Fresh depiction of the saints
By Emily Espinosa
Santa Clara's Center of Performing Arts has decided to showcase an unconventional play for this theatre season.
"The Saint Plays," a collection of short plays by Erik Ehn, began its run on Nov. 8 and will continue through Nov. 13.
"A project of his was to write plays that are based on the lives and experiences of the Catholic Saints," one of the play's directors Michael Zampelli said in reference to playwright Ehn. "He tries in them to basically experiment with all different genres of theatre, so some are musical, some are westerns, some are sort of odd operas."
Zampelli and fellow director Kristin Kusanovich, along with Musical Director Gregory Dale Schultz have collaborated to produce four plays total.
"[The group effort] transcends directly to the cast as well," added Schultz. "It's a very collaborative, interactive process that started the very first night of rehersalsâ?¦their input, their responses, their movement, their singing, they are so present in what has developed there so there's a profound sense of collective investment."
The directors decided to bring this show to Santa Clara, thinking that it would be a great artistic challenge.
The performance is a compilation of seven mini-plays, each depicting the life of a respective saint and spanning over a period of about 95 minutes.
These are no traditional examples of "Catholic theatre" however, but the directors describe them as "exploded biographies."
Schultz is responsible for creating all the original music for the show and also performs a role in it.
"Not only is the biography exploded, but kind of linear time is exploded as well, so the in-the-moment contemporary and the historic are often sentence to sentence in the same space and place," explained Schultz.
This approach to the lives of the saints is meant to make them accessible to the modern person, whether they be religious or not.
"I think that the shows, if they are approached with really an open mind, give people permission to be more imaginative and to be more free," explained Kusanovich. "If we break that open and then they realize, 'oh I kind of relate to Joan of Ark' or 'young Mary means something to me,' that's a freedom that they've gained. So, I feel like a show is always a gift."
The three directors urge those who are not Christian, Catholic, or even religious not to be deterred by the subject matter.
They believe that Erik Ehn wrote these plays in the belief that the saints are incredible people that anyone living could appreciate on the level of their intensity and the way they lived.
Along with the compelling nature of the stories, the three added that the overall experience of the show is ultimately striking.
"There's wonderful things to look at, to listen to, all of that movement happening," Schultz enthusiastically explained.
The remaining shows will begin at 8p.m., and a Pre-Show Talk will take place before each performance at 6:45 in the Fess Parker Studio Theatre, which is adjoined to Mayer Theatre where the actual show will take place.
These talks consist of intimate conversations with the directors and are meant to enrich the experience and understanding of the show for audience members.
"People will simply have an experience of a different way of doing and experiencing the theatre," said Zampelli. "It's a different kind of theatrical experience that really invites people to be in communion with the actors and with each other."
Contact Emily Espinosa at eespinosa@scu.edu or at (408) 551-1918.