It was only last year that Kevin O’Brien founded Theatre of the Word, Incorporated, but he is no newbie to the performing arts. He won a national radio-festival competition in 1977, a playwriting contest in ’85 and a songwriting showdown in ’94. And his other production company, Upstage, has been presenting comedy-murder mysteries for dinner theater since 1989.

Now, with St. Louis-based Theatre of the Word, O’Brien focuses on using the power of Christian drama to evangelize and catechize. O’Brien, who with his wife Karen entered the Catholic Church in 2000, spoke with Register staff writer Joseph Pronechen.

How did you come to found Theatre of the Word, Incorporated?

It was providential. We did some scenes for EWTN’s series on G.K. Chesterton, “The Apostle of Common Sense.” Then I put a one-man show together on Hilaire Belloc and got occasional bookings for it while doing the mysteries all over the country. Then I started to put together shows with Catholic themes and Catholic characters and was booked at Ave Maria University.

Father Joseph Fessio there is really interested in theater and sees it as an opportunity to evangelize. He had a touring troupe in Florida made up of graduates from Ave Maria that was doing shows for young people.

I came up with a plan. We put the whole thing under the umbrella of Theatre of the Word, Incorporated — including the projects with EWTN, Ignatius and upcoming movies and audio books.

What response do you hope to elicit from your live performances?

Especially as a Catholic convert, I come in and see people poorly catechized and confused. We’re out to capture the muddled middle — the 80% of Catholics neither particularly liberal nor particularly conservative. They’re normal, middle-class people in the suburbs and rural communities who go to parishes and mean well but, because of poor catechesis, don’t know much.

Our Morning Star Players give people something entertaining, gripping, fun and true that opens their eyes to a deeper understanding of the faith.

The theater seems to tie together your conversion story and your apostolate.

I was an atheist for years. I think for all actors preparing for a part, there’s only so much work you can do like learning your lines. Unless you’re inspired in some way by a spontaneous feeling or something that comes from without, your performance, no matter how well prepared, will be dull.

George Bernard Shaw talked about the life force, which I took to be any creative inspiring. As a Catholic, however, I believe it’s the Holy Spirit at work.

Why do you refer to Theatre of the Word as “incarnational” theater?

As theatrical artists, we’re taking words on paper, fleshing them out on stage and trying to incarnate the Word of God in our actions in everything we say and do.

I see it as a way of more intensely living out my faith. Dramatic art lends itself to religion and spirituality in general, and Christian evangelization in particular.

As a young man, Pope John Paul II was an actor and playwright. Has his work influenced yours?

What I’m doing is inspired by him, by his 1999 Letter to Artists and his philosophy on the use of drama in stirring the human spirit and evangelizing.

In many ways, we look to him for inspiration. He knew of using the word and bringing it to bear on stage and affecting people and moving them. As a member of an underground theater troop, he risked his life to do good through dramatic art, which is a lot more than most actors do.

Do you make any special attempt to appeal to younger audiences?

“Sarah’s Secret,” a pro-life piece, and “Rachel Lost and Found,” a pro-chastity piece, are gripping dramas. They’re appropriate for middle-school age and up. With “Sarah’s Secret,” Morning Star Players most of the time leave the audience in tears. It brings home the reality of the issues for them once they see them in dramatic form.

After the performances, the actresses witness why they love their faith, what it means to them, why they think chastity and pro-life issues are important.

Just their presence in front of these young audiences has an impact beyond the dramatic. Many have not had these role models who are on fire for their faith, Catholic, proud of it and out there evangelizing.

You have started a new show about St. Paul?

This being the Year of St. Paul, our timing is good for “The Journey of Paul.” Not only are Paul’s epistles inspired writings, but his dramatic stories — scourgings, shipwrecks — make for a tremendous play.

With this production, we’re hoping to spread the story to Catholics and also to reach some of the evangelical and other Protestant communities where, in the midst of that story, we can show Paul’s care for the Eucharist. Hopefully this will make an impression on Catholics, Protestants and people in general because the play is filled with all sorts of dramatic twists, surprises and conflicts.

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen

is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.

INFORMATION

Theatre of the Word, Incorporated

(888) 840-9673

thewordinc.org