This thread is dedicated to sharing information about Theatrical or Stage Productions involving Roman Soldiers. Whether it is In a Theatre, On Stage, In a Church, at a Renn. Festival, at a live battle etc. Even scripted discriptions of your group activities.
Share Scripts, or where you can get them. Pictures, Sets, Characters, but when it comes to scripts, please make sure you have expressed written permission to post anything if you are not the author.
For instance. We just finished or Stage Production of "REVEALED". My wife and I wrote this Musical Production in 1987. The original script was written about a Roman Centurion. But as it came into being and edited, the Centurion was a main and very powerful character but wasn't the central focus. There is a sequeal to "REVEALED" entitled "REVEALED II YOU" That production has to Roman Soldiers in it.
I am currently working on another Production that just has Roman Soldiers in it.
All of what I write and have written are Christian Based. They are written in such a way that they can be produced and directed in churches, theaters, or in public. They are not your typical church play. Not even close. They are life changing.
When we did "REVEALED" although it is scripted for only 12 characters, we had people from 9 different churches involved. I am Posting Picturtes of Some of the Characters including myself and pictures of the set with in the next few days.
Please feel free to comment and add to this post. Because it is based on Theater and Stage type proformances, Historical accuracy in "ROMAN KITS" may not be up to par with the rest of ROMAN ARMY TALKS' accuracy levels. Please keep this in mind while posting to this thread and don't be super critical. Even in You Most Humble Opinion. (I would appreciate it and so would others.)
Also let us know if your scripts are available, if you have to pay for them, if they are copyrighted or published. And if there are royalty costs in producing them.
One of the reasons that I did my books on Roman military clothing was to help with the type of productions that you mention.
There is no reason why you can not have accurate kit even for a very low budget. Roman soldiers can be depicted in undress uniform, cloak and tunic with sidearms.
However almost everyone falls into the trap that a Roman must look like a 'Roman'. Therefore in full armour usually of Hollywood type, believing what is deemed 'authentic' must be too expensive to produce.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
I do a fairly short (up to about 10 min) monolog in auxilia armor and kit. I portray a soldier who participated in the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. I add in some about my persona's history, some about life and systems in the Roman army, and a couple of times I've brought along a furca and gear. I've presented this is several churches and a couple of renfaires when Easter is one of the Sundays, and they have a service. Have hasta, will travel. The script is pretty easy, it's mostly contained in the Gospel of John, I just shift things around and make them first person.
FACTCHECK: I know the soldiers who were directly involved in crucifying people probably didn't carry shields, or wear armor. They were a work crew. It's very likely there were fully armed soldiers accompanying them, to keep the crowd, if any, in line. But it's more impressive to the public to see the gear, and generally, I'm the only one there. It would be great to have the other 3 in the quaternion present, but so far, that hasn't happened.
Sometimes, I add in guarding the tomb, and witnessing the resurrection. Add 5 min or so. As a result of the experiences in the skit, the soldier has become one of the few soldier-Christians of the 1st Century AD.
FACTCHECK; I do not believe the guards at Jesus' tomb were Romans. I think instead, based on the Biblical account, that they were Herod's bodyguard, or Jewish temple guards. But to explain to the people in the audience about that would take much longer, and many would be more confused than educated. So I keep it simple, and let the message be the prime importance, not the socio-political reasons why Pilate would not have put Romans under Jewish authority, nor would he have accepted the priests' story about the guards having fallen asleep when the body was taken out of the tomb. A whole crew of Roman guards sleeping would not have gotten off so easily.
FACTCHECK: I believe there were a few soldiers who were probably Christians early on, though not many. This conclusion comes from the question that at least one soldier asked, 1 "Well what should we do?" in a conversation about how different people in a group were to conduct their lives, 2 the centurion at the crucifixion who said, "Surely this man was the Son of God", 3 the centurion who sent for Jesus to come and heal his daughter, and the 4 centurion Cornelius to whom Peter came to bring the gospel in Acts. None of these are concrete evidences, however.
Rusty does his "Confession of Justus" performance at Castra, it's great to watch, even though I'm not a Christian myself. He takes on the persona of a Centurion at Jesus' crucifixion and gives a testimony to the audience.
He also does a "Storm the Church" version of this, where the legionnaires barge in and bar the doors, and then he gives his speech.
@Graham
Pretty much everybody in 1st C Roman provinces "looked like Romans", though, eh? Because most all of the West dressed very similarly (exceptions in the Far North and Brittania, where they wore braccae). Certainly further east from Syria, the dress was very different.
@Evan
Well, that works if you HAVE soldiers to bar the doors....
I saw a video of it, the Confession of Justus was actually how he started Legion 6 I think, it originated as a church play. I can link you guys to the site, but I don't know if the video is on it.
As I am working on a new book dealing with this topic I would be extremely grateful for any ancient source , illustrated, written or otherwise that soldiers in first century Roman Britain wore bracae.
Equally if you have the source that mentions or shows that Roman military clothing in Syria was 'very different' I would also like that too please.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
No, no, I was saying that the people wore different clothing. We pretty well know what the military wore, thanks to the research and publications by yourself and a few others.
The indigenous Britons wore braccae, as did the Gauls, Germanics, and those peoples by whatever other names they were known in the northern parts of Europe. Syria and points east of there wore quite different clothing from Roman soldiers (who seem to have worn pretty much the same garments wherever they Romed.)
Ahhh.... I was rather hoping you had something new!
It is hard to say if Pilate would have used fully armed troops in the face of any potential trouble at the crucifixion. At Caesarea he had soldiers draw swords on a crowd demonstrating against his decision to install some presumably insulting inscriptions in the Temple and threatened to kill them if they did not withdraw. The crowd called his bluff and Pilate backed down, the inscriptions were removed. He also backed down when he tried to move military standards into Jerusalem covertly. Although it is possible these incidents are in fact the same.
It is interesting that many early crucifixion scenes show un-armoured soldiers. (see attached) A later exception is the character of the Centurion, who in early Byzantine art is sometimes depicted in armour.
On another occasion when a crowd protested against his use of Temple funds to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem he mingled some of his soldiers in the crowd in local dress, an indicator of their local origin too and on a given signal they broke up the crowd with their wooden clubs.
It might have depended on whether he also had the support of the Temple authorities or not.
When he later used troops to disperse a gathering of Samaritans there were a number of fatalities. it might have been this incident which resulted in his recall to Rome.
Being Prefect of Judaea meant you had to tread very carefully!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
