Catholic Online, CA
Aug 24 2007
`Judas’ doctor – Jesuit recounts time center stage off-Broadway
By Mark Pattison
8/24/2007
Catholic News Service ()
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Jesuit Father James Martin would never be accused
of slumming around the Stage Door Canteen, much less a backstage
entrance to New York City’s dozens of theaters.
A Jesuit Off-Broadway, Jesuit Father James Martin recounts his time
as a theological adviser to the play, directed by Philip Seymour
Hoffman. (CNS)
SCENE FROM ‘THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT’ – Sam Rockwell, left,
stars as Judas Iscariot and John Ortiz as Jesus of Nazareth, in the
2005 production of "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at New York’s
famed Public Theater. In his new book, A Jesuit Off-Broadway, Jesuit
Father James Martin recounts his time as a theological adviser to the
play, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. (CNS)
Still, he found himself in a theater role – as script doctor for a
play about Judas Iscariot that had a healthy off-Broadway run more
than two years ago.
Father Martin has recounted the experience in "A Jesuit Off-Broadway:
Center Stage With Jesus, Judas, and Life’s Big Questions," published
by Loyola Press and scheduled for release Sept. 1.
In the process, Father Martin said he had one revelation: Actors are
people, too.
"Sam Rockwell, an actor who I’d already known, was the first person
to contact me and (said) that (actor) Philip Seymour Hoffman was
going to be the director. So I was excited to be part of that," said
Father Martin, an associate editor for America, a weekly magazine
published by the Jesuits.
As he spent more time with the actors, the priest said, he went "from
being tongue-tied to being relaxed and comfortable … to being
friends with them. As a writer, I frequently meet writers who are
notable Catholics. You regard them with a sense of awe, but over time
you see they’re approachable."
During rehearsals, Father Martin said in an Aug. 13 telephone
interview, Hoffman had to excuse himself several times because he had
"a shoot" in Toronto for a movie.
"He never bragged about being a movie actor, or talked about the film
he was doing," Father Martin said of Hoffman. The movie turned out to
be "Capote," which won Hoffman an Oscar for best actor.
To the cast and crew in New York, the play was the thing: "The Last
Days of Judas Iscariot" examined the motives behind Judas’ betrayal
of Jesus and the anguish that led Judas to suicide.
"I was very surprised at how quickly, at the table readings, the
conversations turned into incredibly deep subject matter. The
questions – Can we really believe the Bible? Did Jesus really
resurrect from the dead? Can we really believe in God’s forgiveness?
– were the stories we were reflecting … the same kinds of things
people meditate on in their personal prayer, no matter what walk of
life they’re in," Father Martin said.
"The cast and the creative team I was involved with really
represented a microcosm of spirituality in America," he added. "You
had lapsed Catholics, you had a Buddhist or two, you had a few
atheists, you had a person or two who was not sure where they were,
you had a woman who was in a cult for a while, you had a fellow who
was Armenian Orthodox. To me, this group represented the state of
affairs in Christianity. It just seemed very real to me."
What was real for the cast were the struggles they had in staging the
show night after night. Father Martin recounts in "A Jesuit
Off-Broadway" how cast members told him that, unlike the typical
play, they found "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" harder to do with
each passing performance.
"It was the subject material that was so tense. You’re talking about
Jesus and Judas and peace and forgiveness and prayer and grace,"
Father Martin said.
"It’s bound to take a tremendous toll," he added. "As one of the
actors said in the book, ‘It’s like when you preach and you have a
really intense experience of the spirit in your preaching.’ It takes
a lot out of you. Also, they moved deeper and deeper into the story
each night. … It was seriously draining for a lot of actors."
One bump in the road the cast encountered continually was the
location of Jesus’ first miracle. It was the wedding at Cana, but
everyone connected with the show wanted to pronounce it "Canaan,"
where Abraham of the Old Testament lived with his wife and family.
At a subsequent Los Angeles production of the play, Father Martin
said, "one of the directors had told me afterward that had he not
read an advance copy of my book, it would have been ‘Canaan’ in their
story."
Father Martin said that, to help launch the book, principals
connected with the off-Broadway version of the show – including
Hoffman – were going to read their own quotes from the book in a
series of dramatic readings.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
