The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
written by Steven Aldy Guirgus; Directed by Bill Wilkison for The Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project
Judas's area, where he sits catatonic for the majority of the show, sat directly opposite the Judge's bench. It was constructed of pieces from two wooden pallets, dressed with old sheets, a camping bedroll, a hubcap and other trash.
Purgatory is an inbetween place. And instead of some vaguely biblical rocks and a vaguely realistic courtroom, the director wanted something more visceral for our production of Judas. Purgatory became an alley.
The Lawyers for Defense (right) and Prosecution (left) had their own stations, unexpected seating with area to place their documents (piles of newspaper, magazine and printer paper pulled from the recycling).
Judas's area, where he sits catatonic for the majority of the show, sat directly opposite the Judge's bench. It was constructed of pieces from two wooden pallets, dressed with old sheets, a camping bedroll, a hubcap and other trash.
Basile Theatre, IndyFringe
Indianapolis, Indiana
From my program notes:
“If you hate whom I love, you do not know me at all.” I vividly remembering scribbling down this quote in my program when I first saw The Last Days of Judas Iscariot in 2011, and relish how, four years later, the impact is the same. We are all Judas, spurning the joy and peace and redemption that we are offered daily by not only the Divine, but also by our fellow humans, allowing ourselves to clutch desperately the emptiness inside ourselves, as if giving up the blackholes we hold in our hearts would be worse. This time last year I was battling a crippling depression and severe apathy, cycling through my shadows over and over again, blaming myself for not fixing myself, and for not doing right in the first place. Over and over the answer has been that I am not what I have done. I am what I am becoming, the Ideal that God created me to grow into. This set, like the show, is a reflection of that. We are all, at all times, always being reclaimed from deterioration. Junk, the cast-offs of our daily lives, is not only the perfect place to show the ways we have fallen, but also the best opportunity to show the redemption of something someone else may not see as useful or useable at all.
March - April 2015
Director: Bill Wilkison
Lighting Designer: Eryn Bowser
Scenic Designer: Callie Burke
Technical Director: Ronn Johnston