If that name sounds familiar, you get a gold star on the Catholic chart. That's right, our very own Venerable Holy Father John Paul II was an accomplished playwright before he came to sit at The Holy See!
The Jeweler's Shop: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama, or Przed sklepem jubilera in Polish, is a three-act play to be performed for the first time in years in the United States at James Madison University's new Forbes Center.
* Saturday, November 13, 2010 -- 2:00 pm
* Sunday, November 14, 2010 -- 2:00 pm & 8:00 pm
* Monday, November 15, 2010 -- 8:00 pm
* Tuesday, November 16, 2010 -- 8:00 pm
* Wednesday, November 17, 2010 -- 8:00 pm
I am intimately connected to this play because my sister Christine is the director. She and her lovely co-director, also a devout Catholic, have faced more than a dozen major road bumps in the process of bringing this play to JMU. All the hiccups were unrelated, detrimental and would have tempted directors of weaker faith to give up. These two beautiful ladies persevered, with the help of prayer and a mutual faith, and the play hits the stage in 9 days.
If you're within driving distance of Harrisonburg, VA, this play will refresh your views about marriage, as God intended it. The play is $6 per person ("WHAT?! I PAID TWICE THAT BOTH TIMES I SAW INCEPTION!") and need to be purchased in advance. We will be happy to reserve tickets for you, just email me (this is my own jewelry shop's email address, pun intended) with your party number and date.
Christine and Dora will need the consolation and intercession of a few more decades of the Rosary before the stress cloud passes, but they hope you can join them for a night of true passion.
2 comments:
Wish I was going to be in the neighborhood to see this. Sounds like a real winner... and with that trademark Hillgrove flare for the dramatic it's sure to be.
A dramatic reading of The Jeweler's Shop as performed by the St. Genesius Company (an Amateur Drama Group) in November 2008 is available for viewing on Youtube. An excellent introduction is provided by Carole Brown. I hope you enjoy it.
The sound quality is not optimal and you may need to turn up the volume a little.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ilifedramatv
The play is written in the style of Rhapsodic Theater, which emphasizes the spoken word rather than the characters or the set. This style of Theater was used as a means of preserving Polish culture during a period of history when external powers where intent upon crushing it. Plays written in this style were performed in secret, often in homes with minimal staging and lighting in order that the performers could quickly disguise their activity in the event that they were interrupted by the authorities. Our dramatic reading is performed with minimal set. The Jeweler's Shop is 'a meditation that lapses occasionally into drama' to quote the author. The characters speak their thoughts and reflections as a stream of consciousness to the audience in monologues that are cleverly linked and profound in their content.
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