61115 LENTEN AMBLINGS
by Bethany Wallace

GENRE: Comedy
TIME: 6 min.
CAST BREAKDOWN: 1M, 1F
THEME: Guilt; Youth
SUGGESTED USE: Church Service, Lent; Youth Group

CHARACTERS:
Pete—16 years old
Grace—16 years old

SYNOPSIS: Two teenage friends catch each other skipping communion outside their
church and challenge one another to examine their guilt.

PROPS: Two chairs
COSTUMES: Modern dress
SOUND: 2 cordless mics
LIGHTING: General stage
SETTING: On the church steps
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE: Romans 3:23

DIRECTOR'S TIP: This is a very heart-felt, sincere drama. A lot of the effect of the performance will come from the actors being as real as possible with their characters. One way to help achieve this is to have the actors play the other character in rehearsal a few times to get a sense of where that person is coming from; this will help endow their eventual performance with an honesty that they might not have otherwise.


PETE enters and finds GRACE sitting on the church steps.

Two chairs are placed side by side to form a bench.

PETE: Hey—what's goin' on?

GRACE: Too hot in there. I came out here to get some fresh air.

PETE: You know you're missing communion?

GRACE: Really?

PETE: Really.

GRACE: It's too hot in there. (Pause) What are you doing out here?

PETE: Proving a point—to my dad.

GRACE: What do you mean?

PETE: He can make me go to church, he can try to control my life, but I won't let him make me feel guilty.

GRACE: Guilty?

PETE: Yeah, that's why I left in the middle of communion.

GRACE: So, you're dad makes you come here?

PETE: Yeah—if I don't come to church on Sundays, my dad said he'd stop paying my car insurance.

GRACE: Sheez.

PETE: I told him this morning I wouldn't go. That it's my life and I'll do what I want. He said, "Pete, I won't put up with this. I thought that during Lent, of all times, you'd be able to think of someone other than yourself. Why don't you try giving up something for awhile?" Fine, I said, I'll give up church. That's when he threatened to take away my car insurance.

GRACE: Well, he's kind of right. I mean, lent is supposed to be about giving up things so we can get closer to God, isn't it?

PETE: Give up things? What for? We live in America, land of the free! Our forefathers died so that people like us could live in comfort and freedom. (PETE stretches out on the bench as if about to go to sleep.) And believe me, there is nothing better then the comfort of my double bed and the freedom to sleep in as long as I like on Sunday mornings.

GRACE: Don't you think that you should give some credit to your father for your so-called "comfort" and "freedom"? He's the one that works and brings home the money. You don't even have a job!

PETE: So.

GRACE: All I'm saying is, don't you think you at least owe it to your dad to come with him to church once a week?

PETE: Whatever! Is that why you go to church? Because you owe it to your parents?

GRACE: No! I owe it to God. Believe it or not Pete, I actually have a relationship with Him.

PETE: Well so do I! I just think it's totally inhumane to force a teenager to get up on Sunday for a 9:00 service! Why should I have to prove my loyalty? Why can't I just stay at home and pray and read the Bible on my own? (GRACE rolls her eyes.)

GRACE: Yeah, I bet you'd do that. And I bet you wouldn't have to take communion there either.

PETE: What makes you so special anyway? What's your problem? (GRACE sits with PETE on the bench.)

GRACE: I'm sorry Pete. I've just been a little—I dunno—uptight lately.

PETE: What do you mean?

GRACE: Well, to be totally honest, I came out here because I didn't want to take communion either. I feel too…sinful.

PETE: You?! Sinful?

GRACE: Yeah—I can't seem to do anything right! It's way too hard to be a good person in this world.

PETE: Does this have anything to do with Ms. Meyer's cat?

GRACE: Well, maybe a little.

PETE: How many times do I have to tell you that it wasn't your fault she died? If that stupid cat…what was her name? Scruffy?

GRACE: Muffy.

PETE: If that cat hadn't been so ornery in the first place it wouldn't have hidden in the dryer to begin with!

GRACE: I just can't stop feeling bad about it…

PETE: Besides, you were a saint doing that spiteful old lady's laundry.

GRACE: It's not just that.

PETE: C'mon, fess' up. I know there's got to be a delinquent somewhere in there, Grace.

GRACE: Stop it! It's true! I'm terrible. Like, last week my parents had to bail me out for a lost library book, and I got a stain on my mom's favorite
t-shirt…(She is getting hysterical)…And then, when I was at Jo's coffee shop the other day, I only paid a dollar for my coffee when it should have been $1.18 because I didn't have as much money as I thought I had, but then when I got home I found another quarter in the bottom of my bag….

PETE: You've got to be kidding me.

GRACE: No. But you know what's even worse? I gave up coffee for lent! (She is near tears.)

PETE: Look, if you think you're sinful, then I don't even wanna know what you're thinking about me, the guy who doesn't even want to go to church.

GRACE: Why don't you want to go to church?

PETE: I dunno—maybe I'm just tired of having to follow all the rules. Don't do this at church, don't do this at school—and then my dad has his own rules set in stone at home.

GRACE: You're dad isn't exactly a dictator…

PETE: Yeah, but he's not exactly Santa Clause either.

GRACE: What do you have to complain about?

PETE: He doesn't understand me! He doesn't understand my life or my friends or the 21st century for that matter.

GRACE: Well, I admit he's not young, but…

PETE: Check this out. Last week I got in trouble during a vocabulary quiz in AP English…

GRACE: Why? What did you do?

PETE: Well, you know how ridiculous those things are. How is anybody really supposed to learn 60 new words every week? So Jackson showed me how to write the answers on the inside of the brim of my baseball cap, but dumb Daphne thought I was making cross eyes at her the whole period and complained to Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas actually thought I had a crush on Daphne and told me to stop flirting and pay attention to my quiz when he noticed that I was more interested in my cap then what he was saying.

GRACE: I can't believe it. What did your dad say?

PETE: When he found out, he started making sure I was actually studying for the weekly vocab tests-he makes me memorize all 60 words! It's worse than being grounded!

GRACE: I can't believe you cheated.

PETE: What are you talking about? Everybody in that class helps each other out. Otherwise, it's impossible to get an "A."

GRACE: So you think what you did was right?

PETE: Pack your bags folks, we're goin' on a guilt trip!

GRACE: Well, what else is there to keep you on track if you don't have some guilt in your life? You can't just break the rules and then expect everybody to love you for it.

PETE: Look—I'm not doing it anymore.

GRACE: Doing what? Just admit it.

PETE: Alright! I'm not cheating anymore. And I don't plan on doing it again-especially now that my dad is watching me like a hawk. So what about you? You going to stop cheating God?

GRACE: What are you talking about?

PETE: Seems to me that your're cheating God out of the credit he deserves—like he's not big enough to handle your "sinful" life.

GRACE: Pete—

PETE: If there's such a thing as good guilt, then there has to be bad guilt as well. I've fessed up to my sin, now you stop flaunting yours. (Beat) Notice how both of us are out here. (GRACE is speechless.)

GRACE: Fine. I'll try.

PETE: Fine.

GRACE: Fine. (Pause) So what are we doing out here, sitting on the steps anyway? I'll bet the service is almost over.

PETE: Yeah—I think I'm ready to go back in now.

GRACE: I think I am too.

PETE: Truce? (PETE offers GRACE his hand in order to help her up.)

GRACE: Truce.

PETE: Unless there's only one powdered sugar jelly donut downstairs.

GRACE: Then, my friend, I'm afraid it's all-out war. (They race offstage.)

Lights out.

Performance and photocopying rights:
Your purchase of this script grants your church unlimited use of these sketches within your programs and worship services. You may photocopy the script for each cast member in your church. Scripts and performance rights are not transferable between churches and cannot be resold. You may not use the sketches for any commercial or fundraising purpose, and usage rights do not extend to video, radio, television or film.

Copyright © 2003 by Bethany Wallace