SCRIPT: Celebration of the Birth of The Báb

A program originally created by Anne Perry for the Dallas Bahá’í Community, which can be modified to fit other localities.  Rehearsal and advance preparation recommended. In a small community, this could be done as a spontaneous reading, if scripts are made for everyone. 

Staging:Two mics placed on either side of the stage, with beautiful drapes on podium, column, or table (green, gold. . . ) and red roses.  Visual slides can enhance the program, if desired (request slide show).  Dress: can be elegant, historic, or multi-cultural, but shouldn’t be pedestrian. Lighting can be dramatic, warm.  Readers can be seated and go up to the mic on either side in advance of the reading; sometimes there is a back and forth, so it should be rehearsed and noted where a reader should stay standing and step aside, and which mic he/she should go to. Ideally, the program should flow as one element, without applause. Technical assistance is important.  

Participants:    (9–12 readers/musicians/singers and 1-2 technical assistants) 

MCcan be the same person as one of the readers, or not.  

Persian or Arabic reader/chanter could also be one of the readers, below. 

Reader 1:  male or female

Reader 2:  Reader of the Báb’s account, male, strong reader, perhaps in 20s

Reader 3:  male or female

Reader 4:  male or female

Reader 5:  male or female

Reader 6:  male or female

Reader 7: Reader, account of the Mother of the Báb, female

Reader 8: Reader, account of the Wife of the Báb, female

Reader 9:  Strong and poetic reader, female preferred

Music about the Báb: Who Is the Child?

Lots of music can be found at 9starmedia.com.

For example, this is a great song: https://9starmedia.com/susan-engle-jean-white-special-times?zenid=d60cb014e14249405e7c88336de470f8

Who Is the Child?    Echo/chorus

1 Who is the child, Who is the child,‘Alí Muhammad  

Born in Shíráz, Born in Shíráz,city of roses?  

Who is the child, Who is the child,grown straight and true, Who told us, “I am, I am, I am the Promised One?”*

2 Who is the child, Who is the child,raised by His uncle, October born, October born,humble and gentle?  

Who is the child Who is the child,we bow before

Who told us, “I am, I am, I am the Promised One?”

BRIDGE:

Do you know Him?  

Have you heard His name?  

Does your heart feel the beauty of His presence?  

Do you love Him as did Mullá Husayn? 

If you’ve found what you’ve been seeking, you can tell me.

3 Who is the child, Who is the child,tender and holy, 

Wrote the Bayán, Wrote the Bayán,foretold the Glory?  

Who is the child Who is the child,Whom God prepared 

To tell us, “I am, I am, I am the Promised One?”  

Yes, He said, “I am, I am, I am the Promised One.”

And he said, “I am, I am, I am the Promised One.”