Cast members performed The Devil on Trial on June 11 at Weldon Auditorium. The play was written by Manning's Effie Hilton, who has written two previous plays.
Playwright Effie Hilton wrote and directed the play, The Devil on Trial, which drew in a cast that had never experienced acting before.
There were times, Hilton said, that they thought the play would not be a possibility. The play was put on June 11 at Weldon Auditorium.
Hilton’s first play was The Gospel Train. By the time she wrote her second, Church Folk For Real, she had already filled the auditorium with 976 people at Weldon.
Hilton lost her husband three years ago and, since then, she said she has been going through a storm. Hilton said that she had been attacked by the enemy from all angles, but soon found that through prayer she experienced relief.
“After losing my mother, who was my inspiration, I had a dream," she said. "In that dream, God showed me that I was to write everything down. I got up at 2 a.m. and wrote what was in my spirit, which ended up as a play. That dream to me was a confirmation that God wanted me to write."
Hilton said The Devil on Trial is about people being tried first by the devil.
"The play shows us how God gave us a tool to fight the devil, which is the Word of God," she said. "When we introduce the tool, we introduce Mother Christian. Mother Christian fights the devil with the Word, and the devil then flees."
Hilton said the cast of characters includes those from the Bible, such as Adam, Eve and Delilah, along with those who represent the youth of today.
"We portrayed in the play that the devil influences us even these days, which greatly impacts our youth," she said.
She posted on her Facebook page that she was auditioning for her play and needed actors. Everyone who showed up for the audition were local non-experienced actors.
Sometimes, a rehearsal turned into a prayer meeting, she said, and after some of those type meetings, the actors began to catch on and remember their lines.
"In the end, the actors turned out to be better than I had imagined," she said.
With four years of producing plays and pastoring a newly established church, Hilton said that every day she fights a storm but God has shown her the tools to use. Her next play is Church Folk Going Crazy. She said that she will give her original actors the first opportunity to apply but will be auditioning for the next play soon.
“We as Christians have a tendency of blaming everything on the devil, and that is what the play is based on,” she said. “At times, it's just God allowing things to happen in our lives in order to make us stronger Christians, which is portrayed in the play.
“I know that this message is of God," Hilton continued. "I couldn’t do it on my own. I truly believe that he wants me to reveal the tools needed in today’s world to keep us strong. We need to learn how to speak against the rulers of darkness and speak life, not death. Jesus is already the victor when He died on the cross.”
