Celebration. No other word summarizes as fully what Corban drama is about. From fun and funny romps through the foibles of life in productions like A Midsummer Night's Dream, Busybody, and Little Women to the more dark and serious journeys of Firstborn, Into the Woods, and Our Town all the productions have the theme of joy. Whether or not a play carries a clear moral, there is a lesson to be learned. Life is beautiful gift. Revel in it.
Many artists wrestle with questions about their craft. What is art? Does a piece have to be moral to be good art? What role does the artist actually play in the creation of his work? While it is perhaps impossible to fully answer these questions, Corban drama gives us a glimpse of the truth.
Art is worship. Whether it is a worship of the Creator, the creation, or the created, all art is an impassioned attempt to do justice to a subject. It might not even be a tangible person or object. Rather, it could be worship of an idea or a belief. While riotously funny, Busybody had no clear message. Murder doesn’t pay perhaps if you stretched. But as the audience laughed their way through the bumbling antics of the detectives and office workers, they were really laughing at life. They were enjoying the frailty and foibles of a humanity that they shared. The gamut of emotions run over the course of the three hours ranged from love to betrayal, happiness to rage, guilt to curiosity, and the audience experienced each in their humorous setting, seeing that they were good. Humanity, with all its failings and short comings, was held up as a thing of beauty, and the Giver was worshiped.
Direct morality is not necessary in a piece to make it good art. There is no moral offered up at the end of Little Women. Yet it remains one of the best loved stories, with a striking reception among the audiences that packed the sold out theatre every performance. There is something “right” in the portrait of strong loving family. Of girls becoming women. Of the family changing as each young person starts to find their place in the world. There is no guide book being offered. No cliché one liner synopsis of how you should honor God , love your family, and protect your country. It isn’t trying to teach you. But it succeeds as art because it shows us what we all want. Into the Woods dealt with immorality in far greater depth than Little Women, but it achieved the same effect of showing morality through story rather than through listing truths. Good art is moral in the sense that it is right or true. And sometime, to achieve that, art must portray immorality. Humanity is fallen and any art that deals with truth must allow for the existence of evil and wrong doing. As Christians, we should have no fear of truth, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
As for the final question, which might be the most pertinent as students embody characters in a variety of settings, the role of a Christian artist is to become a glove on the hand of God. Unable to move on its own; unable to predict the results of its own actions. Empty so that it can be filled for a purpose it doesn’t even understand. An actor must set aside his own personality to embody his character. The audience sees only the character. They can appreciate the actor and his abilities, but the actor himself is masked by his character. In turn, the actor is given the chance to be a mask for God. It is hard. It requires letting go of yourself and giving up your own expectations and hopes. And rarely do you know if you succeed. It requires a reckless abandon and full surrender that results in a most exhausting and exhilarating ride.
In Our Town, a character asks if anyone truly appreciates life while they are living it. The reply is that saints and poets catch a glimpse of it. And that is what Corban drama is about. The worship begins with the artist and merely grows when the audience accepts the invitation to join in the celebration of God and humanity, the celebration of life.