In the voice of The Twilight Zone, five characters make choices without the guidance of integrity.  Without a moral compass youth may find themselves lost in The Faithless Zone.

You can download a PDF version of this skit HERE. If you use it, let us know in the comments!

Themes: Acceptance, Faithfulness, Meaning of Life, Pressure, Temptation, The World

Setting: A bare stage. Limited lighting is used to portray single scenes. Characters use a few key props to suggest the larger setting. For costumes, consider dressing each character in all black, with one item of bright color foreffect. The narrator should be in a basic black suite with black tie– Twilight Zone-esque. [Note: Lighting can be omitted and the stage can be set to build a tableau effect of all characters in their various scenes.]

Characters:

Narrator: omniscient, slightly sarcastic and a bit foreboding, very Twilight Zone

Cait: High school senior, the conscientious student

Jess: High school, slightly arrogant slacker

KJ: High school freshman, little sister type

Jules: High school freshman, stereotypical “popular” girl

Nat: High school senior, good-looking scholar-athlete

At Rise the Narrator is center, the three scenes are posed upstage from him, frozen in action. The narrator will weave in and out of the scenes as he comments on them to the audience. When the narrator speaks, action in the scenes should freeze.
 
Narrator: Picture, if you will five ordinary high school students, living in one ordinary town, making ordinary choices, feeling they have ordinary integrity. Each has friends. Each has family. Each has expectations that life will be fair, that the people in their lives will be faithful, that the decisions of their lives will be made faithfully. Consider what might happen if the idea of being faithful was taken out of their ordinary world [pause] just for a moment.
 
Cait: [typing at a desk on laptop, finishing up her homework] … and the conclusion of the poem helps the reader to understand that faithfulness is the most significant theme at work in the poet’s experience. [types the last words with a flourish] There. Done. An entire English theme paper totally completed by [check cell phone] 8PM. Not bad! [cell phone rings] Hello?
 
Jess: [in a separate light across stage] Cait, it’s Jess.
 
Cait: Hey, Jess! Hi.
 
Jess: Listen, I’m starting that term paper for Advanced English…ten pages on one poem, there’s no way.
 Cait: Actually, I was just finishing up.
 
Jess: [smiling, nasty] That’s what I was hoping to hear. I can’t even get this thing started. What can you give me?
 
Cait: Umm… well, I guess I could email my outline or maybe my introduction or something, would that help?
 
Jess: [snorts] No.
 
Cait: Oh. [beat] You want the whole thing? Jess, I put a lot of thought into this. I mean, not that you wouldn’t addyour own thoughts or anything, but I was feeling pretty good about my work on this paper…I mean…
 
Jess: [sounding irritated] Don’t even think of going holier than thou on me, Cait. I’ve got one word…Mason…
 
Cait: Yeah. I know. I owe you for that.
 
Jess: [sarcastic] I mean, I guess that was no big deal right. Nothing that saved your life and kept your Mom and Dadoff your case… Jeez Cait, it;s not like you love English class. What is your problem?
 
Cait: No, you’re right. Let;s meet at the coffee house, I can explain my notes in person. Ten minutes, okay…
[light down and then back up on narrator]
 
Narrator: Last week this ordinary girl had a rough time of it at home. While Mom and Dad had their weekly fight, shetook care of her sister and brother and didn’t find the time to study for Calculus. Jess helped her cheat on the mid-term, or rather, Jess helped her maintain her grade on the mid-term. In this faithless world, Cait owes her friend. If you want to keep the world fair, you have to pay up…
[lights rise on KJ]
 
Kel: [clearly waiting. Has a gym bag stuffed with items at her feet. Sighs impatiently] This is stupid. How muchlonger does my sister expect me to just sit here? [mimicking voice] “I promise I will pick you up on time tonight, you won’t have to wait…” Yeah right. [pulls out cell phone and dials impatiently] Answer… answer… come on…
Jules: [off stage] Yeah, well, you completely didn’t hear this from me. But Kel’s parents are probably getting divorced, and her sister is hanging around this crowd of total druggies. I can’t believe it. Its completely embarrassing. We have nothing in common…

Kel: [sits and listens] What?? Jules??

 
Jules: [off stage] Well, I know we’re “best” friends. I would never let Kel down for anything. I can’t help it if she is atotal loser sometimes. What do you expect, that I don’t have an opinion about her or anything? I mean I can be her friend as long as she doesn’t start acting like her sister… [her voice fades]
 
Kel: [on her phone] Okay sister, please say you didn’t forget me tonight.
 
[lights down and back up on Narrator]
 
Narrator: An ordinary girl. Waiting to be picked up from sports practice, and her best friend since the third grade forgets that she should watch where she gossips. But Kel can’t really be angry, after all her sister does have problems. It makes sense that Jules is embarrassed. In a world with out faithfulness, we can’t expect anything to be fair.
 
Nat: [in a locker room pulling on his basketball jersey and calling off stage] I’ll be there in a second, okay. I justforgot my brace. [pulls a bottle of prescription pills out of his gym bag]. Well, here we go. Record to break tonight, team’s counting on me, the whole family is here… [stops and stares at the bottle]
 
Narrator: Nat is our all-star. Leader at school, leader at church, dates the right girl, has the right friends. In our ordinary scene, Nat is loved by his teachers, his family, his team. And he can’t let them down. Good thing faithfulnessis out of the equation. No rules, values or beliefs to hold him back. He can make his decision without integrity getting in the way.
 
Nat: Okay. I can do this. It makes all the difference. [he uncaps bottle, shakes out pill and swallows it] Okay. Okay. I can do this.
 
Narrator: Picture, if you will five ordinary high school students, living in one ordinary town, making ordinary choices,feeling they have ordinary integrity. Each has friends. Each has family. Each has expectations that life will be fair, that the people in their lives will be faithful, that the decisions of their lives will be made faithfully. Consider what might happen if the idea of being faithful was taken out of their ordinary world [pause] just for a moment. This is what it means to live a life without God.