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    DramaShare Ministries

    The Cricket and the Coin

    The Cricket and the Coin

    $10.00 USD
    $10.00 USD $10.00 USD
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    Worship of money, idols, materialistic thinking, and envy as a group of people come together on a busy city intersection. Combines drama with some subtle mime.

    Worship of money, idols, materialistic thinking, and envy as a group of people come together on a busy city intersection. Combines drama with subtle mime.
    I wrote this back in the late 1980's to help new actors with characterization, but it became a very impactful message for the group so we added it to our script archive. There are many variations of this theme on the net.

    Cast:    6+ (m or f)

    • Street "Bum" looking for money
    • Mark, the "mark" from whom the "bum" tries to beg money
    • one in crowd, reacts to a mimed car coming too close
    • newspaper boy/girl ("paper sir/ma'am")
    • a person calling for "TAXI"
    • any number of crowd people, vendors, newspaper boy/girl, tourists, police officer with whistle
    • crowd actor's roles are very important as they must mime the unspoken emotions of the crowd

    Bible Reference:    Ecclesiastes 5:10

    Set:

    • a busy street corner, traffic lights, walk / don't walk (would be nice to have can be done by holding up posters)
    • street sign to show the corner of a busy street in a city in your area, such as "Portage" and "Main"

    Lighting:        standard

      Sound: 

    • wireless mics if available

    Song:     none

    SFX: 

    • sounds of city with car horns, crowd noise, sirens, police whistle, loud sound of coin dropping on concrete

    Costumes:

    • Bum dressed in scruffy old clothing
    • Mark in business clothes
    • tourist dressed as tourist

    Props:     camera, suitcase, a large coin, briefcase, cell phones

    Special Instructions:

    • Bum sizing up the crowd, very tentative looking for a "mark" to get money from, very cautiously approaching a couple of people who reject, then Bum spies Mark

      Time:     6

    Sample of script:

    In the darkness "Don't Walk" sign on.

    SFX: street noises. Gradually house lights come up.
    Crowd waiting for street light to change.
    Allow street sounds to play for a minute before lines are spoken.
    Bring down crowd volume so spoken words can be clearly heard.

    Bum approaches Mark 1: Hey mister (lady). Can ya spare some change?

    Mark 1, scowls, shakes head, looks back at traffic light.

    Pause another 30 seconds while the only action will be the bum looking around, trying to decide who to approach next.
    Walk light comes on. All actors move ahead in a kind of orderly confusion in a wide circle.

    One will gesture angrily at an imaginary car: Hey! Watch it buddy! Just cause you're driving a Beamer!

    The Don't Walk light comes on. The actors will continue on, ending up back where they started at the same corner.
    Actors stand waiting for a walk light. The bum will again will survey the crowd for a receptive mark.

    Bum, approaches Mark: Excuse me sir (lady). I haven't eaten in two days. Could you please help me out with a couple a dollars?

    Mark, annoyed: Look there's a Salvation Army just down the street. That's where you ought to go!

    Walk light comes on. All actors except bum again move about, again ending up at corner as Don't Walk sign again comes on.
    Actor 1 who is casually dressed comes to front of the group as they are waiting at the corner.
    He is looking around, suddenly stops, cups his hand to his ear as he listens.

    Actor 1, talks to no one in particular: Shhh! Did you hear that?

    All actors glance at Actor 1, disinterested then look away, back to the street light.

    Actor 1: Didn't you hear that? It was a cricket!

    Bum: A cricket? How could you hear a cricket with all this noise?

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