Archive: Around Town

Maundy Thursday is the feast on the Thursday before Easter commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles.  This year a group at Lansing United Methodist Church is reenacting the fateful supper in Methodist Pastor Ernest K. Emurian's play 'Lord Is It I?'  "He took Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper and he created the play so that the set is the upper room as da Vinci painted it," explains director Judy Hinderliter.  "Then you have the table in the front of the set, and the disciples sit in the poses as da Vinci painted them.  They're all frozen in their position, and after Jesus says 'One of you will betray me,' each one in turn reflects on, 'Is it I, Lord.'"

Hinderliter first saw the play at her daughter's Maryland church, where it has become an annual tradition.  Her son-in-law has played Peter in that production for ten years.  "I was just touched by the power of the play," she says.  "I was determined that when I retired that I'd never give up theater, and I would do that here."


Emurian wrote the play in 1954, presenting the first performance on Palm Sunday at the Elm Avenue Methodist Church  Portsmouth, Virginia church.  He had seen an enactment of the last supper, and was moved to write his own script.  He published the script without a copyright, to encourage other churches to perform it.  Since then Hinderliter says it has been performed all over the United States, the Philippines and in Europe.


The cast features Jesus, the twelve disciples, and a narrator played by Max MacKenzie, John Aasen, Rick Adie, Stuart Thomas, Mike Walter, Kevin Dunn, Glenn Withiam, Roy Hogben, Joel Brock, Jamie Ferris, Dave Nichols, Dave Stoyell, Gary Travis, and Bill Gottschalk-Fielding.  "They are all different ages, and all different backgrounds," Hinderliter' says.  "We've done lots of plays in the church primarily with young people.  This is the first full fledged adult drama.  So that's been exciting."

It is also the first full-fledged adult drama that she has directed.  A teacher for 22 years, she began directing middle school casts in 1993.  Since then she has directed about 16 plays.  "I've learned a little bit along the way," she says.  "But I have a lot to learn!"

Hinderliter says she has enjoyed working with the amateur actors, helping them to meet the special challenges the play poses.  "Learning a soliloquy is hard, because you don't have anybody to play against," she says.  "It's just you.  So I wanted to give them as much time as possible to memorize it and then to begin to make it their own.  To ask them to really become that person for the time being."

The monologues humanize the iconic religious figures, each reacting in a perfectly human way.  When you drive past a police car most people automatically slow down even if they are not guilty of speeding.  Each disciple in the play naturally asks whether he is the one to betray Jesus, even when they don't think they would.


"Watching the men grow in their parts has been a gift," she says.  "I love sitting there and just listening to them.  Listening to their voices, listening to what they're saying.  Watching how they're starting to use gestures.  Seeing their sense of camaraderie grow.  And just watching it come together."

There is also the challenge each faces in holding a pose for 45 minutes.  To provide some relief she has chosen to break up the play with hymns played on the church organ at intervals between some of the monologues.  She and actor Glenn Withiam as Judas faced a unique challenge to get across the idea that he knows he is the betrayer, even as he asks the question.

"They have all amazed me with the power that comes out when all twelve of them do their presentation," Hinderliter says.  "Each one of them is unique.  Their voice contributes so much to the part.  Some speak loudly and passionately, and some are quiet and reflective."


The painting gained some modern notoriety when Dan Brown suggested that the figure to Jesus's right, generally identified as John, was actually Mary Magdalene, whom he suggested bore Jesus's child.  But Hinderliter chose not to get on that populist bandwagon.  "That's not what I want people to think about," she says.  "Each of the disciples is reflecting on whether they have betrayed Christ, and betrayed the God that loves them.  I want people to think about have I betrayed Jesus in my actions or lack of actions, what I say or what I don't say.  That's what I would like people to take away."

Hinderliter's husband Bill built a portable stage for the production, which the church will use for future dramas.  But this time around the play is a one-time event.  "It's geared for that night," she says.  "My hope is that it will be well received and people will want us o do it again next year, and it will become a tradition.  That's what's happened in our daughter's church in Maryland.  It's a community event now.  In my heart of hearts that's what I hope happens."

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