Lucas: Beaufort lecture series to spark conversation over ‘Godspell’ musical

An innovative four-part lecture series will kick off the Beaufort Theatre Company’s latest production coming to the University of South Carolina Beaufort Center for the Arts next month.

The series, which begins this week, will feature discussions hosted by various clergy and members of the community and is meant to spark conversation and preview the musical “Godspell” which will run in March.

“The idea is to supplement the (musical),” said “Godspell” director Libby Ricardo.

Ricardo, who directed the center’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” said the series is meant also to provide a means of engaging the community in the material.

“We want people to feel this is a community production, which is why we wanted to do guided lectures and ‘talkbacks,’” she said.

Written by Grammy and Academy-Award winning composer Stephen Schwartz who went on to write mega hits “Wicked” and “Pippin,” “Godspell” first opened off Broadway in 1971. A film version, set in New York City, was released in 1973.

Structured around the parables of the Gospel of Matthew, the musical features an eclectic blend of songs ranging from pop to Vaudeville.

The Beaufort Theatre Company’s version will differ slightly in that it will set its “Godspell” in the Lowcountry, Ricardo said.

Local Rabbi TZiPi Rodonski said she was particularly excited to be invited to participate in the lecture series saying that it shows the “diversity of the Lowcountry.”

“It also gives me an opportunity to talk about Judaism from a different perspective,” she said, explaining that she is most familiar with the book of Matthew and, in particular, the story of the woman who is healed by Jesus.

“I think (the lecture series) will be a blending of the emotional with the intellectual and the spiritual,” she said.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Lucas: Beaufort lecture series to spark conversation over ‘Godspell’ musical."