Theatre students perform original drama about surviving Puerto Rico hurricane during trip to the island

Students from Liberty University’s Department of Theatre Arts spent their spring break in March on a 10-day outreach and service trip to Puerto Rico, performing an original street drama that spoke to the hardships of the people on the island in the aftermath of multiple natural disasters in recent years, in addition to other storytelling pieces they prepared. 

The team of 21 students and two faculty member, theatre professors Barry Gawinski and Aubri Siebert, traveled around the island to perform at schools, churches, a girls’ group home, and on the streets. They partnered with a local church plant, TERRAVIV, which Gawinski said was an important partnership for the goals of the trip.

“Our team is always trying to glorify God in whatever we are doing and support the local ministries,” Gawinski said. “We’re able to share stories in wordless ways that don’t require translation. We can tell Bible stories, moral stories, dance, and other things that share the story of Christ or, if we’re in public locations where we cannot speak of Jesus openly, share our morals and convictions and possibly open conversations. After we would do our presentations, we would spend time in the audience talking with the kids, and our goal was to listen to their stories and share our testimonies if the door opened.”

Freshman theatre student Keilynette Velez Ramos, who is from the town of Arecibo in northern Puerto Rico, saw the trip as not just a visit to her homeland, but rather an opportunity to serve and share the Gospel with her “family” there. 

“I was able to communicate with the kids and adults there and be this bridge between the Liberty (group) and the Puerto Rican people we met,” Velez said. “It was really amazing how I was able to express myself and communicate with both of them. I got to let them know that God loved them and that we loved them.”

The drama, “Jesus in the Storm,” created specifically for this year’s trip, told the story of a Puerto Rican girl surviving a hurricane, surveying the destruction, and wondering where God was in the midst of it. In telling such a powerful and personal story that would undoubtedly mirror the real-life hardships experienced by their audiences, Gawinski said he was thankful to have Ramos, who plays the girl, and Armon Davis, a senior who has family in Puerto Rico and was integral in creating and directing the drama, to help perform the piece in a sensitive and appropriate way. 

“This was a piece that I don’t think we could or should have done without Keilynette and Armon, because we wouldn’t want to claim to understand and feel deserving to tell this personal, possibly triggering story without students who have a better understanding of it,” he said.

Velez said she was approached by multiple audience members throughout the trip who shared their own stories of surviving the hurricanes.

“When we went to a mission house, I talked to a girl who went through (a hurricane), and she told me about how she was in her aunt’s house and saw how the hurricane took her house away right off of the ground,” Velez said. “I got to talk to her for a while and share my faith, and I’m so thankful for this piece because it gave me that opportunity. God was there, helping me to have the right words of encouragement for them. It made me realize that it wasn’t only my story, but that everyone else has their own story and their own journeys.”

The Liberty team made a deep impact on the many children they met in Puerto Rico.

“One of the things I always remind our students of is that, when we come to a school for example, those young people see our students as role models, so I encourage them to use that for good,” Gawinski said. “Those kids are listening to everything (our students) are saying, so it’s a great opportunity to share their testimony and share about Jesus with them.”

In addition to creating friendships with her team members, Velez said she was excited to see the team witness the caring and generous hearts of the Puerto Rican community.

“I didn’t want the other people on the trip to just experience the food or the nature or any of that; I wanted them to know the people and experience how great and loving the people there are,” she said. “They made us feel so welcomed and cared for.”