KC Live Theater Provides Alternative to What People Miss in Shrinking Congregations

When the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre presents “Freud’s Last Session” the weekend of Nov. 22, the audience will hear a debate about God’s existence by actors playing Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, and C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th Century’s most important Christian writers.

But the goal won’t be to convince anyone of any religious, spiritual, moral or ethical position.
Karen Paisley, the theater’s producing artistic director, explains why: “I don’t think I would ever say that I choose plays because they’re good biblical lessons. That isn’t what I do. I choose plays because I think they are compelling and they ask really good questions.”

Indeed, live theater productions all over Kansas City, while almost never overtly religious, offer performances that raise those “really good questions” — the ones about life and its purpose, about how to live generatively in a community, about what’s moral, ethical and spiritual and about what hope and deep meaning look like.

As institutional religions in the U.S. continue to experience a decades-old diminishment in participation, many of the questions that faith communities try to help people answer are being considered with depth and clarity on local live theater stages.

But even theater groups tied to a particular religious tradition are careful to present material that has appeal beyond that tradition.

For instance, Keith Wiedenkeller, managing artistic director for The White Theatre , says his theater has “a broad diversity of things that we present. But since we are funded by and housed within the Jewish Community Center, we do occasionally program things that are explicitly Jewish stories. But they have to be stories that have a broad appeal and a universal resonance.” Still, he says, the theater’s “wide variety of programming includes programming that will address either spiritual, religious or moral questions.”

White Theater partnership

In February, for instance, The White Theatre will join with the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City to produce “Hairspray: The Broadway Musical.” What’s spiritual or moral about that play?

Wiedenkeller’s answer: “In many ways that show addresses building bridges and bringing cultures together. There are some pretty serious issues about race and how we view people that aren’t just like us.”

Beyond that, a core concept in Judaism is called tikkun olam, which means the responsibility to help “repair the world.” So The White Theatre regularly looks to stage performances that consider how the world is broken and who’s responsible for fixing it. “Hairspray” is an example.

Across town, in mid-May into early June, the Unicorn Theatre in Midtown will present the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play “Fat Ham,” which the theater’s artistic director, Ernie Nolan, says raises “all the Hamlet questions: ‘Why do we exist? When we go through pain and suffering why and why continue?’”

In other words, the play wrestles with what theologians call the theodicy question. In short form that question is this: If God is good and loving, why is there suffering, evil, and disaster in the world? One way to ask that question about a specific world catastrophe is this: Why didn’t God stop the Holocaust?

No local theater company, of course, pretends to provide slick, quick answers to such complicated questions, but the plays and musicals they offer can and do help all of us think about such matters and, as a result, lead more examined lives.

Even live theater venues that specialize in popular musical presentations often offer performances that raise spiritual or moral questions.

The Music Theater Heritage at Crown Center, for instance, earlier this year offered “Godspell,” the well-known musical about Jesus and his followers.

As Tim Scott, the theater’s artistic director, says, “‘Godspell’ is based on the gospel of Matthew, and that’s no problem for us,” though the theater did field several calls from potential customers worried about how the play would depict the crucifixion of Jesus.

And in December the theater will present the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but stage it as a radio show.
“We chose ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’,” Scott says, “to replace our Christmas show . . . for a few reasons. One, we wanted to be a little more inclusive in a show than one with Christmas in the title.”

That’s an example of the non-exclusive way live theater companies need to — and do — think about their offerings. The idea is not to either dismiss or to promote a particular religious heritage but, rather, to make sure that everyone who attends, no matter his or her faith tradition, if any, can find meaning in the performance.

All of that said, it’s also true that in many cases, the people making decisions about what goes on stage in live local theater are guided by their own personal spiritual or religious experiences.

Scott, for instance, describes his faith background this way: “I was born and raised Italian Catholic and certainly believe in God. My core values and core morals are influenced by being raised by a woman who was born in Italy — Roman Catholic through and through. I went to catechism and holy communion. I don’t go to church on a regular basis as an adult, but those values that were instilled in me throughout my childhood and from my family are still in me and shape the person I am.”

By contrast, Paisley comes from a Protestant background that still influences her. She grew up in a small North Carolina town where her father was minister of music in a Southern Baptist church. Beyond that, her grandfather was a pastor. But because of issues related to church positions her family believed were racist, they left that church and moved to Methodist church when she was in middle school.

“Do I think about spiritual things before choosing a play to present?” she asks. “Yes, but I don’t think about that didactically. I do think about what this play brings and what the world needs and how this will make things better. It’s my place to try to do the best possible plays that are the most compelling things about a deeper humanity. I do think there is something extraordinary that happens in a great performance. Because of my experience and my background, I relate that to an experience of the divine.”

So live theater performances in Kansas City are not religious services. But they do raise many of the same questions considered each week in houses of worship, but with this difference: In the theaters, you buy a ticket to get in.

Bill Tammeus, an award-winning columnist formerly with The Kansas City Star, writes the “Faith Matters” blog for The Star’s website, book reviews for The National Catholic Reporter and for The Presbyterian Outlook. His latest book is Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9/11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety. Email him at wtammeus@gmail.com.