Ghost Story with Class Cast

The Cast: JOHN, MICHAEL, KERIANN, KRISTI

<A lantern lies center stage. The lights are out. The characters move in and are seated around the lantern.>

JOHN: Well, we’re all finally here.

KERIANN: Just like the Romantic poets.

MICHEAL: It’s dark and gloomy enough for it.

KRISTI: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”

JOHN: Foul, to be sure. Fair as well, if only from company and storytelling. You’re all ready for an evening of terror, of tales of beings so contrary to the natural order that they must bring a shudder of horror to the bodies of frail mankind?

MICHAEL: You talk too much.

<Pause for laugh…hopefully.>

KRISTI: Well, should we get started?

KERIANN: That sounds like a great idea.

<Flashlight goes off. First Storyteller takes it and stands in front of the others, then turns flashlight back on.>

First Story A Ghost Story by Keriann Hopkins

<Flashlight off. Everyone sits back down and the flashlight comes back on.>

KRISTI: Scary…

MICHAEL: Yeah, that was incredible.

JOHN: Excellent! A perfect ghost story. Just think. The last time this kind of gathering happened, it was among the greatest storytellers of the nineteenth century. I’d wager that something like that is going on right now.

KRISTI: But think about what happened to the people in the last one.

KERIANN: It wasn’t long before Percy Shelley was lying on the funeral pyre.

MICHAEL: Byron in the water, Mary watching the fire consume her husband…

JOHN: And then, <shouts!> His heart, torn out!

MICHAEL: A Gothic story if there ever was one.

KERIANN: And out here, so far away from everything else, just the forest at our backs and the lake in front, it almost seems like their ghosts might be hovering around us.

JOHN: A perfect time for another ghost story, right? Who’s up next?

<Flashlight off. Second Storyteller takes it and stands up. Flashlight back on.>

Second Story A Horror Story by Michael DesJardins

<Flashlight off. Sit back down in a circle. Flashlight back on.>

JOHN: Chilling.

KERIANN: Scary.

KRISTI: Listen…is it starting to rain?

KERIANN: It’s a good thing we found this old building to tell our stories in.

MICHAEL: We’re here, all alone. And in the distance, you hear the slow…steady…beating…of a human heart. Followed by slow…heavy…footsteps…

JOHN: Michael, you don’t get two.

KRISTI: Come to think of it, none of the old storytellers had it very good after their days together. Byron went off to Greece and died, Mary grew old alone, and died of a brain tumor…

KERIANN: Worried?

JOHN: Let’s not get all worked up, not before all the stories are told, anyway. Who’s up next?

<Flashlight off. Third Storyteller stands up. Flashlight on.>

Third Story Timothy's Window by Kristin Haas

<Flashlight off. Sit back down. Flashlight on.>

MICHAEL: That was terrifying!

KERIANN: They’ve all been so scary.

JOHN: Another incredible tale of the macabre…

KRISTI: This has been the perfect atmosphere. An empty old building, rain falling everywhere, a pitch-black night. I couldn’t have asked for a more frightening night.

MICHAEL: Too bad it’s not Halloween.

KERIANN: Halloween is too commercial. There would be kids and jack-o’-lanterns…

JOHN: Exactly. The only thing that could make this better would be an appearance from one of the ghosts.

KRISTI: It’s a shame there isn’t a crumbling graveyard nearby.

KERIANN: This is starting to sound like another story.

JOHN: Speaking of stories, it’s my turn, isn’t it?

<Flashlight off. Fourth Storyteller stands up. Flashlight on.>

Fourth Story Bedtime Stories by John Minser

<Flashlight off. Everyone scramble into the audience so it’s just John up there. Flashlight on.>

JOHN: It’s a funny thing about ghost stories. The thrill of them is the possibility, that edge-of-your-seat promise that there might be something lurking just around the corner.

<evil grin>

But it’s a real shame when something really is waiting for you there.

<Fade into background. Hold for applause. Bow, to more thunderous applause.>