By reenacting saints’ lives, performer hopes to inspire

Many Catholics strive to emulate the lives of saints; one woman actually knows what it is like to be one — sort of.

Marcia Whitney-Schenck, who holds a master’s in art history from the University of Chicago, has researched, rehearsed and developed a theatrical repertoire of holy women: St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) and Mother Cabrini (1850-1917). With minimalist costumes and staging, Whitney-Schenck portrays the saints in interactive, multimedia presentations.

In a May performance at the Irish American Heritage Center on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Whitney- Schenck performed St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the “Little Flower of Jesus,” and her sister Céline, who encouraged her to pen her autobiography before she died of tuberculosis.

Dressed in a nun’s habit (with full wimple), sandals and a rosary belt, Whitney-Schenck picked up her PowerPoint clicker and, while in character, told of the saint’s struggles to enter monastic life as a young girl, of her health problems, and her often comic and witty observations of the day-to-day life of a nun.

As the 45 or so attendees — about 95 percent women — sipped tea and munched on finger food and pastries in an auditorium, Whitney-Schenck performed the high and low points of the saint’s life.

“As a performer, if you present somebody that is just totally good, totally perfect, who is going to want to believe it, or relate to it?” she said in an interview after the two-hour performance. “In doing these three women, they’re all completely different personalities and far from perfect. … And maybe our image of sainthood — of being very pious — is not exactly what it is all about.”

Performances like Whitney-Schenck’s can yank the pedestals out from beneath saints’ feet, and show the public their human, rather than distant and unattainable, traits. Even when life was toughest for St. Thérèse — both physically and spiritually — the saint accepted it as grace.

“I think what you see is that many times [saints] take something that would have been a negative and turned it into a positive,” Whitney- Schenck said.

Portraying a saint is “very demanding,” and when Whitney-Schenck finishes a performance, she feels drained. But there are distinct benefits to depicting saints.

“It’s a spiritual thing for me,” she said. “It’s not just like you’re portraying Jane Addams or whatever. I really feel it’s a spiritual exercise.”

Art can help religious people see their faith in a new light, said Whitney- Schenck, who founded the magazine “Christianity and the Arts.”

“It seems like we have, as a church, really a rich heritage that we’re really not presenting in a very creative and interesting way,” she said. “I think there are a lot of people that are just tired of the meaninglessness of so much of our secular entertainment and are truly looking for something different. I think it’s a golden opportunity for the church.”

Although there aren’t daily takeaways from performing saints on stage that she is able to employ in her personal life, Whitney-Schenck said there are traits that can motivate Catholics everywhere.

St. Teresa of Ávila, for example, started her ministry in her 40s.

“You can recreate your life as a middle-aged woman,” Whitney- Schenck said.

And St. Thérèse of Lisieux referred often in her writings to her pain.

“She basically found a theology of suffering, and it wasn’t to talk about it and draw attention to herself,” Whitney-Schenck said. “It was taking this pain and suffering and offering it up and really feeling that it would make a difference in this world.”

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