Easter Workshop 1980
NOTES ON DRAMA IN THE CHURCH

These notes will be no substitute for the vast amount of useful material that has been printed about Drama and about Christian use of it. I would particularly recommend Murray Watt’s and Paul Burbridge’s book, “Time to Act,” (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979.) There are a good many books of improvisation games and of guidelines for drama groups. What is written here comes only from my experience of a Cambridge based group called “Crumbpebble” – a splinter group from “Breadrock” and so it is fairly limited in its scope. We have been going for about eight months, and have been learning from mistakes all the time; these thoughts arise out of some of these mistakes.

CHRISTIAN DRAMA – When and Where?

Three possible types: in Church Services in the context of teaching and/ or worship, on special occasions organized either by the Church, by the group, or by some other body, (a pub, club, fair, carnival, etc.) or in some busy place. (The street, shopping centre, station, etc.) Your group will have to work out its own priorities as to which is best for them, though the chances are that there will be opportunities for all of these.

CHRISTIAN DRAMA –Why?

If the group has come together either to do a once-off event or to work more full-time towards regular presentations it will have to be sure of what its aims are – and this is no easy task. Everyone will agree that we are trying to communicate something – but what we communicate, how we do it, and how it relates to other methods of teaching and evangelism – these are questions that have to be sorted out.

My own view is that drama is both highly useful in evangelism and highly limited. It is useful because it is (or should be!) entertaining, and because of this is able to draw people’s attention and help them to see themselves and other critically in the light of what they see in the sketch/play. But it is also very limited in that in the course of the drama there is no real communication between the actors as people and their audience: it can be the first stage in presenting the Christian faith to people, but it will always need to be followed up if it is to be useful in bringing people to Christ. I would place great stress on the need for it to be entertaining. The jokes should be funny and relevant to people as they are. If Christians are seen to be enjoying putting over their message in an atmosphere in which it is easy to watch and listen, that message is virtually through.

CHRISTIAN DRAMA –Of what kind?

Breadrock do almost exclusively Biblical Drama: up to date mime/ dramatic sketches lasting up to about ten minutes each. But there is no reason why in some circumstances it should not be right even to do a full length play. In Crumbpebble so far we have been using a mixture of material from “Time to Act” and our own stuff. If the group is working together for some time then it is bound to start producing its own sketches, which fit the particular gifts of the actors involved. Some people will be very good at producing ideas: it is important that those who aren’t so used to writing material should get the opportunity to contribute, but not be under pressure to do something they feel just isn’t their scene.

How do ideas come? Well first it must be said that for every one good one there might be twenty mediocre or simply feeble ones – and that goes for everyone. The stuff we’ve been writing so far has tended to be all caricature: Mr. Greedy slathers manically for “lots of money, more and more money etc. etc…” while Mr. Apathy simply falls asleep in a chair. We could do with watching real people more and seeing what funny things they do, and building ideas from our observations into our sketches. We have also tended to type-cast people: the same person plays the good guy, and every sketch seems to have an interviewer/shopkeeper/office girl because someone fits the part so perfectly.

Crumbpebble decided at the beginning that not all our material should have a specifically Christian message to it. In the streets, for example, sketches that have a hard-hitting message should be interspersed with others that are simply fun, apart from one or two songs.

CHRISTIAN DRAMA How?

If the group is a long term venture things like level of commitment will have to be sorted out. Everyone should feel as much part of it as everyone else. It’s no good having a rehearsal unless everyone is there: and same goes for the prayer times and discussion times. Crumbpebble works by a kind of consensus leadership- some people are appointed in charge of particular areas (e.g. finance, bookings, props, rehearsal planning, etc.) but major decisions are everyone’s business, and everyone contributes to leading prayer times. Other groups may have to work with different leadership patterns. This has its advantages and disadvantages: one disadvantage is that we tend to spend too much of our time together discussing things and less time rehearsing and performing.

THREE POSSIBLE VENUES: SOME HINTS

1) STREET THEATRE: Find out from the police or the town council if it’s O.K. to go ahead. Get people from a local church to be in the crowd- but not too many of them! If possible link it up with some other activity laid on by the church (a special service the next day, a youth rally, a church outing etc.)

It must be fast, funny, noisy and together, if it is to hold the attention of passers by. A mixture of music and acting is best. A lot has to be played by ear. There should be someone in overall charge, responsible for introducing the group to the audience, and for making any announcements that need to be made.

Props…..as few as possible: hats are the best things for changing from character to character.
Publicity….Posters not much good: in the streets the best thing is to run around in extraordinary clothing for fifteen minutes before the show begins.

2) ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS: (Concerts etc: i.e. when ever they’re coming to you rather than you going to them.)
Liaise efficiently with everyone concerned with the show. Bad relations with co-performers can seriously affect the impression given. Have the whole thing timed beforehand. As with all performances these must be well rehearsed: remember though that people have come to see you act this time.

Think about whether or not you want to charge people to come in. I would normally say that you should, if only because people pay more attention to something they pay to see. There will certainly be expenses to pay in any case. If you want to it’s a very good way of raising money for charities too.

In this case publicity is the most important thing to be fussing about before if you fuss about anything. You have to check up yourself that it is being done. It may be best to sell all the tickets before the night. Make sure they don’t all go to Christians though- unless you have decided that it’s not evangelistic.

3) IN CHURCHES: This is in some ways the most difficult form. You have to be sensitive to the conservative element in the church, and to the fact that drama is only one very small part of the worship itself. It’s hard to write sketches simply for worship: the only one we have done in that context is Breadrock’s “Light of the World.” But a sketch can really bring alive a Bible passage in a family service so that everyone knows what the preacher’s talking about when he starts.

My own personal bias is in favor of Street Theatre, because there drama’s special advantages are made the most of.

SOME INEVITABLE TENSIONS………

I say they are inevitable, but that’s just because we haven’t resolved them all yet. But it may be that it’s in these tensions that real creativity lies. The tensions arise between these three very good ideals:

1) The “good performance” ideal….
Our talents should be used. Disciplined rehearsals, decisive directions, high standards. If it’s good, God will make it effective- what right have we to expect Him to work if we can’t be bothered?

2) The “to boldly go…..” ideal….
Decide what you’re aiming at first, and then decide what sort of message you want to put across. Always aim to get a strong spiritual point across. Isn’t this the most important thing?

3) The “rightly humble” ideal…..
Prayer and meditation is the most important. The openness of the group and its spiritual growth comes first. Great dangers in putting ourselves forward. All this perfectionism at rehearsals is wrong – we should surly be letting God overrule more? And shouldn’t we wait till bookings come in? – we’re not very good anyway.

SOME SUGGESTIONS:
1) Try to write a sketch based on a parable or an idea from, say, the Sermon on the Mount. Think of what it is saying to people today, and how it can be brought to life.
2) Go out into your home town and watch someone for an afternoon. By looking closely as someone’s actions you can pick up some good ideas for writing sketches and for acting them.
3) Think about the possibilities of drama in your church, your town. Pray about whether to work towards starting a drama group at your church and talk it over with some others.
4) Read “Time to Act,” and anything else you can lay your hands on that’s relevant. (Remember that you have to get permission to use the material in “Time to Act.”)
5) If you’re a lone, brilliant, witty, perceptive sketch writer, please get in touch with “Crumbpebble.”…………
I hope you find this interesting, and possibly useful. Do let me know how it goes if you try.

Malcolm Macnaughton