After a year off, the Seward United Methodist Church is presenting “The Living Last Supper” Wednesday and Thursday, April 1 and 2.
“It’s a passing of the baton,” director the Rev. Dr. Mary Kay Totty said.
Many of the longtime production leaders decided to retire in 2024, so the church took a team approach to this year’s presentation. Totty said members of the staff and volunteers took different sections.
In addition, the cast has seven new members, and some of those returning are in different places, Totty said.
“I think it will be a good cast,” she said. “It will be wonderful to see what they do.”
The play is a series of monologues delivered by Jesus’ 12 disciples. Its design is based on Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper,” which features Jesus and the 12 in tableau the night Jesus was betrayed. The moment depicted is right after Jesus tells the disciples one of them will betray Him, and each one asks if he is the one.
“There’s also a sense of shared responsibility. It’s not just Judas,” Totty said.
The disciples are grouped in triads or groups of three, and Totty said each group has spent time rehearsing on its own. The full cast will go through a dress rehearsal on Palm Sunday, March 29.
She said those working with the production continues to find ways to use technology to help the cast.
“It takes so many to make it happen,” she said. “The church is willing to come together and work to help make it happen.”
One small change to the evenings will be moving the communion elements off the main table to make them easier for those taking communion to reach.
“Come prepared to hear this retelling of the story so central to the Christian faith,” Totty said.
She said the way the program gives the disciples a chance to talk allows the message to speak more.
“It’s like preaching,” she said. “They’re familiar stories but the context highlights different parts of the text. That’s part of what makes it (the Bible) the living word.”
She said programs like “The Living Last Supper” help the church open people to the awareness of God’s presence.
