Julie: On being a Fig Tree (in a Mark Drama production)

For a couple of months in the lead up to Easter, I was part of a Mark Drama cast. It was led by our friend, Rick Creighton, who teaches at a local theological seminary. Most of the cast members were his students, with three of us coming from our organisation: Richard (who had played Jesus in October), Martha and myself. Nigeria is a predominantly oral culture and most people, even if they are good readers, prefer to learn orally, so instead of having us read the Mark Experiment book, he talked it through with us all. I was really impressed with how well everyone learned the material. As not-really-an-actor I eagerly embraced the role of Fig Tree, but then I had to turn into Pontius Pilate and face down Jesus! The performances went really well and it was clear that many people were moved by what was presented to them.

We continue hoping for two sets of performances in the North (one in Hausa and the other in English) and the two Jesus actors and producer came down and sat in the rehearsals and first performances so they could get more of an idea of what they were trying to achieve. Looking forward, one of our biggest challenges is that people already have an idea of what ‘drama’ is so don’t always realise the level of commitment involved in the Mark Drama, particularly in learning Mark’s Gospel in the lead up to rehearsals. We are working on ways to tackle that, such as getting casts to watch a performance before attempting to perform one, and for the Jesus actor to be someone who has been in a cast before in a different role. Although the Northern casts have postponed for now, another cast in Jos did manage to put on two performances after several delays in getting things together, and those went well.