Faith on Wry
2007 · Jacksonville Theatre Guild; First Christian Church of Pittsfield
Faith on Wry — drawn from Ken Bradbury's larger work Sitting Room Only and published as Faith, Sliced on Wry by The Consortium Publishing Company — is a play in two acts that braids together seven separate stories of ordinary people wrestling with belief. The scenes interleave rather than play out one at a time: Jenna's "I Stand at the Door and Knock," Linda and Roy's "The Seventh-Day Stretch," Richard's "In the Beginning," Carol and Nick's "A Bomb in Gilead," the choir-loft comedy of "A Joyful Noise," Micah and Ann's "Now I Lay Me," and Helen's "Table Guest" all cross and recross until, in the closing "Alpha & Omega," the whole company gathers as one.
What the audience discovers only at the end — to its delight — is that this cast of believers can sing. As one viewer put it after the show, "the surprise was that they were all singers. I've never heard the Gloria Patri so beautiful." The play handles faith with both humor (the wry) and sincerity, and Bradbury aimed it squarely at the trap of churchy theatre. In his own listeners' words, the show "wasn't pasteurized like most of the church stuff. It was warts and all."
Presented in a dessert-theatre format, the production was a benefit through and through: all proceeds went to the Jacksonville Do What It Takes Committee and the Pike County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Synopsis of Scenes
Act I
- I Stand at the Door & Knock
- The Seventh-Day Stretch
- In the Beginning
- A Bomb in Gilead
- A Joyful Noise
- Now I Lay Me
Act II
- Table Guest
- I Stand at the Door & Knock
- In the Beginning
- Now I Lay Me
- A Bomb in Gilead
- Table Guest
- Alpha & Omega
Cast
- Roberta — Martha Bangert
- Helen — Sylvia Burke
- Richard — Tim Chipman
- Jenna — Jodi Heitbrink
- Micah — Megan Heitbrink
- Harold — Bob Large
- Roy — Don Schneider
- Linda — Linda Schneider
- Fran — Ann Snodgrass
- Nick — Granger Snodgrass
- Ann — Christine Smith
- Carol — Jan Terry
Production Notes
Faith on Wry was written and directed by Ken Bradbury, with music written specially for the show by Roger Wainwright and Chuck West serving as Technical Director. It was sponsored by the Jacksonville Theatre Guild, First Christian Church of Pittsfield, and Lincoln Land Community College, and presented with the permission of The Consortium Publishing Company of Jacksonville, Illinois.
The show played a 2007 run in Jacksonville before moving to Pittsfield — a stage four inches higher, with no side walls and the audience spread wider — on a single rehearsal. Bradbury kept the company close through a run of cheerful in-house newsletters he called "The Crumbs," full of show-night protocol, makeup advice from Sylvia Burke, and his trademark dry notes ("No matter what happens, it'll be okay"). A separate production by the Beardstown Opera theatre group followed in April. Reflecting on the closing afternoon, Bradbury wrote: "Yea, it's tough to end an experience we've grown to love, but remember: the real tragedy would be an experience that we're glad is finally over. I'll take this any day."
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