The Present Company

Frank Crocitto directs the actors.

Based on Saint Francis’ famous “Stations of the Cross”
Frank Crocitto’s reverent treatment of the human struggles of Jesus
– from his condemnation to his second fall (the 1st seven stations) —
reveals the universality of the Master’s experiences
that connect him in love and understanding to all humanity.

Playwright Frank Crocitto saw the critical scene “explode” in his mind more than 40 years ago. It was a scene between Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who handed Jesus over to the mob. The scene was the first of the Catholic Church’s Stations of the Cross, a devotional practice that Crocitto was fond of.

For the next three years, he spent almost every day of his life arguing about how his play, “Behold the Man” could be dramatized and staged at New York’s prestigious Playwright’s Foundation. Herbert Berghof, a legendary director of the day and Crocitto’s mentor, thought he saw something unique in the young and very stubborn playwright. It was a big, ambitious play, nothing like the kitchen-sink dramas of the day — or empty Broadway excresences like “Jesus Christ Superstar.” But at the end of those three years, after endless artistic struggles, the two reluctantly parted company and “Behold the Man,” a play that imaginatively re-creates the suffering and triumph of Jesus’s death, went unproduced.

Crocitto has written, produced and directed other plays since then, primarily with home-grown casts working at the Sunnyside Theater in New Paltz — dramatizations of works by Stephen Crane, Truman Capote and Oscar Wilde to name a few. But he’s never given up the dream of bringing “Behold the Man” to the stage. A near-death experience resulting from heart surgery last year convinced him he needed to finish what he’d begun so long ago.

He began by re-conceiving and re-writing three quarters of his original script. As executive director of Discovery Institute, a school for adults interested in living richer, less mechanical lives, his perspective on the life of Jesus has only grown and deepened with time:

“What I’ve done isn’t historical or literal — I’ve tried to recognize Jesus as a human being who went through a process, how he worked on himself and developed as the very worst sorts of things happened to him — betrayal by his friends, torture and death.”

He’s found that the story of Jesus “is the only play worth writing.”

“Behold the Man Part I,” which tries to get at the human meaning of the first seven of the fourteen stations, will be presented beginning Friday April 25th at 8:00 pm.

Call 845.255.9081 for reservations
Check here for curent ticket prices

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