The Play's the Thing
David McLachlan
The purpose of this book is to put some tools into the hands of people who wish to use drama. The plays in this volume are designed for your everyday churches, and not just for major productions. The first sections are to help you understand what needs to happen for a performance to take place.

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book excerpt

Drama is one of those mediums that is largely misunderstood. Because it is not mentioned in the Bible, most Christians don‘t know how to respond to it. Some see it‘s potential, whilst others feel it is out of place for such things to go in church. The title of this book is ―The Play‘s the thing...‖ This is a quote from William Shakespeare‘s ‗Hamlet‘. The full quote is, ―The play‘s the thing whereby we may catch the conscience of the King.‖ The play ‗Hamlet‘, deals with the character of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and his at-tempts to avenge the death of his father. One method he uses is to acquire the skills of a travelling group of actors. Through the information he gives them, they are able too stage a recreation of his father‘s murder. The play the actors present is just vague enough to keep all but the murderer in the dark. This murderer, his father‘s own brother, sees that Hamlet knows how his father was killed, and his own conscience begins to eat away at him. By using this method Hamlet is able to point his finger directly at the New King. Modern Christian Drama uses the same method. By creating a real scene on stage, and through the means of ‗Identification‘ the audience aligns itself with whatever character the writer desires. Since the audience themselves identify with that character, they go through any struggles, and challenges that the character goes through.