Faith and Arts Ottawa, with the help of Carleton professor Tom Sherwood, staged a play called godVERBATIM at St. Paul’s Eastern United Church as part of Ottawa Fringe Festival from June 21-28.
Sherwood, former Carleton chaplain, seeks to ask and answer what he says are important questions with the play. The idea started over dinner, when a group of creative young adults from Faith and Arts Ottawa were inspired by Sherwood’s work.
Faith and Arts Ottawa is an experimental ministry of the United Church of Canada, founded in 2013, which attempts to use art as a way to reach out to people of different religious beliefs, faiths, ethnicities, sexualities, etc. and provide a fun, safe conduit for the sharing of new ideas.
“We’d like to connect with anyone, but especially those who because of their beliefs feel like they don’t have a community to be a part of. Many of us are in that boat, and so we really identify with others in a similar situation,” actor Jessica Rousseau said.
Sherwood’s over 600 interviews and hundreds of hours of GoogleChat conversations, fueled what was named The God Monologues.
Originally Sherwood presented his work at the 2013 World Council of Churches in meeting in South Korea, before presenting it to Faith and Arts Ottawa, and he describes the process as a risky and exciting thing to do.
Sherwood said that co-directors Eleanor Crowder and Anna Lewis assisted him with formatting the play. They influenced the decision to do Verbatim Theatre format. Verbatim Theatre is a type of documentary theatre based on the actual spoken words of interviewees. Along with traditional interviews Sherwood says that godVERBATIM incorporates technology and social media into the performance in an innovative way.
Rosseau said they are encouraging their audiences to tweet or Facebook their questions about God.
“We’re going to include some of them in the show, hopefully some live and then more into future performances. We want to create a safe space for everyone to be able to question and respond,” she said.
Rousseau’s favourite part of godVERBATIM is the diversity of the cast.
“We have young, old, bisexual, trans, vegan, foodies, artists, and intellectuals,” she said. “We are each unique ourselves, and getting to know such a varied cast has been a great experience . . . It was truly a safe space and a lot of us are sharing very deep personal beliefs and questions. How often does that happen, you know?”
“Our work plays off that theme, questioning things that are considered truths by the major religions, and finding truth in questioning.” said Rosseau.
GodVERBATIM is one of many plays being staged as part of the Ottawa Fringe Festival which showcases independent theatre across the capital from June 19- 29.
