Sep 21 & 22 - Catholic Theater, The Surprise

A new St. Louis based theater company will open its first season with five overtly Christian shows beginning on September 21st and 22nd at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Shrewsbury. The first is a play by English author GK Chesterton. Written at the behest of his friend George Bernard Shaw, The Surprise is a kind of Romantic Fairy Tale - a story which answers the question "What do people want in life, and how can they get it?"

“The Surprise is an amazing play, a kind of Romantic Fairy Tale combined with Six Characters in Search of an Author – a story which answers the question can fantasy and reality meet – and what happens when they do?”

The Surprise was recently filmed by EWTN to be aired worldwide, and several members of the cast of the TV movie version will be appearing in St. Louis in this production.

Recommended for teens on up. Tickets ($15) are available through MetroTix and directly from The Theater of the Word at 314-840-WORD. Showtime is 8 p.m. both nights. For more information about future performances and other projects, find them at http://www.thewordinc.org/

From Theater of the Word Incorporated, we also read:

Other presentations that will round out The Theater of the Word’s first season include A Morning Star Christmas, The Smallest of All, and The Journey of St. Paul. “We are particularly excited to be producing The Smallest of All,” observes O’Brien, “by St. Louis playwright Mother Mary Francis. It’s a beautiful story of the impact of holiness on the lives of regular people, and how a simple love for God can redeem even the hardest of hearts.”

Indeed, Archibshop Raymond Burke has been encouraging a local production of some of Mother Mary Francis’ works for quite some time, and has offered the Theater of the Word his generous support. Other supporters include Ignatius Press, the St. Louis Chesterton Society, and EWTN, which will be airing an anthology show on Christian drama, hosted by Kevin O’Brien, beginning in 2008 or 2009.

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A promotional video for Theater of the Word can be viewed at YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/OBrienMysteries

And for something else of note:
Credo Board Member Tom Leith is playing the part of the King in "The Surprise". Tom also a member of the St. Louis Chesterton Society. Their website is http://chestertonstl.wordpress.com The following weekend, actors Chuck Chalberg, Kevin O'Brien, and host of EWTN's program "G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense", Dale Ahlquist, will present a show "Chumming with Chesterton and Bumming with Belloc"

The EWTN page for the Chesterton Series is here:
http://www.ewtn.com/series/chesterton/index.htm