Nehemiah Rebuilding the Wall

Description

• Written for Antioch Youth Camp, inspiration from the book of Nehemiah and this script from puppet resources.com.
• Number of Voices (2) Joe/Jo(sephine) and Sebrina
• Props: 2 Puppets, 1 dust mask, 1 goggles, 1 set of ear plugs

Script

• SEBRINA: [introduces herself] Hi my name is Miss Sebrina. How is everyone doing? What kind of vehicle did you ride in to camp? [or some similar question requiring different answers]

• JOE: [pops up and speaks in muffled voice with goggles, mask, and earplugs] Hi Miss Sebrina!

• SEBRINA : Is that you Joe? I can barely recognize you and it's hard to understand what you’re saying.

• JOE: [removes and drops earplugs, mask, and goggles] Oh sorry, I'm just getting all geared up to help my parents to muck out a home that was flooded last week.

• SEBRINA: Wow, that's very good of you to help someone in need, but what is a "muck out"?

• JOE: Well it’s kind of just what it sounds like. We go in the house and get the muck out!

• SEBRINA: Ok what is muck?

• JOE: Oh, that’s easy. It’s the yucky stuff left behind when water gets into a home, like wet carpet, furniture, books, and anything else that gets soggy and ruined and can’t be used again. Now that I think about it, you could call it a YUCK out!

• SEBRINA: Sounds a like a dirty job, but somebody needs to do it. The work you and your family are doing reminds me of a story in the bible.

• JOE: Please tell me more. I can’t wait!

• SEBRINA: I have an even better idea, How about you help me tell it!

• JOE: [Nods head emphatically]

• SEBRINA: When I turn to you, I want you to give us your best impersonation of the emotion I mention. Can you do that?

• JOE: [looks toward audience proudly] I sure can. [pauses and turns toward SEBRINA] But, what's an impersonation?

• SEBRINA: It means you pretend you are feeling BOSSY and act like a person who is bossy would.

• JOE: [ad lib bossy, "Miss Sebrina, I'm in charge now. Im gonna be telling this story and you can just listen from there."]

• SEBRINA: [almost mad] Now wait a minute! [pause] Oh, I see what you did there.

• SEBRINA: Well, a man named Nehemiah was upset when he heard that his home city of Jerusalem was in ruins and YUCK, YUCK, YUCK or mayabe even MUCK,MUCK,MUK. Its walls and gates were broken down, too. He was really SAD. [turns to JOE to cue "SAD" impersonation.]

• JOE: [ad lib SAD, "Sobbing, Crying, I can't believe it, etc."]

• SEBRINA: Now Nehemiah lived far away from his home city of Jerusalem and worked as a foreign king's cupbearer. He was normally a pretty happy guy and when the king saw him so sad the king let him return home to Jerusalem to repair his city. Nehemiah was EXCITED. [turns to JOE to cue "EXCITED" impersonation.]

• JOE: [ad lib EXCITED, "YIPPEE!, etc."]

• SEBRINA: When Nehemiah returned home, he looked over all of the city, and it saw it was much worse than he imagined! He was going to need LOTS of help to repair it.

• JOE: Wow! Repairing a whole city? Nehemiah must have needed at least 20 people!

• SEBRINA: Joe, he needed way more than 20 people. So, he gathered all the leaders and told them why he was there and why it was so important to repair God’s city. They all agreed to help and began to fix all of the walls and gates surrounding Jerusalem. [turns to JOE to cue "WORKING HAPPILY" impersonation.]

• JOE: [begins to sing] When we all work together, together, together, When we all work together how much happier we'll be.

• SEBRINA: That’s right Joe. Just like back then, God is pleased when he sees us work together to take care of God’s people.

• JOE: That is great story Miss Sebrina! I think that the work we are all doing today, helping to fix homes after the hurricane, is good because it makes God happy when we help each other out.

• SEBRINA: [addressing the audience] Remember everybody, there is still much work to do to fix the broken world around us.

THE END.