<p><b>Shortlisted, Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction<\/b><\/p><p>On a whim, armchair-atheist Richard Kelly Kemick joins the 100-plus cast of <i>The Canadian Badlands Passion Play<\/i>, North America’s largest production of its kind and one of the main tourist attractions in Alberta. By the time closing night is over, Kemick has a story to tell. From the controversial choice of casting to the bizarre life in rehearsal, this glorious behind-the-scenes look at one of Canada’s strangest theatrical spectacles also confronts the role of religion in contemporary life and the void left by its absence for non-believers.<\/p><p>In the tradition of tragic luminaries such as David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Goldstein, and David Sedaris, <i>I Am Herod<\/i> gives its congregation of readers unparalleled access to the players of the Passion: there’s Judas, who wears a leather jacket even when it’s 30\u02daC; the Chief Sadducee, who is ostracized for his fanaticism; Pilate, the only actor who swears; the Holy Spirit, who is breaking ground as the role’s first female actor; and the understudy Christ, the previous year’s real-deal Christ who was demoted to backup and now performs illicit one-man shows backstage.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<p><b>Shortlisted, Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction<\/b><\/p><p>On a whim, armchair-atheist Richard Kelly Kemick joins the 100-plus cast of <i>The Canadian Badlands Passion Play<\/i>, North America’s largest production of its kind and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":87681,"template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[23450],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-87679","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","5":"product_language-eng","6":"product_subjects-humor","7":"product_subjects-topic","8":"product_subjects-religion-topic","9":"biblio_share_tag-humor-topic-religion","10":"product_cat-voices-for-mental-health","11":"entry","13":"first","14":"instock","15":"taxable","16":"shipping-taxable","17":"purchasable","18":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\n