Lights, Camera, Action Bible Skits: Based on the Gospel According to Mark

QUICK BIBLE SKITS for TODAY'S KIDS Teaching kids to act on their faith! Your young actors become a living Bible story according to the Gospel of Mark. No memorization required. A part for every kid! Creative Fun for Grades 2-8, with non-speaking parts too. The Lights, Camera, Action Bible Skits require little to no set up for staging or costuming. However, there is always something for the children to do to enhance the skit. For example, children can participate in decorating, costuming or improvising as part of their hands-on Bible skit experience. If you can provide a costume box, clothes rack or costume closet for the actors that would be ideal. If your church cannot afford Bible-time costumes, then you can provide various wide strips of cloth, towels or smocks to drape over shoulders and heads and tie off with cloth belts. Wigs, beards and costume jewelry are also fun items to include for your actors. Using theater makeup is also an option. If you prefer not to use costuming, then simply assign parts and/or pin signs on the actors to indicate who they are. Whenever possible, and before handing out the scripts to the actors, read or explain the Bible story or parts of the Bible story from a child-friendly Bible. After you’ve read the story, choose your actors and then have them highlight their parts. The length of each script varies. Allow plenty of time for practice. Encourage your actors to ham it up when appropriate and keep it serious when called for. Help them to place the proper emphasis on words and phrases, and to pronounce difficult words before beginning. Ideally your children should be able to read their parts. However, many of the skits have non-speaking parts for younger children who cannot read or for children who do not want to speak. If younger children are participating and cannot read, the Director can give instruction for the child to pantomime the part. For if the part of “John” “I want to follow Jesus.” The Director might say, “John wants to follow Jesus” and then say to the child, “John, follow Jesus.” The teacher/director is not only saying the part, but also giving direction to the actor as well. Videotaping your skits will make it more fun, and will reinforce the lesson when the class watches their video. It will also provide a “living Bible” memory-maker for your church! The amount of time you put into the skits is determined by how elaborate you want to make them. You could easily spend several weeks creating the sets and costumes, or spend no time at all with that aspect of it. For smaller classes, children may act out more than one part. For larger classes I have intentionally written certain parts such as “crowd,” “disciple,” or “Pharisee,” so more than one actor could play those parts. Before beginning, you would need to split and number those parts depending on how many actors are participating. Larger classes could also “produce” the same skit with different groups, and then perform and film them separately. You may also decide to have one group of children perform one skit, have another group proceed to the next skit, and then perform them consecutively for your “living Bible” video. An actual stage is not necessary. All the actors can design background scenes using large sheets of butcher paper and colored markers and crayons. Read the story, or part of the story, from the Bible passage first, and then allow the class to imagine and create what should be part of the background scene for your “stage.” You can also copy the BONUS background scene pictures, at the back of the book, onto overhead projector sheets and then project them onto large sheets of paper or painter’s drop cloths for children to trace and then use non-toxic paint to color in the scenes. Improvisation is the key! Learn more at SundaySchoolNetwork.com.