University Players Performance Summaries
University Players, 2012-2013 Sketches
Enough Already!
This year the University Players share a series of true stories from their lives - honest experiences that engage the challenge and humor of a Christian life. These stories are offered in four acts.
- Act 1, Fear: Those dark and frightnening spaces when we are paralyzed and trapped.
- Act 2, Anger: When our boundaries are encroached upon, our lives are threatened, and our adrenaline kicks in.
- Act 3, Sadness: When we are lost, empty, and alone.
- Act 4, Joy: When by the grace of God the scales fall from our eyes and we can see clearly.
University Players, 2011-2012 Sketches
The Road
“Flash Mob” Intro—about 5 minutes.
The Players are seated in the audience. One by one, they stand, make their way to the front, and lay out their introduction to “The Road”—what road are they on. They ask each other, and the audience, “Walk with me” for a little while.
“Alms”—around 2 minutes.
The Players (still in formation) take the role of beggars in John 5. Jesus enters and asks one if she would like to be healed. Jesus raises her to her feet, and commands her to “take her bed and walk.” Her journey begins.
Player Monologues—perhaps 2 to 4 minutes each.
Every Player is required to write and perform a monologue based on significant moments in his or her walk with the Lord, either in the past or where it happens to be right now. These are presented throughout the presentation.
“Push” (comedy/mime, about 5 minutes)
Sometimes we take on more than the Lord actually requires, and sometimes he has to let us wear ourselves out before he can teach us a better way. “Push” is an allegory based on Matthew 11:28-30. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (ESV)
“Door #3” (mime, about 5 minutes)
A man goes through the difficult, and at times painful, process of discovering that, when God closes every door, somewhere he opens a window. This humorous allegory is based on Isaiah 30:20-21: “Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (NIV)
“The Corpse” (, part 1 of "The Rose Cycle", about 4 minutes)
This classic Players sketch came from Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…” (ESV) A female corpse finds itself powerless to respond to the Stranger's offer of a new life, until he takes her by the hand and brings her to life. Once she is alive, however, she is reluctant to take to the Road, as she still finds herself drawn back to her old life in the ground (symbolized by a dead rose bush, which she opts to bring with her).
"Thorns" (drama, part 2 of "The Rose Cycle", about 5 minutes)
A continuation of the story begun with "The Corpse", the Stranger makes it clear that the resurrected woman's journey on the Road will be effectively crippled if she continues to cling to her old life, represented by a dead rosebush she refuses to leave behind. With his help, she leaves it behind. Romans 7:18-19 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."
"Roots" (drama, part 3 of "The Rose Cycle", about 5 minutes)
Farther down the Road, the next step in the story begun in "The Corpse" and continued in "Thorns", "Roots" begins with the woman's discovery of some discoloration and stiffness in her hand, which used to cling to her old life so tenaciously. Before her horrified eyes, the Stranger removes from her arm a long, clinging root that has been growing inside—evidence that the remains of old life still must be actively dealt with as often as it "comes up." Romans 7:22-25a "For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
"Rose" (drama, part 4 of "The Rose Cycle", about 5 minutes)
The cycle concludes with a final confrontation of the issues of "The Corpse", "Thorns", and "Roots". The Road has led the woman to a place of death. She realizes that even after coming to a new life, and all the growth and renewal of her journey, she is still drawn back to the old life (represented her pull back to the dead rose
bush). She is on the brink of giving up, until the Stranger offers her a live rose—the "real thing," what she really wanted all this time without realizing it. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44: "....What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body..."
Benediction—about 4 minutes.
The team reassembles, and returns to their initial theme “walk with me.” They end by disbursing back into the audience.