The old made fresh

The season of Lent is here once again. There are the usual traditions to observe, primarily abstinence and a time for reflection.  And, for Cebu City residents especially, there’s also the reenactment of the Christ’s Crucifixion – Buhing Kalbaryo (Live Calvary).

This Lenten project of the Buhing Pasko Association, Inc. runs on its 16thstaging this year. This in itself already makes Buhing Kalbaryo old. Add to that the fact that the event being reenacted every year originally happened almost two thousand years ago.

This is always my biggest challenge as director of Buhing Kalbaryo for the third year now. How do I make the play exciting to an audience that had already witnessed it several times before? What new things are there to introduce after all those fifteen previous productions?

We Christians hold the Crucifixion story to be based on true events, with the Biblical accounts as irrefutable proof. Hence, the story is fixed. There’s just too little room, if any, for narrative creativity.

There are 12 apostles —not 11, not 13, not any other number. It is Judas who betrays Jesus, not some turncoat Filipino politician. Jesus dies by crucifixion, not by being pushed off a cliff in a southern Cebu town.

Fortunately, after checking the Buhing Karbaryo with the Bible, I find little areas for possible creative experimentation. Where the Bible categorically describes outward behaviors, I imagine we can probably do character studies – try to get inside the minds of the people in the Crucifixion story and present safe assumptions on why they behaved the way they did. As we know, Biblical accounts are more of journalistic reports than psychological profiles.

This character-study approach, however, raises problems with my actors, who are mostly young people with little life experience and emotional perspective as yet, aside from the fact that they have no extensive training in proper acting techniques. There is apparent resistance by some; perhaps they think that I’m just trying to make things difficult for them. Maybe they expect that it should instead be made as effortless as possible, considering that Buhing Kalbaryo is purely volunteer work with them.

I cannot blame these kids. How I wish it can just be all too easy. But while it is true that acting can be real fun, it can also be very demanding.

I am not easily giving up on my creative vision for this production, either. With the remaining days before presentation day on March 29, Good Friday, I will continue to pursue what I envision this year’s Buhing Kalbaryo should be. Even if it costs me exasperation and disappointment every night at rehearsals.

There shall be no reason for this yearly reenactment of the Crucifixion to grow dull and boring. It doesn’t matter that the story is old and has been told over and over again. I believe that with a little imagination — the old can be made fresh! (E-MAIL: [email protected])