West Philly's Curio Theatre Co. opens with true story of defrocked minister Frank Schaefer

Curio Theatre Co. will begin its 10th season in West Philly on Friday with a new play, The Matter of Frank Schaefer, the true tale of the Methodist minister who was defrocked for officiating at his son's same-sex marriage.

The play will be staged at Curio's theater home, the Calvary United Methodist Church. Ironically, the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church would prevent an actual same-sex marriage from being performed there. The Methodist Church does not permit gay marriage, even by ministers of reconciling congregations — including Calvary Methodist — that "more than welcome" gay congregants, according to Gay Carducci-Kuhn, Curio's managing director.

Frank Schaefer's former church, Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon, Pa., is a non-reconciling church located in what a former associate pastor told the Los Angeles Times was "one of the most homophobic counties in the country." Schaefer's defrocking in December 2013 for performing the marriage six years earlier made national headlines.

The play was written largely from interviews and court transcripts as events unfolded in real time. Paul Kuhn, who is Carducci-Kuhn's husband, Curio's artistic director and head writer of the Schaefer play, attended Schaefer's appeal in Washington, D.C., during the summer, when his credentials were reinstated. Kuhn also traveled extensively to interview Schaefer, his family, church officials and Lebanon residents.

An ending was written, then was quickly revised when a third trial was scheduled for late October in Memphis. On Oct. 27, the matter of Frank Schaefer was put to rest when his reinstatement was upheld. He now works within the church in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Kuhn says Curio does not typically put on plays with religious themes. "We just found this fascinating," he says.

There's no doubt the politics of religion are complicated. Schaefer; his family, who suffered at his side through the trials; conservative members of the clergy, adamant in their beliefs, as well as progressive members who saw this issue as a civil-rights battle; the people of Lebanon, tired of media attention and mum to Kuhn's requests for comments — many of these characters appear in the play.

Kuhn himself plays Schaefer. Initially, he had doubts about Schaefer's authenticity as a crusader for LGBT justice. That changed as he spent more time with the minister, and through witnessing Schaefer's transformation from silent supporter to a high-profile spokesperson for inclusivity.

The Calvary Methodist Church building is used as a worship space by congregations representing four different religious groups and a number of cultural and civic organizations. Calvary United Methodist holds services on Sundays at 11 a.m., and the church's ban on same-sex marriage makes Kuhn more than a little uncomfortable.

"Every day for 10 years, I've gone by this little innocent sign [on the building] that said, 'Calvary United Methodist Church, a reconciling ministry, all means all,'" Kuhn said. "[But] there is blatant exclusion against members of the LGBT community in this extraordinarily progressive church in West Philadelphia. ... I'm in a building that has a religion that is discriminatory."

When Kuhn was writing the play, the pastor at Calvary, the Rev. John Pritchard, talked to him about the church's divisions. Pritchard later told City Paper there are far more non-reconciling congregations than reconciling ones, yet far more individual Methodists who think gay people should be included in the church than those who don't. He called the issue the "fault line" of the church's differences, which may ultimately force the split of one of the nation's largest Christian denominations.

Kuhn and Carducci-Kuhn started Curio Theatre two years before settling in West Philly. They chose to make Calvary church Curio's permanent home because, as Carducci-Kuhn put it, "We wanted to be in a community that needed theater and didn't really have that ability."

To celebrate 10 years in West Philly, the company will perform Othello and the farce Noises Off after The Matter of Frank Schaefer.

With the season opener, Kuhn's goal for the play is to start a conversation about inclusivity in every religion.
"To see a huge religion going through this struggle is universal," he said.

The Matter of Frank Schaefer, Nov. 14-Dec. 6, $25-$35, Curio Theatre, 4740 Baltimore Ave., 215-525-1350, curiotheatre.org.