Drama, Sigana and Fashion in Liberia

Stay tuned for a report on what I'm doing in Liberia for the next 2-3 weeks!  Amani ya Juu (a ministry to refugee women and those who are hurting and in need) is launching in Liberia, and I was asked to help fashion an African drama narrative around their big fashion show launch.  The Liberian Project Runway designer is doing the designs, Helen Mtawali of Afrizo will be doing the music, and Alan Oyugi is doing choreography.  I'm putting the music, narrative and dance together in a sigana-type drama.  We just arrived and are looking forward to getting to work!

HIStory Easter drama in Kenya

Easter Sunday - a prime day for dramas, pageants, and other creative events in churches around the world.  It was no exception today in Nairobi, as Mamlaka Hill Chapel put on a narrative, storytelling, musical, dramatic worship service.  "HIStory," available through DramaShare, took the place of the regular Easter morning services.  

The Samaritan woman tells about Jesus

The Last Supper

A team of near 40 (actors, musicians and technicians) sang and acted their way through a beautiful ministry event which included contemporary retellings of the disciples, the Samaritan woman, and African versions of da Vinci's famous painting of "The Last Supper"  and the crucifixion and resurrection.

The challenge for the production was mainly working with the technical aspects - turning the parking lot sanctuary into a theatre space.  It took days of draping with fabric and plastic, hanging backdrops and curtains, and working with an LED lighting system that had no manuals (except those in Chinese) and no one who fully knows how to operate a very complex controller.  But we managed!   People appreciated the doctrine of the story and how it told Jesus' story in a relate-able way.

A "Work in Progress"

There's an old script, by Paul McCusker, called "Work in Progress."  Since I've been in Kenya, two church drama groups have performed it to appreciative audiences.  This semester, Daystar's chapel theme was "becoming mature in Christ."  I was asked to do a drama chapel, so I pulled out the script, recruited by usual actors, and added new ones, and we put it on.  The script is rather like an AA meeting for Christians -each session they share about themselves, their struggles (or lack of them) and try to see how they can share Christ with others.  In between, we see them in their daily lives, with their own brand of Christianity interacting with the circumstances of their lives.  It's quite hilarious and a good chance for Christians to laugh at themselves (is that a painful laugh?).

Performed at a local church this past Sunday and saw a great example of audience interaction, rather like African American preaching, where the audience constantly comments on, or affirms the pastor in what he's saying.  Monologues on whether other Christians struggled with living in two different worlds were interrupted:   Actor:  "Am I the only one who feels this way?"   Audience:   "Oh no.  You're not alone."  When a Christian cliche-spouting woman's husband enters carrying a suitcase:   Audience:  "Where are you going?"  Actress:  (small moment to collect herself) "Challo, what's this?  You're leaving me?"  Actor: "I don't love you anymore"  Audience:  "(Gasp) Oh no you didn't!"

At the end, they all stand up and say, "I'm [name], and I'm a Christian."  The pastor loved taking that and offering an altar call to those who wanted to be Christians or return to the Lord - and there were several.  Wonderful to see drama being used in ministry that way!

A work in progress: A full-length play about Christian identity, evangelism, and refrigerator magnets (A Lillenas drama resource)

New Drama Commissioned for Tangaza College, Kenya

Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of being a consultant on a drama commissioned by Tangaza College for their 25th anniversary celebrations.  Tangaza is a Catholic university in Nairobi, Kenya.  Father Pietro is a priest who has a strong interest in theatre and incorporates and encourages it as much as possible.  In fact, in 2009, he helped coordinate the first Festival of Christian Arts in Kenya, showcasing artists from all the disciplines.

A scene from "The Last Convict"

Anyway, the play was called "The Last Convict" and was a metaphor for spreading the Good News of Christ.  It used the metaphor of a convict facing a death sentence, with an electrician called Lightman representing Jesus - a popular image was the bucket of waste under the cot that Lightman offered to empty.  The whole thing had the feel and structure of a medieval morality play, albeit set in modern Kenya.  It was written by Joseph Murungu, a respected theatre teacher and playwright in Kenya, and performed by Phoenix Players, the only repertory company in the country.

The play was well done, but what was even more interesting was the question and answer session afterward with the Tangaza students.  To many of them, stage plays were a new experience, and certainly this type of metaphorical play was a lot to wrap their minds around.  I enjoyed listening to their questions – how did the actors respond to the message of the play, critiquing the flow of the script or interpretation of it, wanting to know about the process of creation involved.

It was a good example of how theatre can spark dialogue about faith matters, theology and art.

Dancers celebrate the convict's redemption

Peacebuilding through drama in Kenya

The Images Drama Project did a 2-day workshop in the Rift Valley (Kenya) with leaders from two opposing tribes.  The bulk of the work was done through playback theatre and participatory theatre techniques, with teaching in between based on research done on conflict issues in their communities, Biblical teaching on reconciliation, group sharing and discussion.

While two days was not enough time, it was a very successful process, particularly when it came to people sharing their stories to those of other tribes and persuasions.  We did a morning session of Image theatre and it was wonderful to see them forget about tribal barriers as they discussed problems in their villages and worked on creating successive images to show.   

Feedback – they saw the strength of dialogue among the tribes, the need to do similar workshops with the youth, seeing solutions they came up with being tried out in forum theatre, which then opened up even more discussion of issues and solutions.  With pastors in the group, they also discussed the power of prayer in bringing about reconciliation.

Kenyan Christmas Drama

A fair amount of theatre takes place in Nairobi, at least, around Christmas. At least one church I know of has a drama and music talent show every year on Dec. 19, where each group puts a presentation together around the theme for the year (this year it was "Christ the King"), then present for the church and a panel of judges.  The judges then decide who's piece was the best on the basis of theme, presentation, and overall quality.  I was a judge one year but had conflicting engagements this year.  It's a great community builder and talent developer for the congregation.

Another popular event in the city is the Mavuno Church's "Village Christmas" play.  This began about 5 years ago as a variety show - sketches, musical numbers, etc., and has gradually developed into a full-fledged musical play that is televised and shown on local TV stations.  I've had the privilege of working with, and training, a number of the young adults involved (both as actors and the writers/directors/producers).  They are a talented group of people and have put together a great show.  This year's piece went through numerous rewrites and workshopping. The music is also locally written and produced.

The captain discusses "business"

Overall, the piece is a good reflection of contemporary urban youth in Kenya—it is much more akin to a Broadway musical than a "traditional African village," because the art forms of urbanites is much more Western.  The storyline is rooted in Biblical tradition, yet contemporized for an upper-class African family (albeit living in Bethlehem).  Many of the complaints of "The Carpenter" family (Joseph's family) resonated with the audience because of the similarity of issues faced—the need to pay "protection tax" to soldiers who are already paid to protect, overall taxation issues, business expansion, succession issues (a subtle reflection perhaps of presidential succession issues), and also the more universal issues of internal family conflict, sibling rivalry and personal ambition.

The trio reacts

The delightful "traveling trio" of household servants operated within the play in much the same way as the group of servants and others in "Twelfth Night" (Maria, Sir Toby Belch, etc.).  They have their own lives and dreams, they are the comic relief, but they also serve as commentators and narrators of the drama of the family they work for.  The two levels of society that existed in Shakespeare's plays finds continuing relevance in contemporary Kenyan society.

Brothers Judah and David

Much of the hilarity in the play came from the "in" jokes—plays on contemporary events, such as WikiLeaks (how classified news from Herod's palace managed to reach the common people, or servants), a hilarious sequence parodying the Nigerian "marriage" pastor who held a conference in town that was swarmed by single women wanting husbands, and numerous other local references.   The challenge becomes how not to let the comic relief overwhelm the main message the play is trying to bring.  In this case, the dramatic story managed to hold its own—not an easy feat.

More reflections on Oberammergau

I'm waiting for a book on the Oberammergau Passion Play, written by a Jewish scholar who did an in-depth study about the cultural and historical factors surrounding the passion play in Oberammergau.  Reading reviews of the book I am struck again by how drama has the capacity to engender dialogue.  In the case of Oberammergau and the passion play, the dialogue focuses around the source material.  In the case of the book, the research is into the dialogue between the source material (the Biblical account of Jesus and his crucifixion/resurrection) and anti-Semitism, and the attitudes of the townspeople through history in this dialogue.  The interpretation of the story by the director and scriptwriter is influenced by culture and history.  The source material may remain the same, but how it is presented depends very much on the prevailing culture and ideologies.  Apparently the play has been used in past generations to further a very anti-Semitic view (such as praised by Hitler).  At the beginning, it was a show of religious faith as understood at the time - a vow of perpetual performance in exchange for release from the plague. The religious culture at the time operated in this way and the play was an accepted way of expressing their obligation to God.

In successive years, the script changed, depending on the culture of the day.  Humorous, crowd-pleasing portrayals probably reigned at one point.  In the 1800s, the parish priest rewrote the script to express a more solemn view of Scripture and tableaux were introduced between scenes to give teaching on doctrine (showing Old Testament typology - events in the New Testament that served as illustrations for the events and life of Jesus).  During the World War years, the play obviously contained much more overt semitic tones.  Toward the end of the century, culture and ideology had changed and the desire to return to the roots of who Jesus is predominated, as well as the desire to distance from the Germany and anti-Semitism of Hitler's time.  A cultural ideology is more inclusive now, shying away from demonizing one set of people or religion.

But where does the balance lie between historicity and ideology?  The passion play evokes much strong feeling because of its history, but also because of the source material.  It is history, not just a story, and I think that's why the debate rages.  Subsequent histories have layered themselves onto the interpretation of the message and life of Jesus, and the attempt is being made to get back to the original source.  However, it will still be influenced by the prevailing culture of the day in how it is presented (through wording, structure and character interpretation), because drama is a reflection of culture, no matter its source material.