: An alcoholic that has spent 19 years in prison for
manslaughter. He moves out of prison and tries to put his life back
together in the town of Oak Hill, West Virgina. He is not the kind
of guy you would like. He claims not to have killed his wife and
doesn't even admit to being an alcoholic. Although he gets a job at
the hardware store, he feels he deserves better and is totally
unsatisified with his life. He does not see the love and kindness
that his sister gives him and always feels sorry for himself for the
mistreatment he recieved from his mother as a child.

Joseph: An elder at Oak Hill Christian Church, Joseph is a calm and
quiet man that has spent much of his life in prayer. Married to
Claudia for 25 years, he has always desired to go back to prison
ministry but has been halted because Claudia feels like all prisoners
are "evil" and "can not be changed." When David comes into his life,
he feels called by God to hire him to work at the hardware store even
though it appears to everyone that David has a huge chip on his
shoulder. When everyone eventually finds out about his past crimes,
his place in the church, his store, and even his marriage fall into
jeopardy.

Ginger: David's younger sister who allows David to move in with her.
She is the only family member that even visits or speaks to David.
Feeling like David struggles because of how his mother treated him as
a child, Ginger tries to put aside all of the negavitiy David brings
to the house and constantly encourages him to put his life back
together. This effort seem in vain, however, when David starts to
drink and verbally abuse her.

Rebecca: The leader of the "gossip girls", Rebecca is a nosey church
goer who tries to find out all of the "true information" that exists
in the town. Teamed up with her gossip buddy Laura, they go from
place to place learning small pieces of information and then telling
everyone the "truth" they learn from that information. Her and Laura
are the comic relief of the play, but also serve to show the dangers
of gossip/judgement in this kind of situation.

Laura: Another "gossip girl", Laura helps to work with Rebecca to
find out "important information" so they can share it with the town.
To her, this information is important because they all need
"something to pray about."

Naomi: (character possibly filled by actress already): As a child,
Naomi witnessed his father kill her mother. But because she was
scared that she would die, Naomi didn't do anything to help her. Due
to this overiding guilt, she has spent the last 19 years making sure
her father stays in prison. Now that he is out, Naomi is determined
to put him back in jail by "any means necessary."

Ruth: (already filled by actress): The daughter of Naomi, she has
been neglected her whole life because her mom has dedicated herself
to keeping David in prison. Because of Ruth's severe neglect by her
mother, she stopped speaking after Naomi left her husband after she
caught him drinking. Her father always loved her and played with
her, but when Naomi took him away...Ruth got angry, hurt, and closed
in on herself. Baptised two years ago, Ruth continues to pray for
her mom and she is one of the people in the story that help both
David and Naomi understand total forgiveness.

Claudia: (already filled by actress): Joseph's wife who believes
all prisoners are "inherently evil", she learns of David's crimes
well into the play. What horrifys her is that her husband helped him
even though he knew of the crimes he committed. The marriage gets
even more rocky when Joseph refuses to fire him after Claudia
confronts him about it.

Extras: At the end of the play, Claudia asks Joseph after David gets
baptised "I still don't understand. How can I know if someone has
changed? How do I know if I can trust him?" Joseph asks her to pray
about it. Near the end, Claudia prays and the answer to prayer
(supposedly a message from God) is a song by Nicole Nordeman "There
is Room Enough for All of Us." In the song, we have video of people
from all over the world coming to God. During this song, we want
extras from the audience from all walks of life to come to the cross.
The idea portrayed here is that God accepts everyone, no matter
where you come from or what is your prior background. Jesus's blood
and God's grace covers all.


PS: The practices, which I didn't mention in the e-mail will probably be as follows.

early December: meet one time with the leader of the group for information about the
play.

Practice schedule

One day a week during these weeks (This day will be mutually agreed upon)

Jan 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th, Februrary 5th

Two days a week (actual day will be mutually agreed upon)

12th, 19th, 26th, March 5th, March 12th

March 20th: Three days (including performance) (preformance 1 at church 1)

March 27th: Three days a week (including performance) (performance 2 at church 2)

April 3rd: Three days a week (Performance 3 at church 3)


This schedule is tenative and actually may have less practices then this. (probably not
more, however) Please look below if you didn't read the other e-mail because it didn't
have a subject header. I look forward to talking with you. Please e-mail me or call me
at [phone] if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Zach Francis