"A Pound of Flesh"

St Porphyrius Drama Society

The St. Porphyrius Drama Society, under the direction of Fr. David Skopp, was formed about six years ago at the request of many of the youth in our church. A result of the appreciation of fine literature and story telling acquired during their home schooling and St Michael’s Orthodox School experience. The benefits of this endeavor have far exceeded our expectations. The drama society has grown larger than our church community to include many home schooled youth from around the Santa Rosa area.

The cast of our most recent production, The Merchant of Venice, was almost entirely composed of the second generation of St. Porphyrius players ages 13-16

Worldly entertainment, popular music, movies and TV are among the most seductive and destructive forces working on the hearts and souls of youth today.

In our struggle with the world to raise children in the church and to keep the community together we have found that the performing arts are central to our success. Just asking the youth, or even adults to not listen to certain music or to avoid TV is not enough. To successfully counter the lure of worldly entertainment an active participation in the performing arts is most helpful when coupled with an active church life.

The performing arts allows youth to explore a full range of personal expression, thought, feeling, and action without having to leave the enclosure of the church to “experience life”. As they become accustomed to performing in public they also become comfortable being Orthodox Christians in public, which lends itself to greater participation in church and missionary activities.