Ready, Aim, Fire!

10 actors plus one ‘voice over’ for the voice of God. At least 4 males. At least 3 females. Around 30 mins.

Written By Warren Sager

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

TERRY: Speaks 755 Words. The child whose father invented a time machine
SKYLER: Speaks 677 Words. Friend of Terry
VALE: Speaks 581 Words. Another friend of Terry
MOSES: Speaks 421 Words.
VOICE OF GOD: 368 Words.
AARON: 203 Words. Brother of Moses
MIRIAM: 208 Words. Sister of Moses
DANCER #1: 219 Words.
DANCER #2: 173 Words.
KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR: 145 Words.
JOSHUA: 63 Words.

The staging of this play can be done very simply or elaborate, depending on what you want. The time machine should probably be in the center of the stage. Any kind of man made thing that would hold 3 kids. The other scenes could come and go to each side of the machine. Perhaps have the burning bush and Mt. Sinai on stage right and the fiery furnace and the golden calf scene on stage left. The kids remain in the background and watch the scenes unfold as the actors use all of the stage area. You can allude to there being an ark of the covenant without actually having one. Two sets of 10 commandments need to be made, probably out of plaster or something that breaks easily. Dance music is needed for the party scene.

Excerpt:

LIGHTS UP ON:
SCENE ONE:
Some kids are hanging out in the garage of one of them and leaning up against some funny object (perhaps made from a bike or exercise bike or just a big box that you could climb into) Gender can be either. Terry is sitting with a Bible open as Vale and Skyler enter.
VALE
Your mom said we’d find you here. What are you doing in here?
TERRY
It’s a lot quieter in here. Too much noise in my house.
SKYLER
So you come in here to read the Bible?
TERRY
Not usually. But you remember that story that they told at church? Well, I wanted to check it out to see if there was more to the story.
VALE
The one about the people walking around in the fire?
TERRY
Yeah. I wanted to see if that happened a lot. You know, God appearing in fire.
SKYLER
Oh yeah! Because the king saw a 4th man walking around in the fire, but he only threw 3 men in.
TERRY
Yep… so the 4th man was God. Or Jesus Christ making an appearance way before he was even born.
VALE
That kind of blows my mind.
TERRY
So, I’m trying to figure out the whole fire connection.
VALE
What about the burning bush? You know, Moses hears God speak to him from the bush?
SKYLER
Oh! Good one! That was definitely fire!
TERRY
Funny how I missed that one. That’s huge. I found some other ones. You know, like when Elijah had the sacrifice on the altar and the prophets of Baal were there and he prayed and God sent fire down to consume the sacrifice and all the water around the altar.
SKYLER
What about when Moses was leading the people out of Egypt and they had a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And the fire protected them from the enemy when they came after them.
TERRY
That’s good, too.
SKYLER
Hey… don’t you wish you could have been there to see some of those things?
VALE
Yeah… that would be really cool.
SKYLER
Hey! Let’s pretend we are there!
TERRY
Okay. I got a fireman’s hat over here. It’s my dad’s. And here is his big flashlight. We can play, “Ready, Aim, Fire!”
Terry puts on the hat.
VALE
How do you play that?
TERRY
I don’t know… I’m making it up. But it has to do with the fire in God’s Word!
SKYLER
Well… you get ‘ready’ by putting on the hat… and you ‘aim’ the flashlight into the darkness… and then you look for the ‘fire’.
VALE
That sounds good! I’ll flash the light around.
(Looking around and then changing the subject)
Boy… you sure have some strange things in your garage.
TERRY
Yeah… my dad thinks that he’s some kind of inventor. But I don’t think any of his inventions ever work.
SKYLER
What’s that box?
TERRY
It’s a shoe polisher. You put your feet in there and it polishes your shoes while you wear them.
SKYLER
Really? Can I try?
TERRY
You can put your feet in there… but nothing will happen. Another failed invention.
VALE
What’s this thing?
TERRY
Oh this is a real strange one. Dad calls it his time machine.
VALE
What? Does it tell time?
TERRY
No… supposedly, you climb on it and it can take you back in time.
SKYLER
Oh yeah! Like that could happen!
VALE
It would be cool, though.
TERRY
It’s one of my favorites. He explained it to me once, but he said he never got it to work. I never understood all the science, but I remember I used to imagine that he took secret trips back in time and never told anyone.
SKYLER
But that’s impossible, right?
VALE
Man! That would be way cool! Just think, if it worked, we could go back and see those men walking around in that fire.
SKYLER
Can we get on it?
TERRY
My dad doesn’t let me play on it.
SKYLER
But if it doesn’t work, what difference does it make? Hey… grab that remote there, we can pretend that it makes stuff happen.
Terry grabs the old remote and they climb on it, or in it.
SKYLER
Is this where you turn it on?
TERRY
Don’t touch anything!
VALE
(She/he turns a knob and it starts making a noise, like a hum or sound of an engine)
Cool!
TERRY
I didn’t know it did that!
SKYLER
Where is the dial that sets the date? Oh man… do we even know when that was, exactly?
TERRY
Dad said that it was voice activated. You just tell it where or when you want it to go. Like this, you push this button and say: Go to the time of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
SKYLER
You sure know your Bible!
Suddenly the machine makes a louder noise and the lights start to flicker or blink on and off… then it goes dark. The sound of the machine can run about 30 seconds… making different sounds. This happens every time they start it up again. During the light flickering, you can hear the kids.
VALE
What’s happening?
TERRY
I don’t know!
SKYLER
What should we do?
TERRY
Just hang on!
When the lights come back up… there is the fiery furnace set up and men are inside walking about. You will need to be creative here to make it look like there are flames. Perhaps little fans with orange tape/ribbon that blows upward and flaps to look like flames.