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News & Reviews Through Her Words . . . Martha rises from the pages of the New Testament, emerging not from stage left or stage right, but from the back of the room. Dressed in a fringed, dusty-rose-colored robe, she screams when she sees all the people in the audience. More than she expected, and she's already frantic trying to get ready for a special guest: Jesus. "She starts delivering the bread, delivering the grapes, worrying that they're not sweet enough, the bread's not fresh enough, there's not going to be enough wine," said Martha's longtime interpreter, Anita Gutschick, a 53-year-old actress from Arnold."She's worried about everything, and then she tells about her experience when Jesus was at her house, and how he set her straight." "He said, 'You're worried about the wrong things, Martha.'" Martha's worries - and Jesus's words - come alive whenever Gutschick is performing her one-woman play, "Women of the Bible," as she will at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Severna Park. Gutschick has dramatized the stories of nine women from the Old and New Testament at dozens of area churches, synagogues and senior centers. "They're all monologues that are strung together to create a program," said Gutschick, who started performing the show in 1995. She had volunteered to do a monologue for an event hosted by the women's association of her own church, Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park. Pressed for new material, Gutschick had to search for something at the last minute. She ran straight for her Bible. The result: the testimony of Sarah; Rebekah; "a sinful woman;" Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene); Lot's wife; Elisabeth; Queen Esther; Martha and Ruth. Each appears in full costume, speaks her mind and then takes her leave, but not before presenting a challenge to the audience. Martha, for instance, asks, "Are you so busy taking care of your family or earning a living for your family that you haven't taken time to be with your family?" Queen Esther, who risked her life by begging the king to save her people, warns: "In your lifetime you will encounter articulate, bright people, but some of them will twist the truth because they're power-hungry and they're evil. Some of them will kill somebody because of the color of their skin or because of what they believe, and you have to stand up against it. Because, who knows, perhaps God has placed you here for such a time as this." Gutschick puts on the show with the help of her director, Kathleen Clarke Ruttum, who also directs plays at St. Mary's High School and teaches acting at Anne Arundel County Community College, and a sound technician. Ruttum has played a particularly important role in the evolution of the show, pushing Gutschick to evoke the emotion of each character."It's like peeling an onion," Ruttum said. "Every time we work, it's like discovering new elements to the characters of the women." Performing "Women of the Bible" has deepened Gutschick's commitment to both God and acting. She was a 40-year-old mother of four when she decided to take up the craft in 1988. "I started out by serving on the board of directors at the Colonial Players [in Annapolis] and worked backstage. I loved being a board member because then you had an excuse to go to rehearsals and go to auditions and see how people did things," Gutschick said. From there she took classes, attended workshops, auditioned for community theater and landed some small parts. She says she was terrible in the beginning. "I didn't know what I was doing," she grimaced. At one point, she went so long without being cast in anything that she decided to quit. "I really thought, it's the wrong dream," she said. But then something made her go to one more audition, and she landed her first significant role, in a play called "The House of Blue Leaves." When she started performing "Women of the Bible," Gutschick said she didn't think she was connecting with audiences. "I had performed in front of a seniors group. Half of them were asleep. The other half couldn't hear me," she joked. "So I'm having a little conversation with myself, asking why am I really doing this, worrying about my lines, schlepping around all this stuff." But then an audience member came up to thank her for her portrayal of Lot's wife, who turns into a pillar of salt when she looks back on the burning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Gutschick smiled at the woman but was thinking, "'Oh, yeah, right.' And she saw right through me. She said, 'No, thank you because I'm Lot's wife. My husband died of cancer last March, and I haven't done anything but look back at how life was before he died.'" Gutschick's performance, the widow said, had made her realize "that God still has a plan for me." |
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© 2008 - Anita Gutschick - Women of the Bible