New ways of telling the story

A new youth theatre group in Wokingham is shaking up the portrayal of faith stories to explore their meanings more fully

'Giving us the chance to express our faith in our own words...' A new youth theatre group has started in Wokingham and these words were written in the thank-you note from the cast after a passion play performance earlier this year.

Medieval Mysteries retold with contemporary characters saw the sun and moon become Adam and Eve, the serpent become Pharaoh, Moses become Jesus, the waters of chaos become not only the Red Sea, but also the resting place for both Lazarus and Jesus. Jesus himself spoke in the words of a teenager, challenging authority, siding with underdogs, healing without clichéd gestures, and very nearly thumping one of the temple money-changers.

Through the process of rehearsals, young members of the cast found that God sneaked in among them, just as the resurrected Jesus did when he joined the disciples in hiding.

A Fresh Expressions network in Wokingham had asked the question: How could we engage young people during Holy Week, not just with fun and games, but to help them enjoy the stories of the season?
Rehearsal workshops began on the Monday, without any pre-written script, using an improvisational process technique developed by 'Stage-Fright' ­ producers of all-age experiential theatre projects.

Young people from four different churches in Wokingham, mostly unknown to each other beforehand, were invited to show their play called 'Vigil', replacing one church's regular Easter Eve liturgy and drawing an all-age audience.  Members of the cast then stayed overnight in the church itself and attended the sunrise service on Easter Day.

Since then, members of the cast have formed a 'Stage-Fright' club, meeting every week to improvise new ideas on themes of 'space' and 'time', to make short video clips for a charity's campaign website, and to prepare a play for an international youth theatre festival in Ukraine.

The new group intends to shake faith stories up a bit more and see what falls out. They are not interested in telling them in the way people expect, preferring to pull at fraying edges, look through the holes, expose what's true and what's untrue, make Jesus real, not polite or good-looking or too posh to push!
Stage-Fright applies the principle that we engage on a much deeper level when we retell stories ourselves and in our own words, rather than watching and listening to someone else doing it for us.  The benefits are not only in remembering ideas, but in actively exploring meanings of the stories for ourselves by bringing our own experiences, emotions and creative imagination to a workshop.
Stage-Fright has run summer residentials for several years, welcoming young people from all over the country to devise and produce a piece of theatre in less than one week.

This August, two camps showed plays on the themes of 'Freedom' and 'Questions'.

All the world's a stage and new faces are always welcome, bringing their own perspective, ideas and expressions of faith to the mix.

Michael Johnson runs Stage-Fright in Wokingham. He can be contacted at michael@stage-fright.org.uk.