Saturday, March 14
Clarence Jordan…genius.
Wow, it’s been over two weeks since my last post. My sincerest apologies…I have a lot to catch up on, so expect multiple posts over the next few days…This past Thursday, my beautiful wife’s birthday, we celebrated together as a family with dinner out and by taking in the musical, Cotton Patch Gospel.
The background: Clarence Jordan, in the late 60’s, created the Cotton Patch series, homey translations of New Testament writings. Jordan believed it was necessary not only to translate individual words and phrases, but also the context of Scripture. So, he used American analogies for places in the New Testament; Rome became Washington, D.C., Judaea became Georgia (the Governor of Judaea became the Governor of Georgia), Jerusalem became Atlanta, and Bethlehem became Gainesville, Georgia.The musical: Tom Key and Russell Treyz took the translations of Matthew & John and wrote the script. Harry Chapin (known for Cats in the Cradle) wrote the music and lyrics. (I actually saw Tom Key perform the show at Clarence Brown Theatre 15 years ago or so. Thanks Greg, again, for those tickets)
Okay…enough background.
The performance we saw at the Word Players on Thursday was fabulous. Very well acted, staged and directed. It was a great night.
I know it’s hard to grasp the power of this show, but trust me…Jordan, Key, Treyz, & Chapin were genius in making this happen.
Mark Nelson at 12:49 PM 0comments