Christians in the Theatre Arts
An arts organization with an emphasis on relationships
By Dale Savidge
I distinctly remember when I learned that theatre was as much about the process of creating a performance as the experiencing of a product in performance. It came just after I yelled at a young technician for not painting some grid work over a thrust stage. He had absorbed my righteous indignation (it was, after all, a sin to leave glimpses of metal to reflect ambient light) and then left the building. Soon after, the stage manager whispered to me that the young man was outside crying. I quickly apologized and tried to make amends (after all, it wasn’t technically a sin to leave some metal showing above the stage)—but to no avail. The damage had been done and would not be easily repaired.
I believe you can have it both ways: be Christian in your relationships even under the pressure of opening night and still do things right. I have also experienced having it neither way: straining relationships to the breaking point and still seeing steel shining from the grid. We do live in a fallen world. Theatre, unlike most of the other art forms, is birthed through relationships. Performances are created by ensembles (even solo performers work in community at some stage of the development of their work) and without an audience to be present with the performers, well, there isn’t any theatre. Christianity speaks to the subject of relationships: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Twenty-odd years ago a small group of theatre artists began meeting to create a network. They felt a God-created need for relationships, for community with those with whom they shared two things in common: love of God and love of theatre. The need was so strong it overcame their bumbling efforts at organization, publishing, database management and (worst of all) fiscal management. They were, after all, theatre folk: It’s a miracle anything was organized!
We worked through nomenclature (Christian Drama Association was one early idea). We found that what we had in common was not what we did but who we were. In the words of Nigel Goodwin, we began the network as human beings, not human doings. This dawned on us during a panel discussion called “What is Christian drama?” in which there was no common agreement on an answer to the question or whether the question could be answered or whether there even was such a creature as “Christian drama.” We differed widely in where we worked (theatre companies, schools, churches, touring groups, etc.) and what we did in theatre (actors, designers, writers, etc.). But we shared our passion for Christ and our love of theatre—and we soon came to love each other for these commonalities. So we persevered, and now with twenty-plus years of networking Christian theatre artists behind us, Christians in Theatre Arts (CITA) is at the center of encouraging and equipping believer artists in the theatre.
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya performed by the Belhaven College Theatre Department
As I write, we are anticipating our sixteenth North American Networking Conference in the heart of the American theatre world—New York City. Over 500 theatre artists are expected to gather each morning for challenging presentations by theatre professionals and ministry leaders who live at the intersection of theatre and faith in that great city. Taking CITA to the heart of the theatre world has allowed (perhaps forced) us to focus our intentions and sharpen our goals. CITA is now, more than ever, focused on the people who do theatre.
This is profoundly Christian. Jesus incarnated God as a man who was focused on people. He met them and He met their needs; He did not spend a lot of time focusing on their jobs, their hobbies, their strategic plans for the future. Of course, He was omniscient; He knew all people, regardless of their background, gifting or future. He could immediately relate and understand their needs: Witness His conversation with the Samaritan woman. We are not omniscient, and it is of great advantage for believers to support and strengthen (edify) those with whom they can relate, those with whom they share backgrounds, gifting and futures in common. There is a great need and a great opportunity for Christian theatre artists to be in relationship with other Christian theatre artists even if they are at a geographical distance from one another.
CITA has been building a network for theatre artists through conferences (where members meet face-to-face) and through publications (where members exchange ideas and plans on the Web and in print) since its inception. The twelve-person Board of Directors, which is elected on a rotating basis by the membership each year, is committed to that purpose. This Board is composed of theatre people: teachers, actors, drama ministry leaders, touring performers—people who are living in the world where CITA is working. Do they differ in the kind of theatre they do and where they do it? Yes, very much so. But they are, like the Body of Christ, diverse members who are united in twin commonalities: faith and theatre. They are a microcosm of our membership.
Christian theatre artists often speak of being misunderstood by their faith community (because they are theatre artists) and by their theatre community (because they are Christians). While this may have been common twenty years ago, it is much less so today. Churches, especially those in the “church growth movement,” are embracing theatre and show little discomfort with people acting in their sacred spaces, even during their worship services. On the other hand, the theatre is not a monolithic anti-Christian machine which conspires to overthrow the faith of believers through themes in the drama, libertinism in the dressing room or bias in the audition process. The theatre is now welcome in most churches, and there are many Christians working in the theatre: commercial, non-profit, community, educational, touring, etc.
Some of the pressures which face a believer desiring to work in the mainstream theatre are common to all theatre artists. These include first the challenge of working, of finding work and piecing together a living through jobs that are rare, shortlived and often under-funded. It includes an itinerant lifestyle that militates against raising a family. These aren’t related to any particular faith or absence of faith—they are simply the reality of living in an art form that, in our world, isn’t always rewarded as work.
Beyond that, actors play their instruments: their bodies, voices and imaginations. Unlike artists who play (with) objects (paint brushes, trumpets, words on a page) theatre artists (primarily actors) struggle with using themselves in their creations. From “what words will I/won’t I say” to “what parts of my body will I/won’t I show” to “what level of physical contact will I/won’t I engage in,” the theatre artist makes daily decisions that are personal in a way other artists only deal with in the abstract. Designers, directors and producers have to consider what to present to the public, from the content of a play to the production choices that incarnate that play. Cutting a published script is illegal, so if the producing organization has issues with language, for example, the body of literature suitable for production shrinks alarmingly. Don’t think that plays by Christian writers are “safe” either; most Christian playwrights don’t shrink from truthfully depicting lost people using words that accurately depict their world.
Theatre has the capacity to be revolutionary and anarchic. It brings its audiences face-to-face with themselves, mirrored in characters and situations of human conflict. It is a prophetic voice in our culture, ceding its position as popular entertainment to the electronic dramas of film and television. How fitting this is for Christians interested in theatre. When we look for examples of this art in the Bible we locate the most obvious instances in the ministries of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Their use of theatre, God-sanctioned, was disturbing and disruptive. Through it they brought a message of God’s judgment to the nation of Israel. They did so without dramatizing stories and at times without speaking at all. The implications of this for theatre artists are profound.
Theatre, because of its direct contact with an audience and its imitation of real life, has tremendous power to make the imaginative real. It alone combines the art of language with movement and music in a world immediately apprehensible to real people with whom it shares time and space for a few fleeting minutes. That power must be seized upon by Christian artists, but it must not be abused by them. Christian artists are invited into the theatre by the Creator God. May they continue to enter there as good stewards of the gift of creativity. CITA is committed to encouraging and equipping them to do so.
Dale Savidge was instrumental in founding Christians in the Theatre Arts (CITA) in the mid-1980s, was elected its first president and continues to serve as executive director. He has two master’s degrees in theatre and a Ph.D. in English and Theatre from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Savidge has taught collegiate theatre at the graduate and undergraduate levels for twenty years.
[This article was originally published in The Creative Spirit: A Journal of Faith and the Arts, Belhaven 2006]
