The Deep Well Experience

The Samaritan woman at the well was shocked when Jesus, a Jew, asked her, a Samaritan, to draw water for him from Jacob's well. But she was even more shocked to hear that Jesus could give her water that would never need replenishing. Finding the source of comfort, support and life. Alternatives such as pleasure, friends, wealth, alcohol or self-help can not provide relief, only the "water" which the Samaritan woman found at the well.

Standard drama or Reader's Open Book drama.

Cast:  4 (likely f)

• Actor
• 3 readers

Bible Reference:    John 4:5-42

Set:

• bare except for a desk or table to place Bible

Lighting:  standard

Sound:  wireless mics if available

Song: none

SFX: none

Costumes: standard

Props:

• Bible

Special Instructions:

• Actor’s lines could be read, although final monologue at least should likely be delivered off book

 Time:  12

Sample of script:

R1: So Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

R2: Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

R3: A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

Actor: Why can’t I just be like other people? Most of my friends seem to have a life that, well, kind of hums along, know what I mean? No highlight reel stuff, but nothing approaching a disaster either. Then there’s me.

R1: The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" For Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.

R2: Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

R3: The woman said to him, "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?

Actor: From the heights of success to the depths of despair, all within a few ticks, seems like. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I have had a particularly difficult life. Like I say, I have had my share of success, my share of the good times, friends, money.

R1: Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?

R2: Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

R3: but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Actor: But time and time again, just when it has seemed as though I was doing OK, my life has suddenly descended into freefall. And at those times I have experienced soul-piercing loneliness, hurt, and desolation.

R1: The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

R2: Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back."

R3: The woman answered and said to him, "I do not have a husband." Jesus answered her, "You are right in saying, 'I do not have a husband.' For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true."

Actor: What is a person supposed to do at times like that? I mean, like it's not as if there was a manual to guide you through the down times.