Redemption History II

Tyler Leivo as Christ in Redemption History II. Photo curtesy Cory Schoolland.

Thanks to the encouragement of some Christian friends at St. Athanasius Orthodox Church, I'm re-visiting a piece of my past: Redemption History II. I am re-writing the script, and hoping, in the next year or two going to gather a small company to begin re-production.

What a trippy experience it's been, even for a couple of days, scanning images, reading the scriptural text, listening to music. I was in such a different place in life then - things were so much more chaotic, unsure, dark - but this play seems to stand in my memory as a Time-outside-of-Time.

In light of the Spirit-centric theology which has recently been filling my mind, I'm beginning to see my script of four or five years ago as pretty... I don't know... "judgmental." There was such a heavy focus on suffering and pain and separation from God and guilt that it's a wonder people could connect with it. I mean, no fault of the actors - they were fantastic - but with the culmination being the grotesque crucifixion of Christ and getting the audience to chant with the actors "Crucify him," it didn't seem to warrant the smiling "Go and tell all the world" delivered by the disciples at the end.

It's like I went to hear Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture and could only get excited about the cannons firing.

Ah, well. I'll post re-writes and old photos; I'll be asking for feedback.