The Day of the Last supper....

Terri Schiavo last supper....!
The Day of the Last supper....
Thu Mar 24, 2005 15:42
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Church drama examines emotions of Last Supper

By Paul Huggins
DAILY Staff Writer
phuggins@decaturdaily.com � 340-2395


TRINITY — If you could change places with any of the 12 disciples, would your faith tremble as theirs did when they questioned themselves about Jesus' betrayer?


DAILY Photo by Dan Henry
The cast of the Living Last Supper at the second dress rehearsal Wednesday.

Attendees of Trinity United Methodist Church's drama titled "Is It I, Lord?" will face that question as the church presents a re-enactment of The Last Supper as part of its Easter celebration.

The hour-and-15-minute play stands apart from Easter programs that typically focus on the Crucifixion and Resurrection, said Ray Phillips, Trinity's music director, who coordinates the drama.

Trinity's drama aims to help people understand that Jesus' chosen group consisted of ordinary men, as fallible and filled with doubts as men today, he said. Attendees can feel a sense of pain the disciples felt as Jesus spoke of his death but also come away with a oneness God intended with Holy Communion.

"What it does is allow a lot of people to understand the whole story," Phillips said. "It's a very somber, very reverent time. We ask that people come and leave quietly."

This is the third time in five years that Trinity has performed "Is It I, Lord?" It plays tonight, Friday and Saturday at 7 in the church's 107-year-old sanctuary on Seneca Drive. Phillips received the script from a former pastor who said it was five or six generations old.

As the drama's prologue explains, the scene depicts the famous painting of the Last Supper that Leonardo da Vinci painted in 1498 at a Dominican monastery in Milan, Italy. The painting is a snapshot of the disciples' reactions when Jesus tells them one will betray him.

According to John 13:22, "His disciples stared at one another with a loss to know which of them he meant."

The drama features each disciple with a monologue that gives details of their lives and how they first react with denial, then with uncertainty and finally with thankfulness as Jesus administers the Last Supper.

After the disciple actors receive the sacraments, they offer communion to the attendees. The play concludes with Phillips explaining how each disciple died.

Like the artist who used real people as models for the disciples' faces so onlookers could feel part of the scene, Phillips said he gives careful attention to picking actors with whom the audience can identify. He encourages the actors to speak with their usual mannerisms.

Unlike popular belief about da Vinci, Phillips did not search local jails for the face of Judas. He chose Earl Leonard because he has the most distinct and booming voice.

"He comes across as different from the rest, and he needs to be," Phillips said, noting it's a funny coincidence that Judas was a tax collector and Leonard was once Trinity's financial director.

Leonard said it's easy to identify with Judas.

"He had to do things in his own time instead of God's time, and you know I do that myself," he said.

Other cast members, who spent three months preparing for their roles, said the more they study their characters the more they realize they have in common.

Marty Shelton said like his character, Andrew, he is a quiet, normally behind-the-scenes guy, who wants to be involved but not the center of attention.

Fred Noland, who portrays Matthew, said his disciple was known as the cerebral one. Though he doesn't consider himself smart, he identifies with Matthew's desire to seek proof before believing and with how he strongly defended his opinions.

The youngest member of the cast, Chase Chenault, plays the youngest disciple, Philip. Like his character, Chenault said because of his age, he tends to seclude himself and wait for the older members of the church to take the initiative.

Mark Brazelton, who portrays Thomas, said even though he's performed his role before, each new performance still uncovers new feelings of the pain and struggle that the disciples endured.

"Last time when we got to the communion, it hit a lot of us and it really moved us," he said.

Shelton agreed, specifically mentioning when he carries communion to the congregation and visitors.

"You go out and look in their eyes, and those you know, you call by name and tell them this is the body of Christ given for you. It brings home what communion is all about," he concluded. "It's about sharing."

How Jesus' 12 disciples are believed to have died

The New Testament tells the end of only two apostles: Judas, who betrayed Jesus and then killed himself; and James the son of Zebedee, who was executed by Herod. Trinity United Methodist Church's drama, "Is It I, Lord?" gives the following accounts of their deaths based on traditions and historic reports.
# Bartholomew was beaten and crucified in India.
# James, son of Alphaeus, worked in Jerusalem, where he was stoned and beaten to death with a club.
# Andrew was crucified at Odessa, in what is now the Ukrainian Republic, on a cross shaped like the letter X with two ends buried deep in the ground. To this day, this shape is called St. Andrew's cross.
# Judas Iscariot was the one who betrayed Jesus. Later he became remorseful and hanged himself. Legend says the 30 pieces of silver, which he had returned to the chief priest, were used to buy a field outside Jerusalem in which to bury strangers, and that Judas' body was probably thrown into a cave there in the Potter's Field.
# Peter was put to death as a part of a persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Nero. Jerome tells us that he was imprisoned in Rome, and then crucified upside down, as Peter himself requested, because, he said, "I am not worthy to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord."
# John was exiled to the desert island of Patmos after escaping, without injury, from a huge pot of boiling oil. He was later released and died in Ephesus, a city in what is now Turkey. John was the only disciple to die of old age. His constant message and his reported last words were "Love one another."
# Thomas excited the rage of a pagan priest while preaching in India, and he was immediately killed with a spear.
# James, son of Zebedee, was put to death by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem. As James was led away, his accuser fell down on his knees to request pardon, confessing himself to be a Christian, and resolving that James should not receive the crown of death alone. So they were beheaded together.
# Philip died somewhere in northern Turkey. He was beaten, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified.
# Matthew was killed at Nadabah, Ethiopia, with a long-handled combination spear and ax.
# Thaddeus was crucified, also at Odessa.
# Simon, now a zealot for Christ, was crucified in Britain.

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Terri Schiavo last supper....!

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