The Devil Went Down To Georgia: Play Warns Of Satan’s Everyday Influence
ATLANTA — Christians at the Bouldercrest Church of Christ invited the devil into their midst.
This time, he went down to Georgia not for a fiddle-playing contest, as the famous Charlie Daniels Band song goes, but for an interview.
That was the premise of a recent play the church hosted, “The Art of Influence: An Interview with the Devil,” written and directed by church member Sheri Gilbert Wilson.
Her story asks the adversary of Scripture to explain how he so frequently wins battles against Christians.
“I find this (question) almost comical in nature, because you constantly call it a battle — when in fact, there are countless times you fight horribly, ignorant, without true purpose at all,” the devil says in an opening monologue.
“You are constantly learning, reading, praying, yet you rarely apply it — nor do you exclusively trust in the one who can protect and rescue you from me,” he later adds. “Simply put, your problem does not originate with me. Your problem originates with you.”
The devil then shows the audience four scenes to illustrate how he manipulates and exploits people’s everyday lives.
In one scenario, a married couple navigate the complexity of raising a child from a previous relationship as the birth mother tries to tear their marriage apart.
In another, an elderly woman with memory loss suffers verbal abuse from her son as other family members try to care for her.
In the third, a single Christian mother with financial struggles feels tugged back into her old life of sin to make ends meet.
Finally, a young man studies the Bible with a minister, trying to turn his life around and get away from the worldly influence of his father.
“I was just trying to think of real-life scenarios … that everybody can relate to,” Wilson said, “whether or not we’re dealing with it ourselves, or we have a family member who’s dealing with it, a friend who’s dealing with it, or we’ve just seen it or heard about it in the church.”
In one scene from “The Art of Influence,” a son berates her aging mother for her forgetfulness. (Photo by Calvin Cockrell)
‘Sheri has the ability to bring you to life’
The 59-year-old playwright didn’t pursue her love of theater until after a 26-year career as a paralegal, during which she moved all over the U.S. with her husband, Anthony, a now-retired member of the Air Force.
He encouraged Wilson to pursue an undergraduate theater degree at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. — and then a master’s degree in classical acting at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Now, Wilson teaches at the Gainesville campus of the University of North Georgia.
And while she primarily works with professional actors, she has a passion for bringing theology and theater together in an amateur setting.
“I also love to give back to the Lord by using my talent and starting and participating in theater arts and bringing what I have to give to members here at Bouldercrest,” Wilson told The Christian Chronicle.
“And they’re all volunteers. Nobody’s a professional actor. And I love working with novice actors or someone who’s never acted. That is a joy of mine.”
That feeling is mutual. The amateur actors who come from Bouldercrest and other Atlanta-area churches described their appreciation for Wilson.
“Sheri’s been a joy to work with — I will do pretty much anything she tells me,” Deanna Pippen told the Chronicle with a laugh. She plays Sally, the single mother.
“This is creative release for me,” Pippen said of her work on this and previous plays. “I love this ministry. I love the way of the art of storytelling, and I love the theater. And so working with her just puts it all together.”
Tony Noel, who plays the titular character, expressed a similar fondness for Wilson.
“She’s the ultimate professional. You know, I always say that Sheri can get a snail to act,” Noel said with a quiet, reserved demeanor — a marked contrast from his commanding stage presence, for which he fully credits Wilson’s direction.
“Sheri has the ability to bring you to life,” he added. “She’s like a mama. … She’s sweet, but she’s thorough, you know. She’s soft but firm at the same time.”
‘It’s just about real life’
Noel played quite a different role — Jesus — in another of Wilson’s plays, “Scenes From the Life of Christ.”
He noted the different pressures in playing the two parts.
“With playing Jesus, you don’t have much wiggle room, because people can look at Scriptures and say, well, Jesus either did or didn’t say that, because they can go back and follow up,” Noel acknowledged.
“But with Satan, there are so many, as he says, tactics that he uses. ... So there’s so much that you can play with, and it’s like a free-spirited role. It’s fun. But I think that in the same sense, it’s also very serious.”
He had helped inspire Wilson with the idea for the “Interview With the Devil” script, one that she recalls pouring out of her in a single afternoon writing session.
They hoped those who saw the play — which was open to the public, not just church members — might recognize themselves in some of the characters and be encouraged to see through and overcome Satan’s deceit.
“We always think, ‘Oh, it’s just something else, way out in space, somewhere that causes us to do all of these bad things,’” Wilson said. “But in reality, it’s just about real life and how he (the devil) infiltrates real life to get us to do things we really shouldn't be doing, even though we work so hard in our Christian walk. …
“A lot of times we get into our human mind and we forget that, hey, we can go to the Word. We can use our brothers and sisters in Christ to help pull us up when we need it.”
This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.
Calvin Cockrell is a freelance digital media specialist, media editor for The Christian Chronicle and copyeditor for Religion Unplugged. He also serves as the young adults minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama.