Christian Drama School nurtures the faithful

Rev. Kim Padfield Urbanik’s passion for people and connecting them with Jesus’ word runs deep.

 

Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Nourish the thirsty. Heal the sick. Welcome the stranger. Visit the prisoner. And what does it take to bring faith to life?

“It has to do with the (Holy) Spirit. Most people I’ve met have some sense of spirit,” Urbanik says. “I happen to think no matter what God loves you and if you don’t believe in God, God believes in you.”  

 

Rev. Kim has inspired many faith journeys among the youth and says, "Faith is caught, not taught.”

She says it’s important for everyone to know that Christian Drama School loves and welcomes all people — and this is not any particular church view, they have the whole spectrum of humanity.

Urbanik founded CDS (an after-school program for intergenerational students K-12) in 2000 with the support of local pastors and students from several area churches.

She wrote a play, ’According to Women,’ the story of Jesus from women in the bible’s point of view, and flips things around and does plays where they have to act out opposite things — if they do the Grinch they have to be a Sneech or turtle.  

“I’m holding it all together; I’m the glue — people of faith and people without faith. And I’m not the judge,” says Urbanik, citing Mother Theresa’s quote about being ‘a pencil in God’s hands.’ “Sometimes you have to be sharpened because growing and evolving is what it’s all about.”

According to Rev. Kim, ‘Acting is Believing’ is both CDS’s slogan and her teaching philosophy — she helps her students ``feel into" their roles.

“You can’t be a good actor unless you believe that you’re the character,” Urbanik says in the process of doing that, in the faithful parts of the play, one’s faith grows. “The Holy Spirit works different ways — in the spring we carry the cross and God works a lot through that because the story of Christ is powerful.  When they act it out it becomes part of them.”

Other acting teachers teach you how to control your body, your voice, your mind, your feelings, and Rev. Kim says you’re considered a good actor if you can make the audience feel a certain way. 

“It’s all about you controlling them,” she says this is completely different. “CDS is all about letting God work through you. That’s transformative for the kids, which has nothing to do with me because they have to do the praying and become the character.” 

 Their struggle and endurance since COVID hit encompassed the school closing on March 16, 2020 and CDS took everything online and over Zoom. Then the pandemic got worse.

They ended up performing the school play in Urbanik’s backyard come June and filmed the production without an audience. The cast at least had the experience.

“Then we do our Good Friday Cross Carry… instead of having one young man and all the followers in a worship service from the Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church to the Denville Community Church, there’s a picture of one boy (who played Jesus) and me carrying the cross,” says Rev. Kim. “It was hard on all the students, in terms of isolation.”

Drama school isn’t about the play, according to Urbanik — it’s about the interactive social community that’s built between all the ages. It’s about working together toward a common goal. 

“You’re building a parent/child relationship, community relationship, also an interfaith relationship,” she says 99 percent of the people there are Christian but different denominations and political views.

“We need to act like Jesus and one of those things is loving everybody. If you’re not loving everybody, you’ve decided this group doesn’t matter.”

People are drawn to the program because it involves the whole family. There is a great sense of community and faithfulness that continues even after students graduate high school and college.

A former CDS student, Erin Hurley Sheffield, recently texted Rev. Kim and she shared with her  students ‘you need to know this person, she runs a theater in Pennsylvania — and there’d be no drama school if it wasn’t for her.’

“She was 13 or 14-years-old when she came to the Community Church in Mountain Lakes, where I was a pastor for nine years and joined a youth group because of her cousin,” Urbanik says Erin and Kate were so enthusiastic about what she was doing it helped everything else work. “I have many students who make me better than who I am, so I’m always learning too.” 

And CDS partners with Heart for People (H4P), connecting American schools with five schools in Uganda to encourage cultural exchange and accountable international aid.

Former CDS students, Sarah Harrs (Save the Children) and Emma Worrall (finishing up at Princeton Seminary to be a pastor) traveled to Uganda in 2019 to visit the schools.

“When we go there it’s helpful because our presence gives teachers and students hope that there’s somebody who cares about them on the other side of the world,” says Urbanik. “And it helps the kids in the US because it expands their minds about life and how lucky they are to be here.”

Hope is a big thing: If you give people hope you’ve given them a lot.

And you get the sense that you should step up.

“How we do that is with fundraisers,” Rev. Kim says this enables them to send money to the schools whenever they need help.

She says she has the best job in the world… gets to see students transform, sometimes the actual moment. 

According to Rev. Kim, witnessing those transformations are very special.

“I get a teenager (boy or girl) who comes in with issues and when they turn themselves over to the play or whatever role they’re playing — it’s there and you can’t deny it. It has to do with self worth,” she says. 

To learn more about CDS, visit www.christiandramaschool.org.