Godspell

Why GODSPELL? Why now?

The show is 53 years old and was created at the height of the Hippie Era. Is it still relevant?

There were a few of reasons:
1) it has a killer, hummable score, 2) it is the perfect cast size and 3) we have the talent to pull it off.

Another reason was I had always planned on using projections. The show is broken into ten parables taken directly from The Gospel According to Matthew. These parables are life lessons, behavioral guideposts if you will. We didn’t want the show to feel preachy (which it isn’t), but rather a refresher on The Golden Rule. So how do we update these guideposts was the question in my mind. I decided to represent five current social and global issues with the use of strong projected images. But then the question became images that I would source from . . . where? And there are so many important issues, where do we begin?

Sometimes the universe just stands up and shouts, “how about this idea?” Back in February 2023 we had an amazing guest speaker for Black History Month at the upper school. Her name is Nadya Stevens, daughter of the remarkable and prolific artist Nelson Stevens. During Nadya’s presentation, I saw connections between the art her father created, the subject matters that motivated him to shine a light on, and the themes of GODSPELL and the social issues we wanted to highlight. Not only that but many of these lasting artistic expressions were birthed during the 1970s when the country was in a mucky place, post-Civil Rights, the Women’s Lib movement was going full throttle, the Vietnam War, and Hippie time. GODSPELL and the art of Nelson Stevens would spiritually and visually complement each other. After her presentation, I dared myself to ask Nadya if it would be possible to license her father’s art as projections for our production of GODSPELL. Bold, yes, but without hesitation she said, “YES!” I was thrilled.

In the end, we decided to support the following social issues: Immigration, Voting Rights, Climate Change, Health Care, and a Women’s Right to Choose as all of these topics disproportionately affect brown and black communities.

We really loved every minute of rehearsing this show with this very special cast.

We decided GODSPELL, is indeed, still relevant.