The Lost Sheep

Mission to Save Doomed Planets

Author: Robby Van Arsdale
Major Theme: God’s Lost Sheep
Source: Joseph, Sampson, Solomon, Esther, and Luke 15:3-7
Main Cast: 5 Female, 5 Male
Sample: First and final plays of The Lost Sheep

The captain and his crew have been trashed by a mysterious disease that has left them floating, useless, in space. The only way to fix it is for the captain to risk his brain to save the crew. The risk pays off just in time for the ship to float through a wormhole.
The crew are stranded on separated planets in the stellar system they’ve come to save. Now they need saving. From Monday to Thursday, we see as they work together to complete the mission of saving the people on the alien planets while waiting for the captain to save them. The alien stories find their basis in Joseph, Sampson, Solomon, and Esther.
On Friday, the audience finally sees what’s been happening with the captain all along. Working with the ship’s onboard computer, he is increasingly frustrated by his failures to get in contact with the crew, to get the ship running, and to find an option for saving them. Finally, he hits on a very bad option. The computer is adamant: he might die. It’s the only option, though, so he takes it. The computer disintegrates his body to use as a map to read and teleport the crew back onto the ship without the appropriate safety measures. The crew are back, but the captain is nowhere to be found. They struggle to fix the ship and find the captain, only to reboot the computer and hear that the captain really is gone. There’s only one option left to them: continue the mission, save the people on the alien planets, and carry them to safety. They make a teleport jump, and then the captain is back among them. Because they were able to fix the ship and bring the computer back online, the computer was able to reconstruct the captain from its memory banks. The crew is saved. The captain is saved. The mission can continue.

This play doesn’t need to make you laugh or cry (though it will); it’s just really really good.