Curry, my late husband and I, Suzanne Harston, came to Kerrville in 2008 after living for 3 years in an RV and traveling the USA and Canada. Our Southern California church did a version of The Victor every Palm Sunday. I wrote, directed, and usually played Mary Mom (I was about 40-60 back then). I have a Bachelor’s degree in Directing from UC Fullerton. I found God’s calling for me to be in theatre; I believe it is one of God’s ways for us to spread the word of Jesus & salvation.

 Curry and I took 5 years and attended 19 different churches before we finally found John Wheat at Trinity…we had attended Trinity twice during those years but on the 3rd visit, John Wheat was the new pastor and we knew it was the right place for us. When we met with Pastor John to become members in January 2013, I shared my background and he asked me if I had ever crucified Jesus on stage. I told him yes, every Sunday for the last 20 years. John said they had been wanting to do The Victor but had needed someone who knew how to do the crucifixion part, and so planning started for a Victor to happen on Palm Sunday 2014…yup it took 14 months to get it done. There was no way to pull it off in 2.

 
Larry Danks, the Music Minister and I started planning. Wayne Comer, a master carpenter, began working on plans to build a stage extension that would allow for us to have a weight-bearing cross.

 

We used David Clydesdale’s original script for The Victor, all his songs and narration as written. Pastor John played Benjamin, a Jew of Israel who spoke to the audience. We had wonderful costumes for the choir and actors, the costumes for the priests were acceptable, but not great. Our soldiers had plastic armor! BUT our production was a huge success!!! So we planned to do it again in 2015. Some generous person donated money for our soldiers to have real armor. I think those metal soldier costumes were about $600 each. I remember that Larry and I looked for them on the internet, chose what we wanted and when they came we tried them on ourselves like little kids!!!

 

 

 
I remember the feeling I had when I saw those soldiers come to arrest Jesus in the first rehearsal with the new metal armor….WOW!! How intimidating they appeared!! I was overwhelmed !!!! I still am every time I see them coming down the aisle to the garden arrest!!!

  

The next year I told Larry that I needed to rewrite a lot of The Victor to get some women in it. That year, Mary Mom, Mary Mag, the adulterous woman, Lazarus’s sister, and a Leper Woman all became new female speaking parts!! Oh yes, I added lines for Peter, John and Jesus too!

 
Through the years, the script changes somewhat as do the songs, and story tellers. We added the hand signing in about 2016. At times, it has been 2 or 3 disciples, then 2 priests, now it is the Centurion. In 2025, we added a new character-Isaiah! The basic story, of course, remains the same. 

 

One fun fact about The Victor is how Jesus gets into and out of the tomb! Originally, our tomb had no “escape hatch”, so once Jesus was in the tomb, he couldn’t come out except through the front. Sooooo, an alive Jesus was dropped carefully behind the priest’s stage, and a dummy Jesus was picked up, taken to the tomb, and placed inside. The live Jesus wiggled down the stairs behind a black curtain to backstage where he was cleaned up and redressed for his resurrected appearance! This was standard procedure for the first few years. Until one day, Larry had a brilliant idea to cut a hole in the stage floor under the tomb and provide what we named the “escape hatch”. So, Jesus is really in the tomb for a few seconds then escapes to backstage, where he gets cleaned up for his reappearance!

 
The Victor is such a powerful outreach to the unchurched. Plus, it is a wonderful way to make close bonds with people in our church.

 
Charlie, our Music Minister since 2023 is our producer. He also leads The Victor choir. The choir, besides providing wonderful songs, also become the people of Jerusalem. Sometimes loving and sometimes hating Jesus. We are so fortunate to have such a fabulous cast of talented people and singers.

 
There are a lot of people the audience never sees….Stephanie Clarke, assistant producer though she sings in The Victor choir, she also coordinates all of the people involved with the production, set design, loads the words on the screen, and takes care of whatever else comes up. Riley Gordon, who coordinates the people who run lights, sound, & cameras, he also helps with set design and deals with all of the tech gremlins that inevitably rear their ugly heads each year. Joe Rief was head of the broadcast ministry for many years- ensuring we look and sound good online when we livestream. After he stepped down, Jeff Stone took over along with Tom Gancarz. Misty Gordon ensures the audio is balanced for our live stream. Just a few behind the scene folks that many don’t even know are there, but are just as important as the ones front and center stage!

 
The stage manager, without whom there would be nothing but a huge train wreck instead of a wonderful performance, controls all backstage activities; including getting actors to their specified entrances, getting blood on and off of Jesus, and controls all props, helps the actors get their mics on, and more!

 

Originally, I was the stage manager (in costume) so I could change the priest’s stage into the Last Supper, and then back to the Priest’s stage again, but then wonderful Kellee Parish took the job which allowed me to fully develop the cast of Jerusalem people, and eventually sing with the choir. Then, in 2023, Debbie Dossey took the task! She is brilliant at making it a smooth-running performance and helps coordinate some pre-production tasks as well, including taking care of all the palm leaves you see!

 

Wayne Comer is still leading a team in the installation of our stage extension that allows us to have a crucifixion scene and the tomb. Sue Stewart, then, Carry Overby, and now Kay Barry provided about 100 actors and singers with wonderful authentic costumes. Lew King, a professional song writer wrote, “The Basin and The Towel” which we added to The Victor some years ago. Rob Ward and Roslyn Houghton add directing touches that make our production truly outstanding. Trinity is so blessed to have these gifted people. Rob, Lew, and Roslyn are all part of the Hill Country professional theater community.

 
I came to know the Lord through a movie and I feel God has truly blessed me with a church home that believes in theater arts as an outreach for the lost.

 
Every year we have new people in the Victor, singing, acting, signing, and running tech. If you have ever wanted to be a part of The Victor team, let me or Charlie know. We would love to have you! But, the main thing now is to invite people to experience Trinity’s “The Victor”. Carry the little cards and give them out to everybody. “The Victor” is Trinity’s gift to the Texas Hill Country.

 

Suzanne Harston
Victor Director