It is becoming an annual practice for Parishes to dramatise the passion of the Lord on Good Friday to depict the acts that led to the death of Jesus Christ in the hands of the authorities at Calvary. Congratulations to all the youths in various Parishes who acted yesterday and gave us what went viral. Each year witnesses various manners of acting from individual Parishes in terms of the preparation, rehearsals, the costumes, and the delivery of the lines. See in some cases near perfect performance, some like comedy skits, witnessed what made some shed tears, sober reflection and moments of transformation through the acts of the casts. Watching and following this development over the years, made me to see some budding talents that are waiting for stardom,see some costumes and characters not well selected, some costumes look very inappropriate, dirty,embarrassing and way off what they should be depicting. In some Parishes, it is what they give so much attention from the level of the Pastor to the level of the Parishioners generally, which makes the people of God anticipate the acting, while in some Parishes it is one of those things that there is no excitement about it. Having seen so many versions of the passion play online, I feel obliged to put something in this space to encourage a better delivery next year Dv.
NOTE THE FOLLOWING TO GUIDE FOR THE NEXT EDITION :
• It is an annual event. It is worth investing in it, in terms of stage, materials, equipments, and costumes.
• It is not a comedy show. Don’t try to bring in a funny chap to make people laugh, or to create a comic relief rather a somber atmosphere should be created.
• Make it a near perfect of what happened at Jerusalem that first Good Friday.
• Get an experienced director either trained or not trained because that won’t be the case everywhere.
• Create awareness to get everyone involved in the Parish community. Throw it open to all the youths and possibly all the Parishioners.
• Beware of costumes that are off the track. If you have a list of what you need, you will surely get what is needful.
• Kindly have a meeting to evaluate this year’s edition. Give kudos to yourselves where you deserve it and look at areas to improve upon.
• This year’s edition is not far again, begin now as we do not want to see funny wigs, Jesus that look like wearing adult pampers, Mary with make ups ready for party and soldiers wearing football boots. Once more the desire of the writer is to see more improvement and better delivery in this year’s edition.
• Rev. Fr. Victor Makinwa Ogunyemi is an ordained priest of Osogbo Diocese working in Abuja Archdiocese. An alumnus of Catholic Institute of West Africa, he is the Coordinator of Inspire Youth Network Nigeria.
