This was the synopsis written for a version of Godspell performed on March 11, 1994. It was staged at the Cypress Lake Performance Art Theatre in Fort Myers, FL. This production was cast, staged, choreographed, and performed all in a period of 2 weeks. This includes building the set. For 12 days, the cast consisting of 18 high school students rehersed for 12-18 hours a day.
It was absolutely grueling. Emotions were strained, patience was vexed, and anxiety levels were flying high.. yet this was the most amazing production I ever had the honor of being cast in.
The play comes to us from the early 1970's, a time when young people were inflamed by war,
jaded by the media and popular culture, suspicious of receiver wisdom, and yearning for authentic heros who could offer them some peace, some love, and some sense of identity. Twenty years and a generation later, young people today find themselves in much the same predicament.
The hero offered up in
Godspell is a bit mysterious.
The actors used their own names for their characters; the setting of the play is this city, this night -- yet the hero of the play offers
the same message and suffers tthe same fate and touches lives in the same way a certain capenter-turned-rabbi from Nazareth. The play seems to be about Jesus, but his name is never mentioned. What are we to make of this?
Answering this question is rather difficult.
Theatre is a living art form, not an exact science. Each person comes into the theatre with a different frame of mind, a different background and each person leaves the theatre changed or
enlightened in a different way. It is not for any actor or director or professor or playwright to say "This is what the play means!" or "That is the lesson of the play!"
Godspell has been hailed as a beautiful interpretation of the
Gospel According to St. Matthew and
damned as an outrageous blasphemy. Some say it is
religious and has no place in school while others say it is
secular and has no place in church. All that can be said for sure is that it is a play and thus belongs in a theatre.
For your own consideration, then and for your own judgment, we offer our mystery play. We offer the story of a man filled with goodness and wisdom, his struggle to share his love with the world, and the tragedy of his betrayal.