Selah Session I
Number Our Days
A dying preacher and a rockabilly drifter in uranium-boom Moab learn what it means to number their days.
An old man named Wade sits in a Moab tabernacle in 2026 and remembers the summer the uranium boom came to town. He was young then, a rockabilly singer chasing a fortune, and he thought he had all the time in the world.
In 1952 Moab is a quiet farm town on the Colorado River. Within months it is a boomtown: prospectors with Geiger counters, penny-stock promoters selling shares over Uranium Burgers, and miners breathing a radon danger nobody warns them about. On the riverbank, Eli, a poor Pentecostal preacher dying from the radium mines of his youth, pitches a revival tent and keeps preaching.
Through drought, fire, a promoter's crooked scheme and the loss of a neighbor's orchard, Eli and the town's bishop find an unlikely friendship, and Wade learns slowly what the old psalm means. Teach us to number our days.
Characters
- Eli
- A poor Pentecostal preacher, dying from the radium mines he worked as a boy
- Wade
- A young rockabilly singer who rides in with the boom; the old man telling the story in 2026
- Bishop Larsen
- The town's Latter-day Saint bishop and Eli's unlikely friend
- Lupe
- A Hispano orchard keeper who loses her land to the boom
- Pruitt
- A penny-stock promoter who means to run the town
- Professor Sparks
- A traveling doodlebug man selling miracle uranium finders
Song list
| No. | Song | Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Number Our Days | Psalm 90 |
| 2 | Under His Wings | Psalm 91 |
| 2a | Under His Wings (Reprise) | Psalm 91 |
| 3 | Saturday Night, Sunday Morning | Psalm 92 |
| 4 | The Floods Have Lifted Up | Psalm 93 |
| 4a | Doodlebug Rock | Psalm 97:7 |
| 5 | How Long | Psalm 94 |
| 6 | Today | Psalm 95 |
| 7 | Sing a New Song | Psalm 96 |
| 8 | Clouds and Thick Darkness | Psalms 97–99 |
| 9 | Make a Joyful Noise | Psalm 100 |
| 10 | A Perfect Way | Psalm 101 |
| 11 | Sparrow on the Housetop | Psalm 102 |
| 12 | Bless the Lord, O My Soul | Psalm 103 |
| 13 | Who Stretches Out the Heavens | Psalm 104 |
| 14 | Few in Number | Psalm 105 |
| 15 | We Have Sinned With Our Fathers | Psalm 106 |
| 15a | We Have Sinned With Our Fathers, Part 2 | Psalm 106 |
| 16 | Gather Us | Psalm 106:47 |
| Finale | Amen. Hallelujah | Psalms 106:48, 94, 90 |
Listen
Bring Number Our Days to your stage
Perusal materials include a synopsis, a script excerpt and demo recordings, so you can decide before you commit.