Spirituality Onstage

Blackfriars Repertory Theatre explores the great questions of God, faith and humanity

By CLAUDIA McDONNELL

Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, a small company based in Manhattan, has a clearly defined mission: to present drama of high quality that deals with issues of faith, spirituality, human life and human destiny from a Catholic perspective. It also has a distinguished dramatic heritage.

Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., a playwright and former professor of homiletics at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, founded Blackfriars in 1998. He needed a theater company to produce a play he had written about St. Thérèse of Lisieux, "The Sacrament of Memory. But Blackfriars wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea; in a way, it fulfilled a dream of Father Cameron's.

He had loved theater and been involved with it almost all his life, and he earned a master's degree in play writing at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A Dominican priest, he said in an interview that the arts are "very integral to the Dominican charism. Two Dominican friars, Fathers Thomas Carey and Urban Nagle, founded the Blackfriars Theatre, which operated in Manhattan from 1940 to 1972. It still holds the record as the longest continuously operating off-Broadway theater in American stage history.

"I always nurtured a desire to bring it to life again, but in a different form, Father Cameron said. His play "The Sacrament of Memory was the catalyst. He founded the new Blackfriars and produced the play at St. John the Evangelist parish hall in White Plains. It drew sizable audiences considering that it was "a play no one ever heard of, by a playwright no one ever heard of, in a place that wasn't a theater, he said.

Playgoers responded with more than applause.

"We received beautiful letters, Father Cameron said. "People were really moved by it. I realized we were satisfying a need that wasn't being satisfied.

Blackfriars is best known for the Passion play "The Living Silence, also by Father Cameron, who is Blackfriars' artistic director. The company is now performing another of his plays, "The Women Who Served, about about eight women in the New Testament - including Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman at the well and Martha and Mary of Bethany - and their personal encounters with Jesus. The play is being staged this month at the ArcLight Theatre, on the lower level of Blessed Sacrament Church, 152 W. 71st St. at Broadway.

The director is Franco Palmieri, an actor and the artistic director of four nationally endowed theaters in Italy and the founder of an acting troupe, the Company of the Scalpellini. He took their name from the sculptors who carved small statues in Italian cathedrals, many of which were hidden or too high to be seen, but which the f+iscalpellinio made as perfect as possible simply for the glory of God.

Father Cameron and Palmieri met in Milan through the apostolic group Communion and Liberation, to which both belong. They found that they shared views on theater, acting and drama.

"The theater is born as a religious experience for man, Palmieri said through an interpreter. At its best, he added, theater helps people to answer fundamental questions: "Who is God, who am I, how do I encounter God?

Father Cameron sent "The Women Who Served to Palmieri, who liked it so much that he agreed to come to New York for a month to direct it. The troupe began preparing for the production with a weekend retreat. That was important, Palmieri said, because "spirituality is central to humanity.

Father Cameron was born in Providence, R.I., and grew up in Vernon, Conn. He said that he had wanted to become a priest since age 4 and a Dominican since his teens. He enrolled in a minor seminary as a high school junior and went on to the Dominicans' Providence College, where he studied theater. After completing theological studies for ordination, he went to Catholic University to study play writing. His first play, "Full of Grace, was performed in showcase at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

He returned to Providence College as associate professor of theater and managing director of the college theater, 1988-1990, then spent two years in the film industry as director of creative affairs for Paulist Productions. He served briefly in Ohio, then was assigned to New York University; he became director of campus ministry there and also professor of homiletics at Dunwoodie. It was during that time that he founded the theater company.

He has written about 12 plays and is now at work on a play for the Knights of Columbus about its founder, Father Michael J. McGivney.

Blackfriars has performed several other plays by Father Cameron and is "open to new plays...that convey beauty that changes people's lives, he said. It also has performed "Maurice and Thérèse: Story of A Love, adapted from the book by Auxiliary Bishop Patrick V. Ahern. The adaptation was done by Blackfriars' dramaturg, Father Richard Veras, who teaches religion at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains. Also working with Blackfriars are Father Edwin H. Cipot, archdiocesan vocations director, who is a director, and Father Stephen Challman, parochial vicar at Holy Rosary on Staten Island, who is the technical director.

Unlike its predecessor, Blackfriars Repertory Theatre has a stable troupe of actors that includes professionals and semiprofessionals.

"We want to cultivate actors, Father Cameron said. He wants Blackfriars "to provide a home for Catholic and Christian artists - a place for them to belong and to develop plays, work on lighting and costumes, learn more about the art of the theater and "get a leg up on their careers. Two who spoke with CNY say that the company has something special.

Maureen Dowdell has appeared off-off Broadway and in a television series, "In the Heat of the Night, and is a producer with Brooklyn Cable Access Television. She played Mary last year in "The Living Silence, and she plays Mary Magdalene in "The Women Who Served - "probably the most challenging role I've ever done, she remarked. She said that Blackfriars has "a sense of community and "a level of caring and support that she hasn't found in other companies. Equally important to her is the spirituality at its core.

"It informs me about my faith, she said, "but it also informs me about me and life and how to understand it. I've grown spiritually through this. She added, "Being in a Catholic repertory company is not something I ever imagined I would be doing. God works in mysterious ways - I've been yearning for a way of expressing spirituality in art...I'm so appreciative to have this opportunity.

Ken Genuard studied acting at Fordham, acted for a while, became disillusioned with the acting lifestyle and left it for a singing career. He now works as a systems analyst for Con Edison, but he's back on the boards. He's done five productions with Blackfriars and is appearing in "The Women Who Served in several male roles, including Christ.

"I got back to acting because I met Blackfriars, he said. He was introduced to the company by his friend Father Cipot. "It's theater that's in accord with things that I believe in, Genuard said. In Blackfriars he's found "warmth and acceptance as well as genuine friendship.

"We do things together; we eat together, we pray together, he said.

He also found his future wife; he and Naomi Flansburg, a Blackfriars actor, will marry next month.

Genuard said that Blackfriars is committed to doing "theater that promotes the dignity of the human person.

"I'm grateful for a place where I can do theater where the things I believe in are being promoted, upheld and communicated, he said. He added that he had turned away from professional acting because too often "the person was not primary and the values he encountered were worldly. When people come together to do theater, he said, "there has to be something that's informing the experience.

"In our case, he said, "it's Christ.

"The Women Who Served will be performed Oct. 8-10, 15 and 17; 22-24 and 29-31, at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets: $45; $25 for seniors, students, priests and religious sisters and brothers. Ticket orders: 877-840-0457.