Christianity's role in theater takes center stage

Harrel, from Portland, Ore., infused the play with his own Christian sensibility from his membership in a Covenant church but he said he hopes to engage secular audiences too.

"I try to write for a broad public," Harrel said. "I hope they feel the way I do, but it's their call. I don't want to dictate."

That pull between the world of Christian churches and colleges and wider arenas of entertainment was a running theme at a conference this week on the campus of Azusa Pacific University. Harrel was among about 100 people from around the country who attended the annual convention of Christians in Theatre Arts, a 20-year-old organization with headquarters in Greenville, S.C.

The four-day meeting, which ended Friday, offered training in many standard aspects of stagecraft, such as writing, scenery, royalties, mime and singing, along with the usual business-card swapping and casting buzz. The gathering's special focus, however, was evident in the prayers that opened most sessions and in classes about "Staging Christian Classics" and "Theater in Worship."

Christians in Theatre Arts is a nondenominational organization, said Executive Director Dale Savidge, who teaches theater at North Greenville University, a Baptist-affiliated school in South Carolina.

The majority of members are from evangelical Protestant churches but some are Roman Catholics and from other denominations. The group describes itself as "furthering the kingdom of God by equipping Christians in theater arts" and connecting "spiritual life and artistic vocation."

The organization was founded to support Christians who felt uncomfortable bridging the two sides of their lives and who may have faced suspicion from fellow churchgoers and secular theater professionals. Now, much of that suspicion has evaporated, Savidge said.

Live theater is incorporated in many church services and activities, even though video and movies increasingly challenge that presence. And the secular theater world, Savidge added, "is very tolerant and that extends to Christians too. We feel accepted on the same terms that everyone is accepted."