John Michael Tebelak

Godspell was conceived and directed by John Michael Tebelak

John-Michael Tebelak bio info

John-Michael Tebelak was 22 years old when Godspell hit New York. It was his first brush with the New York theatre, but by no means his first venture into theatrics. His theatrical career started when he "walked into a theatre at the age of nine and stayed there."

Mr. Tebelak originally conceived of Godspell as his Masters Thesis project at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970. All of the original cast members contributed to the playful script that evolved under John-Michael's direction. Subsequently, he directed productions of Godspell at La MaMa Theatre in February of 1971, the Cherry Lane Theatre (opening May 17, 1971), the Promenade Theatre, and on Broadway.

Tebelak co-authored the screenplay for Godspell (1973) for Columbia Pictures with David Greene. Mr. Tebelak was dramaturge for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, and wrote and staged liturgical drama there. He died of a heart attack at the age of 36 in April 1985.

More Godspell History

Here's Stephen Schwartz's comments in answer to a question:

What is the history of GODSPELL and how did Stephen Schwartz get involved?

Stephen Schwartz: GODSPELL began at Carnegie-Mellon University as a directing project for John-Michael Tebelak, who was in the theatre department there. John-Michael, who had thoughts of becoming an Episcopal minister before he decided to become a theatre director, had recently attended an Easter service in Pittsburgh and was struck by the lack of joy and celebration in the service as well as by the personal hostility he felt from some of his fellow churchgoers because of his youth and long hair (it was during the height of the Vietnam War and its accompanying "Generation Gap".) The show was presented at Carnegie, where it included interpolated pop songs and Episcopal hymns set to music written by cast members, as well as the song "By My Side", written by CMU students Jay Hamburger and Peggy Gordon (a member of the cast). Being very well-received, it was presented the following year in New York City at an off-off-Broadway theatre called the Cafe la Mama. This was in February and March of 1971. There it was seen by producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh (brought there by former CMU student Charles Haid, who became the associate producer of the show). They became interested in giving the show a commercial production at an off-Broadway theatre. At that time, I was contacted by the producers, who had heard me audition my score for PIPPIN, and I signed on to write music and new lyrics. We retained the song "By My Side" and the rest of the score was written in time for the start of rehearsals on April 11, 1971, except for the song "Learn Your Lessons Well" which was added during rehearsals. The show opened May 17, 1971.

Tebelak - Story of Godspell's conception

Excerpt from interview in Dramatics Magazine, January 1975:

...Finally, I turned toward the Gospels and sat one afternoon and read the whole thing through. Afterwards, I became terribly excited be cause I found what I wanted to portray on stage.

BARKER: Which was…

TEBELAK: Joy! I found a great joy, a simplicity—some rather comforting words in the Gospel itself—in these four books. I began immediately to adapt it. I decided to go to Easter sunrise service to experience, again, the story that I had gotten from the Gospel. As I went, it began to snow which is rather strange for Easter. When I went into the cathedral, everyone there was sitting, grumbling about the snow, and the fact that they had already changed their tires. They weren't going to be able to take pictures that afternoon. Snow was upsetting their plans. As the service began, I thought it might be a little different. Instead, an old priest came out and mumbled into a microphone, and people mumbled things back, and then everyone got up and left. Instead of "healing" the burden, or resurrecting the Christ, it seems those people had pushed Him back into the tomb. They had refused to let Him come out that day. As I was leaving the church, a policeman who had been sitting two pews ahead of me during the service, stopped me and wanted to know if he could search me. Apparently he had thought I was ducking into the church to escape the snowstorm. At that moment—I think because of the absurd situation—it angered me so much that I went home and realized what I wanted to do with the Gospels: I wanted to make it the simple, joyful message that I felt the first time I read them and recreate the sense of community, which I did not share when I went to that service. I went to my teachers at Carnegie and asked if I could work at my own special project for my masters' degree, and they agreed. That following fall, in October, we began rehearsals at Carnegie.

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