Spotlight on Godspell

potlight on Godspell: A Guidebook for Directors
by John McTavish

Not a letter...not a stroke...will disappear from the law...

GODSPELL'S libretto tells the story of Jesus and his teachings. But it rarely offers detailed suggestions on how to bring that biblical material to entertaining life on stage.

This is why it's so helpful to know the oral tradition which is drawn from John-Michael Tebelak's original Broadway production and countless productions since.

SPOTLIGHT'S interpretative suggestions are indebted to this oral tradition. Of course they're merely suggestions: adopt them; modify them; ignore them as you like. Still, they're bound to help directors understand the libretto better and generate the humor and pathos and, above all, the energy level that marks first-class productions of Godspell.

The SAMPLE shows the story of the Good Samaritan with the cast, as the libretto suggests, portraying "actors" on a broom handle.

John McTavish is a retired minister in the United Church of Canada with a lifetime of experience in theatre. Besides directing several productions of Godspell he has directed productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Annie, Li'l Abner, Anne of Green Gables, Twelve Angry Men, and The Norman Conquests. He is the co-author of "Skin Deep: The Story of Martin Luther King" (Baker's Plays) and the editor of several anthologies of plays.

The Pharisee, why he just stood right on up, and praaaayed thus...