Onesimus' wundersame Reise

Imagine if Paul's letter to Philemon was on the curriculum in religion class. In this letter, Paul pleads for the runaway slave Onesimus, who has sought refuge with him. The children are bored, they are not interested in the subject matter. Far too far away, far too long ago! This is the initial scenario of the musical “Onesimus' Wondrous Journey”, which will be performed by around 50 children from the 3rd and 4th grades of the Domsingschule from May 9 to 11.

Teacher duo Jacqueline Eßer and René Lantin are directing the production and have used new methods in preparation. “As we would have had to pay expensive performance licenses and fees for an existing musical without being allowed to change a single line of text, we wrote a play ourselves and created our own scenes as well as some with an AI chatbot,” reports Eßer.

Two of the songs to be heard in the musical were written by two well-known composers in the region: Angelo Scholly, church musician at GdG grenzenlos, and diocesan church director and cathedral organist Michael Hoppe. An additional musical accompaniment was provided by a pupil.