
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703290049

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  130 lines

THE PERFECT ROLEFOR LOCAL ACTORS, PORTRAYING JESUS CHRIST CAN BE A HUMBLING - AND SPIRITUAL - EXPERIENCE

Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. - Luke 7:47

JESUS OF NAZARETH. The Christian Messiah. God in human form.

What was he like?

Robert Klein has an idea. ``He was a common man who was doing uncommon things,'' said Klein, who portrays Jesus in a passion play at Kempsville Presbyterian Church. ``I've tried to be mindful of that and tried to make him as real as possible.''

Chris Van Cleave, who has been ``Jesus Christ Superstar'' as well as the lead in Greenbrier Baptist Church's passion play, also has an idea.

``To send ripples down through time for 2,000 years, he had to have been an amazingly together person, beyond any words I could find to describe him,'' Van Cleave said. ``To be a performing artist in the role of Jesus is both an honor and a humbling experience if one is to do it with their heart open.''

Passion plays, which depict the suffering of Christ from the Last Supper to his resurrection, have been a church staple since medieval times. The plays were a visual, live-action presentation of the Gospel story for the population of the Middle Ages, most of whom were unable to read it for themselves.

The plays thrive today, packing churches and auditoriums locally, and drawing the same performers year after year. Such plays have a profound effect on the actors, particularly on those in the lead role of Jesus. For a mere mortal to depict the son of God, they say, is almost overwhelming.

``When we get ready to do the play, I sit back and think, `Am I good enough?' '' said Larry Nobles, who plays Jesus for Calvary Baptist Church. ``Because nobody's perfect and Jesus was perfect. It makes you look at your life, at the things you do in regular life, and wonder if Jesus were here, would he do the same things you're doing.''

Ron Allen has been researching his role as Jesus for some time, even resorting to having his 16-year-old son read books to him while they drive in the car. He studies history, Scripture and even the clients he sees as a social worker in Chesapeake. Human emotions, the historical savagery of Roman rule, God's plan for the world - all factor into his portrayal of Christ for New Berean Baptist Church.

``It's impossible to portray Christ,'' Allen said. ``We play at it. Portraying Jesus Christ has a lot to do with how you see the Scriptures and how he plays in your life.''

Like when he has to tell his clients on welfare that they must find jobs. It's not a popular message, and some people don't want to hear it, he said. It was the same with Jesus' message 2,000 years ago.

``Jesus always showed compassion and mercy, but he never compromised the truth,'' Allen said.

In the historical Holy Land, the political climate was affecting the spiritual, he explained. Jesus was exposing corruption, and the government was keeping an eye on what they regarded as a small band of rebels. Roman soldiers were something to be feared, and Jesus' betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane left the disciples teetering between faith and political reality.

``There was also a group that thought Jesus would end Roman rule, be a king on earth now, so they wanted him to take up a sword,'' Allen said.

Klein, who also studies the past to help him with his role, said that Jesus' teaching of rewards in heaven was revolutionary and mystical to his followers.

``Some of things Jesus said were pretty radical,'' Klein said. ``I think most of the disciples thought a kingdom was going to be set up right there that was going to overthrow the Romans. I don't think they understood the concept of the spirit and what happened in heaven. They were still in the here and now.''

Klein, a professional actor now teaching in the public schools, tries to portray Jesus with human emotion, without coming across as phony. With the Last Supper, when Jesus presented bread and wine as his body and blood, Klein tries to remember that only pagans of that time drank blood in sacrificial rituals.

``That must have shocked the disciples,'' he said. ``He was saying things to them that totally confounded them.''

At the same time, it can be hard to rise above the purely human feeling of embarrassment that comes from wearing only a loincloth in front of thousands of people. The uncomfortable feeling of four layers of white resurrection robes, the bottom layers clinging to the red-tinged Karo syrup painted on his body to represent blood.

The painful bruises that result from staged falls night after night. The very real tears of a young child who believed that Jesus had died before her eyes on stage. Klein met her backstage, hugging and patting her and explaining that he wasn't dead.

Klein's wife, Nancy, was watching him. ``I thought, isn't that what God is all about?'' she said. ``It's going to be all right, I'm not dead after all.''

Humans can be so, well, human. Klein has encountered ugly reactions to his long hair when he rides his motorcycle around town. ``He likes to see people's reactions,'' his wife said. ``They can be unkind about how you look or they can say, that's Jesus on a motorcycle.''

Allen is also sensitive to appearance.

``When they asked me (to portray Jesus) I asked, `Why me?' '' said Allen, who is black, bald and wears gold wire-rim glasses. ``We don't know how Christ looked like but people have him pictured as a tall person. Some say he was a man's man, as if he spent hours in the gym.

``We want him to look the way we think he looks. We just don't know. A pastor told me once that he was the color, the nationality and the race of the people of that time and I think that's a safe assertion to make.''

Van Cleave looks like the traditional Sunday School portraits of a long-haired, bearded, white Jesus. He is also, he points out, 14 years older than Jesus was at his death.

``It's not so important, the outward appearance of things,'' Van Cleave said. ``With this particular role, I aim to step beyond that and ask literally for whatever I've been given to act as an instrument for the very highest to come through.

``It's very much a spiritual experience in itself.''

The role has certainly affected Klein and Allen, Nobles and Van Cleave. All have come to watch their own daily actions and wonder whether Jesus would have acted in the same way.

``I really know what it means to have a deeper relationship with Christ,'' Allen said. ``I hope I can live up to this role of Jesus.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

ABOVE: Larry Nobles plays Jesus Christ in the Easter Sunday

production at Calvary Baptist Church in Portsmouth.

RIGHT: Ron Allen has the lead in the passion play at New Berean

Baptist Church in Churchland.

RIGHT: Robert Klein portrays Jesus at Kempsville Presbyterian

Church. ``He was a common man who was doing uncommon things,'' Klein

says. ``I've tried to be mindful of that.''

Photo

Chris Van Cleave has been ``Jesus Christ Superstar'' as well as the

lead in Greenbrier Baptist Church's passion play.