About the play: Twelve monologues and six songs are based on the lives of women in the Bible: Visit with Eve as she looks back over the choices she made in the garden; share Sarah's anguish over her barrenness and her joy over the coming of Isaac; meet Dinah, the petulant spoiled teenager; travel the temple steps with Anna as she awaits the coming of the Promised One. These and other revelations by Rahab, Deborah, Michal, The Witch of Endor, Rizpah, the Syro-Phoenician woman, the Woman at the Well and Peter's Wife can be performed individually or as a full-length show. This play has been toured extensively by several professional theatre companies.

Time: If all the monologues are performed time is approximately 1 hr. 40 minutes. Individual monologues are from 8-10 minutes.

Place: setting is abstract. Props abound.

Sample Scene:
“The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18)
(EVE enters, a shawl wrapped around her waist so that she looks slightly pregnant. She carries a basket and is picking fruit. Role could be done with an Appalachian accent.)
EVE: I'm hopin' it will be a girl this time. Had it up to here with boys. Cain won't do much—sits around a lot watchin' things grow. Abel's always up to somethin'—drives his brother crazy. Havin' them two weren't no picnic—I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But once yer holdin' em.. .and Adam does so enjoy the cleavin' part of things.. .I often wonder whether we was meant to have children, you know, back there, or whether God mighta just took one of MY ribs this time and quicker than you could blink an eye...
(She laughs, sighs.)
You try to tell 'em what it was like. Walkin' around in His presence. Sensing his breath, the deep color of things, everything was so pretty... Cain falls asleep and Abel fidgets, wantin' to get on with his work... We sacrifice now—stones and a fire, first born, first fruits, try in' to get through to Him. Seems kind of silly after... being so close.
You know I keep going back to that day-I'm drawn to it, I go over and over it in my mind.. .Why? Oh, I was wrong. I see that now. I mean look at us. But I don't think it's fair that I should take all the blame. You see it was Adam who told me what God said about that tree in the middle of things. I mean, I didn't hear it myself. It was passed down.
He's a good man and all, but he doesn't get everything straight. And you know how you kinda dwell on things that people say, like I know he said not to eat, but did he say we couldn't touch, or lie in its shade, or pick the fruit and make a centerpiece out of it for the table? You see what I mean? And I didn't want to "be like God," I wasn't trying to be better'n Him or anything like that...
(Pause.)
Well, it didn't work out that way. But I did it anyways. That serpent was
cagey.. .and the fruit was sweet—so I ate. And then I was alone.. .all by myself. The breathin' had stopped. I thought I could hear the leaves on the ground, brown and rattlin' in the wind. But that didn't come 'till later. Then he comes by. It was like he knew something had gone wrong. I didn't say a thing, I just held it out. I'd never seen that look in his eyes before. Why didn't he take it? All I could think was, "well,
he's waitin' to see what's going to happen to me." I mean, neither of us really knew what this dying thing was, and he just stood there...and looked. Then I said, "Adam, I've eaten of this fruit. It has a sweet taste and I've left some for you and if you don't
eat it I got a feelin' we'll never be together again and I feel so all by myself, so please, please won't you take a bite?" Then I fell to my knees and I cried. I cried for the coldness and the shame and the fear in my heart. He took it then. It was like somethin' broke in him even before he ate of it. Then it was.. .finished. He blamed me that one time but never again. We were still together but not like we'd been
before. We had it all, and we lost it.
(Pause.)
You know I watched Cain and Abel as they was growin' up. They learned to do what was right and what was wrong step by step. You put your hand in the fire and you get burned. You tell a lie and it'll catch up with you. But Adam and me, we were never burned, we'd never suffered the consequences over little things. One chance. Do or die, as they say. You understand what I'm saying? Still, if I had to do it over again I'd...
(Gathers up basket of fruit. Calls off.)
Cain! Cain, I got your fruit here.
(To audience.)
He won't even gather up fruit for the offering to our Lord.
(To Cain.)
You hear me?

About the playwright:
Gillette Elvgren has been writing for over thirty years, his plays have been produced by professional theatre companies throughout the United States and Canada. He is co-founder and resident playwright for Saltworks Theatre Company in Pittsburgh, PA. There have been approximately 8,000 performances of Elvgren scripts.

While a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh he was head of the M.F.A. directing program and staff director for the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival. Presently he is a Professor in Theatre Arts at Regent University, Virginia Beach.