About the Narrator

Joshua Daniel is a Senior Associate Rector at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C. Born and raised in Bentonville, AR, Joshua studied philosophy and theology at Greenville College, Oxford University, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy (2015) from the University of Arkansas, writing a dissertation on Wittgenstein and Religion. While a student at Virginia Theological Seminary, Joshua co-edited Reasonable Radical? (Pickwick 2018) with the Dean and President of the seminary, the Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham. 

Origins of the Play

I started studying the Gospel of Mark during the early days of the pandemic. Every time I got to the “end” of a program of study, Mark kept calling me back. Eventually I decided to commit the entire text to memory (all 14,271 words). This in itself took two years. While walking in my neighborhood or driving around town, I would recite the gospel aloud. Many of the stories came alive in a way that I had not experienced before. The first time I started to imagine adapting Mark into a play came when I got to Mark Chapter 9 – the story of the father who cries out for Jesus to help his son. Every time I said aloud the words of the father – If you are able to do anything, help us! Have compassion on us! – they brought me to tears. The details in this brief encounter create a deeply affecting portrait of a father desperate to find help for his child-near-death.  

The entire Gospel has that character. My hope, then, is to merely put the gospel in front of audiences. Let them hear the entire thing for themselves. To see the story of Jesus in a singular way. This text – the straight Gospel, unadorned and bare – is one of the greatest ever written. And I hope to do it justice on the “stage.”