The Fourth Wise Man
by Joy Chaitin, Sarah Stevens and Marilyn D

One-act Play / In nine self-contained scenes with new arrangements of eight familiar Christmas carols, an old legend about the first Christmas comes to life.

Some say there were not three wise men who started out to worship the baby Jesus, but four!

Artaban, the other wise man, travels a more difficult path as he is torn between his desire to reach the Christ child and present his gifts with the other Magi, and the desperate needs of the people he meets along his route: a merchant who has been attacked by wild animals, four orphan children who are being sold as slaves and a mother whose baby is threatened with execution by Herod's soldiers.

In choosing to stop and help each of them, Artaban comes to a deeper understanding of Jesus' word: "If you have done a kindness for one of these, the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me."

/ Cast size: 10 to 20m., 10 to 20w.