A good friend of mine, Steve Waldschmidt is playing Jesus this year in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play in Drumheller. Here is what he recently wrote about his preparations for the play:
I’m two weeks into rehearsals for the Passion Play–another huge experience. To be working out in space and text on a 4 acre outdoor stage what was going through Jesus’ mind and heart is so good. What an opportunity. We’re playing with the idea that, as a part of emptying himself of his full powers as God, Jesus didn’t really plan ahead or even know very much more than any other person in 1st century Palestine, but improvised his life in fellowship with the Father. As Leslie Newbigin wrote, he had no personal agenda, planned no career or image, but “simply responded in loving obedience to the will of his Father as it was presented to him in all the accidents, contingencies, and interruptions of daily life.” So it’s all about relationship with his Abba, through the power of the Spirit, as he said, he was only doing and saying what he saw and heard his Abba doing and saying. Even the healings then aren’t from Jesus himself, but they come as he prays for his Abba to intervene, and then he thanks his Father for hearing him. It’s thrilling to work on as an actor.
Good stuff, I look forward to seeing the production.
