Ransom the what? When Daniel Jones joined Alison Siewert’s worship team at his church in Pennsylvania, they never dreamed that they would be touring North America together, performing the Gospel of Mark for audiences wanting a fresh view of Jesus. They call themselves ransomTHEdonKey, and they perform markproject as an adaptation of the gospel for a postmodern audience.
Alison credits her years of teaching a Mark manuscript study, and her long involvement with the arts and worship, as the foundation for her writing and acting today. Daniel is a professional actor with a theatre degree from Moravian College. “God was challenging me to make my life useful to others through my artistic gifts,” says Daniel. “I wanted to disciple others and teach scripture, not just be an actor.” In a theatre along a river, they began to meet with others who wanted to be a part of an artistic community gathered around the gospel.
As part of their community worship, Alison began writing and translating some of Mark’s stories into a more immediate, identifiable cultural context. By October 2000, she had written the whole script of Mark for an InterVarsity fall conference. They originally had a cast of six, and performed it in two parts, with the conference speaker integrating the drama into her talks. “There was something very powerful about hearing and seeing the whole story in one sweeping piece,” Alison remembers. “We thought we were on to something.”
Alison and Daniel continued revising the script, making it work for only two actors so that they could travel with it and make it more available to campus fellowships. They have performed at 27 universities and colleges, nine churches, and 18 theatres, conferences and other events. After a performance at a university in Pennsylvania, a dean of students commented, “Thrilling — markproject exceeds most everything else we’ve had on this campus.”
Alison and Daniel place a high value on theatrical quality. “We usually do markproject in the most theatrical place we can get,” Alison says. “A campus theatre is neutral territory, and we encourage fellowships to prepare by inviting nonbelievers, talking to their professors, and connecting with the religious studies and theatre departments.” Chapters should also plan for IBDs (investigative Bible studies) or GIGs (groups investigating God) and make Mark studies available to seekers. Some shows provide food during the brief intermission.
After the performance, most campuses ask the audience to return response cards with questions such as, “What surprised or intrigued you about Jesus?” or “Which character did you identify with most?” A student from Swarthmore responded, “I went into it expecting the standard ‘inspiring’ Christian fare of the preachy and condescending variety, but it was both entertaining and enlightening. I liked it.”
Their most recent performance was at the University of Toronto. Joy Hanna, the chapter co-president who coordinated two nights of performances, reports, “The best thing that happened is that many students in our fellowship did something they’ve never done before: they invited their non-Christian friends.”
To prepare the chapter, Alison and Daniel did short “sample” performances at a chapter meeting, then did two full performances a week later. “This allowed students to feel confident that the play is attractive to nonbelievers, and not embarrassing or cheesy, like so much ‘Christian theatre’ has been for many of them”, says Alison. A seminary professor who saw a performance at a local church was so excited about markproject that he offered to underwrite the event for the fellowship.
Toronto is a city with a rich theatre culture, and the student-sponsored event was very organized and well-received. They sold tickets, which helped the audience’s theatrical experience. Students who took the risk of inviting their friends saw many of those friends decide to investigate Jesus further. The fellowship had such a good time that they may build more theatre events into their yearly planning, perhaps including more of markproject.
Students who were at Urbana ’03 got a taste of Alison’s and Daniel’s creative abilities. Alison wrote the sketches that Daniel and the drama team performed. They are amazed at how God’s plan has unfolded in front of them. “We didn’t set out to make it happen,” Alison admits, “but God has led us each step of the way. We’re just excited that people seem to get a fresh, surprising picture of Jesus.”
Scripture through artistic drama
Dave Sim
When I was growing up, my father had to bribe me to read the Bible. He was a Baptist preacher, and he paid me a dime per chapter when I read my Bible. For me, the discipline of opening that thick leather-bound book with gold-leafed pages required motivation far greater than what I thought the words inside had to offer. The Bible represented hard wooden pews, stuffy church sweaters, and dull, robed choirs singing hymns.
But when I was a freshman in college, I was drawn into a new, dynamic relationship with Jesus through an InterVarsity Mark manuscript study. As I ripped through the pages of the manuscript and ravaged them with my colored pens, a thirst was quenched that I didn’t even know I had. I clung to Jesus’ words and actions like a stranded man to a fruit tree on a desert island. And, like in some old monster movie, my soul drank in God’s Word, raised its arms in worship and yelled, “It’s alive!” As scripture became alive and fresh to me, I was drawn to Christ and compelled to make him more deeply Lord of my life.
Now I’m passionate about helping other students find the great Pearl, the treasure hidden in the field. I love to portray the kingdom of God and a relationship with Jesus in ways that resonate with the hearts of students—even if it means getting a little creative and veering off the main road. Using the arts is a way to speak profoundly in the heart language of students. That’s why InterVarsity chapters around Puget Sound invited the acting group ransomTHEdonKey to come and perform markproject at the University of Washington in Seattle. Markproject is a creative, humorous, alive, profound, fresh and passionate theatre performance of the Gospel of Mark. This large outreach event was a result of our area’s fall conference where students learned that when they grow in worship of God, their heart for evangelism grows, too. At the conference, students from five campus fellowships committed themselves to reaching out and taking risks with those “who are not in the room yet.”
Students returned to their campuses eager to invite their nonbelieving friends to a performance of markproject. A standing-room-only audience of nearly 300 filled every seat, window ledge and half the aisles during the two-hour, fifteen-minute performance by actors Daniel Jones and Alison Siewert. The two actors, dressed in simple black shirts and blue jeans, drew in the audience to see Jesus as they’d never seen him before. The script was relevant and engaging. There were times when people roared in laughter and other times when people wept. There were as many seekers and nonbelievers as there were Christians. Many of the seekers filled out response cards stating that they were interested in studying the Bible more or meeting with someone to talk about Jesus.
One student wrote in response to markproject, “This was totally awesome! I have always followed God the Father and want so much to know Jesus. I feel you have helped!” The InterVarsity students followed up on markproject and capitalized on the fresh accessibility to the gospel it created. There have been GIGs and evangelistic relationships spring up from the seeds of this outreach. Sponsoring markproject had a very positive effect on InterVarsity’s campus groups in our area.
—Dave Sim is an InterVarsity staff team leader in Seattle, Washington.
Seeing is believing
Ali Borger Germann
But this conference was also completely different. We didn’t invite a speaker. We hadn’t planned any talks. Alison Siewert and Daniel Jones of ransomTHEdonKey had agreed to come and perform markproject on Friday night. Saturday we planned to study scripture together in groups of 15–20 and spend several blocks of time in worship.
Students filtered into the conference around 8:00 Friday night. After an opening time of worship, Alison and Daniel took the stage. Their adaptation of the Gospel of Mark riveted us. When Daniel played the paralytic’s friend with a tough-guy “accent,” a few students next to me laughed so hard they actually cried. Later, as the actors helped make sense of the “secret of the Kingdom,” there were a few shocked gasps. At intermission, someone next to me leaned over and said, “It’s never that good when I read it on the page!” When the lights went down for the last time, I leaned back and whispered “Wow” into the darkness. In the foyer afterward, students buzzed, reliving parts of the performance with each other.
The next morning, however, brought something unexpected. We met for our first Bible study, and found some students more eager than usual to dig in. Students remarked that they wanted to see the Bible come alive for them in the study the same way it had during markproject.
That afternoon, students brought their eagerness with them to worship as well. Some kind of vitality infused itself into the blood and soul of the conference. The students traced it back to how clearly they had seen Jesus in markproject. That Sunday, as we shared in campus groups, one student burst out, “I fell in love with him, Ali. I just fell in love with him.” And we all knew she was speaking of Jesus.
—Ali Borger Germann is an associate staff member working with InterVarsity in eastern Iowa. She pays the bills teaching English in a rural high school and enjoys playing fetch with her cat. Yes, cat.
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Resources
- More information about markproject can be found at www.ransomthedonkey.com.
- Some resources on scripture and drama include Drama Team Handbook by Alison Siewert and others (IVP), Drama Team Sketchbook by Alison Siewert (IVP) and “Engaging Your Campus: Hosting Events That Work” by Nina Thiel, [Student Leadership journal, Fall 2003, on the SLJ Web site at www.intervarsity.org/slj/ article/2274].
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