Esther & the King

Act 1: The Great Idea Scene 1: At the palace of Shushan Narrator: After Queen Vashti defied King Ahasuerus, the king became lonely. Kings Servant:(bows on the king) Your Majesty, a search must be made to find you some beautiful young women. You can select officers from different provinces and bring it to the palace. King Ahasuerus:(praises his servant) Youre such a brilliant man, that is a good idea! (commands to his servants) Put Hegai in charge of this young maidens since that is his job. Kings Servant: Then let the young women who pleases you most take Queen Vashtis place as queen. Act 2: The Search For the Next Queen (Searching Begins) (Camera focuses on Mordeacai and Esther) (Crowds gather at the front of the palace while Hegai comes out from the Palace (Crowd singing Theres a Good News!) (after the song Hegai opens the scroll) Hegai:(cleans throat) According to the kings command, I am going to choose young lovely women from this crowd (crowd begins to get noisy & glad especially young women) (Hegai looks at the crowd and will search for beautiful women) Lady with Black teeth:(goes near to Hegai) Sir choose me! Hegai:(chuckles)Oh my dear, clean your teeth first before you become a queen. (looks again to the crowd) (will choose 2 on the left side, 1 on the right side, 1 at the front) Mordecai:(faces Esther) You should join them Esther, you deserve it. Esther:(looks at Mordecai with a not so happy face) Hegai:(will see Esther and choose her) Mordecai: Go on Esther. Just promise me youll never tell anyone that you are a Jew. Esther:(Holds the hand of Mordecai) Yes uncle, I promise. Mordecai:(speaks with a soft voice) Ok, go now. (Hugs Esther and Eshter will kiss him on the cheeks) Hegai:(smiles so big) The search is complete, and here now are the young beautiful women who has a chance to be the next queen of Shushan. (young women waves their hands to the crowds saying goodbye and will get inside of the palace)

Act 3: The King Chooses who will be the next Queen Scene 2: Inside the palace of Shushan(womens quarter) (Young ladies with their personal maids are excited, except for Esther who is just smiling on one side) (maids are combing the hairs of the chosen ladies) Eshters maid: Can I comb your hair? Esther:(smiles) No, thank you. Harriet(one of the ladies):(asks Hegai) You said that we will get everything we want? Hegai:(smiles) Yes, of course you are the chosen ones! Harriet:(anxious) Everything? I want to have a beauty treatment! For sure, the king will choose me as his next queen. Esther:(looks at Harriet, say with a gentle voice) Do we really need to have beauty treatments? (Harriet looks at Esther) (song What More could a King want) King Ahasuerus:(find himself amazed on the simplicity of Esther) Esther, I have chosen you to become my queen.(places crown on Esthers head) Esther: I am greatly honored, your highness. King Ahasuerus:(gladly) There should be a celebration, a feast for Queen Esther, my wife. Esther:(comes out of the Kings room with a smiling face) Hegai:(politely) Congratulations Queen Esther! Young Women: Youre so lucky. Act 4: Modecai Reveals a Conspiracy against the King Scene 3: Palace Gate (Bigthan & Teresh come out of the Palace) (Mordecai hides on the plant near the gate) Bigthan: The King is so lucky with Eshter, how I wish I was the king. Teresh: Me too, I want to have Queen Esther. Bigthan: Do you think what Im thinking? (smiles cruelly) Teresh: Uhoh, that smile looks so cruel. I know what youre thinking. Bigthan: Are you with me? Teresh: Yes Bigthan: Lets kill King Ahasuerus tonight and surely, Queen Esther will be ours (laughs cruelly) (song) Mordecai:(worried about what he had heard) (let the two chamberlains leave before he came inside the palace) (to Esther) Esther, Esther, tell the king that Bigthan & Teresh is planning something that is not good, theyre going to kill King Ahasuerus tonight so that you will be in their hands. Esther: Thank you Uncle Mordecai, I will immediately tell the king of this cruel plan. (gently)Leave the palace now, someone might see you. (kiss & hug Mordecai) (go to the Kings room without the kings order) (bow) Your honour, Bigthan & Teresh is planning to kill you. King Ahasuerus:(angrily) Arrest & hang Bigthan & Teresh!

Act 5: Hamans Plot to destroy the Jews Scene 4: Kings room King Ahasuerus: Tell Haman that I need him here. Kings servant:(goes outside)(after a while, comes back with Haman) Haman:(bow) What can I do for you, your highness? King Ahasuerus: I put you in-charge of all the princes in this town. (puts ring on Haman finger)Everyone must bow down to you, and will give reverence.
Haman: It is my honor, your highness. ( goes out of the kings room boastfully acquiring everyone to bow to him even the gaurds on the door) Everyone must bow down to me! (everyone in the place bows except for Mordecai) (to his servant) Go near that man and ask him why is he not bowing. Hamans servants:Yes your honor.(goes near to Mordecai) Hey, why are you not bowing? Mordecai:(with dignity) I am a Jew. Hamans servants:(go back to Haman) He is a jew you majesty. Haman:(angrily) I am full of wrath now. We should destroy all the jews in this kingdom & even in Mordecais place. ( go to the king and bow) Your highness, I think we must make a decree that about giving reverence for me. Anyone who dont give reverence to me will be put to death. Especially the Jews, young or old, woman or children shall perish! King Ahasuerus: I agree with your plan. Let this decree be published and let all the people of Shushan know about this. (Haman hands to the king the decree written in a paper and ready to be signed) Act 6: Esther Promises to Intercede for her People Scene 5: Palace of Shushan (Mordecai is sitting at the front of the gates palace wearing sackcloth) Chamberlain: What are you doing at the front of palace on this hours? Esthers maid:(seen Mordecai,ran to Esther) Chamberlain: (leaves Mordecai) Esthers maid:(enters Esthers room) Your Uncle Mordecai is at the front of the gate. Esther: Tell Hatach(one of the chamberlains) to go back to Mordecai. Ask him what it was and why it was. Maid: Yes your majesty. (leave the room)(goes to Hatach) The Queen asked you to go to Mordecai, hes at the front of the gate & ask him what is the reason he was here and why. Hatach: Okay. (goes to Mordecai & delivered the message from the queen) Mordecai: Give her this letter and tell her that the Jewish peopla are mourning about the decree. ( hands the letter to Hatach) Hatach:(goes back to the Queens room) He wants to give you this letter. (hands the letter to Esther) Esther:(reds the letter in her mind) This is about the decree. Tell Uncle Mordecai to gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maidens and I will also fast. So I will go unto the King, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. (song) Hatach: Your wish is my command your majesty. ( leave the room and went his way to Mordecai)(tells to Mordecai what Esther has told him)(Mordecai will walk away after Hatach hath spoken to him)

Act 7: Esther Invites Haman to a Banquet Esther:(puts her royal apparel, and stood in the kings room) King Ahasuerus:(sees Queen Esther in his room & held the golden sceptre) Esther:(touch the end of the sceptre) King Ahasuerus: What will thou, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given unto you to the half of the kingdom Esther: If it is fine to you King, come this day unto my banquet of wine that I have prepared for you and Haman. King Ahasuerus: (commands to his servants) Command Haman to go to this banquet tonight that Queen Esther hath prepared. Scene 6: At the Banquet of wine (King Ahasuerus & Haman enters the room that Esther has prepared for the banquet) (sits down) King Ahasuerus:(pouring the wine) So, what is thy request my Queen Esther? Esther: Come to the grand banquet that I have prepared for the three of us, Haman, you, and me. Just the three of us. (the banquet end after some chitchats) Haman:(joyfully went home)(saw Mordecai again on the front of the king gate)(to himself) Here comes again Mordecai, not bowing to me, but I dont care. (reach his home and gather his friends and his wife) What a joyful day. The king had promoted me to rule over the princes,and now Queen Esther jas invited me to go to a banquet that she has prepared just for me and for the king. What a great privellege! But then, all of these are nothing if I saw Mordecai at the front of the gate mot bowing. Zeresh:(pets Haman)Why wont you command the workers to make a gallows of 50 cubits, and let Mordecai be hanged there:then go merily with the king in the banquet. Haman:(holds the face of Zeresh like praising her) Good idea my darling, that gallows will be made immediately. Act 8: Haman Forced to Honour Mordecai Scene 7: Kings Room, night King Ahasuerus:(go outside his room and look outside the window and command his servant) Bring to me the book of the Chronicles and read it for me. Kings servant:(gets the record book and read it before the King) Mordecai had saved your life from Bigthan and Teresh, who planned to kill you. King Ahasuerus:(look to the servant)What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for that? Servant:(moves his right hand forward)There is nothing done for him. King Ahasuerus:(moves two steps forward)Who is in the court? Servant: Haman is in the court, your majesty. King Ahasuerus: Let him come in. (Haman comes in)(talks to Haman) What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? Haman:(to himself) Who would the king be delighted to do honor more than to myself?(to the king) For the man that the king delighteth to honor, let the royal apparel be brought which the king used to wear, and a horse that the king rides, and a crown in his head. And bring him on horseback through the streets of the city, and proclaim before him. Thus, it shall be done to the man who the king delighteth (smiles radiantly)

King Ahasuerus:(command to Haman) Then go, take the apparel and the horse, and bring it to Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting in front of the gates palace: let nothing fail that thou had spoken. Haman:(follow what the king had said, see Mordecai at the front of the gate)(run to their house, covering his head)(to Zeresh and his friends) Everything had befallen just because of that Jewish old man. Zeresh:(voice breaking) If Mordecai is a Jewish, you will never succeed in your plans against him; to continue to oppose him will be fatal.(comes in one chamberlain) Chamberlain: The banquet is ready to start.

Scene 8: At the Banquet (King Ahasuerus and Haman comes inside the room and sit down) King Ahasuerus:(looks to Queen Esther) What is your request, Queen Esther? What do you wish? Whatever it is, I will give it to you, even th hal of my kingdom. Queen Esther:(gentle voice) If I have won your favor, O king, and if it please your majesty, save my life and the lives of my people. For I and my people have been sold to those who will destroy us. If we were only to be sold as slaves, perhaps I could remain silent, even though there would be incalculable damage to the king that no amount of money could begin to cover. King Ahasuerus:(anxious)What, what are you talking about? Who dare touch you? Queen Esther:(lowers his head) I am a Jew,(Hamans eyes widens) and Im sorry if I didnt told you about this. (points Haman) This Haman is our enemy. Haman:(become pale with fright, the king went out into the palace garden)(pleasing Queen Esther) Have pity on me, Queen Esther. (falls to the couch)(king Ahasuerus enters again) King Ahasuerus:(roaring)Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace, before my very eyes? (points Haman)You Haman, deserved to be killed.