It's been 12 years since Corpus Christi created a theatrical firestorm – even before anyone had seen it – which included threats of violence by religious forces against the theater that was producing it, and threats of boycotts by theater notables against the theater when it cancelled the production. When the Manhattan Theater Club restored the production, the critics seemed disappointed that it was not the sensationalist screed anticipated.

Terrence McNally's play imagines Jesus as a contemporary young gay male living in an intolerant Texas city where he is bullied in high school. There have been occasional productions around the country since its star-crossed debut, including a 2000 production at New Conservatory Theatre Center, but Corpus Christi has found a resurrection in perhaps the most unexpected of venues: churches.

Born at the Metropolitan Community Church in San Fernando Valley in 2006 as a one-off event, the production has played churches throughout California, and its success has led to commercial runs in New York and Los Angeles and festivals in Dublin and Edinburgh. The production is on its way back to the Bay Area, with engagements on March 19 at Grace Cathedral and March 20 at New Spirit Church in Berkeley.

"It's very homegrown," said producer-director Nic Arnzen. "We started humbly, and I just sort of gathered up people I trusted and who would handle the material delicately. I was focused as much on finding professional actors as people who acted in a professional manner." While the play was written for 13 male performers, who also occasionally played female characters, Arnzen cast his production with both men and women – after receiving the playwright's permission.

There are, in fact, professional actors in the production, including Arnzen himself (his credits include Days of Our

Performance artist D'Lo is bringing Ramble-Ations to the Brava Theater Center.

Lives and lots of Chicago and LA stage work) and James Brandon, the actor who plays Jesus, who has credits on several TV series and in numerous regional theaters.

"The majority of the cast are still the original 13, though we have other actors who come in and out when someone can't get away from their families or their jobs," Arnzen said. "Actors are not paid or paid only to a small degree, so it can be a sacrifice to do the show for them. A lot of our performances are benefits either to continue the production or to benefit gay and lesbian causes."

Even so, and despite the Biblical source material, Arnzen said Corpus Christi "is not a religious play, and it's not a gay play. We all long for love, we all long for unity, we all long for equality. The play has a beautiful message, and, yes, part of it is the idea that homosexuality and religion can come together."

The four-year odyssey of the production began when Arnzen and his partner, who have adopted two children, were looking for a welcoming church in Los Angeles. They came upon MCC in the Valley, and when the pastor noted Arnzen's theatrical background, he offered him a chance to restart the church's theater program. Arnzen quickly suggested Corpus Christi .

For the past year, cameras have been following the production from city to city for a documentary Arnzen hopes is ready by the fall. He was talking on his cell phone from outside Greenwich Village's fabled Stonewall Inn, which will be shown in the documentary. Playwright McNally has been a big supporter of this version of Corpus Christi, and was interviewed for the documentary.

"We use our production of Corpus Christi as a framework, but the documentary will explore how society has changed on homosexual issues since the intense protests that first greeted the play in 1998. In our experiences, the play has been embraced."

There was one notable exception to the goodwill it has provoked. "At a church in Orange County, we had really angry protesters," Arnzen said. "The cast gathers in an almost prayer-like circle before each performance, and I was quietly talking to them about love and being connected, and meanwhile you can hear this man outside the church shouting, 'You're all cocksuckers going to hell.' And he's supposed to be Christian. But how great is this? The church is bringing us back on Easter Day."

To read more about this production of Corpus Christi, go to www.108productions.org. Tickets to the upcoming Bay Area performances are available through www.brownpapertickets.com.

 

Culture shocks

A lot of personal gay stories have been told on stage, but the performance artist known as D'Lo has a background that may be singular. He grew up gay in a Hindu Tamil Sri Lankan family in Los Angeles, where hip-hop and stand-up became his creative outlets. He has put it all together in Ramble-Ations, a solo performance that runs March 17-April 3 at Brava Theater Center.

D'Lo uses a good deal of humor as he portrays numerous characters in an exploration of cultural, racial, and sexual conflicts seen from his unique perspective. "I believe that my role as an artist is to break silences that have been surrounding us all our lives," he said, "to talk about all that shit we've always been hush-hush about." Ticket info is at www.brava.org.

 

Richard Dodds can be reached at BARstage@comcast.net.