Easter Vigil:
A Dramatic Presentation

While a lay employee of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Benjamin Privitt was invited to create "dramatic treatments" for the readings at the upcoming Easter Vigil. Four readings were selected for dramatic interpretation: The Story of Creation; Israel's Deliverance at the Red Sea; A New Heart and A New Spirit; and The Valley of Dry Bones. Privitt drafted a script for dramatic scenes that would be acted out during the four readings.

An early decision was made to use a minimalist approach for costumes and stage props, and to recycle images and properties if possible. Privitt feels “this reinforced the iconic nature of the performance. As the performers took on different roles with each reading, so too the props were recast with each appearance.“

The cast included two congregation members and four professional actors. Privitt shares that “actors are used to working for well below their value. This is something to be aware of and to respect.” For the Easter Vigil project he responded with: 1) contracts for them to sign that stipulated a fee to be paid to them after the performance, 2) a commitment to have food available for them at evening rehearsals. “The fee was nominal and it essentially covered their transportation costs to and from rehearsals. The food was prepared fresh every evening (vegetarian stews over rice – different night to night). So often actors are coming straight from other work,” Privitt writes.

Each performer had a spiritual connection to this project, and Privitt feels that this personal connection played an important role in the play’s final form. One day after the actors’ physical warm-up, Privitt “brought out grocery bags of hand dyed silk pieces. To the women I said, ‘These scarves are birds that I would like to see flap their wings and soar through the air.’ To two men I said, ‘This sign with the moon on one side and the sun on the other is for supporting this green piece and this brown piece of silk. Make a redwood tree that grows from the floor to as high as you can make it go.’ To another man I said, ‘Here's nine yards of blue silk. I want to see two things: a burbling fountain and ocean waves.’ And off they went.”

“From the beginning of this project,” said Privitt, “I wanted to involve cellist Madigan Shive, whose post-punk chamber ensemble Bonfire Madigan had excited me tremendously. Being a professional musician accustomed to being paid well for her work, we had a period of negotiation around contract, composition fee, and recording rights. Once we had arrived at a mutually agreeable compromise, she began to create a score for us based on the recordings of our two readers doing the four readings. Rather than working with multiple volunteers to read the stories, I relied on two members of the Cathedral staff who would be participating in the service already. They had wonderful reading voices and required a minimum of coaching.”

Since simplicity was the idiom for the whole endeavor, Privitt dressed the actors in black. The audience could then focus on the actors’ faces and the stage props, and leave the rest to the readings, the music, and their imaginations.

An essential detail to a successful performance is the planning of entrances and exits, as well as “having a clear flow chart for what props/costumes come in for what scenes, and feeling confident in how one gets from ‘offstage’ to ‘onstage’ easily,” says Privitt. About 30 hours of rehearsal time prepared actors, stage crew, musicians and directors.

This article was adapted from the full online text found at:
http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/features/eastervigil/index.html

Coda

“My best friend from third grade is a member of Grace Cathedral. We ran into each other between services one Sunday, a few weeks after Easter. He said his wife had been confirmed at the Vigil and they had sat in the front, with the other confirmands and their families. There was trio of kids who were rolling around in the seats behind them, squabbling and kicking the pew my friend and his wife were in. When The Story of Creation began, the kids froze, riveted to the action of the performers. Flowers bloomed in front of their eyes, bulls swung their horns and birds soared through the air. As every person male and female was created, the actors moved to the altar rail and listened to their charge to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth. Then the actors brought our their brightly colored scarves and handed them each to each, reveling in their vibrancy, uniqueness and individual beauty. A small voice behind my friend said, ‘Mama, Mama, look! They're sharing!’ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.” — Benjamin Privitt

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