Grave Sitter

 

This fifteen-minute experimental play explores the troublesome nature of ghosts.  As the play opens, the 18th-century Wealthy Man has hired a Grave Sitter to prevent the theft of the body of his freshly buried child.  As the Wealthy Man explains the Grave Sitter’s graveside duties, the Ghost Child appears, visible only to the Grave Sitter.  Attempting to gain the attention of the Wealthy Man, the Ghost Child only manages to terrify the Grave Sitter, who relies on liquor and tobacco to dampen his fears.

 

Into this mix is injected the advice of the Baby Sitter, a 21st-century child-rearing specialist.  But the Grave Sitter finds it difficult to deploy her suggestions, because the Ghost Child is more than an unruly youngster.  This androgynous creature tries to tell the truth of its otherworldly existence, and finally topples the Grave Sitter’s resistances, utilizing the poor man as a means for conveying that knowledge back to the Ghost Child’s family and the wider world.

 

---

 

Play Structure:

1 Act:  15-minute play

Cast size:

4

 

Gender:

1 female, 2 male, 1 androgynous

Period:

The static time of the burial ground.

Location:

18th-century burial ground and 21st-century advice/lecture room.

Set:

A mostly bare stage.  All locations are commingled onto a single stage, with no furniture or props to separate them.