‘The Heart of the Cross’ is a one-woman Passion play
Mar. 20, 2013
The Herald Sun – Durham, NC
BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 919-419-6563
For more than 20 years, Olivia Woodford has been performing her one-woman Passion play, “The Heart of the Cross,” from the perspective of Biblical women. Cultural interest in the women portrayed has evolved over the years, with a certain fictional book and movie becoming the tipping point.
Woodford, who lives in Durham, will perform “The Heart of the Cross” at three local churches during Holy Week.
In 1991, Woodford was living in Massachusetts and presenting an original play at her church every Easter. “Suddenly I went, ‘You know, it’s the women who were witness to the Passion,’” she said, referring to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. “Now it’s obvious, but back 20 years ago, it wasn’t. For that particular Easter I thought to create a one-woman passion play for the benefit of myself and my church, but others who attended the performance who were from different churches asked if I would give a performance for their church,” Woodford said.
She hadn't intended her Passion Play to spark a ministry or even be presented as an annual event, yet that’s what it has become, she said. Her own religious background includes a Catholic mother, Congregational father and being taught by Lutheran missionaries through elementary school. She never thought of the denominations as conflicting but complementing each other.
Woodford started her theatrical portrayals with Jesus’ mother, Mary, and then looked at other women mentioned in the New Testament, including those who traveled with Jesus. Since creating the Passion Play, she has also created plays depicting Advent, Jesus’ first year of ministry and the last year of Jesus’ life.
The tipping point that brought widespread interest in the women in Jesus’ life, Woodford said, came around 2005-06 with Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code,” the blockbuster adventure novel and fictional movie about the search for links between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. “Everyone had a thought about it, a conversation about it,” Woodford said.
She grew up being taught that Mary Magdalene was the reformed prostitute, which was erroneous. The Vatican declared the mistake in 1968, but it took a while for everyone to receive the new information and to change their mindset, she said. When she started performing the play in 1992, she depicted Mary Magdalene as the repentent prostitute standing at the foot of the cross.
“In 2005, overnight, each church where she performed, no matter the denomination, in California, New England and New Zealand said, ‘You aren’t going to present her as the reformed prostitute, are you?’” Woodford said. In the wake of these events, she changed Mary Magdalene’s role to a different perspective, and has another woman portray the reformed prostitute. Other women characters in her Passion Play are a girl who is cleaning the house before the Last Supper, Veronica who watches Jesus carry the cross, and Mother Mary, who prepares her son for burial. Mary Magdalene is portrayed at the Resurrection, and then Martha at Pentecost.
For the women’s perspectives, Woodford’s dialogue features the inner thoughts and feelings of her characters, and draws out daily life and culture of the time, with daily tasks woven throughout the play. “It lends itself to the audience’s feeling as if they were there, experiencing it along with me,” she said.
Woodford said over the years performing the plays about Biblical women, she has developed a much more personal relationship and connection to Jesus and with those who followed Jesus. For churches where she performs “The Heart of the Cross,” Woodford said, no matter how liberal or conservative the congregation, the response is the same. “The story is universal. The experience is universal,” she said. “My doctrine is love. Jesus said to Love God with all your heart and your might, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And through the performance, I believe that the story itself gives provides an experience that has you reconnect with your faith and love for Christ.”
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