Jane Gilgun

The Red Doors Will Never Close Jane Gilgun

The Red Doors Will Never Close is a performance of the St. John's Oral History Project. The Project took place between 2013 and 2017. In The Red Doors, the narrators tell stories about what many members today call the hard times of the 1970s and early 1980s, when they think St. John's was in trouble because of loss of membership and financial troubles. The narrators, who were members during those years, tell a different story that they want known and remembered. Although there were challenges, the members of the church pitched in. As they did, they met the challenges and also had a wonderful time. Many view this time as transformative because St. John's emerged as a thriving, progressive Christian community. The St. John's Oral History Project recorded the stories of persons who have been members of St. John's for varying lengths of times: from about 80 years to less than a year. The Project has sought to answer the question of how St. John's became the progressive Christian community it is today. Oral histories lend themselves to performance because, in a way, narrators are already performing their stories as they tell them. In The Red Doors, the narrators interact with each other, interrupt each other, contradict each other, sometimes remember the same events differently, and once in a while had not heard of events that were important to others. The form of The Red Doors as an interactive performance is based on a group conversation held in June 2017 after dinner in the parish hall around the oak table in the St. John's library. I supplemented that conversation with excerpts from oral histories previously recorded. By what the narrators say and how they interact with each other, audiences will know how and why St. John's is and has been a thriving Christian community. Jane Gilgun