Rosebud student to play Jesus in 2016 Passion Play

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Caleb Gordon, a graduating student at Rosebud School of the Arts, will perform the role of Jesus for the first time in this year’s Passion Play.
Gordon, who has performed in Rosebud Theatre’s Mass Appeal and Miracle Worker, got involved with the Passion Play in 2007 when he was 17 years old.
“It all started when my mother said that she wanted me to go to the [Passion Play] Summer School,” he said. “I suffered through the first day and was like, ‘Well, this is terrible.’ Then I started to talk to the people around me and it was a very amazing experience and I was happy to have gone. [My mother] said it was the first time I came home from a camp or anything like that, happy and smiling and laughing.”
He also performed his first acting role that summer.
“I played the evil thief, the bad thief, on the left of Jesus,” he said. “It was a terrifying experience because you’re wearing only a loincloth in front of 2,500 people. But by the end of it, I was like, ‘No, that actually wasn’t that bad.’ ”
For the next six summers, Gordon was back, playing Enosh, the man born blind, and then Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. In 2012, he enrolled in the acting program at Rosebud School of the Arts and will graduate this September.
Last fall, the Passion Play wrote to Gordon, asking him to come for an interview.
“I remember thinking, ‘I think there’s only one role that merits an interview,’ ” he said.
That was the role of Jesus – and he was both excited and terrified at the thought. But he’s now in the midst of rehearsals, and he said “it’s been a wonderful honor.”
His debut in this role coincides with a new script, based on the Gospel of Luke.
“The first five minutes of the [Luke] script contain the entirety of human history up until the birth of Jesus,” Gordon said. “Luke Ertman, the composer, has put together a piece that manages to sum up each of those names. At the same time, we’ve got these little vignettes playing through. Noah. King David. And it all plays through as this music is sung by an angelic choir on stage.
“It’s a lovely piece because instead of skipping over that [section of genealogy], you get to experience 4,000 years in a span of five minutes,” he said. “And it’s beautiful. It’s a huge juxtaposition of the angel-eye view of the world and the human-eye view.”
Gordon’s own worldview has already been changed by the story and by the life of the man he’s portraying.
“Four years ago, I was a very intellectual person … but I did not have a lot of heart,” he said. “One of the biggest changes I’ve experienced in Rosebud has been unlocking my heart. This experience of portraying Jesus has been very instrumental in letting that process continue.
“Someone comes up to me and they’ll say, ‘There’s something wrong with me. Make me well.’ And the script says, Jesus touches him and says, ‘Be well. You are well,’ ” Gordon said. “That moment of eye contact where I look to them and I say, ‘I see you’ – it’s honestly one of the most heartfelt moments when I see them suddenly smile, as whatever afflicts them or whatever affects them is taken away. It’s a beautiful experience and I’m glad that I get to be a part of it.”
He hopes people in the audience will also be affected by the story.
“The images that [director Brian Jensen] is setting up give you a clear picture of Jesus, who is both 100 per cent human and 100 per cent God,” Gordon said. “I would recommend coming just to see Jesus not as you think He is, but as you might not have ever thought of Him before.”
The Canadian Badlands Passion Play is performed in an outdoor amphitheatre on the edge of Drumheller. This summer, the show plays nine times over three weekends, July 8 to 24. Get tickets and more information at canadianpassionplay.com or 1-403-823-2001.