A Food Court Christmas

Playing time: 50 minutes

Characters:

• Maria              Works clean-up around the food court. Only speaks Spanish. She is nine months pregnant.
• Jose               Maria's husband. Works for Little Caesar's. Speaks English and Spanish

The Girls

• Kaylie            A chatterbox. A very vain chatterbox.
• Lindsay         Lindsay is CONSTANTLY text messaging. We never learn to whom. She only speaks three word during the play. She can laugh and show various text and photo messages to her friends, who react in various ways.
• Amanda        Works as a cashier in one of the mall stores. Stressed out. A good head on her shoulders.

Reilly Family – Teens can play all roles or you can find someone of appropriate age.

• Tom                Husband. Overly cheerful.
• Maggie          Wife    Constantly worried.
• Tammy          Child              Age may vary from 5 to 9
• Dane              Child              Age may vary from 5 to 9

The Guys

• Brandon       Shy and sensitive. Has a crush on Amanda
• Troy               Nice, but forward. Likes Kaylie. Always light hearted and fun.
• Greg               Brazen, sarcastic, a jerk. Likes himself.

Mall Walker: This person plays a recurring role. It can be male or female. Each time they enter they should huff and puff, check pulse and watch. All while on the move. During each appearance the mall walker should lose a certain amount of weight. This is accomplished with removable padding. This character has no lines to speak.

The Announcer: A voice over the intercom from the mall office. This can be prerecorded.

Set Design

• A very simple set is needed. Three tables with a variety of chairs should suffice. Also needed is a garbage can or two.
• A background can be included. Remember that this is the food court in a mall. The background can feature:
• The different food establishments
• A Christmas tree
• A staircase
• A specific store or group of stores
• The door to Little Caesars
• Go to a mall and take pictures to get ideas.

There needs to be at least two directions the actors can come from. The mall walker enters from one direction and leaves the other. Jose can have a third direction that heads toward his store. Later Maria and others go that way and she has her baby off stage.

Props Needed

Go to several fast food establishments and ask to borrow or use:

• Food trays
• Sacks
• Styrofoam hamburger holders
• Drink cups of various sizes with lids and straws
• Napkins
  • By offering to publicize their store in a program or a 'Thank You' over the pulpit most stores will gladly furnish these items.
• Broom and dustpan for Maria
• A variety of sacks, boxes, wrapped and unwrapped gifts for the shoppers.
• Cell phones
• Purses

Costumes -- The only specific costumes are those for:

• Amanda (she works as a cashier)
• Maria (as a custodial worker at the food court)
• Jose (as a Manager for Little Caesar's)