Church Drama Motive
Church Drama, Opening Its Seven Gifts
By Julie Marlin
Whether you are using drama for entertainment, education or worship this ancient art form offers churches in our times at least seven wonderful gifts.
Gift #1
Open it and be in worship with God-- Traditional ritual or new awakening it is active participating of people with God. Drama is worship even for the actors, even in rehearsal.
What worship? Whether we are asking the earth gods to bless our newly planted seeds or revisiting the Zoroastrian Magi as they wondered into the first Gospel story following a star, drama shares a tight bond with the history of ritual and worship. Those who enter the faith story through drama may be touched by the pathos and inspired by new understanding. Drama is a tool which allows actors and worshipers to enter into the story completely with heart and soul and mind and strength.
The fabric of worship is so tightly weft with drama that it is hard to perceive of worship without drama. Or perhaps it is that the warp of the cloth is the drama, and there is no drama that is not worship. That can't be true. Of course there is drama that is not worship. There is a whole world of secular stuff that has nothing to do with worship. Where is worship in all that "sex and violence" that bombards our culture?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but in our secular drama the worship is there; only the object of the worship is in question. God is not always the object of the worship that we do through drama. Sometimes drama takes us on a vicarious journey to worship a god of power or a deity of destruction. Our theater seats may offer sanctuary to idols of company logos; and we may easily find ourselves in the temple of the giant cartoon mouse.
Certainly, not all secular drama is idolatrous. In fact, most often God is subtly and silently present at the heart of the drama/worship. Something may seem to have nothing to do with God or religion at all, but it lifts up the beauty of the creation and the life gift and it leaves us refreshed and giving thanks to God. It doesn't have to be religious worship/drama to leave us basking in Paul's notion of prayer without ceasing. God may be hidden for some but obvious for others.
Sometimes God is blatantly and conspicuously the object of worship in seemingly non-religious drama. Audiences show up to hear Tevye's prayer to God the invisible leading character. And for years the most popular show on Broadway was an epic poem about eschatology, written by a renown church playwright, author of Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Elliott. And it was set to music by the composer of sacred rock musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. That was Cats. It was conspicuously sacred yet no one was crying to keep it just in church where it belongs.
I think Jesus provided the first "Christian musical." He said, "repeat these words, repeat these actions and you will be a part of my blood, and my body." Then they sang a hymn. It is the drama question, not the worship question that has been pondered ever since. When someone repeats the lines and does the action is it a symbolic gesture or is it the actual experience of drinking the blood of Jesus and eating the body of Jesus? Acting students of Stanslovsky recognize the issue as easily as did the battling Reformation theologians. Is it "pretend gesture" or "true experience?" A good actor experiences her part.
Gift #2
Open it and become part of the great river of time -- at one with our history which is church drama both in word and deed. Not all church history classes in Protestant seminaries include this historical event. But you might be aware that the Reformation movement in England once took a ugly turn and all of English Catholic art and writing was ordered burned or destroyed Only a few pieces of what was a huge part of the cultural heritage of the English speaking people remains because most of our art was religious. I rarely hear people speaking of the period of discarded art, but it was certainly as significant a part of our cultural history as any period.
A few stray pieces of this rich heritage have been pieced together, and that is where we find the history of English language drama before Shakespeare's politically correct choice of subject matter.
Briefly that history is like this: Somewhere around the 10th century CE priests in the Latin speaking churches recognized that the beauty and understanding of the faith story needed translation because Europeans spoke languages and dialects that were becoming more distant from Latin. Clergy and teachers of the bible used the arts to bridge the language barrier. Perhaps it started with a simple processional. At first it was just a few actors or priests who walked down the aisle in particular roles struck a pose or a tableau near the altar. A few early examples of Latin texts have been preserved that might have been used in this way. We still use this traditional processional styled Christmas pageant in many churches. And of course processionals are significant dramatic insertions in weddings and funerals.
In the early centuries of the last millennium, all across Europe, church drama became bigger and more elaborate. Historians believe that it was often staged as a huge parade of floats all in biblical order, each with a little playlette offering a separate bible story. Traditions evolved, and these character parts were maintained by families for centuries as were the trades. If your father was a baker, you were too. If your father was Joseph so were you. The passion play in Germany, Oberamague is a last vestige of this early traditional drama. But in England every town and fair had its own passion play.
Most of these plays were lost. But we have kept some of the little traditions that came along with these plays. They both confuse and illustrate our understanding of the bible stories. Hell became a visual with devils and a flaming mouth. Angels got wings even in the Christmas story, while wings were only named in the case of that strange apocalyptic creature -- the six winged seraph. Somewhere along this time Mary rode on a donkey, even though the biblical donkey was only in the Palm Sunday event.
Gift #3
Open it and receive a natural celebration of diversity -- needing all generations, all body types, all skin colors, all strengths and all frailties.
So often, especially in the 60's, it was popular to cast Mary and Joseph of differing races. While I know of no biblical support for that, it probably was and may still offer an experience of tolerance for people to ponder. Personally, I feel that message of tolerance is delivered by the wise men, and can be accomplished in this play without straying from the bible. But what would happen if you were to cast Mary and Joseph with their traditional age difference? Take, for example, casting some well-established community member in his late 40's or early 50's, say your local contractor, or plumber, to play the near husband of a very pretty ninth grader who is all dressed up to look pregnant? I have never done it just that way. And I am not sure I would though mingling the generations in drama is usually very rewarding for everyone involved.
I've never heard any old person in a multi-generational cast complain, "Those kids...." When you have been in a play with them, "those kids" have names and are not responsible for all the evil that befalls the world. And I find that the ability for children to see old people as individuals is nurtured in this drama medium as well. One incident that stands out in my mind, a seventy-year-old retired business owner here outfitted as a Roman soldier stood blocking an entrance to the stage so that he could look on at the action when he wasn't even in the scene. I went to tell him to get out of the way, only to discover that he was mouthing words of encouragement for a tiny child on stage, so that she would find the confidence to do her part.
Gift #4
Open it and receive an opportunity to share with others in intense scrutiny of the details of the story -- a sensitivity to detail (inviting symbol) is needed to accomplish staging and memorization. Drama is how I do exegesis.
Try it. Take a bible pericope, list the characters, and find the setting. Imagine the props and the staging -- who is on stage? Who is off? What action happens? Imagine the closeness of the characters in dialogue. Read their parts with their individual motivations.
I have never done that without discovering some new little secret hidden in the text, no matter how familiar. In this workshop we staged the shepherds and angels and discovered this element of "glory" anew -- it was noted that "glory" was a military term for psyching out the enemy. It is a military poker bluff. So the angels came in all their glory and said, "Do not be afraid." What a paradox! This odd look was further supported by the use of the biblical word "army." An "army" of angels was there. We experimented with a marching band of military angels. It was a very powerful image I had never perceived before.
Does that mean that our fluffly-winged children are a wrong interpretation? No, just another way to understand it. The real issue is -- to avoid ruts and steriotypes. We can use drama to create them, or we can use drama to dispell them. I like to use drama to read what the bible word are saying.
Gift #5
Open it and be touched by the actual experience of our faith story. The dramatic arts nurture our human ability to feel empathy and thus, experience the story personally from within the characters. We can walk that mile in the shoes of Peter, Paul or even Judas.
We can live inside saints and apostles or just people like us in our drama. Empathy is the tool we need in our lives to love even our enemy. Through empathy we share fears, and sorrows. We share anger and pity.
How does a demon think and feel? Our ability to experience empathy allows us to create personifications of demons. But we can also experience holiness in the same way. Empathy lets us anguish with the angels over the wrongs in the world and ask Jesus why he trusts all of us Peters to become his church when we so easily deny him.
Not every script offers this realistic opportunity for an empathetic relationship with the characters. PLEASE CHOOSE SCRIPTS OR WRITE SCRIPTS THAT ARE WORTHY OF THIS HUMAN COMMITMENT.
Our art, whether in song or painting or drama needs to offer enough honest experience to summon human compassion. If we sponge up the blood and tears, stifle the screams, outlaw the laughter and freeze each tableau in a giant sugar cube, we not only lose art, but we lose the true story as well. Drama depends upon honestly offering the hopes and fears for all the years, not just something cute for children to do in front of people. Actors need to be given parts that demand their art. Even child actors are worthy of good scripts.
So what should you do if you get a saccharin, boring, poorly written script? Put it out by the dumpster next to the salt that has lost its flavor.
Also, directors need to raise the bar for actors. They need to expect actors to pour out their hearts and to bring the heart of the congregation into their own very being as they live the story so that the three or 500 in the pews can become insiders along with them. The people in the congregation should laugh aloud and cry real tears. They might leave an amazing pause of 500 people taking the same single breath before the final "Amen". Church drama historically, and contextually, is the purest, most worthy, state of the art of drama.
Gift #6
Open it and find a perspective on grace which is without judgement. Church Drama is a team event with no losers. Secular theater is the box we can think outside of. In fact, secular theater actually has a long history of being nothing more than discarded church drama. Most of its genres have historical roots in the church. But unlike church drama it is driven by dreams of personal fame and money. It may be great theater but the first priority is always popular success and financial solvency. It is often competitive which means its quality is limited to being only better than the others like it. As creative as it may be, the creativity is tempered by considerations of the bottom line.
Outside the box money is not a factor. That is both good and bad. So what was purchased in secular theater must be created by God's grace and human ingenuity in church drama. Where inside the box are famous name stars, outside the box are amazing moments of discovering great talent and imagination among seemingly ordinary people who just signed up to help out. Cattle call styled auditions have no place in church drama. Everyone's gifts are valuable. Inside the box it is important to be better than the others. Outside the box, it doesn't matter how good the others are, it is simply, as good as it gets.
Gift #7
Open it and find Drama as an art form. It answers our human need to create. The arts are our natural response to being created in the Creator's image, just as our ability to love is our natural response to God's love.
