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LARKSVILLE — While local actor Scott Woolnough has portrayed characters as diverse as Hamlet and the strict father in “Footloose,” his latest role has provided a new, religious experience.
“In one rehearsal, I was lying on the ground and the guards were doing the ‘hammering,’” said Woolnough, who portrays Jesus Christ in “Relics of the Passion,” the latest play the Rev. Gerald Gurka, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church, has written. “I looked up (at the crucifix above the church’s altar) and the Jesus that’s up there was looking down at me.
“It was really amazing.”
Woolnough, who “lives next door” to the church, isn’t a member at the moment — that may change, he said — but he’s enjoying the chance to help Gurka and the parishioners bring the Easter story to life.
Passion plays like this one, set for 7:30 tonight inside the church, are an annual tradition for Gurka and his flock, who typically focus on different elements of the story each year.
This year’s production, for example, includes the legend that a Roman centurion who thrust a spear into Jesus’ side had his failing eyesight restored when blood and water gushed forth and splashed his face.
While most depictions of the Passion include at least a mention of a bystander named Simon of Cyrene, whom the soldiers press into service to help carry Jesus’ cross, this version also gives Simon a son named Rufus who is carrying a basket of eggs to market.
A soldier breaks the eggs, but in this story they are miraculously restored to wholeness and transformed into bright colors — a legend that explains why many people color “Easter eggs” today.
“It was like a ‘thank you’ from Jesus, for Simon helping him,” said Ron Stoffick, who portrays Simon.
Eight-year-old Brady Sherman, who portrays Rufus, said he expects to dye some eggs of his own at home.
“Relics of the Passion” also explains how the historical figure St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, searched for the cross on which Jesus had been crucified and is believed to have found it, along with his crown of thorns and other artifacts.
Neither the crown nor the cross are intact today, Gurka said, explaining that thorns were broken from the crown and distributed as relics, as were fragments of the cross.
But other artifacts, such as the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium, which are believed to be, respectively, Jesus’ burial cloth and head wrapping, are intact. The Shroud is kept in the Royal Chapel of the Turin Cathedral in Italy, and the Sudarium in the Cathedral of Oviedo, Spain.
For believers, Gurka said, a relic can “make the story more real. That’s the beauty of it. It’s like a picture that makes you think of a place you’d like to visit or a souvenir that reminds you of a place you’ve been.”
“We don’t worship them,” he added.
Throughout this year’s Passion play, St. Helena and her son Constantine interact with St. Leonard, who is credited with designing the 14 Stations of the Cross, artwork traditionally placed in Catholic churches to portray the story of Jesus’ death, from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his being placed in a tomb.
All three characters have a conversation with Jesus, who thanks Helena for searching for the relics, Leonard for devoting his life to “preaching the Way of the Cross,” and Constantine for ending the persecution of Christians.
Appearing in the play together is a rewarding family activity said Lucy Singer, of Larksville, who portrays St. Helena while her husband, Scott, portrays St. Leonard.
The couple, sometimes joined by a son or two, have had roles in Gurka’s Easter and Christmas plays for years. During his first Christmas play, Scott Singer said, he agreed to take on a Magi role, but pointed out to Gurka that, at the time, he wasn’t Catholic.
“That’s OK,” he remembers the priest told him. “Neither were the three wise men.”
“He makes you feel welcome,” Scott Singer said.
