an introduction to the short one-act “PRISONER OF JOY”

      You haven’t heard much yet about the short one-act which opens our season. Prisoner of Joy is a creative dramatic staging of Paul’s letter to the Church at Philippi, in which we see both Paul writing the letter (dictating it to Timothy, who acts as his amanuensis) and the members of the church meeting in Lydia’s home, who have engaged with the text to the point of memorization. Some parts are spoken to one another as reminders, admonitions, exhortation, encouragement. The famous ‘hymn’ section in Philippians 2 is set to original music and accompanied by choreographed worship movement.

In addition, flashback segments tell the story of Paul’s time in Philippi, as recorded in Luke 16. Luke narrates, and various members of the church act out:

• Paul’s preaching to Lydia and other women by the river;
• Paul casting a demon out of a slave girl who has the gift of prophecy;
• Paul and Silas imprisoned;
• An earthquake which shakes the jail to its foundations, after which the jailer becomes a Christ-follower;
• Paul’s departure from Philippi.

Prisoner of Joy, with a running time of about 25 minutes, will open the evening. There will be a 15-minute intermission–necessary for setting the stage for the second act!–and then A Mighty Fortress will conclude the evening. That one-man show stars Jeff Salisbury, and is about one hour long.

CAST for Prisoner of Joy   (in alphabetical order):

Adam Bodnar   (Epaphroditus, official)

Nate Chen   (Roman guard, slave owner)

Rebekah Fodrey   (slave girl, church member)

Evan Fritz  (slave owner, jailer, church member)

J. Scott Kump   (Apostle Paul)

Stacey Kuster   (Syntyche)

Rachael Kuster   (Syntyche’s daughter)

Dennis Nichols   (Luke, church member)

Zachary Nolan   (church member, official)

Jenessah Schlatter (Euodia)

Matthew Simon  (Timothy)

Ron Stauss  (Silas, church leader)

Cindy Stehlik  (Lydia)