Have you noticed how the churches are not operating in person? Of course, you have! But do you know that there are sparking rich religious debates taking place online? Some of the efforts are really interesting. Take The Christians, a play by the award-winning playwright Lucas Hnath, that is being produced this weekend on the Zoom platform.
It begins with the founder of a Christian megachurch announcing good news, there is no Hell!
The info drop went down like a lead balloon. Conflicts spread faster than mosquito bites among his fellow leaders, the congregation, and, even, his own family. Now, you can catch the uproar recreated in Zoom boxes. Never has such a conference call seem so exciting.
Thom and Virginia Harmon, the promoters of this confab, were searching around how to talk with both sides of their friendships: the religious; and nonreligious. They wondered if the Off-Broadway play of 2015 might merit a reworking for their own circles. Then, the pandemic hit and turned the quest into a whole new thing.
When New York went into lockdown in March, the Harmons realized that their involvement with various theater groups meant no summer and fall shows. What could they do?
The Harmons decided to try some Zoom play readings of The Christians in the first few weeks of lockdown with a dozen of their actor friends. For the religious, the play was a caution against cultic personalities. The nonreligious saw the play about how closely-held beliefs can tear relationships apart. Both groups bantered back and forth about Hell, justice, and God.
After reading the Christians together, Thom realized that this video-call format fit the play well, and the wheels of theater production started turning faster. Using their network of actors, they quickly created a professional and talented amateur cast: Mark Dunn as Pastor Paul, Giovanni Marine as Pastor Joshua, Natalie Ahn as Elizabeth, Erin Layton as Jenny, and Alan Perkins in the role of Elder Jay.
The cast started holding discussion times and text studies to tease out how the intertwined strands of theological tensions and relational conflicts wrapped around each other. The actors themselves had come from knitting together life and faith in different ways. Some currently went to church while others looked back up how they grew up in Jewish and Catholic faith communities. . In the play, the questions of Hell, justice, God and humanity provoked different responses depending on who was talking and acting. The cast spoke to the Harmon’s own pastor Michael Kytka who leads Ascension Church in Forest Hills
Interestingly, Mark Dunn, who plays the lead role of Pastor Paul, found more insight from the pastor about relational conflicts than the theological ones. The actor thought he already understood Pastor Paul’s theological quest, because he had similar questions. Kytka brought to life the tender personal relations that occur in a church.
The disillusioned Pastor Paul revealed his change of direction after his people had trusted him with their money and most sensitive secrets. Dunn and Kytka’s discussions circled around what happens to people who feel violated. Dunn’s observations were that Pastor Paul had made a very ego-driven choice. “He has no social IQ to read the environment around him”
Dunn observed, “What you find out is that the people in the church are asking questions like why are you telling us this now, after we’ve finished paying off the building? [Or] Why didn’t you talk to me first?” The actor could feel weaknesses of Pastor Paul. “He’s made a very ego-driven, selfish choice… He has no social IQ to read the environment around him.”
Thom Harmon soon realized how the Zoom platform enhanced the experience separation and divisiion. Instead of having the actors staged traditionally, the play embraces the video call setting as the Pastor preaches as if he is in an online church. The individual characters engage across their video boxes in intimate one on one video conversations with each other.
One participant observed, “A refrain that constantly comes up is ‘I have a powerful urge to communicate but I feel the distance between us is insurmountable.’” Harmon noted, “The image of two people on a Zoom call where there’s a hard line between the two of them, with bad internet service” brought that theme to life.
Right at the beginning of production, the national civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd broke out. The nation became more divided. “After the death of George Floyd, I realized my own social media feed is full of people on diametrically opposed sides on a lot of these conversations,” Thom said. The boxed in Zoom conversations seem almost symbolic of a nation separated into little bunches of like-thinking people.
Virginia Harmon added, “This is why the play lends itself to a Zoom call, because we are stuck in the day and age where we can’t see each other in person, so we are on Facebook typing out our arguments…” The urge to communicate and persuade became frustratingly divisive. It is like a big church fight over right and wrong and who will be damned and who will be saved.
The Harmons are producing the play under the newly formed “City Gate Productions,” named after the entry gates in ancient cities where many would come to discuss philosophy and ask questions of the rabbis or teachers in the day. Could somehow a play on talking over divisions become a city gate through Zoom? Thom pointed backward to ancient practices: “Jesus told stories and parables, because they’re such a powerful didactic tool to spark conversation, to challenge preconceived notions.” Can The Christians be like a parable that provokes questions and discussions that brings us to the deep sources of our woundedness?
You can tune into City Gate Productions telling of The Christians for free this Sunday, July 19th at 7PM. Any donations to the show will be donated to the Bowery Mission. For the Zoom link please RSVP by clicking here!
True confession time: I am a preacher’s kid; in fact, Pastor Michael Kytka’s kid. I was involved in designing the graphic materials for this play. Although I can’t claim easily full objectivity, I was given an insider’s look into the formation of a new way of talking about religion online through the play. As part of Journey’s new series on online religion, this report on The Christians is a pretty good place to start to embrace the full spectrum of discussions.
