HOLY NIGHTS (POPE JOHN PAUL II’S PLAYS REVIVED IN FEST)

NY Post ^ | May 13, 2007 | DAN KADISON

[NYer]

May 13, 2007 -- POPE John Paul II had spoken on many stages before, but not until now had the late pontiff preached from the Great White Way. You see, decades before he became his faith’s spiritual father, Pope John Paul II was a Polish actor and dramatist named Karol Wojtyla.

Beginning Wednesday and continuing through June 17, the Storm Theatre, a Midtown group founded in 1997, will kick off a monthlong Wojtyla Festival with two of Pope John Paul II’s better-known works, “The Jeweler’s Shop” and “Our God’s Brother.” The second part of the festival will continue in the fall with another pair of the pope’s plays, “Job” and “Jeremiah,” and could be followed by stage readings of two more of his works, “Reflections on Fatherhood” and “Radiation on Fatherhood.”

“I don’t know if anyone has attempted this sort of festival before in New York City,” says Michelle Kafel, associate producer. “Who would ever imagine John Paul II off-Broadway?”

Peter Dobbins, the theater’s co-founder, did.

Dobbins found a translation of the pope’s plays in a Texas bookshop 20 years ago, and was taken with them while he was a young performer. “If you sat and read it in your room, you would think this was kind of deep and heady,” Dobbins says. “But when actors say it, it becomes a different experience, it becomes light and beautiful.”

The theater group - which has produced everything from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” to “Linnea,” a retelling of Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” - had been talking about putting on the plays for years, but only recently secured the rights from Pope John Paul II’s translator Boleslaw Taborski. Taborski, via e-mail, says the pope actually wrote one other play, “David,” which has never been found.

[NYer]

LIKE A PRAYER: The Storm Theatre Group rehearses for the Wojtyla Festival.

[Clemenza]

Saw a production of “The Jeweler’s Shop” at NYU a few years back. Very good stuff.

[NYer]

The first of the two plays being staged this month, “The Jeweler’s Shop,” is a meditation on love and God, which involves six people: a joyous married couple, an estranged couple and a child from each of those relationships who are set to walk down the aisle.

“This is people giving glimpses into their personal life,” says Elizabeth Wirth, an actress in “Jeweler’s Shop.” The play is “giving voice to a lot of questions that we all have often, but don’t ask out loud: Is this the right person? Is this going to last?” The pope finished the play in 1960 when he was the bishop of Krakow, and was inspired to write by his counseling sessions with parishioners, says Dobbins.

This is enticement enough to hop on board Amtrak for a day trip to NYC. May the show's producers enjoy a long run!

[NYer]

The first of the two plays being staged this month, “The Jeweler’s Shop,” is a meditation on love and God, which involves six people: a joyous married couple, an estranged couple and a child from each of those relationships who are set to walk down the aisle.

“This is people giving glimpses into their personal life,” says Elizabeth Wirth, an actress in “Jeweler’s Shop.” The play is “giving voice to a lot of questions that we all have often, but don’t ask out loud: Is this the right person? Is this going to last?” The pope finished the play in 1960 when he was the bishop of Krakow, and was inspired to write by his counseling sessions with parishioners, says Dobbins.

This is enticement enough to hop on board Amtrak for a day trip to NYC. May the show's producers enjoy a long run!

[Clemenza]

How long is the train ride from Albany to NYC, btw?

[NYer]

How long is the train ride from Albany to NYC, btw?

It is supposed to take about 2 1/2 hours but that doesn't factor in the usual delays.

[siunevada]

“If you sat and read it in your room, you would think this was kind of deep and heady,” Dobbins says. “But when actors say it, it becomes a different experience, it becomes light and beautiful.”

Nice.