Performing the Plays of the Bible: Seven Ancient Scripts and Our Journey to Return Them to the Stage

The narratives of the Scriptures have dramatic structure that suggests they were originally performed by the people of Israel. Performing the Plays of the Bible takes dramatic structure seriously and demonstrates how to move these ancient dramas from the page to the stage.

Here is a book for everyone who wants to better understand the Scriptures.

Jeff Barker is a theatre director, and Tom Boogaart is a biblical scholar. Their book is the result of years of collaboration with each other and generations of their students. This work is part of the growing field of biblical performance criticism.

The seven plays (verbatim from the scripture) explored here are:

Eve’s Two Sons (Genesis 4)
Sarah Laughs (Genesis 18)
The Bands of Aram (2 Kings 6)
The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)
The Binding of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3)
The Sword of Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
The Widow’s Oil (2 Kings 4)

Both Professors Boogaart and Barker have brought the resources of their respective disciplines to bear on this book. They present a unique interdisciplinary approach to the Scriptures. Each chapter in the book includes a new translation of the biblical text formatted as a dramatic script, staging notes, reflections on the cultural and theological contexts, and video links of performances of each play.