Fuse Productions’ ‘The Christians’ tackles questions of faith
Fuse Productions’ Contemporary Play Reading Series continues with “The Christians” Feb. 28 at Singing Onstage Studios in State College. Following the reading, the audience is invited to stay and discuss the relevance of the issues raised by the play.
Written by Lucas Hnath, “The Christians” is a play about faith in America, and the trouble with changing your mind. The play is directed by Jill A. Brighton, with a cast including Mike and Laura Waldhier, Scott Stilson, Frank Wilson and Madeline Biever.
“Paul is head pastor of a large, successful church, and he has a crisis of faith and decides to change the direction of what the church believes, almost overnight,” said Mike Waldhier, who plays the pastor. “He’s a bit naive in that he believes that the congregation will go along with him, and at first that appears to be the case. But things don’t exactly go as planned.”
Laura Waldhier’s character is Elizabeth, Paul’s wife, and is part of their church’s leadership, supporting her husband’s ministry and also behind the scenes in the community.
While it’s true that there are no sets or props, and that the actors read from their scripts, the actors try to bring the same intensity to a reading that they do to a fully-staged performance. Although not having to memorize lines makes a reading easier from a rehearsal standpoint, the actors still strive to bring the audience in and keep them engaged.
“You want them to forget you’re reading the script, and that’s challenging in a different way,” Mike Waldhier said. “It also means some plays can’t be done as a reading — physical comedy obviously doesn’t work. But plays like this one, where the words convey all the meaning you need, work very well in this format.”
“Having the scripts is a different sort of challenge, but we still embody our characters through our voices, expressions and movement,” Laura Waldhier said. “For me, a reading is an opportunity to really dig into the words — a challenge to see if we can make the audience forget that we are reading from a script.”
Scott Stilson plays Joshua, the charismatic associate pastor who holds the conservative view on the particular theological issue at hand.
“I love reading poetry and books aloud,” he said. “Acting with a script in front of you isn’t very far off from that. Being free to concentrate almost exclusively on vocal expressiveness makes me happy.”
“The core of the play wrestles with an actual question that some Biblical scholars wrestle with today: What is the nature of Hell? I’m sure this will get some people thinking about it,” Mike Waldhier said. “Beyond that though is the concept of faith, and how we formulate and practice our faith. How do we change what we believe over time, and who guides and shapes our beliefs?”
Mike Waldhier said he is hopeful that the audience will ask some of the same questions that were raised when the cast first started rehearsal: What is the nature of faith, how do we come to believe what we believe (religious or otherwise) and how do we approach people who believe differently than us?
“I hope some view Pastor Paul’s actions as being right and some view his actions as completely wrong,” he said. “That should make for a lively discussion.”
“The Christians” perhaps raises a lot of questions and doesn’t necessarily offer answers or solutions. But Laura Waldhier’s hope is that the audience will come away with a lot to think about.
“I think that for each of us it may be asking different questions,” she said. “For me, it asks questions like, What is faith? Can it be defined, or is it different for each individual? What is trust? What does it mean to ask someone to trust you, to have faith? How do faith and love live with each other?”
IF YOU GO
- What: Fuse Productions’ Contemporary Play Reading Series: “The Christians”
- When: 7 p.m. Feb. 28
- Where: Singing Onstage Studios, 1108 S. Pugh St., State College
- Info: www.fuseproductions.org
This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Fuse Productions’ ‘The Christians’ tackles questions of faith."