by Loren Jenks

Festival participants who attended the Northwestern College Theatre Touring Ensemble's unscripted "living prayer" session witnessed how specific intercessory prayers can be offered up through dance, music, and ensemble enactment.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the "Ancient Plays of Israel" workshop, featuring the traveling troupe of Northwestern students, also saw firsthand how the stories of the Old Testament unfold naturally when enacted as if scripted for performance—which they may have been originally.

In the Northwestern ensemble's approach to scriptural histories, descriptive text is read by a narrator as the troupe members take on various roles to enact the dialog, movement, and sweep of the story. The result is far more dynamic than this description conveys, yet can be reproduced simply by churches and youth groups.

A singer and rhythmic percussion group carried much of the emotional impact as the actors performed the ancient narrative. The ensemble demonstrated the development and blocking of a story, then performed the story. Workshop texts selected from the group's repertoire were II Kings 4: 1-7 (Elisha and the widow with the jars of oil); II Kings 6:8-23 (Elisha and the Syrian invasion of Israel); and Joshua 2:1-21 (Israeli spies visit the house of Rahab in Jericho).

The workshop was hosted by Megan Hodgin, a NOBS board member and Northwestern College theatre graduate who has toured with the ensemble for the past three years. The ensemble is directed by Northwestern faculty member Jeff Barker.

• Scripts used by the ensemble

• More information about the Northwestern College Theatre Touring Ensemble

Loren Jenks is new to the biblical storytellers movement but has been active in community theater, lay preaching, and choir (United Methodist) for a couple of decades. He learned about NOBS from a Methodist pastor he met in Washington, D.C. two years ago.

 
More stories and pictures from Festival Gathering 2007