A Rapturous Treatment of a Walk Away from Religious Roots
By Lauren Yarger
Faced with choosing to believe that either she is a speck of dust or that the world was created especially for her, actress Sherie Rene Scott chose the latter and pens her journey away from her “half” Mennonite roots to Broadway fame in Everyday Rapture, playing Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre.
Scott shares her experiences with the audience in a script co-written with Dick Scanlan and offers a number of songs (music direction by Carmel Dean). She’s backed up by singers Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolf on a set designed by Christine Jones that evokes thoughts of a cosmic connect-the-dots (lighting by Kevin Adams).
A rabbi (or was it a Muslim or a Buddhist, she wonders) tells her to carry the two opposing approaches to life written out on sheets of paper carried in both hip pockets. She embraces the idea, seeing it as a way to avoid having to choose between them as she searches for a way to “be one with God while a lot of people clapped.”
Torn between her desire from a very early age to be a star and an upbringing that frowns on prideful pursuits (the only cool thing about being Mennonite, she tells us, is that you’re supposed to be non-judgmental), Scott gets her first chance to perform for patients at a hospital. “No matter what God said, I was going to modulate,” she says. A series of photos and depictions of Jesus are projected on a screen while Scott sings “You Made Me Love You, I Didn’t want to Do it…”
Her friend, Jerome, tells her he thinks she has what it takes to make it big. Fueled by his encouragement and disillusioned by hateful anti-gay protests by people from her church at his funeral, Scott heads off to New York when it’s time for her Rumpsringa (a Mennonite tradition where those coming of age are allowed to experience life outside of the sheltered community). There she meets a street magician named Ray who gets her pregnant, but sends her money for an abortion when she returns to Kansas. She comes to a realization that keeping the two slips of paper in her pockets doesn’t allow her to avoid making a choice. “You do have to choose,” she says. “It’s either or. I chose life. My own.”
She goes on to achieve success on Broadway and reaches out to an awkward boy who posts a video on YouTube of him lip syncing to her rendition of “My Strongest Suit” from Aida (her turn as Amneris in the original Broadway recording is one of my favorite listens). She becomes increasingly frustrated, however, when her plans to reach out to the boy result in his refusing to believe that the person contacting him really is the Broadway star. This sequence, where we get to hear the song, while a talented Eamon Foley acts out the boy’s outrageous moves behind the frame of a video screen is one of the most engaging in the production. It’s weakened by a refocus of attention on Scott, however.
Through the course of her journey, Scott shifts from worship of Jesus to Judy Garland to Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) and finally to her young son. She tells him not to search for a four-leaf clover because she doesn’t believe in luck. She believes people make their own luck – until he finds one on his first attempt. She takes this as a sign that her son is lucky and when the family cat eats the treasure, she curses and tries to strangle the animal, because she wants her son to be lucky, not a speck of dust.
She concludes with thoughts about how the Mennonites always taught she should be prepared for the Rapture (the return of Christ), but she has found, instead, that by embracing a world created for her, she experiences a rapture every day.
“May your Rumspringa last forever,” she says.
Everyday Rapture plays at Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd St. at 8th Avenue, NYC, through June 14. For tickets, visit http://2st.com/seasonShow.php?show=6.
Christians might also like to know:
• Language
By Lauren Yarger
Faced with choosing to believe that either she is a speck of dust or that the world was created especially for her, actress Sherie Rene Scott chose the latter and pens her journey away from her “half” Mennonite roots to Broadway fame in Everyday Rapture, playing Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre.
Scott shares her experiences with the audience in a script co-written with Dick Scanlan and offers a number of songs (music direction by Carmel Dean). She’s backed up by singers Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolf on a set designed by Christine Jones that evokes thoughts of a cosmic connect-the-dots (lighting by Kevin Adams).
A rabbi (or was it a Muslim or a Buddhist, she wonders) tells her to carry the two opposing approaches to life written out on sheets of paper carried in both hip pockets. She embraces the idea, seeing it as a way to avoid having to choose between them as she searches for a way to “be one with God while a lot of people clapped.”
Torn between her desire from a very early age to be a star and an upbringing that frowns on prideful pursuits (the only cool thing about being Mennonite, she tells us, is that you’re supposed to be non-judgmental), Scott gets her first chance to perform for patients at a hospital. “No matter what God said, I was going to modulate,” she says. A series of photos and depictions of Jesus are projected on a screen while Scott sings “You Made Me Love You, I Didn’t want to Do it…”
Her friend, Jerome, tells her he thinks she has what it takes to make it big. Fueled by his encouragement and disillusioned by hateful anti-gay protests by people from her church at his funeral, Scott heads off to New York when it’s time for her Rumpsringa (a Mennonite tradition where those coming of age are allowed to experience life outside of the sheltered community). There she meets a street magician named Ray who gets her pregnant, but sends her money for an abortion when she returns to Kansas. She comes to a realization that keeping the two slips of paper in her pockets doesn’t allow her to avoid making a choice. “You do have to choose,” she says. “It’s either or. I chose life. My own.”
She goes on to achieve success on Broadway and reaches out to an awkward boy who posts a video on YouTube of him lip syncing to her rendition of “My Strongest Suit” from Aida (her turn as Amneris in the original Broadway recording is one of my favorite listens). She becomes increasingly frustrated, however, when her plans to reach out to the boy result in his refusing to believe that the person contacting him really is the Broadway star. This sequence, where we get to hear the song, while a talented Eamon Foley acts out the boy’s outrageous moves behind the frame of a video screen is one of the most engaging in the production. It’s weakened by a refocus of attention on Scott, however.
Through the course of her journey, Scott shifts from worship of Jesus to Judy Garland to Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) and finally to her young son. She tells him not to search for a four-leaf clover because she doesn’t believe in luck. She believes people make their own luck – until he finds one on his first attempt. She takes this as a sign that her son is lucky and when the family cat eats the treasure, she curses and tries to strangle the animal, because she wants her son to be lucky, not a speck of dust.
She concludes with thoughts about how the Mennonites always taught she should be prepared for the Rapture (the return of Christ), but she has found, instead, that by embracing a world created for her, she experiences a rapture every day.
“May your Rumspringa last forever,” she says.
Everyday Rapture plays at Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd St. at 8th Avenue, NYC, through June 14. For tickets, visit http://2st.com/seasonShow.php?show=6.
Christians might also like to know:
• Language
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