The Society had pledged to block the play wherever it was being staged. And on opening night, true to its word, the conservative Catholic organization held a protest outside of the Bartell Theatre, according to a Cap Times story at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Protesters outside Bartell Theatre at opening of play “Corpus Christi” in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MIKE DEVRIES\/CAP TIMES ARCHIVE<\/p>\n
Steve Noll, one of the original founders of StageQ, produced that original run in 2004 and had a front-row seat to the ensuing drama. He still has some of the postcards, sent by the thousands by protesters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my idea to do this,\u201d Noll said. \u201cI wanted to show that StageQ was up and going. I really wanted to make a statement \u2026 I wanted to kick the hornet\u2019s nest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t expect the backlash to go so far. The protests made front page news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had heard that they had secured a protest permit for Mifflin Street in front of the theater on opening night,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd sure enough, they drove out here, and they built a giant cross in the street. They had about 20 members with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
News reports at the time said there were 50 people protesting against the play (one called it \u201cChristophobia \u2026 designed to infuriate people\u201d), and 20 counter-protesters, including some from a local Christian congregation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jim Lautenbach looks on as Joshua Paffel embraces John Patrick during a scene from “Corpus Christi” in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MICHELLE STOCKER\/ CAP TIMES ARCHIVE<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very theatrical,\u201d Noll said. \u201cI have to admit, as a theater person, I was very impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hate directed toward the play worried Noll. The theater received death threats, and Noll said he also received a death threat on his answering machine that included a homophobic slur. But looking back, Noll said he\u2019s pleased he decided to run the play.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Director Shawn D. Padley watches a rehearsal of “Corpus Christi” at the Bartell Theatre. The play, written in 1997 by Terrence McNally, reimagines the story of Jesus in modern-day Texas.<\/p>\n
Ilana Bar-av<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty proud I did that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was kind of a feather in my cap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Reminding people what Jesus said\u2019<\/p>\n
Padley, who is directing the current production of \u201cCorpus Christi,\u201d said StageQ has already taken steps to keep its actors safe, such as not posting the cast list and keeping an eye on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
StageQ actors rehearse a scene from “Corpus Christi” by Terrence McNally at the Bartell Theatre in Madison.<\/p>\n
Ilana Bar-av<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also happy to kick the hornet\u2019s nest, but kick the hornet\u2019s nest at me. Not at my actors,\u201d Padley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCorpus Christi\u201d first ran off-Broadway in 1998. The same year, 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was murdered in a hate crime. AIDS had been taking lives in queer and transgender communities for nearly two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noll said that for author McNally, \u201cCorpus Christi\u201d came from a personal place. McNally himself was gay, and his status as a respected playwright gave him more leeway in his material.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had won multiple Tony Awards, and he pretty much could do whatever he wanted. So he was really getting sick of all this chatter about anything gay-related at all,\u201d Noll said. \u201cSo he said, \u2018Fine. If you want to complain, I’ll give you something to complain about.\u2019 And that was the origin of this play.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
StageQ actors rehearse a scene from “Corpus Christi” by Terrence McNally at the Bartell Theatre in Madison.<\/p>\n
Ilana Bar-av<\/p>\n
Padley said in the current moment, with renewed scrutiny on the LGBTQ community and attacks on transgender people, the play remains relevant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was coming out in the early 2010s there was no place to be queer and Christian,\u201d Padley said. \u201cIt\u2019s reminding people what Jesus said: \u2018That which you do to the least of these you do to me\u2019 \u2026 directly showing that to them and saying, \u2018Hey, these are the things that you are doing to the queer community.\u2019 We are showing you that on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noll said the events surrounding the 2004 run were, ironically perhaps, good for publicity. The show was very popular for its whole run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the Oscar Wilde quote,\u201d Noll said. \u201c\u2018The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.\u2019\u201d That applies here for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the early 1970s rock opera \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d to \u201cMonty Python\u2019s Life of Brian\u201d in 1979, controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-218382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}