Christian/church theater
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Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4137
Printed Date: 5/19/24 at 8:31am
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Topic: Christian/church theater
Posted By: sonshine
Subject: Christian/church theater
Date Posted: 7/21/09 at 2:44pm
| Is anyone involved in church theater? We have a community theater with a Christian theater. What challenges are you facing? |
Replies:
Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 7/31/09 at 2:42pm
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Hi sonshine. What kind of shows are you doing? Are they religious shows or non-religious?
The one theatre group I currently help run is based out of a christian church. We run into lots of fun problems. LOL Where to start!!! :-)
Our one issue is that many of the members are older. They do not like change nor disruptions to their church experience. So when in our church hall we put up a stage extension, loaded in our sound and lighting, started moving in props, etc people got very upset. Even though we took careful consideration to ensure that everything was out of everyone's way at all times.
Some people were not happy that we were not doing religious shows. I think where we went wrong was last year was our first stage production (we had done dinner type theatre prior to this) and we did Godspell. People weren't happy but not losing their minds because it was religious. This year we did Cats, which caused a lot of tension and attitudes within the church. Some people were downright rude about/to some of our cast members - who are mostly teenagers but the MOST respectful kids you will ever meet. I am talking some people treated these kids like they were lepers or something.
We are basically banned from doing many of the more mainstream type shows due to content.
If you would like to discuss more, feel free to contact me! I would love to discuss this more with someone in the same setup.
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Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 8/02/09 at 2:10am
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This is always a problem. I have one church that has basically told us we're welcome anytime, but subject the matter is of course going to be an obstacle. We would like to do Nunsense this fall, but I don't know if the jokes are too over the top or not. I guess we'll see. |
Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 8/02/09 at 5:37am
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Because of content restrictions and the issues above (plus soooooooo many more), that is why we are in the process of setting up our own theatre. We will still probably continue to do venues at the church but they will not be the more mainstream shows or anything too large. It is a shame because we have so many members of our congregation that enjoy the theatre program and are blown away by the things we have done but unfortunately the complainers are the ones that win out. The few people that complain have a good hold on the decisions that are made and it is a shame that the ones that want us to continue will have to come see our shows somewhere else. We are trying to keep it in the same area so it will hopefully not be too far for them or our kids to get to. When we did Cats this summer we had many people come up to us and ask where we hired our dancers and actors from and who we hired to build our set. They were blown away when we told them that none of our actors were hired; that most of them were kids from the area, and that I designed and built the set with the help of two volunteer carpenters. The people that support us were bragging to everyone how proud they were at the amazing job everyone did and it didn't take even a day for the "high" to come crashing down around us when the complainers started in. The compliants upset a lot of people but nothing we can do. It took a lot of convincing to everyone involved that we aren't running away by doing our own thing. We aren't "letting the bad guys win" but with all of the stress involved in doing shows we don't need the added stress of having people tell us basically that we have no place in a church. I mean we built a temporary stage addition to fit our set and cast and a few weeks prior to the show one of our members stated that he was going to do everything in his power to ensure that our show didn't go on. He reported us to the township saying our stage was unsafe (even though it was built with the help of two carpenters) and up until about a week before the show we didn't know if it was going to even happen and about $20,000 that we killed ourselves to raise and 6 months of planning and rehearsals were going to go down the toilet. I mean we made sure ahead of time we got approval and all our ducks in a row but this guy was making such a noise that we thought he was going to win. The township wrote him off finally as a total nut, but still.
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Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 8/02/09 at 5:40am
| And regarding Nunsense, it's funny you are looking to do that because we are looking at doing the show as well. I have not seen the show or the script so I am not sure about the content. But with our church, any jokes that aren't 100% G rated or "Jesus correct" are not allowed. We are actually doing it at a VFW hall or something. We are also trying to see if doing it somewhere else will bring in more people because we know some people are afraid to go to things at a church because they are afraid we're going to try and tie them up and force them to find God. |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 8/02/09 at 2:09pm
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Since we have no building we're at the mercy of any place that will allow us to perform. That's one reason we haven't done anything in the last THREE years. There's just nothing available. The one church that has told us that we're welcome back anytime (except Easter and Christmas) has a built in lighting and sound system. The stage area is small and carpeted, but we can do small shows with a unit set. The two that we have done so far and have been successful is Smoke on the Mountain and Forever Plaid. If we can't do Nunsense then we might consider Grand Night for Singing or The Taffetas. The music from these shows really hits our demographics. I just saw Nunsense on Friday and it was hysterical. The jokes aren't "dirty" but some members might be offended. I probably need to get a perusal copy and send it over to the church to see what they think. There's always a bit of comfort finding others with the same problems and how they cope. |
Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 8/03/09 at 9:21am
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I agree! It is comforting to find we're not the only ones with these problems |
.Posted By: teridtiger
Date Posted: 8/03/09 at 12:09pm
| FYI - Although "Taffetas" seems benign, there are definitely some campy humor moments regarding questionable sexuality of male movie stars during that era (i.e., Rock Hudson...). |
Posted By: sonshine
Date Posted: 8/06/09 at 5:43pm
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I thought we were the only ones running into this problem. Our number one problem is that we cannot get enough people to come out and audition. The Christians don't want to come out to audition, then we open auditions to everyone and all of a sudden there is a big attitude about it. |
Posted By: ttlss
Date Posted: 8/07/09 at 3:15pm
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We are a christian church that runs a fine arts department. Because our Fine Arts Pastor volunteers at the local High School directing the Choir, they allow us to use their facility one weekend per year. Budget cuts were putting the music department in jeopardy, so it works out great for all parties.
We do a Christmas show. This year is "It's a Wonderful Life- The Musical." We have also done "A Chrismas Carol- the Musical." The shows have been fun, festive and family oriented. Our auditions and rehersals are done at the church, but the week before the performance is done in the auditium at the school. There are plenty of shows that work for this situation. The biggest obstacle is that we are moving in and set in one weekend, rehearse through the week, perform Friday and Saturday and strike set on Saturday night. We treat this as a community theater, by posting auditions in the local theatrical papers. We also advertise the show in the paper and local TV
Keep up the Good work!
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Posted By: Nigel
Date Posted: 8/18/09 at 8:43pm
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Sonshine, we have the same problem with auditions! Our group is run as a "community theatre" within a religious Chautauqua. We have only one show every summer and since there are limited people who spend the entire summer there it is difficult to cast a show of just the community members. The problem is half of the board thinks we should only cast from within and the other half thinks we should allow surrounding community members to audition. Last two shows we allowed outside community members to audition. Our director for both of these shows was also from a nearby community and fear is she will cast all her regulars. So far this hasn't happened. We do have a bit of a problem choosing shows that won't offend the Christian community in which we reside. The director is not totally insensitive to this, however, she still recommends shows that I know will never fly here. Our audience is extremely conservative in this area and we try to stage family friendly shows. This year we did Cheaper By The Dozen. Am currently in the process of finding a show for next July. It is a challenge in the confines of a Christian community! We also only have four weeks from the day of auditions to opening night. We get into our venue on a Sat. and open on a Tues. It is hectic at best! ------------- Nigel |
Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 8/19/09 at 7:53am
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Regarding NUNSENSE, it CAN be over-the-top for some people's taste. It's not VULGAR. It's suggestive here and there. BUT I MUST say we had both nuns and priests attend every iteration of Nunsense we did. And we did Nunsense 1 - four times and Nunsense 2 twice and Nunsense Jamboree once. And at every performance where there were nuns and priests they absolutely laughed their heads off - had a great time being "spoofed" and literally were very tolerant and played right into the whole thing. It CAN be offensive to some people. It's a bit irreverant but pokes fun at all the cliches' of the Catholic Church, the nuns and situations with which they deal. I mean come on, Robert Anne - a "street-wise nun" from the streets of Canarsie - tough gal who occasionally uses some rough language because it's who she is and what she knows? BUT whose good, sweet heart accomplishes reaching those like her whom she or the other nuns wouldn't otherwise be able to connect with? And all the other characters. Well they're all based on real people - just over the top humor, irreverant, salty here and there, with minor language issues but our community - who is also among those on the buckle of the bible belt, responded unbelievably at these shows - which we even spiced up a bit more in the production style and presentation. SOLD OUT SHOWS EVERY PERFORMANCE. The SECOND year we did it, the show was sold out before we even opened it - totally unheard of before that and hasn't been duplicated since that I'm aware of.
BUT it is a different show that allowed even the most staunch Christian that we have here in middle American bible belt, to have a good time. But then maybe they weren't as good as others might have thought they were and just responded to the humor, whatever it was. HARD to say how it would go over. But I understand the issues and I'd guess that 95% of the people can have a good time with it. The other 5% just need to come down off their clouds of euphoric goodness and realize that for the most part, nuns and those in the Catholic clergy are often like they're represented in this show - BUT realizing it's a THEATRICAL PRODUCTION based upon real people but from the perspective of Dan Goggin who was and still is a strong Catholic and loved his religion and church - AND the people he is caricaturing.
Tough call though for many people. Fundamentalists don't like it because they think it pokes irreverant fun at Catholics. CATHOLICS for the most part - LOVE IT because they lived a lot of what the show talks about in it's dialogue/humor. People just need to lighten up a bit and experience the real world - imperfect as it is - to further appreciate what they believe and how they believe it - whatever that is.
Just an opinion - I view things a LOT differently than a LOT of people. But then I don't criticize anyone for what they believe as long as they don't try to shove what they believe down my throat. THAT is another whole debate - one which I never indulge in because in that debate no-one can ever win. Again an opinion.....and I'm equally entitled I hope.
TonyDi
------------- "Almost famous" |
Posted By: colugino
Date Posted: 9/18/09 at 2:29am
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To update on our situation, we have since started our own theatre company. We are still working with the church but will also be doing our own theatre company outside the church. We set everything up through Legalzoom.com and for under $2000 we got all the paperwork filed to become a non-profit and tax exempt organization. We did this for two reasons: 1) so we have a fall back in case we lose the ability to do shows at the church, 2) so we are open to more show options - barring we perform them somewhere other than the church. No matter how I put this it is going to sound harsh, but our board (who are all members of my church) have agreed as long as the church keeps playing nice we will continue to give donations to them. Now by nice I simply mean that we don't have to deal with some rediculous politics that 4 or 5 people that don't like our drama group (and literally for NO reason) have been making it next to impossible for us to do shows there. We do not wish to stick it to the church but some of the church leaders have made it very clear they do not want us there and for absolutely no reason - we have approached them and our pastor and they always provide rediculous answers such as the church can't afford to pay bills as it is and we used too much electric (mind you we spoke to the head of our finance committee and she said our electric bill only went up $50 the 2 months of our show & rehearsals and we donated $1000 to the church. Not to mention our head of finance stated that the $1000 we donated was what got them through the last two months of bills for the summer. So all in all it has been a major uphill battle. We at least (for now) have the pastor on our side as we were able to get through to her that our mission is to help the kids in our shows as well as to try and bring people into our church. We brought several hundred people through our church for our last show and none of these were church members.
Just keep praying! Hope this post finds everyone well!
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Posted By: Firace
Date Posted: 10/15/09 at 11:45am
| WOW! AM I late or what! I just stumbled on this post and if it helps I operate a Christian Community Theatre. The only way to go is to get your own non profit status and open a theatre yourself. Find a place you can rent yourself and build up enough monthly partners and donations and loyal following to get your self up and running on your own. We have been around for ten years...hope this helps and if you need anything further contact me....frank www.impactdrama.com |
Posted By: sonshine
Date Posted: 12/19/09 at 4:50pm
| Where do you find the people to volunteer? We post in papers, etc but still have problems getting people out. And mailing and e-mailing churches seems to be a waste of time, normally if they have a drama they seem to be unwilling to help out. |
Posted By: Firace
Date Posted: 1/04/10 at 2:53pm
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Well Sonshine- originally I started out with 2-5 gung ho christian artists and we did it all. Now word of mouth has spread and I carry a troupe of 17 but have a waiting list.
I think what makes us unique and why christian actors want to join us is that we we are chrisitian theatre in other words, we are more of a ministry than just entertainment. Our goal is to bring the gospel and that is what christians want to do with their talent, otherwise you are simply doing what the secular world does:)...as one who joined my troupe recently told me " I love doing this with you because I am not only entertaining people but ministering to the lost and hurting as well".
So I would start with a couple of die hards and be prepared to take some lumps and do alot of work....be different and do not present things of the world, because the world is already doing that! Christian actors want to do christian acting. Otherwise they can just audition for secular plays...understand? http://www.impactdrama.com - www.impactdrama.com
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