Investiture Achievement/Skits/Ruth

Introduction

This puppet show was written and performed by the Central New Hampshire Flames Pathfinder Club for Pathfinder Sabbath in 2009. The audio was pre-recorded ahead of time so that all the puppeteers had to do during the performance was concentrate on moving their puppets around, and not on speaking their lines. Since it is a puppet show, no one is able to tell they they are "lip-syncing." This approach eliminates all the hassles of microphone placement, as well as the fear of flubbed lines.

During the recording session, the kids read their lines several times while the audio was recorded. The recording was subsequently edited to get the best take of each line. Because there was no audience present during the recording session, the kids were far more relaxed and able to deliver a much more convincing performance.

We used the free software package Audacity to do both the recording and editing. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

During the performance, a copy of the script was pinned to the inside of the puppet theater so that the puppeteers could read along as the CD recording played.

If you have a large group, you can separate the voice roles from the puppeteer roles.

The puppet stage was built from PVC pipe and a canvas drop-cloth (used by painters).

Puppets

For this skit you will need the following puppets:

Naomi
Ruth
Orpah
Boaz
Foreman
3-5 workers,
Kinsman

Skit

Narrator: In the days when the judges ruled, there was a Jewish widow named Ruth who lived in the land of Moab with her two sons and their wives. After ten years her two sons died, leaving just Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Ruth, and Orpah.

Ruth: (crying) Oh Naomi, what are we going to do?
Orpah: (crying) Now that our husbands have died, how will we survive?
Naomi: I am going back to Judah, the land of my people. Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show kindness to you and grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.

Naomi hugs Ruth and Orpah

Orpah: We will go back with you to your people!
Naomi: Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons - would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you.

Orpah kisses Naomi and leaves crying, but Ruth hangs on.

Noami: Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people. Go back with her.
Ruth: Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severly, if anything but death separates you and me.

Narrator: So the two women came to Bethlehem just as the harvest was beginning.

Naomi and Ruth disappear - stage left as the narrator speaks. They come out again after he finishes.

Ruth: Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone who will let me.
Naomi: Go my daughter.

Naomi disappears. Ruth moves to stage right where the foreman and some workers appear. Ruth begins picking up grain behind the workers who are all moving to the left. Boaz appears just ahead of them.

Boaz: The Lord be with you!
Workers: The Lord bless you too Boaz!
Boaz: (to the foreman) Who is that young woman?

As the foreman speaks, the workers move to stage left stage leaving Ruth, Boaz, and the foreman on stage right.

Foreman: She is the girl who came back from Moab with Naomi. She asked me to allow her to gather grain behind the harvesters. She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning until now.
Boaz: (to Ruth) My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another person's field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Whenever you get thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.
Ruth: (bowing down) Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you even notice me - a foreigner?
Boaz: I've been told all about what you have done for Naomi since your husband died. How you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
Ruth: May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord. You have given me comfort and spoken kindly to your servant.

Ruth and the worker continue harvesting and move to the left. Boaz and foreman remain on the right.

Boaz: Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.
Foreman: Yes sir!

Everyone lowers their puppets. Naomi appears at the left. Ruth appears at the right and move towards Naomi.

Ruth: Naomi! Come see what I've brought home for us to eat!
Naomi: Oh Ruth! That is a lot of grain! Now we won't go hungry! Where did you get all this? Who let you glean this much from his field?
Ruth: He was a man named Boaz, and he was very kind to me.
Naomi: Boaz?! He is a close relative of ours! He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.
Ruth: He even said to me, 'Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain."
Naomi: My daughter, should I not try to find you a home? Is not Boaz a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be working on the threshing floor. Go, but do not let him know you are there until he lies down. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.
Ruth: I will do whatever you say.

Ruth and Naomi disappear. Boaz appears, but is lying down. Ruth appears, moves to him, and lies down at his feet.

Boaz: Who are you?
Ruth: I am your servant Ruth. Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are my kinsman-redeemer.
Boaz: The Lord bless you my daughter. I will do for you all you ask. All the townsmen know know that you are a woman of nobel character. Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is one who is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. If he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Now take this grain back to Naomi.

Boaz and Ruth disappear. Boaz and another man appear.

Boaz: Come over here my friend and sit down.

Kinsman comes over.

Boaz: Naomi is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should let you know and suggest that you buy it. If you will redeem it, do so. But if not, tell me so I will know. No one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.
Kinsman: I will redeem it.
Boaz: On the day you buy the land from Naomi, Ruth, the dead man's widow will become your wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.
Kinsman: Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.
Boaz: Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech. And by doing so, I will also make Ruth my wife. Today you are witnesses!

Narrator: So Boaz took Ruth to be his wife, and they had a son. And one of their great grand children was David who became the king of Israel.

The end.