POY! SKIT GUIDELINES:
- In a small group, participants might simply read their lines, or glance at their lines to get the idea so they can speak in their own words.
- Most POY! skits require no practice in advance.
- Have any small children play a brief part. Most scripts have an optional part for children, listed last under Participants.
- Most scripts have a Narrator who should read the script beforehand to see how to keep moving the story along.
- It is not necessary to employ costumes and objects, unless the skit recommends such.
- It is not required to have an audience watch the skit. All present may participate.
- Scripture and paraphrases, if any, usually appear in bold.
PARTICIPANTS:
Joseph, who also serves as Narrator
Steward
JudahPrompter (Optional). Prompter shouts a brief line and Companions repeat it.
Companions (Optional): children and all adults who want to take part. Make sure Companions know who the Prompter is, and that they are to repeat Prompter’s words
SCRIPT:
|
Joseph |
My name is Joseph, son of thePatriarch Jacob. I’m his youngest son and his favorite. This makes my eleven brothers jealous, and they have sold me as a slave to foreigners who take me to Egypt. Potifar, a powerful officer of Egypt’s ruling Pharaoh, bought me. Potifar became pleased with my service and put me in charge of his entire estate. Then one day his wife tempted me to lie with her, but I resisted. She became furious, and accused me of trying to rape her. Potifar put me in prison. Then, one day, Pharaoh’s steward came to the prison to tell us prisoners something interesting. |
|
Steward |
Pharaoh has had a scary dream. He’s looking for someoneto interpret it. Can any of you? |
|
Joseph |
God gave me the interpretation; the dream warned of a famine. Pharaoh was pleased, freed me, and put me in charge of storing grain to survive the famine.The famine came, and my father Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain, but kept at home the youngest, Benjamin, who was my mother’s son. |
|
Judah |
Come, brothers, lest we starve here in Canaan. Egypt is far away. |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Far, far away! Far, far way! |
|
Joseph |
I recognize my brothers when they came, but they do not recognize me. I weep when they speak about their father, but I don’t let them see me do it. I understand their Hebrew speech, but I speak to them through an interpreter. I question them and they tellme a younger brother Benjamin had stayed with their father Jacob. So I put them to a test; I say, “You are spies. I shall keep one of you here as hostage, and send the rest of you back to your father with grain. You must return here with your young brother to prove you’ve told the truth.†|
|
Judah |
Back home, we empty our sacks and find our money hidden in the grain. Strange! I tell Jacob, “My father, we must take our younger brother Benjamin back with us to Egypt to free our brother who was held hostage.†Jacob is very grieved, but we return to Egypt with Benjamin, and buy more grain. |
|
Joseph |
Steward, have you done what I told you? |
|
Steward |
Yes, master Joseph. I filled the men’s sacks with grain and hid each man’s money in his sack, as I did before. I also hid your valuable silver cup in the sack of the youngest. |
|
Joseph |
Good. They’ll leave in the morning with their donkeys to go back to Canaan. Take soldiers and follow them. Outside the city, overtake them and ask why they’ve repaid good with evil. Arrest them and bring them back. |
|
Judah |
The next morning, Joseph’s administrator confrontsus as we leave the city. |
|
Steward |
Open your grain sacks. One of you has stolen a priceless silver cup from my master. |
|
Judah |
Oh no! It can’t be! No! No! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
No! No! |
|
Judah |
Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! How could we rob silver from your lord? With whomever of us it is found, let him die, and we’ll all be your slaves. |
|
Steward |
Very well, Judah. He who has cup will be my slave; the rest of you shall be innocent. |
|
Judah |
Let him search your sacks, brothers. Lower them and open them. |
|
Steward |
Aha! Here it is! In the youngest one’s sack. You, Benjamin, shall be my slave! |
|
Judah |
We tear our clothes in remorse, and return to Joseph. We fall down before him. Mercy, Master! Mercy! |
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Prompter & Companions |
Mercy, Master! Mercy! |
|
Joseph |
Get up! What have you done? After all the kindness, I’ve shown you! |
|
Judah |
What can we say to my lord? How can we justify ourselves?God found out the iniquity of your servants. We are all now my lord’s slaves. |
|
Joseph |
Far be it from me to enslave you all, Judah. The thief’s been found; he’ll be my slave. The rest of you may go back in peace to your father. |
|
Judah |
Oh my lord, do not be angry if I plead with you. We’ve told you we have an old father and a child of his old age, and you forced us to bring the child here. Our father will die if we do not take Benjamin back. Our old father’s life is bound up in the child’s life. He told us, “I will surely die if I also lose this my youngest son, since my other youngest son has been torn to pieces by wild animals.†|
|
Joseph |
Oh? Torn to pieces? Are you sure? Keep talking. |
|
Judah |
Please… Let me stay as your slave instead of the lad. Let him return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the lad is not with me? It would kill my father! |
|
Joseph |
Everyone leave, except these brothers whose father they wish to spare! |
|
Steward |
Strange things are going on here! We’re leaving, Master. |
|
Joseph |
I cannot control myself any longer. With only my brothers present, I weep loudly. “I am your brother Joseph!†|
|
Judah |
What? No! It can’t be! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
It can’t be! It can’t be! |
|
Judah |
You… You… No! You mock us! It can’t be! |
|
Joseph |
Is my father still alive? Please come close to me. Come!I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves; God sent me before you to preserve life. Yes, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. It was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and ruler over the land of Egypt. I forgive you. |
|
Judah |
My brother! You have forgiven us! We’re forgiven! |
|
Joseph |
Hurry and go to my father. Tell him that God has made his son Joseph lord of all Egypt, and to come down to me as soon as possible. I’ll provide good land for you all and your families, for there are still five years of famine to come. |
|
Judah |
Joseph embraces his brother Benjamin and weeps; he then embraces all of us. We are forgiven. |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Forgiven! Forgiven! |
[…] Joseph forgave brothers who had sold him as slave […]