Opening Night

Last night was opening night of Stripes, the drama team’s one-act play. (They are performing the show for two nights, last night and tonight.) I wrote the play based on an idea from the team themselves. They wanted to do a show that put Bible stories into modern contexts. Someone came up with the idea, “what if Jesus was a punk rocker?” We developed the idea of Jesus and his band, JC and the Apostles. The play follows Joshua Christopher (Jesus) and his band (Jude, Jamie, and Peter) in their last days. Jude leaves the band after an ideological falling-out with Josh, and then turns Josh in to the police for encouraging terrorism. Josh is interrogated, while the rest of the band struggles to deal with his arrest. In the end, Josh disappears, leaving Peter and Jamie to carry on. In the final scene, they sing his last song in concert: “Do not be afraid, I will be with you . . .”

The rehearsal process for this show was a bit bumpy. It’s a busy time of year for everyone, with school exams coming up, making plans for summer holidays, and other stressors. The entire team, myself included, were worried about how the first performance would go. But once they got onstage and in character, it went beautifully. I was very proud of all of them, as I always am. A few of them are even looking forward to tonight’s performance, rather than worried about it! It’s great to see such a wonderful payoff for all their hard work.

The audience, too, seemed to really enjoy the show. One woman said to me afterwards, “it helped me see the picture [of Christ] again,” which I think is possibly the highest compliment anyone could ever receive. I can’t say enough how proud I am of the youth on the team – of their work, of their enthusiasm, of their willingness, of their talent. I will be very sad to leave them at the end of July, but I’m really hopeful that they will continue exploring new ways of worshipping and serving God through theatre.

Word of the Week: “Faff about.” (I have no idea if that’s spelled correctly.) Basically, it means to waste time in a frivolous or silly manner. This week, getting ready for the production of Stripes, there was no time for faffing about.