NGU theatre shares the Gospel in Godspell
Keely Lyons, Staff Writer and Seth Atkins, Visual Arts Editor
The NGU theatre department illuminates the stage with a cast of dynamic actors in a vibrant retelling of the book of Matthew in “Godspell.”
The story immerses audiences in the center of the action while expounding upon gospel truths. Amy Dunlap, department chair of theatre, said, “Godspell’ is a story of Jesus and how He built His relationship with His disciples. Most of the text is taken directly from the book of Matthew and it chronicles how He started building His disciples (how He started building his team) and then it goes through the betrayal of Judas, the last supper, and his death and resurrection. Simply put, it’s the book of Matthew with rock ‘n roll music.”
“Godspell” is known for its engaging and colorful depiction of the gospel since it was first conceived in the 70’s. Dunlap said, “It was written by a group of students at Carnegie Melon University in their drama department and they wanted to rediscover the joy of following Christ because they felt like most church liturgies had gotten so solemn and so serious that all of the relatability and all of the joy was kind of stolen from it.”
Dunlap said, “Our production has music that was rewritten or rearranged in 2012, but it also has 2022 references all the way through it because the original writers and we believe Christ is relevant today just as He was 2,000 years ago. He spoke to people back then in a language they understood so we want to speak to people in a language they can understand and relate to.” Stephen Schwartz and the other rights holders of the piece gave everyone permission to update the show for relevance each year, said Dunlap.
This time, the NGU theatre department remembers the impact COVID left on live theatre. Dunlap said, “I started ruminating on the themes of the show and how through the pandemic it felt like we were losing theatre. We were losing that storytelling piece of what we do here, and it really felt something that was one of the most important things in my life was slipping away.”
“And so, when I started to come back, I was feeling that joy of reconnecting to theatre and realizing how that connects to the reconnecting of Christ and the joy of that, and we are bringing this story together with elements of theatre in a very particular (kind of meta) way. We are embracing the theatricality of storytelling to celebrate both Christ’s impact on our lives and theatre’s impact of our lives in a very enmeshed way.” Said Dunlap.
As this new production has been unveiled for spring, it has provided a special opportunity for different majors to converge. Dunlap said, “This has been such a joyful experience for me. About half of our cast are theatre students and the other half are music students. It sounds like they should all be very similar because they are approaching the work from a very different perspective, so for me part of the fun of this has been watching those two communities come together and create their own unique identity just like Jesus brought all these different people together and created their own unique identity within their community.”
JP Waynick, music major and the character, Jesus, in “Godspell,” said, “I’ve talked with lots of people about how Jesus has such a sense of humor and one of my favorite examples of that is whenever the woman was caught it adultery and thrown down and everybody was like,’ We should stone her! But Jesus, what do you say?’ And obviously, He goes, ‘Whoever is without fault should throw the first stone.’ And He goes back to writing in the dirt and looks at her and goes, ‘Where are they now? Does no one condemn you?’ Knowing they all wanted to, but they could. Jesus got very sarcastic with it.”
Waynick said, I think of all the times we take Jesus as this big serious character and while He does have a lot of serious to Him, He was a man. He was funny, He was fun. He wasn’t always stern and quiet. So yeah, I’m trying to play into the more friend side of Jesus, while still maintaining that title of teacher.”
Lydia Kytle, cast member of “Godspell,” said, “It helps show proof of God’s work and His love and what it takes to bring a community together. The first act focuses a lot on this community being brought together by Jesus and reenactment of the parables, and songs about ways you grow and songs that praise the Lord.”
In act two of the production, the mood becomes more somber as Jesus steps into His act as Savior. Kytle said, “It soon transitions to, especially toward the end, to a more serious setting where–it also helps me understand more and see more. Not that I’m saying ‘Wow I can relate to the disciples now,’ but it puts me in their shoes a little bit more of the intense grief they were feeling because you’ve spent this whole show connecting to Christ and building this community and all of a sudden for Him to just leave and for you just to lose Him and just the questions I find myself having like, ‘Why is He doing this? Why would He do this?’ And then it ends with hope as far as people coming together under the name of Jesus and Jesus coming back and us being able to celebrate even more because He is with us. His presence is with us.”
Kytle said, “It’s given me perspective as a believer just to take time. There is one song called, ‘All Good Gifts,’ and it gives me time to just sit and say, ‘Look at all the good things God has given us. In that moment, of course, I am relating that to Lydia as a real person like, ‘Look at this department, look at these friends, look at this opportunity. God, you’ve given me all these wonderful things. Thank you, Lord! It’s helped me see my relationship with Christ in a unique way, and I hope it will do the same for the audience.”
For some cast members, the story has resonated to the depths of the human heart and brought about a deeper understanding of the goodness of God as depicted through the life and testimony of Jesus Christ. Waynick said, “More than anything, it has deeply personalized my relationship with Him. Where before, He was this looming figure that, obviously I worship and adore, but now He has become much more of a dear friend. You just see a lot more of the human side of Jesus. Obviously, we have to put Jesus on a pedestal because he was 100% God, but He was also 100% man, and He was tempted the same way that we were.”
As a closing tradition, Waynick writes goodbye letters to each character he plays. Waynick said, “I don’t personally believe this is going to be a goodbye. I think this is just going to start a new relationship, honestly. I was told very early on by my director that this show was life-changing and that after the show you will always see Christ in a different way. I took that and I filed that away in my brain, and now I can go back and look at that and see how I’ve changed over the past month or so that we’ve been running the show. It’s very interesting because I don’t think of this as saying goodbye to the character as much as saying hello.”
When asked what she hopes the audience will walk away with, Dunlap said, “My hope–my real prayer is that people open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and are touched by God in this performance that would be the ultimate result. I know that even if it’s not a tangible thing that somebody could walk out and go, ‘I have my heart to Christ during this performance,’ although that would be amazing, we pray for the audience every night as a cast and crew. We’re asking the audience to put prayer requests on post-its on the inside of the doors and we pray over those prayer requests every night, so my hope is that people are touched and changed and that God is revealed to them, even if they don’t know that it’s happening.”
*Featured Image: Cast of Godspell. Photo by Seth Atkins
