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These eight play scripts, each with music suggestions from well-known
contemporary and theater sources, enable Christian communities to tell the
story of their faith in a dramatic new way. The plays use various theatrical
devices — humor, surprise, conflict, and parallel storytelling — to
take a fresh look at the situations and characters found in Scripture. The
Advent plays are set in heaven, the cast usually angels. The scripts
encourage audience participation — one play even commissions the
congregation as extra angels for the Good News season to come. The
Passion plays use both traditional and contemporary settings, but the music
suggestions come right from Broadway, the movies, and other popular
sources. The dramas have all been performed in churches, both to
support worship services and to help congregations — the players and
audience — become more engaged in familiar stories. This resource
includes an appendix of opening and closing prayers for each play and
permission to photocopy each script for rehearsal purposes.
About the Author
Kevin Yell, a lifelong student of medieval religious drama, believes in using
contemporary images to transmit the gospel of Jesus. He is a theatrical
director, painter, pastoral minister, and frequent author. Yell began
his ministry in his native England but now lives in California. He holds an
advanced degree in theater and theology from the Graduate Theological
Union in Berkeley, Calif.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
A Prologue: The Story of the Rainbow
Part 1: Advent Plays
Glory Be! A Celebration of Advent: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Celestial Secrets: The Advent Angels Come Clean
Paradise Lost and Found: A New Look at the Creation Salvation Story
A Family Christmas Tradition: A Dance-Along Nativity
An Advent Service Outline
Part 2: Passion Plays
No Greater Love
God of the Outcasts
Come to My House
Weaving Between Heaven and Earth
A Holy Week Service Outline
Music Suggestions and Sources
Following is the introduction from Acts of Salvation: Eight Plays for
Advent and Passiontide. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2001,
Resource Publications, Inc.
Introduction
The tradition of using drama to teach and comment upon the salvation story
— the Good News of Jesus the Christ — goes back over a
thousand years, to the Quem queritis trope of the Easter morning liturgy,
when a trio of clerics, to the singing of the resurrection story and the visit of
the three women to the empty tomb, would walk from the sanctuary to an
Easter garden somewhere in the church carrying incense and candles.
Not a great theatrical moment you might say, and you would be right were it
not for the fact that theater and dramatic representation had been all but
eliminated from the life of the Western world following the fall of the Roman
empire in the fourth century. Until that time anything theatrical would start
with offerings to the Roman gods, which for Christians would have been an
act of apostasy. Theater, therefore, was banned for Christians.
But the theater, along with all the other arts, grew in the dawning of the
Middle Ages from simple beginnings and the natural yearnings of the human
heart. By the end of the fourteenth century every major religious center in
Europe held dramatized liturgies and storytelling at different times of the
year. In England, the Passion, Mystery, and Morality plays and cycles
developed and grew so large that they were sometimes given over by the
cathedral chapter to the hands of the professional guilds (goldsmiths,
tanners, etc.) to be produced, although always under the theological eye of
the local ordinary or abbot. Plays or re-enactments told stories from the
Bible, of Mary, the saints or the moralized-about Everyman. In them the
stories of our history and the realities of the present came together in unique
ways. To this day groups are committed to producing some of these
productions in modern as well as “historical” contexts —
for example in Oberammergau (Germany), and York and Coventry (Great
Britain).
The plays in this book were all written for St. Paschal Baylon Parish in
Oakland, California, between 1995 and 1999, and draw upon this long
Christian tradition. The parish, the smallest geographically in the diocese,
had the benefit of a supportive clergy, an excellent music director,
enthusiastic choir and wonderful accompanists. They also had a
not-too-large church building that had been renovated to allow for good
sightlines to the central space and excellent sound for both word and song.
Most important, the community, like those of the Renaissance, welcomed
the opportunity to create and share the stories that make us who we are,
using all the arts at their disposal.
In the Mystery Cycles of Europe we find both humor and pathos, the former
chiefly reserved for the nativity stories, especially the scenes with the
shepherds. It was even not uncommon for contemporary people and
events to be referenced in the plays, either formally or by improvisation. This
tradition is continued in the present plays, particularly the Advent ones, and
is to be encouraged in local performances. The contemporary theme is
present in the Passion Plays through costuming and by placing modern
issues of social justice in the plays. Most particularly, the language and
voice of all the plays should be that of the people, not proclaimed with
overly pious tones or false “churchiness.”
The issue of being “contemporary” is particularly pertinent for
the musical choices, nearly all of which are from the popular repertoire.
Music is a powerful way of spreading the Good News and the pieces
chosen brought extra power to the message of each play. Indeed, one
extra benefit of doing the plays was that participants began to listen to radio
and other musical outlets with new ears, looking for the inherent
“Good News” of so many of the songs and lyrics around us.
While the plays were first created with specific popular musical choices
within the capabilities and talents of the local community, directors are free
to change or delete pieces, swapping or adding new ones as the local
talent and culture demand.
Not everyone who wanted to be involved, including some in the parish
choir, wanted to learn music by heart or be in costume. We therefore began
a tradition of having an ensemble (originally called the “static
choir”, which was dropped when it became known, thanks to one
wit, as the “stagnant choir”). While the ensemble was usually
not in costume (often wearing just black) the members were always in full
view and added greatly to the chorus singing and the community
hymns.
As regards the script, sometimes Scripture is clearly quoted, and it is
suggested that these words remain. Other words and speeches could be
“translated” with regard to local culture, idioms and colloquial
phrases. Directors should again feel free to make changes. Permanent
staging was not used except, on occasion, a large cross for the Passion
play. Costuming was sometimes “historical”, sometimes modern
and sometimes mixed, as noted in the individual texts. Movable risers and
boxes were sometimes used for various scenes. Directions given in the text
should be used only as a suggestion and ignored where not helpful.
Most important, the plays were always given as part of seasonal liturgies,
either as an Advent carol service or as a Palm Sunday, Holy Week, or
Good Friday liturgy in the evening. After the first year it was felt necessary to
repeat the services a second time, but always in a liturgy. Sample liturgies
are included for both Advent and Holy Week services, which include the
plays. The first two of the Advent plays (the second a sequel to the first)
were created as complete entities, with the prayers and hymns integral to
the text, and were presided over by specific members of the cast.
It might also be interesting for others to know that the opening rehearsal
was always just that — open to all. If there were too many people we
would just write extra parts or divide existing ones. While it was necessary
to do some careful casting at times, directors should feel free to use the
scripts as a basis for telling the story that needs to be told in your time and
in your place, combining or dividing parts as necessary. Non-speaking
parts, especially children, can be added at will.
A major part of the experience of undertaking one of these types of plays is
the spiritual growth that happens in the members of the cast. I always tried
to contain rehearsals to the appropriate season (Advent or Lent) so that the
meetings became a retreat for the participants, opening the story through
personal participation. This active Lectio Divina frequently proved a
powerful way of praying the Scriptures. Often the journeys undertaken by
cast members were so powerful that the sharing of the dramas in worship
with the wider community was just “the cherry on the top.”
They were worth all the work of preparing just for the personal growth they
inspired in the cast members, and for the sense of community that was
created as a result.
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