TITLE: Psalm Eight: A Very Short Play By Greg Pike 09/30/05 |
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from KJV
by
Greg Allen Pike
Curtain rises: The stage is dark except for a large white screen in the center. It is back lit with the shadow on it of the top half of a man facing the front with the bottom half obscured by the shadow of a mission oak table. The shadow male turns to the right and brings up a large open book to eye level.
Male voice: “Psalm eight.” (pause) “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.”
(a smaller female form emerges face first from the back of the male shadow, turns toward it and holds in front of her the shadow of a baby)
Female voice: “Who has set thy glory above the heavens?”
(he turns to face her, reverently puts the book on the table now between them, then stands up straight)
Male voice: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings he has ordained strength.”
(she holds the baby close to her with one arm and stretches out the other with a finger pointing toward him)
Female voice: “Because of your enemies.”
(he picks up the book, opens it and leans forward, showing it to her with both arms outstretched as she brings her arm back to the baby in a protective motion)
Male voice: “That he might make still the enemy.”
(she looks at the book, then at his face)
Female voice: “And the avenger?”
(he leans back, turns the book around and looks at it, then looks up above her head)
Male voice: (while drawing the book to his chest) “When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained.”
(she has put the baby on the table and checks the diaper, pulling it out at the back and looking in, then sniffing)
Female voice: “What is a man, that God should remember him?”
(she picks the baby up and holds it out to the man)
Female voice: “And the son of man, that God visits him?”
(the man reaches toward the baby with one hand, still holding the book with the other)
Male voice: “God has made him a little lower than the angels.”
(she draws the baby back a little and it starts to cry)
Female voice: “The Lord has crowned him with glory and honor.”
(he puts the book down and reaches out with both hands)
Female voice: “He was made to have dominion over all the works of your hands.”
(she moves toward him and he takes the crying baby, first looking down at him, then holding him up until his feet are at eye level)
Male voice: “You have put all things under his feet.”
(he holds the baby over the table and moves him as if he were riding a horse and the crying lessens)
Male voice: “The sheep and oxen, yea all the beasts of the field.”
(he slowly spins, holding the baby as if flying and the crying stops)
Female voice: “The fowl of the air.”
(he moves the baby as if swimming and the baby laughs)
Female voice: “The fish of the sea.”
Male voice: “A whatever passes the paths of the sea.”
(the male and female forms come together face to face with the baby between, they bow their heads until their foreheads touch, all three shadows merge into one, three voices sing the last verse)
Male and Female together: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.”
(the baby cries as the curtain falls)
The End
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