{"id":767,"date":"2008-06-26T17:05:45","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T17:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac.php"},"modified":"2008-06-26T17:05:45","modified_gmt":"2008-06-26T17:05:45","slug":"actors-bring-evangelical-megac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac","title":{"rendered":"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ADELLE M. BANKS
\nc. 2008 Religion News Service <\/strong>
\nWASHINGTON — Beneath a large photo of Pikes Peak, six actors bounce on stage to Christian music and cope with scandal as they explore life in the center of the evangelical universe: Colorado Springs, Colo.
\n“This Beautiful City,” which premiered here in June with plans for performances in Los Angeles and New York by 2009, captures the coffee shops and the worship music of New Life Church, the prominent megachurch perhaps best known for the sex-and-drugs downfall of former senior pastor Ted Haggard.
\nThe play was created by The Civilians, a New York-based acting troupe that interviews its subjects and uses the material to create docudramas about them. Members of the group say they were overwhelmed by the scope — and especially the music — of the Colorado Springs megachurch.
\n“As a theater person, the theatrical experience of going to New Life is pretty astonishing,” said Steve Cosson, the director and co-writer of the play, who compared the church’s music to a U2 concert.
\n“The church with its lights on is a pretty nondescript building, but when it’s in concert mode, they put on a pretty amazing light show. …
\nVisually, it’s very sophisticated.”
\nJust like any typical megachurch, both sides of the stage at Washington’s Studio Theatre were dominated by oversized video screens.
\nThe screens sometimes display white, puffy clouds of Colorado or the words of songs sung by the congregation.
\nComposer and lyricist Michael Friedman set the words of Haggard’s messages to his congregation — from before and after the scandal — to music. “An Email from Ted Haggard,” sung by three actors, recalls a message to the congregation advising that TV cameras were expected ahead of his television interview with Barbara Walters. “Jumping and dancing in church looks too bizarre for most to relate to,” he warned.
\nLater, after Haggard was forced to leave the congregation, actor Brad Heberlee sings from another e-mail message from Haggard: “Jesus is starting to put me back together.”
\nFriedman said the songs provided a way to include Haggard’s perspective.
\n“It seemed good to allow those to be sung because we didn’t have a chance to interview him before his fall,” the composer said. It was “a way for him to come to life a little bit.”
\nThough the play keeps returning to New Life and its nearly round-the-clock schedule of activities, it also touches on other controversies, such as charges of aggressive proselytizing at the nearby Air Force Academy.
\n“If I genuinely love somebody, how can I not tell them news that will save their souls?” asks one actor playing a cadet.
\nOn the opposite side, actor Matthew Dellapina portrays Mikey Weinstein, a New Mexico-based activist who has charged the military with across-the-line evangelism. “It’s supposed to be the Pentagon, not the Pentacostalgon,” he declares.
\nThere’s also a transgender character, gay rights activists and a Catholic priest in the mix. As in the case of Haggard, unexpected events made their way into the actors’ script. While working on the play, the actors learned the pastor of a black Baptist church in Colorado Springs left his pulpit after revealing he was gay.
\nBut beyond the up-and-down drama of congregations, the play unwraps the faith that evangelicals say transforms their lives. “If I had gone to a boring church, I would still be sitting on the couch smoking pot,”
\none character confesses. Another talks of “God pulling on my heart” and giving up alcohol.
\nThe play captures both sides of reactions to Haggard’s downfall — one actor recites an e-mail where someone relishes watching YouTube clips of Haggard’s confession; a fellow minister says he misses his pre-scandal friendship with Haggard.
\nAnd it includes the thoughts of Haggard’s oldest son, Marcus, who led a separate church in Colorado Springs: “With my dad, I think what happened was he had this kind of performance going on, you know, trying to be like, `I’ve got it all together,’ when he didn’t. He didn’t have it all together. None of us have it all together.”
\nFriedman, as well as Cosson, created “This Beautiful City” from a personal perspective as a nonreligious person. Friedman admits to feeling a bit defensive of evangelicals — he hasn’t embraced them, he said, but at least he understands them better.
\n“I start saying to people, you know, you should go to a church,” he said. “I don’t mean you should join a church. … In anything that’s the first step to understanding something, to go experience (it) so you can know what you’re talking about.”
\nThe play ends its Washington run on June 29, and has scheduled runs at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles this fall and the Vineyard Theater in New York in January.
\nCopyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON — Beneath a large photo of Pikes Peak, six actors bounce on stage to Christian music and cope with scandal as they explore life in the center of the evangelical universe: Colorado Springs, Colo. “This Beautiful City,” which premiered here in June with plans for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nActors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON — Beneath a large photo of Pikes Peak, six actors bounce on stage to Christian music and cope with scandal as they explore life in the center of the evangelical universe: Colorado Springs, Colo. “This Beautiful City,” which premiered here in June with plans for…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-26T17:05:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage","og_description":"By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON — Beneath a large photo of Pikes Peak, six actors bounce on stage to Christian music and cope with scandal as they explore life in the center of the evangelical universe: Colorado Springs, Colo. “This Beautiful City,” which premiered here in June with plans for…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-06-26T17:05:45+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac","name":"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-06-26T17:05:45+00:00","dateModified":"2008-06-26T17:05:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/06\/actors-bring-evangelical-megac#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Actors Bring Evangelical Megachurch to Life on Stage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. 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