Acting the Bible

'Acting the Bible'

The Four Parishes 'Acting the Bible' team (previously known as ‘Open the Book’) leads assembly once a fortnight in Beckley School. The team take stories fresh from the pages of the Bible, and make them into mini dramas, to be acted out by themselves, together with Beckley schoolchildren. Through this, it is hoped that the Bible stories are brought alive, and remembered by the children, especially as they too are involved in the acting.

The team is led by Betty Dye, a Licensed Lay Reader, and includes members from Forest Hill, Stanton St John and Beckley. They meet once a fortnight to write the scripts, with the aim of adhering as closely as possible to the original Bible texts. This often involves comparing different Bible translations and even reading the New Testament in the original Greek!

'Crossing the Red Sea' at Beckley School

Extract from The Four Parishes News Magazine, November 2024

It’s 8.30 on a Thursday morning and the 5 members of the ‘Acting the Bible’ team, led by Betty Dye, are arriving to set up in the hall at Beckley School. The children who come to Breakfast Club are sitting at a table eating or playing games and the team has a quick discussion about the stage layout for this week’s performance. The ‘Crossing of the Red Sea’ is an epic story on a very wide canvas, which we haven’t dared attempt before, but we have put a lot of thought into writing and reviewing the script, and we trust that the children’s imagination will supply the rest.

Adults will play the parts of the Narrator, Moses, Aaron and Miriam. God will be read by an older pupil who has acted with us before. There are small parts for up to 8 Israelites, and a seated Chorus, all of which are written for pupils. We manage to recruit some children from the Breakfast Club, including one from the youngest class, who is given a non speaking part. Betty has brought two pieces of blue/grey cloth for the Red Sea and enough costumes for everyone except the Chorus, most of whom will arrive on the school bus with minutes to spare.
The scripts are handed around and Betty gathers everyone together for a short prayer. Then we start the first run-through. We only have one person in the Chorus so far and there is a lot of moving around for everyone else. ‘Aaron’ and ‘Miriam’ need to convey to the watching children that they are being pursued by a mighty and terrifying enemy and now they are trapped between the soldiers and a huge sheet of water. As potential Chorus members gradually arrive, they are handed a script and asked to join in with their lines at the right place “Trapped, trapped etc...!”. The parts in the scripts are colour coded, which helps a bit, but it is still quite a tall order. We still only have 4 ‘Israelites’ so they will have to say 2 lines each. There are also some complicated logistics to sort out, involving Flash Cards to trigger wind noises from the children and ‘God’ parting the Red Sea at exactly the right moment!

We are part way through the third run-through when the ‘audience’ starts to arrive. Everyone retires to their starting places and gets ready to immerse themselves in the story. The children watch with rapt attention and we are reminded yet again why we put ourselves through this.