Conventional wisdom holds that January can be a challenging time for theaters, with winter weather and post- holiday fatigue tending to put a damper on attendance. But in Richmond, the period after New Years has become a regular buzz-generator for local companies. Thats because it ushers in the citys Acts of Faith Theatre Festival, a yearly effort by local artists and a number of religious congregations to affirm an affinity between spirituality and the stage.

The festival, now entering its 10th season, was founded by a group of thespians who happened to be practicing Presbyterians. The concept has been embraced by Richmonds theater companies, which now typically plan their seasons so as to open, between January and March, at least one designated Acts of Faith show a play or musical featuring either religious or thought-provoking social and existential themes. Billing itself as the largest faith-based theatre festival in the United States, the Acts of Faith celebration kicks off Jan.12, with a preview evening in which participating companies will present snippets from 18 upcoming productions.

Those shows will include a production of Molieres Tartuffe by Richmonds flagship Virginia Repertory Theatre, as well as a staging of James Shermans From Door to Door by the citys Jewish Family Theatre and Jihad Abdulmumits play The Shootout, mounted by For Our Children Productions, a grass-roots company that tackles social issues from an Islamic perspective. Richmond Triangle Players, a troupe focused on plays that relate to the LGBTQ experience, is hosting the pre-New York tryout of The Mormon Boy Trilogy, by out-of-town author/performer Steven Fales.

The festival started out with just a handful of churches and theater companies participating, and it has exploded, says Jacquie OConnor, managing director of Henley Street Theatre and Richmond Shakespeare, a pair of classically oriented troupes that are in the process of merging. The two groups will present David Davaloss comedy Wittenberg about Hamlet, Martin Luther and Doctor Faustus as an entry in this years festival.

Over the years, OConnor says, the festival has really brought the theater community and the faith community together in a way that is innovative and inspiring, and that furthers the conversation about how art relates to spirituality and belief.

Bringing two realms together

That was the goal of Jeff Gallagher, Daniel Moore, Bruce Miller and a couple of other Central Virginians, who launched the festival in 2005 with support from Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Richmond. (The church is still the festivals convening sponsor. More than a dozen other congregations serve as co-sponsors or advisers.) At the time, they felt troubled by the perception of a disconnect between the theater world and the world of religion, or at least Christianity.

I frequently encounter people who are among my church friends who dont get what I do in the arts, and I encounter people in my artistic family who dont get why I enjoy teaching Sunday school, says Miller, who is Virginia Repertory Theatres artistic director and a practicing Presbyterian. He adds, To me, its so much the same thing, with religious and artistic experience using all the same mechanisms in my psyche and my being.

Around the time of the festivals launch, events from Americas latter-day culture wars had contributed to a sense, among some, that faith and the arts were at odds. Not too much time had gone by, for instance, since a New York theater producing Terrence McNallys play Corpus Christi in 1998 had confronted denunciations from religious groups, and even threats of violence.

There was the perception that if you were pushing the edges of art, you were poking the eye of the faith community, says Gallagher, a playwright-turned-biotech entrepreneur. He remembers worrying in the aftermath of Mel Gibsons controversial 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ that consideration of faith in the public square was going to get increasingly polarized, and do damage along the way and then possibly disappear.

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Richmond’s Acts of Faith festival brings spirituality, stage together