Happy Tragedy Day!

I've never really been that much into acting, I guess mainly because I always end up laughing right in the middle of my lines. I can't keep a straight face :) Yet, when assigned a tragedy script in which I CANT laugh, I found that I really got into my part. My group decided that during both Act 2 and Act 4 the actors should be silent and that only the Chorus should be speaking, in an effort to keep them from leaving and making the wrong choice. During Act 4, when I was talking to Ben and Megan (playing Mom and Dad), I found myself choking up, almost crying. I couldn't believe it! Yet, I talked with the rest of our group and they all said that they had all gotten into their roles as well.

I think this assignment really helped us all to relate with some of the crazy, tragic things of our faith. Being a Christian ain't easy. The truth is, our relationships that we have with others on this earth will never be fully reconciled. Only when we reach heaven together will we be able to love each other perfectly. We will love each other as Christ loves us.

I don't think that means we shouldn't even try though. It was kinda tough writing a tragedy from the Christian worldview, just because as Christians we will never experience complete despair and we will never be without hope. Blaine and Megan (as the girlfriend), represent the hope in our story. I loved our last scene when I, as Chorus, enter into the actor's realm and had a conversation with Blaine. We decided as a group that I should freeze after emphasizing that his girlfriend was "all he had left." This suggests that I am no longer needed in the story, because the characters finally found hope and truth in each other, and from the Christian perspective, in God.

The "E" in oEdipus

Though the complex plot of Oedipus doesn't allow for a complete metaphor, the shepherd character acts as sort of Saviour to the young Oedipus tied up by his ankles. The metaphor breaks down when one views this act as only an attempt to loosen fate's grip on the child's life. However, in an effort to "evangelize the text" one can clearly replace the lifeless, vulnerable Oedipus with any one of us. We are all lost and chained by our ankles to our sin, unable to escape it's grip without the help of an outsider. Somebody perfect and compassionate that finds us and does everything he can to save us. Jesus is our shepherd. While we all slowly die in our sins up on some faraway hill thinking we will never be found, Jesus is searching all over the countryside for that one lost sheep.

"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." Luke 15:4-7