DETROIT — Danielle Center says “everyone who has experienced love — or wants to experience love — and being in a marriage seen as a vocation” is her target audience for the production of a play by Blessed John Paul II she is staging at St. Dennis Parish, Royal Oak, in mid-July.



Karol Wojtyla, the man who would become the first Polish pope, had been an actor in his youth, and maintained an interest in theater after he entered the priesthood. One fruit of that interest was “The Jeweler’s Shop — A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama,” which he wrote in 1960.
Center, 25, an administrative assistant in the archdiocesan Office of Digital Media, had already been thinking about the possibility of doing a production of the play when an experience at a Lenten retreat in Chicago helped her decide.

“When I left for the retreat I wondered if I should pray about the play while on retreat and decided against praying. I felt that I would rather just go into the retreat with an open mind and heart to whatever messages God wanted to send my way,” she said.

“So, there I was, waiting for my turn to confess, examination of conscience in hand. For some reason, the fellow next to me began chatting about his life in Toronto, and we discovered we both enjoyed theatre. I posed the question, ‘If you were to perform any play with your friends, what play would it be?’

“In the next breath, he turned and said, ‘Without a doubt, “The Jeweler’s Shop.”’ And then I laughed and told him I was taking this conversation as a sign and that I would look into performing that very show this summer,” Center recounted, not without a little embarrassment about laughing while in line for confession.

See it“The Jeweler’s Shop — A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama” by Karol Wojtyla (Blessed Pope John Paul II) is being presented Friday and Saturday, July 13-14, in the gym/auditorium of St. Dennis Parish, 2200 E. 12 Mile Road (west of I-75), Royal Oak, at 8:00 p.m. Suggested donation $5. For more information, email [email protected].

“I still find it humorous: a man from Toronto sits next to a girl from Detroit in Chicago in line for confession! The odds are so slim it can only have been divinely inspired, right?” she asked.

Back home, Center began talking up the idea with talented friends, and made arrangements with St. Dennis Parish for the use of its gym/auditorium.

Herself a member of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, Madison Heights, Center gained experience acting in a number of stage productions during her high school and college years with local acting groups such as Stagecrafters in Royal Oak.

She also recently choreographed a musical production by a group of young people associated with SS. Cyril & Methodius (Slovak) Parish in Sterling Heights.

Center said the play follows the story of three couples who are in love: “But besides that, it explores what those couples understand love to be, and how they navigate their way to a deeper understanding of love.”

She said she has been impressed by “the beautiful and intricate dance between Karol Wojtyla’s understanding of theater and his interest in theology.”

And she adds that the process of bringing the play to local audiences has been “a challenge and a blessing.”