Job And The Jobless
Fr. Jordan Formation House, Talon, Amadeo; March 26, 2014 – The Society of the Divine Saviour English Language Development Program based in Loyola Heights, Quezon City has shown their skill and talent again by presenting a stage production entitled Job and the Jobless. This year’s stage play was more solemn than last year’s Robin Hood – Men in Tights since it was interweaving of the Biblical character Job and a jobless nursing graduate named Jose. The three-hour play was witnessed by the seminarians of the formation house as well as the Society of the Divine Saviour Generalate members who were meeting in Tagaytay for the first Continental Leadership Meeting.
Managed by Fr. Artur Chrzanowski, SDS and assisted by the teachers of the English Language Development program the production brought current issues up like the recent Typhon Yolanda that left the province of Leyte to mere rubble and the typhoons in our own souls that are familiar to all of us in a play of words, color and song. The production was directed by Byron Barinuevo and written by Maria Andrea Fojas, both teachers at our English Language Development Program. The aim of the production was to motivate our English Language Students to improve their communication skills to see the possibility and reality of preaching the Word of the Lord through the arts and evangelization through meaningful performance.
The cast, most of whom are foreigners and who could not even introduce themselves using the English language nine months ago worked hard for 3 solid months to put up the show completely in the English language. Teachers toiled with the students through internalization, memorization and voice modulation to allow them to be confident in performing in front of a live audience. The play is not just about fun as the students are exposed to dialogues, grammar and pronunciation schemas to put up not just a play but a message.
Job and the Jobless is a story about two men who undergo a lot of sufferings despite their innate goodness and strong faith in God. Jose, is a young man who is bombarded by a series of unfortunate events in life and Job is the Old Testament character who famously gets played around by the devil in efforts to prove his faithfulness to God. Both characters presented were easily relatable by all present in the audience as the message given was simple and yet profound – in the midst of trials, God is ever-present.
Both Jose and Job are left with a choice as they face the tribulations of life – bless or curse God, serve or turn away. Job, as we know from the Biblical accounts remain faithful despite his friends provoking his innocence. And Jose, who is down because of his failure to secure a job and facing with the reality that his family was affected by the Typhoon Yolanda made the decision to continue being faithful to God despite all the tensions in life. In the end, both are blessed for their faithfulness despite not knowing why God would allow such things to happen in life.
The stage production managers noted rightly when they printed in their pamphlet that “’Job and the Jobless’ is not just a fictitious story. It is a story about us— the Job and Jose in all of us.” The play left its audience in an applause and also a reflective mood about decisions that we need to make when troubles come our way. We are looking forward to the next production of the English Language Development Program!
