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To
Free A Holy Man
A Play by Steven M.
Performance:
May, 2002
Hillcrest Juvenile Hall, San Mateo
Characters:
Holy Poly the bible and his father, God
Time: 10:23 a.m. on a sunny Sunday morning
Place: In a Baptist church, a new building.
Holy Poly the bible is on the pulpit
At Rise: We see Holy on the pulpit, an old
man with crusty clothes who smells like alcohol and
weed is walking toward Holy, the church is full of
people, spirits are soaring around the church lookin’
for demons, depressed spirits calling out to God “
Oh Lord watch over me.” The Preacher is
speakin’, we hear gospel music and clappin’.
The old man reaches out to touch Holy, and God sends
the spirits down, they surround Holy so the man can’t
touch him. The man backs away. The people
and the man and time all freeze.
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| Holy: |
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Please,
please, let this man touch me because I really want
to change this man’s life!
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| God: |
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Do you really
want to take the responsibilities of this job?
‘Cause then you will make hot and rainy days,
you will make people grow, you will make sure that churches
ain’t got no demons inside them, and you will make
sure people will go to heaven. I’m getting’
tired and old fightin’ demons.
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| Holy: |
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Well,
if I take this responsibility, will you let me help this
man? So he can take the escalator up to heaven. |
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| God: |
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Son, I love
you but I feel this man got demons inside him.
I know it’s hard not to help a man- but this man
just goin’ to go back to his same regular life.
I don’t like to be played, this is very serious.
It’s no good when you help someone and they go
back to their same life.
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| Holy: |
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Father,
I believe what you said but there’s always a second
chance to save someone’s life and this right here
is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.
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| God: |
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Well,
son let me tell you something. When you go to heaven
there are no games-there are spirits up there that don’t
like people who lies about changin’ their lives. |
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| Holy: |
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Father,
if you really loved me you would understand and give me
a chance to prove you wrong. And I’ll show
you that I’ll be ready to take over your work. |
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| God: |
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Son, I know
your tryin’ to trick me with your words and I can
see that your really tryin’ to save this man’s
life, but tell me this-how you gonna change this man’s
life if you don’t even know him. You just
saw him out of the blue and that doesn’t mean that
he’s gonna change his life straight like that.
He could spread around the demon spirit to people that
might really want to change- and then your gonna feel
depressed and angry!
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| Holy: |
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Father!
I don’t wanna argue, I don’t wanna yell and
all that stuff…but I will be totally mad if my dream
came and I didn’t get to complete it. I would
be so angry I would not want to do your job, I would never
want to do nothin’ for you again! |
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| God: |
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Son,
you just need to chill. There are others- other
people-who really need their lives changed and I don’t
feel this man is ready for his spirit to go to Heaven.
Son, I apologize for all I put you through, but we never
really sat down like this and talked so I’m gonna
tell you the reason why I really wanted you to do this
job: because you always looked up to me and even
though I was pushin’ you hard, but you always learned
and you always taught yourself by yourself about things
about life. And I never really had no problems with
you and I see that you’re strong for anything that
happens to you. And I can see it in you because
I had it in me when I was young, just like you-strength,
knowledge and thoughts about fixin’ things, makin’
things right. I put my faith in a man once, and
he hurt me- because he gave up on his life. By drinking,
smoking and robbing people. |
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| Holy: |
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Father,
if we just let this man on the list , we could give him
a couple weeks and then see where his life’s at.
Can we put him on the list for the escalator? Let
this man live a little before his life ends. |
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| God: |
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Son,
I’m afraid of him coming up to heaven as a spy for
the devil. The devil will find out our secrets,
find out our codes and he will make all the spirits be
slaves. You are young enough to fight the demons
and I’m old and I don’t need to fight no more. |
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| Holy: |
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I
use my words to fight the demons. I can help so
you can spread it around and make more people come to
the church so they can get their lives straight.
My message is to change people’s lives by giving
them a great feeling of hope that makes them want to stay
alive and be free. If we don’t save this man,
he can die, he could do drugs, he could rob people- and
the devil makes him do things like that. That destroys
other people by bringing the demons around them.
If we don’t give this man hope the devil will win!
And prove us wrong. People will start to listen
to him and the demons will rule the world. |
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| God: |
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I
don’t want to hear it! I think it’s not
true. (God gets nervous and makes rain, thunder,
lightening and storms) I can’t do it!
I can’t help this man. Only he can help himself,
and in the bible it says “never put trust in man!” |
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| Holy: |
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This makes
me kinda depressed- because when someone’s tryin’
to change you should be there for them. Never
judge them- how they look- and always open the door
for them when they’re sick, when they’re tired
and they need help. And right now you’re
not showing that to me, father. And the demons
are moving faster and faster- while you’re waiting
and thinkin! ‘Cause this man is really calling
for us-I been waitin’ for this my whole life- for
a job like this. So open up your heart and give
this man a chance to walk up the escalator to heaven.
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| God: |
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I’ll
give this man hope. But- I’m retiring. It’s
up to you now, to make the rain fall, to make the clouds
move around, and to watch over all men. Good luck,
I hope nothin’ go wrong and I hope that you get your
dream of changing a man’s life.
(God disappears and time starts again. The old
man reaches out and touches Holy the bible.) |
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| Holy: |
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Hi!
I’m Holy and I have hope for you! If you just
listen to me I’ll tell you what to do to live
a good life in heaven! I been through a lot to be
able to be here for you. (in his head, thinking
about his father as the good spirits and the demons start
fighting over the old man’s soul) I wish it
could be different, I wish my father could be here to
see me help this man- so he could see that man is
very good. I’m sad because my dad, God, disappeared.
I needed him to tell me a little bit more about the demons.
I need him for courage, spirit , and joy. I shoulda
took it easy on my father. Every night I will still
remember about my father, about what a good God my father
was. (The old man gets shot with a demon arrow
and the escalator comes down, his soul goes up the escalator
to heaven.) |
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The
End. |
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