Beginning a Drama Group

Preparing drama for worship requires much time and skill. The following article identifies many of the issues that need to be addressed in beginning a drama ministry and describes helpful procedures for making this process efficient.

Religious drama is finding its way into the liturgy and pedagogy of religious institutions. Laypersons who wish to begin such a “drama ministry” need assistance in knowing how to form a religious drama interest and a performing group. They need to realize that drama has a historical connection to the church and can continue to be useful in presenting the Christian truth. Christ used narrative and stories to present his truth during His brief ministry here on earth. Humans seem to discover deeper aspects of their faith through stories and narratives, and today this form of storytelling can be best offered by means of dramatic production and presentation.

Religious leaders have had a “love/hate” relationship with drama throughout history. The early Hebrews composed group chants, praises, and prayers that were dramatically interactive in group and leader recitative. The basilicas of early Christianity were so immense that group liturgists projected the sound of doctrinal pronouncements so that those attending could hear and understand the tenets of the faith. From these beginnings, the Mass evolved to incorporate segments of group reading, recitation, and drama. The early mystery plays portrayed the lives of Christ and the apostles in outdoor and cathedral settings.

For some well-meaning theologians and believers, the “drama” of the early church was suspected of participating inadvertently in evil, because believers portrayed other personae, potentially compelling the faithful to deception, false implications, or connections to the sinful secular culture. An early advocate of drama’s distinct sacred potential was the tenth-century German nun Hroswitha, who came to the convent at Gandersheim in southern Germany from an educated life as a nobleman’s daughter. Once converted to monastic Christianity, she disavowed all connections to her past love and appreciation for the Roman playwrights and decided to compose plays for a cloistered audience in Latin. Hroswitha was so concerned that her plays might be linked with secular stage productions that she specifically wrote stage directions that her plays be read rather than performed. Predating the modern readers’ theater art form, Hroswitha’s six plays regaled the local community with tales of saints tortured and abused for their faith. She called these dramas “comedies,” because each saint went to spend eternity in heaven at the end of each reading.

Does drama have a place in the church today? Many realize that the answer is resoundingly affirmative. The topics presented in drama bring people to the edge of confrontation with social values and traditions. That tension is a given; good drama must have tension. But the good “play” with resolution, direction or rhetorical premises seeks to provide answers to life’s dilemmas. Drama in the church today should have five purposes: (1) worship; (2) education; (3) entertainment; (4) evangelism or conviction; and (5) mature growth and appreciation.

Drama can lead us in worship as we listen, hear, and meditate on the attributes of God: his work, his plan, his essence, and his majesty. Drama tells Bible stories to educate us and our children or to relate biblical injunctions for contemporary living. It can evoke feelings of happiness or sadness as our emotions entertain our passions and deepest thoughts. Drama can relay the message of evangelism in an unpredictable manner, leading to conviction. Finally, we become more balanced, more mature Christians as we absorb drama’s efforts to instruct us on growth and change in Christian life.

For the past twenty years, contemporary Christian music has revitalized the local congregation, introducing percussive instruments, contemporary rhythms, and even making inroads into secular culture with crossover artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Philip Bailey. But within the past five years, drama in the church, which had lagged behind in renewal, has begun to catch up with contemporary music. Churches are recognizing the power of drama, incorporating scenes, skits, full productions, and pageants into regular services, as well as creating specialized formats for presentations. Reformed Jewish synagogues like Temple Beth Tikvah in Columbus, Ohio, have experimented with modern liturgical formats that involve the congregation in dramatic and choral recitation; they create a “theater of worship.” Other ministries experiment with clowning or puppetry to tell stories to “media-raised” youth, enhancing traditional religious and spiritual training. Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois has been on the cutting edge of innovative approaches, coaxing the unchurched to attend through an emphasis on contemporary, locally produced drama. Proscenium full-staged productions to stark choral readings are part of the growing interest in bringing drama back to the church in our day.

Laypersons who have talent and experience in dramatic presentations have been neglected for too long in our churches. To utilize drama as a communicative system, a local training program may be needed. Consider the following pedagogical guidelines, suggestions, and resources for a local church to begin a “drama ministry.”

Stimulating Interest in Drama

A good quality dramatic script and performance will stir interest in a congregation for more dramatic endeavors. As a stimulant, bring in an outside group to perform before starting dramatic training. A highly polished and prepared group will demonstrate to all, especially the cynics, the power and communicative impact of religious drama. Find a local church with a strong drama program and ask the members if they would perform at your church. Local Christian colleges (such as Biola University in California; Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho; or Gordon College in Massachusetts) have troupes that can be invited for local church gatherings. Parachurch dramatic organizations, such as Lamb’s Players in San Diego or A. D. Players in Houston, can be contracted for various dramatic productions. A local civic theater may have a “secular” play with religious overtones, and the cast may enjoy an opportunity for interaction. A question/answer period following a presentation of Amadeus, Luther, or J.B. might stimulate religious thought and growth.

Other mechanisms to stimulate interest in drama might include:

  • A dialogue sermon in which two leaders speak in tandem, occasionally in choral-line delivery.
  • Readers’ theater, a “Theater of the Mind,” in which minimal staging and dramatized prose, poetry, and drama selections call upon the audience to “imagine” actions and scenes.
  • A pre-sermon/homily monologue in which a biblical character or religious persona reacts to the principles of the day’s message. This could be a costumed monologue or predictable dress presentation.
  • A choral reading of the Scripture passage by two or more readers, seated in various places among the congregation.
  • A combined choir and drama musical presentation. Various publishers listed at the end of this article offer many full-length plays with music for congregational use.

Any of these suggestions should stir interest in creating a local drama troupe. The congregational leader needs to be aware of drama seminars and source material available for production. Look for local or area-wide drama specialists who will come to your church for a one- or two-day seminar on drama. Choose a seminar that offers information to the novice actor as well as stimulating the veteran drama enthusiast.

Source References for Dramatic Presentation

An annotated bibliography appears at the end of this chapter listing titles and publishers of religious drama. Though more Christian publishers are offering more dramatic script texts, entertaining, instructive, and powerfully compelling material is sometimes difficult to find. You may choose to write your own material, clip, and adapt religious poems, essays, editorials, vignettes, and stories for use in creatively compiled skits or readers’ theater productions. Try your hand at writing short or lengthy original material as well.

Locating the Drama Enthusiasts

Finding those members of the local religious center who are interested in dramatic performance can be frustrating. At first, a director will gravitate toward finding the performers for specific parts, but as an alternative, consider beginning with a survey card that indicates interest or background in all facets of drama. Most religious groups have an abundance of hidden talent just waiting to be asked or discovered.

Hand the cards out as a bulletin insert or at the door as worshipers come in for a service. If possible, augment the survey card with a public announcement of the need for performers, set designers, lighting, sound technicians, make-up artists, music, choral readers, costume designers, and publicity people.

In addition to basic information about name, age group, address, and experience, establish a planning session time, usually a week or two weeks from the distribution date. Appeal to all ages, and if the interest is high within an age grouping (e.g., high school) you may wish to cast performers from within the predominant age group. Drama has the ability to bridge the generation gap, so casting a multi-aged group can bring the religious body together in a cross-generational activity.

At the planning session, find out how interested your attendees are. For those who want more information, indicate to them that you would like to start a drama ministry that would allow opportunities for the local church to put on shows similar to the kind performed by your guest troupes. Discuss with attendees that a drama ministry can augment the pulpit or liturgical presentations. Try to instill enthusiastic anticipation for what a drama ministry could mean for the congregation and the participants.

Choosing a Performance Piece and Casting

When you have a good idea of the number and quality of those interested in drama, choose a dramatic program to present. If the anticipated presentation is seasonal, select a holiday-themed program. You will need to write to the publishers for royalty information if you choose certain plays. If you compile a readers’ theater program, copyright obligations may compel writing for performance permission. Some legal advisers believe that if nondramatic literature is presented to an educational audience or in a nonprofit setting, permission and/or royalties may be unnecessary. Some older literature is definitely in the public domain and does not require a royalty. You are clearly in violation of copyright laws if you charge admission for royalty-earning plays or equally designated nondramatic forms without writing for permission. A good rule of thumb is to check at the beginning of any published work to see if specific permission or royalty fees must be paid prior to the performance.

You can meet separately with the technical crew as the preliminary plans progress. Inform the technical crew of their responsibilities and your needs and prepare them to run their “dress rehearsal” (cue-to-cue rehearsal) on one of the nights preceding the first performance.

At your planning session, you may wish to designate two times for performance auditions. During the auditions, hand out an “audition sheet.” This sheet asks for basic information about name, address, telephones (work and home), age group, and an explanation of drama experience. The sheet should clearly indicate drama rehearsal times (e.g., Sunday afternoons, 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. until 12 noon; Thursday night dress rehearsal; Friday night dress rehearsal, etc.). Ask for a clear indication of days on which the performer cannot attend. Finally, leave a blank space for “director’s comments” or helpful notes about each person who auditions.

At the auditions, you will need to stress commitment to rehearsals and performances, but be a little more flexible than you might be with a school or “graded” class. Too much pressure will drive participants away since they have no extrinsic reason to stay with the activity. You must build intrinsic commitment by emphasizing the ministry aspects and the opportunity to communicate in a novel and effective manner. The indication of rehearsal times on the audition sheet should preempt some, but not all, of the “no-show” problems. Try to instill in all the performers the necessity of being at rehearsals on time, because you will be committed to letting them out on time. Set the example as a director by always being on time and keeping to a clear schedule. You should cast performers who will commit themselves to the practice times and performances. Drop a cast member who fails to meet the rehearsal times regularly. Allowing this kind of behavior brings down the performance level and morale of the whole cast.

Auditioning can be accomplished by any number of methods. The following patterns may be useful:

  • Audition individually. You make script copies available ahead of time or have a “cold” session. Bring in each performer separately and feed them cue lines.
  • Audition by a small group (2 to 5 people). Divide up the scripts and allow several combinations to read and reread short one-minute to three-minute sections of the script.
  • Call-back auditions. If you choose to narrow the field of performers for one last decision-making audition, set up an additional audition time by posting, phoning, mailing a “call back” list. Some directors feel more secure when they cast one or two alternates or understudies.

During an audition, the drama leader should choose performers with an enthusiastic dedication to the rigors of the endeavor. As a director, listen for such variables as vocal tone and range; believability; appearance; abilities to portray personae (e.g., older or younger people; those with regional dialects or noticeable psychological characteristics); cooperative attitude; and the somewhat enigmatic but powerful concept of stage presence.

Sometimes after casting, and once you have begun rehearsals, you may wish to ask some performers to switch parts or line reading. Try not to make it seem like a promotion or demotion, but rather a fine-tuning of the best combination for presentation.

Adapting to the Performing Area

Religious centers are seldom built for “proscenium” or theatrical presentations. But the space available for performing—“found space”—can be adapted for presentation by altering the environment or using the space as is. The church sanctuary platform area may have a removable pulpit, but choir banister and loft seats are often permanently attached to the floor. You may choose to use the already existing steps to the pulpit area or add risers or leveling platforms over the stationary choir seats. If the congregational seats are movable, a theater-in-the-round format might be utilized. If a readers’ theater format is chosen, you may use stools and boxes to stand or sit upon to represent staging areas.

Consider the focus for the performers. If a play is presented and the primary eye contact is on-stage, position the performers in such a way that most of the time they are readily visible from all parts of the congregation. If a readers’ theater format is used, consider an off-stage focus (imaginary scene placement above the heads of the audience) or audience focus as the main means to keep performers in clear view.

The use of lapel mikes and mike cords can be a nightmare of entanglement. Ideally, try to perform without the benefit of electronic amplification. If this is not possible, try to set up at least four omni-directional microphones at levels that will project most of the sound. Technology is constantly improving the means to amplify sound, but you still may be at the mercy of a microphone with a bad battery, external sound competition, or other mishap. Stress, again and again, the need to project all dialogue and recitations so all can hear and understand.

Rehearsal Practices and Training

The first series of rehearsals require that a director give direction and insights into the meaning and interpretation of the script. Read through the script around a table, pausing when necessary to ask questions concerning character analysis and motivation. Try to get your performers to discover the deeper layers of personality in their character parts by asking questions, or doing demonstrations or role-plays. Especially in preliminary rehearsals for readers’ theater, work for energetic cue pickups, and matching pitch tones for multicharacter line readings.

Some directors have found that an initial ten to fifteen-minute period of “theater games” provides good warm-up technique. Improvisations with characters from the presentation, calisthenics, and verbal scale recitations (“Ah, Ay, Eee, Oh, Ooh,” etc.) can help prepare performers for a more in-tune presentation.

When the read-through rehearsals have led up to a point of familiarity with the script, blocking rehearsals should follow. If you are presenting a play or chamber theater, memorization of parts should accompany the blocking rehearsals. If you are presenting a readers’ theater, stress that 60 to 70 percent of the time eye contact should be off the manuscript. If your performers are novices, you may wish to hand out a blocking pattern of the stage area. Divide a staging area into nine segments (e.g., upstage right, upstage center, upstage left, center stage right, center stage, center stage left, downstage right, downstage center, downstage left). Remind your performers that upstage is always away from the audience and downstage is toward the audience. The “power” stages are those central to the playing area and gain the most attention from audience observers. Have performers bring pencils so that they can mark blocking moves into their scripts or notebooks. As a director, you will need to schematically map out your blocking and staging moves ahead of time (e.g., diagrams in a notebook or amplified script copy) or ask the cast to move around for aesthetic decisions and composition variables of staging.

As blocking rehearsals continue, offer refining comments about cues, nuances of character movements, and entrances/exits. If necessary, offer to meet for individual coaching sessions. Usually, a cast will forget or lose some interpretive character business as they learn blocking, but with a gentle reminder, the performance choices you desire in your actors will return, accompanied by the well-timed blocking moves.

For the first night’s dress rehearsal, prepare your performers for a cue-to-cue technical rehearsal. Bring all of your sound technical crew together and walk your performers through each segment, pausing to ensure that lighting, sound, and scene change crew members know their parts. For the next night’s dress rehearsal, invite a small select audience to come, watch, and meet with the cast and crew afterward for final corrections or reminders. When the performance night comes, meet early with the cast for prayer. Encourage them to do their best and to have fun.

Religious Drama Is Ministry

Continually stress that, unlike any other performance, religious dramatic endeavors are meant to minister as well as entertain and provoke thought. Remember to be reasonable in your praise and kind in offering constructive criticism. Your cast will give you their best if they are encouraged and gently corrected rather than publicly disgraced or humiliated.

After the initial performances, consider other outlets for using religious drama. Speak to the pastor about augmenting the sermon/homily with a dramatic scene. Consider a summer dinner theater for your religious center. Use drama as a pedagogical tool (e.g., a production concerning pain and suffering and God’s role, followed by a discussion). Encourage age-group drama troupes to form so that they can teach their peers. Take your production to another church and introduce drama and its possibilities to them. Religious dramatic presentations can minister in effective and dynamic ways, thereby increasing the number of ways to reach the needs of the various congregations.

Readers’ Theater in the Church

Readers’ theater is a form of drama well-suited to the church. It attempts to present a text rather than to represent or portray an event. It minimizes the staging that may be difficult in some worship spaces. This article describes both the history of readers’ theater and gives suggestions for its use in the church.

Readers’ theater is a dramatic hybrid that combines the oral interpretation of literature with the theatricality of performance art. Readers’ theater has been a viable expressive art form for centuries. The Greeks used a chorus of chanters to link stories and episodes in their plays. The chorus served as a reminder of plotlines or as a transition from scene to scene. The performers in chorus might comment also on the philosophical nature of the play or give a moral pronouncement evident in the performance. The ancient Hebrews composed group chants, praises, and prayers to augment their public worship. Many of the Psalms have verses intended for antiphonal or call/response choral effects in worship. The Catholic Mass emerged with segments of group reading/recitation so that the words and the Scriptures could be heard in the vaulted expanses of the large basilicas and cathedrals. In 1945 the term readers’ theater was first applied to a Broadway oral recitation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Later in 1951, the first major readers’ theater production was presented on Broadway: George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, a difficult act to produce from his play, Man and Superman. Four prominent actors, dressed in formal attire and carrying black notebooks, stood behind lecterns and brought the philosophical scenes to life by means of vocal and physical expressions. In more recent times, the evolving art form of readers’ theater has been apparent in staging decisions of such prominent Broadway plays and musicals as You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown; Evita; Godspell; Nicholas Nickleby; and The Grapes of Wrath.

Though used in the secular performance arena, readers’ theater has its roots in religious communication. As early as the tenth-century a.d., the German nun Hroswitha wrote plays about biblical characters and saints, not intending that these plays would be acted, but that they would be read aloud in the confines of a monastery. Today, ten centuries later, we need to rediscover the legacy of Hroswitha and look to “RT” as a performance option for today’s churches.

Although the word readers imply that performers read their scripts, today’s RT performances may or may not have scripts present. “Readers” means that performers offer a text, the words of literature, and ask the audience to imagine what is happening. The readers need not wear actual costumes, sit on actual sets, or have makeup that actually reveals their character. Readers can present more than one character in a performance, (a narrator, a male or female, young or old, funny or sad) by means of vocal variety and nonverbal gestures so as to suggest an imaginative landscape without elaborate lighting or set design. “Theater” recognizes that mere reading without expression or drama cannot sustain interest or imagination. Readers can be expected to move in place, use mime actions, or move in and out of scenes. Multimedia (music/slides/video/film) can be presented simultaneously to augment the imagined scene. Wearing apparel with colors suggests mood changes or character traits. Eye contact may be with the audience, in off-stage pointing (suggesting imagined interaction between characters), in on-stage eye gaze, or in indirect soliloquy musing. Stools, blocks, ladders, and levels can be used to turn a stark stage area into an arena of creativity and imagination.

Thus, a definition of readers’ theater is formulated: readers’ theater is the presentation of prose, poetry, or dramatic literature by two or more performers in such a manner that the words are theatrically offered and recreated in the minds of an audience so that all involved can consider the persuasive intent of the literature. Readers’ theater is not superior or inferior to conventional drama. It is another art form. Conventional drama requires that literature be scripted in a dramatic form, where, in most cases, exposition is discovered in dialogue. RT has no such restrictions. Readers can dramatize narrative portions of short stories, novels, essays, newspaper articles, or poems. Conventional drama normally requires a pictorial space, a specifically limited playing arena, usually box-like with sets and curtains, lighting, and theatrically actualized reality. Readers’ theater uses acoustic or found space: the whole environment, including the audience’s minds.

Readers’ theater may be the most practical dramatic outlet the local church has in these modern times. While not every church has facilities that allow for fully-staged dramatic productions, every church has space that can be creatively used for RT performance. Readers’ theater scripts may consist of single works, written specifically for RT format. Readers’ theater may emphasize its ability to stress persuasive messages by thematically linking various literary selections with original transitions, creating a collage or combined script. A special form of RT called chamber theater combines staged drama with narrative prose literature. Narrators in a chamber theater are considered characters but may have manuscript notebooks with the literary text present and visible. Other personae in the cast may be fully costumed and respond as if in a staged drama. Variations of the RT form can be viable and extremely creative for performance options.

Frequently, readers’ theater makes use of the “split-line” technique, dividing a sentence between multiple readers for effect. Generally, the tempo and pacing of RT performances move at a faster pace than traditional drama. Most audiences can sustain interest in a 30- to 45-minute readers’ theater production, but short sketches or vignettes also work well as lead-ins to sermons or other forms of public communication. Performers need to be aware that their voices and nonverbal communication share most of the intent and help assist the audience in recreating the described scenes on the platform of their own minds and imaginations.

Preparations are identical for the RT performers and the traditional dramatic actor. The difference in the art form is one of degree in actuality and imaginative response. Good believable acting and dimensional credible readers’ theater preparations are essential for any performance.

Blocking or staging an RT requires as much creativity as staging a proscenium drama. In the church sanctuary, you may choose to block your performance on one of the three-axis planes: the x-axis, the y-axis, and the z-axis. The x-axis consists of the right to the middle to the left stage, the straight-line-across-the-stage effect. The y-axis places readers along the upstage/downstage continuum, up and back away from the audience. The z-axis is vertical and can be varied by means of short to medium-tall boxes or ladders or levels. RT makes use of clusters of performers, angles of performers, motivated movements of performers. Effective blocking attempts to keep all readers visible when in a scene. Power areas of the stage are central to the action, and any major character or action should be blocked to the center of the audience’s visual attention.

Readers’ theater can be an important addition to the ministry of any church. It can be used as an important and creative evangelistic tool as well as a teaching mechanism. It can reach and teach people through strong messages, coupled with humor and dramatic pathos. RT can join with a strong biblically-based pulpit ministry to share the good news of God’s grace and the dependability of Christ’s faithfulness to us. Christian readers’ theater dramatizes principles that may have been preached or taught to congregations for years. We live in a media age. Radio, TV, and film have turned us into dramatic consumers. Christian readers’ theater can take the performing art of drama and use it to share the deep truths of Christ as we strive to impact our world for him.