A Soldier’s Christmas

 

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

CASEY: A soldier in Iraq. A strong Christian – single.

TIM: A soldier in Iraq. An unbeliever married to a believer.

TAMMY: Wife of soldier, Gary. 2 children. Organizes the family meetings.

LORI: A soldier in Iraq. A strong Christian – single.

JENNIFER: Wife of Tim. She is concerned for his salvation. Has small child.

EMMA: A soldier in Iraq.

JOANNA: Lori’s sister. Married to Andy.

MARK: Desert Storm veteran, widower, father of Emma and Jane.

ANDY: Joanna’s husband

BUNNY: Casey’s sister

GARY: A soldier in Iraq. Married to Tammy.

MANDY: Sister to soldier, Mickey.

MICKEY: A soldier in Iraq.

JANE: Mark’s young daughter.

SUSANNA, LISA AND LANDON: Small children with a few lines.

STAGING: If you have a large enough stage, you can divide it in half and put the soldiers on one side and the families on the other. Limit the furniture… soldiers can sit mostly on the floor or perhaps on sleeping bags or crates. The families will probably need a table to hold stuff they are working on: boxes, construction paper, scissors, tape, etc. Also some chairs to sit on. If you can light each side, you can bring the lights up and down on each scene going back and forth from side to side.

Excerpt:

(As the scene opens, there are 5 soldiers laying around or sitting
around reading letters and books. All are there but Emma.)

TIM: (To Casey) Did you get another letter, or is that the same one
you keep reading over and over.

CASEY: So what?

TIM: It IS the same one!

CASEY: You can read your book, and I’ll read my letter. At least I
know the author and what is being said is directly to me.

TIM: So, is she your girlfriend or just someone trying to be nice
to a serviceman?

CASEY: She’s a friend, and it is a very nice letter.

TIM: You ought to have it memorized by now!

CASEY: Are you telling me that you don’t re-read your wife’s letters
over and over?

TIM: Okay, sure…I do. I’m just giving you a bad time. My wife’s
letters just get too preachy sometimes, though. You know what I mean….
she’s a “born-again” like you. Always telling me that she is praying
for me and hoping that I will get saved…

CASEY: Good for her! You do need to get saved! As you know, we
could get killed at any moment, and then you could end up going to
hell. And believe me; it’s worse than this place!

TIM: Yeah, yeah….end of conversation. I think we’ve been through
this enough already. You know my views.

CASEY: You’re entitled to your views of course…but when you are
standing before Almighty God and you tell Him… “But I have my own
views, Sir”, I wonder what He will say.

TIM: (Laughs) I guess I’ll take that risk. (Goes back to his book)

CASEY: Not me.

LORI: Don’t give up, Casey. That hard heart of Tim’s will soften
one of these days. So who is the girl that keeps writing to you?

CASEY: She doesn’t KEEP writing to me. I just KEEP reading her nice
long letter. The only gal who writes me often is my sister, Bunny.

LORI: Bunny? You have a sister named, Bunny?

CASEY: Actually, her name is Bonnie, but when she was born, I
couldn’t say Bonnie, and it sounded like Bunny. Anyway… everyone
thought it was cute, and it became her nickname. She has been Bunny
ever since. She even signs her name, Bunny.

LORI: That’s funny.

CASEY: I think she was 5 or 6 before she even found out that her
real name was Bonnie.

LORI: Are you guys close?

CASEY: Yeah…especially now. Funny how you get drawn closer to
someone by distance.

LORI: I bet she really misses you. I have a sister too. We are
very close and we really miss each other.

CASEY: What’s her name?

LORI: Joanna. She’s married to a really neat guy called Andy.

CASEY: I guess when you end up in a place like this; it really
makes you appreciate your family.

MICKEY: Since we’re talking about sisters, I have a sister, Mandy
who writes to me.

LORI: Mandy, huh?

MICKEY: Yeah…she’s a real sweetheart.

GARY: So, am I the only married guy here besides Tim? (Emma enters)

Emma! Are you married?

EMMA: Are you kidding? I can’t imagine any husband allowing his
wife to come here!

LORI: It happens all the time.

EMMA: I had a hard enough time to get my DAD to allow me to come
here.

LORI: He didn’t want you to join up, huh? Neither did mine, really.

EMMA: Let’s just say he wasn’t thrilled.

LORI: How did your mom feel about it?

EMMA: Oh, she’s been dead for about five years.

LORI: Oh, I’m sorry.

EMMA: It’s okay. I think it just makes it harder for my dad. He
doesn’t want to lose a daughter, too.

CASEY: I know if I were a father, I wouldn’t want my daughter to be
over here. No matter how important I may feel it is.

LORI: The news I get from home sounds like all of the U.S. is very
divided over whether we should even be here. It’s getting really
ugly.

CASEY: It has been for awhile. But isn’t it always that way during
war times? There are always a lot of people on the other side of an
issue. Even though they disagree, I think most of them still
support us.

LORI: You would sound un-American if you didn’t support the troops.

EMMA: Hey, has the mail come yet?

CASEY: No. I’m just reading old mail.

EMMA: I was wondering when we would start getting Christmas boxes.

TIM: Don’t start looking for that stuff already! Unless your family
back home gets it out to you really early… you will barely get it
before Christmas if you even do get it in time.

LORI: Boy, you’re mister encouragement!

TIM: Better to be realistic then to be upset later because it was
so late.

CASEY: Tim has a point. Since this is our first Christmas here, we
don’t really know how long it will take for stuff to get here, and
our families may not know to get it off real early.

GARY: There is always the possibility of getting held up in customs,
too. Sometimes they put stuff in there that the customs authorities
don’t like. So, there is a lot to consider.

EMMA: Yeah, I guess so. I think being here on Christmas is going
to be the hardest part.

SCENE TWO

(As the scene opens there are families gathering at a center to wrap
and address Christmas boxes. 3 small children are playing in the
corner.)

JENNIFER: Tammy, this was such a good idea to have us do this
together. (She is getting a box ready and putting presents in it.)

TAMMY: I think it will be good for us. Plus we can help each other.
Like for instance: When you have everything wrapped like that, the
customs people will just rip them open and look at them. I’m not
wrapping anything.

JENNIFER: Oh, I never thought of that. Are there certain things that
they don’t allow?

TAMMY: Yes, I went on the internet and the postal service has this
list of restrictions and things you can’t send. It goes through our
military’s postal service, but they still have to abide by a lot of
Iraq’s rules.

JENNIFER: I’m so glad that we have a military post office. Can you
imagine how much it would cost us to mail these boxes directly to
Iraq?

TAMMY: It does get expensive. My mom still sends stuff to her
relatives in Italy. Their postal service is so bad there!

JENNIFER: I know people always complain about the U.S. postal
service, but they always get my stuff through. I bet we do a lot
better than most other countries.

TAMMY: That’s for sure! My cousin was on a missionary trip to
Russia a few years ago, and she didn’t even get half of the mail that
was sent to her. I guess they just threw it away or lost it.

JOANNA: (Entering with Andy) Hi everybody! Did you see the news
this morning?

JENNIFER: No. Do I want to know?

JOANNA: There was another bombing. It is so scary!

JENNIFER: Did they say where?

ANDY: Near Baghdad I think. We just need to keep praying and
trusting God. It is all in His hands, and we should not be fearful
or worry.

TAMMY: Thanks, Andy. Easier said than done though.