| These are notes and comments on some of the items which appear in the Family Service script. Links from the script point to these entries; clicking the links in the left hand column of the table takes you back to the corresponding link in the script - or, where more than one link from the script points to the note, back to the first such link.
The comments are typically related to features of the service which are specific to our church or the time of the service, or which for some other reason we think might require alteration for another setting. For references to the internal geography of the church, it might be helpful to inspect the plan. |
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| BEFORE THE SERVICE - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Properties : |
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| Furniture : |
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| People : |
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| AT THE END - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hand out "I see Jesus" leaflets. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ACTION SONGS | We devised obvious ( fairly ) energetic actions for the songs. In both cases the actions were demonstrated by the leader, then repeated by the people. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLOURING-IN PICTURES | Pictures, crayons, etc. to occupy the children during more adult parts of the service. We used pictures of the Good Samaritan story to continue the theme. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DISPLAYED ON THE SCREEN | In our services, we always display the script as the service proceeds. If you don't, you might like to think of some other way to emphasise the message. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I SEE JESUS | A recitation; the words are given in the service script. Our copy attributes the words to Summer Waters, but gives no copyright information. The text is quoted so often ( in slightly differing versions ) that we have taken the view that copyright is not an issue. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| INN DOOR | There is no door, nor bed. All this sequence is mimed; Decide where your "door" and "bed" ( etc. ) are going to be, and stick with it. Our congregation found it quite acceptable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PROJECT |
In New Zealand, a project is ( among other things ) something children do at home as part of a school activity.
This project should be anything reasonably manoeuvrable and visible that children might plausibly make at home and carry to school. Ours was a contraption of cardboard and sticky tape. It should be designed to break convincingly and ( unless you have absolutely no rehearsals, which is not recommended ) reproducibly. Ours was less than perfect, because the audience couldn't see it break. If you have a significantly raised stage, that would be less of a problem. If we'd thought of it earlier, we might have tried to design something that could be broken without dropping. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PUT ON LOVE |
The words are not original ( though we haven't been able to identify the source ), but we couldn't find any music so we wrote our own.
The actions for "Put on love" were :
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| SAMARITANS | The information about the current position of the Samaritans was as given in various web sites, particularly a newsletter, which gave details of the new high priest. Other useful sites were the Samaritans home page and the Wikipedia article. We don't guarantee its reliability, or the permanence of the web sites !
You might have to change some of the topical references. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SOUND EFFECTS | Footsteps and donkey steps. You could use real footsteps if you had hard floors and a resonant building; our floors in the area of the action are carpeted. If you're not using a real donkey ( we don't expect that you are; our donkey was wholly imaginary ), you have to improvise anyway. There are many possibilities.
We did footsteps by tapping a resonant board with a stick; for donkey steps, we used two short plastic drainpipe pieces of different lengths, and tapped them with a knife handle in turn to give the effect of "clipclop ... clipclop ... clipclop ...". Volume was controlled by strength of tapping. Our effects were operated from the balcony, from which there was a clear view of the action; that is essential. With just one operator, we didn't try to do both man and donkey footsteps simultaneously. ( Actually, we did, and the result was dreadful, which was why we looked for something else. If you have a more talented manipulator ... ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "SP" | Identifies a speaker's part. The Samaritan sketch is performed as a mime; the speaking parts are taken by other people. This makes it unnecessary for the actors to learn the script, and also easy for the speakers to use a microphone. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| STOP SIGN | The "stop sign" was a replica of the STOP sign familiar on New Zealand roads. It was 70cm across and mounted on a 1.5m stick. ( Dimensions approximate. ) Generally, it should be big enough to be easily visible from all parts of the hall. It should be light but reasonably sturdy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TAPE | We used a tape recording for "Hello, everyone" because we had one, and it was a bit livelier than the organ. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEAR OFF HIS CLOTHES | No, not really, but at least outer garments - enough to be noticeable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TENNIS MATCHES | The list given is an obvious set of Auckland tennis occasions - choose a set for your area.
( It doesn't have to be tennis, but it's nice to have some sort of recognisable equipment to carry. You'll have to change one or two other bits of the script to fit your chosen activity. ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TENNIS RACQUET | - or other : see note above. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| YEAR 2, YEAR 8 | In the New Zealand a school system, Year 2 children are about six years old, and Year 8 children are about twelve years old. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
