Wichita playwright looks at Last Supper in new drama performed by Guild Hall Players

The practice of communion, whether daily, weekly, monthly or less often, has been a foundation of Christianity for several millennia.

And it has been something that has intrigued director and playwright Phil Speary.

“It strikes me that through the practice of communion that what happened at the Last Supper is probably one of the most constantly commemorated events in human history,” he said. “I thought it would be good, through a play, to look at what that event may really have been like.”

Speary, who has had religious themes in about 10 of the 25 plays he’s written, looks at the Last Supper in “His Passover,” a Guild Hall Players production on stage this weekend at St. James Episcopal Church.

In the works since before the pandemic, Speary pored through 10-12 different translations of the four Gospels to get what he estimates as 90% of the dialogue. The rest, Speary said, is transitional dialogue segueing one scene to the next.

The setting and costumes are contemporary, he added.

Members of the 16-member cast portray Jesus Christ, his 12 disciples and what Speary calls “the three Marys” who serve and partake in the Last Supper.

Speary said his goal was to develop each character as an individual.

“This was a real, human event,” he said. “The disciples were real human beings, not a faceless group of people who didn’t have individual personalities. Jesus was a human being interacting with other human beings. For people who practice communion on a regular basis, not that it isn’t deeply meaningful, but they don’t think about the humanity of it.”

Playing Jesus is the Rev. Dillon Green, who was ordained in January and joined St. James earlier this year.

“You go in thinking you know your way around the Gospel, but having to act it out continuously enlightens the series of events,” said Green, an Alabama native who dabbled in theater in high school and college. “I think Phil’s done an excellent job of . . . splicing the translations and pulling out the emotions on the page.”

Trevor Farney, a veteran of several Wichita theater companies, plays Peter. He said he enjoyed the fact that during rehearsals, the cast would sit and talk about what they think of their character and their frame of mind during the scene.

“It gives us a shared task, which makes it feel much more real on stage,” Farney said.

“HIS PASSOVER” BY GUILD HALL PLAYERS

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, April 7-9; 7 p.m. Sunday, April 10

Where: St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas

Tickets: $12, $10 for students through college, at 683-5686