When we began doing productions in 2007, Glenn and I thought we would be able to stage the plays multiple times over the years. When we would close the curtain on the final weekend of a play, which is something like saying goodbye to friends you have grown to love, we would take heart in thinking that there would be a day when we would gather everyone and do it all again. That isn’t the way it has worked out.
Aside from the Christmas musicals, “Say Nicklaus” and “Bethlehem,” each time we have returned a play to the stage, the attendance has been disappointingly low. Even “Joey Hallelujah! God Loves America!” had lower than expected attendance, because so many people thought they had already seen it. (No…the first Joey Hallelujah play was “Saint John & The Televangelist.”) Sadly, a lot of people missed a wonderfully funny and beautifully uplifting show…not to mention a pretty good concert.
Now that we have accepted that we won’t likely be seeing this particular play on our stage again, it will be all the harder to close that final curtain this weekend. It may be some time before we see Jesus, Elijah, Moses, Paul, and Stephen all together in one place again.
I have especially enjoyed the way pastors have received the message in this play. Looking at the daunting prospect of presenting the Gospel to the “pagan Gentiles with their sensuous gods” (that would be us) from these very unique perspectives is thought-provoking. I have been told that it is a message that compels study. I love that.
In our play “Lazarus” there is a passage in which Lazarus asks Paul, “What do you want to believe?” It is one of my favorite moments in all the plays we have done.
The answer is, “The Truth.”
In “Sinai, The Mountain of God” Paul is never asked that question, but he is certainly given a lot of the answer. I hope you can make time this weekend to come help us give a big send off for Jesus, Paul, Moses, Elijah, and Stephen. They have blessed us richly, and I so hate to see them leave.
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