The series of monologues and sketches entitled The Twelve hearkens back to the earliest days of His Company. In fact, it was the process of writing, casting, rehearsing and performing these twelve pieces that (humanly speaking) caused His Company to be formed in the first place.
Just why I wrote the monologue for the apostle Peter, The Scarred Rock, back in the early months of 1985 I can’t say. But once it was completed, I handed it to the pastor for his thoughts on using the seven-minute sketch in one of our Sunday morning services. His response was both understated and ambitious. He not only liked the idea, but suggested that I write eleven more—one for each disciple—and he would schedule a series of sermons to match: one per week for three months.
The proposition was both exciting and frightening. As unofficial assistant to our Music Minister, I had been writing narration and dialogue for our musical productions for several years, but I quickly saw that this would be a challenge of a different stripe. Not only would I need to be doing a lot of writing, but I would also have to line up actors and schedule overlapping rehearsals for all the sketches.
But the commission was accepted, and a schedule quickly worked out. I cast The Scarred Rock and began an eight-week schedule of rehearsals for that play. I established a routine that had me continuing to write the succeeding plays in their order, while directing the next to be performed. In the middle of each play’s rehearsal schedule, I would cast and begin rehearsals for the next. On Sunday morning, August 11, 1985, The Scarred Rock was performed, and for the next eleven weeks a new sketch was performed every Sunday morning. At the time that the first sketch was being performed, the last in the series had not even been written.
Though some have performed these twelve pieces in one production, they stand well on their own, used in support of a pastor’s message or special music. If you do wish to perform them all together, in one production, we suggest you do The Sword Conquered by Love last, as in his monologue Simon mentions each of the other disciples.
Scripts
A Greater Love
A Practical Faith
Even Logic
I Never Called Him Lord
Profit
Standing in the Shadow
The Butterfly
The Scarred Rock
The Sword Conquered by Love
Two Blocks Down, Then Take a Left: A Fable
Vision Beyond the Eyes
You Will Drink of the Cup