The Playbill
Stage of Fools is a Christian webcomic that shines a limelight on the theatrical farce we call life.
What's in a Name?
The Comic
Stage of Fools takes its name from the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. In Act 4, Scene 6, the eponymous character, still reeling from betrayal and loss, responds to the blind Earl of Gloucester's exasperated lamentation with these cynical lines:
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools…. (King Lear 4.6.155)
The subtly self-referential nature of Lear's comment should call to mind the layers of experience present in a theatrical context. There is the fictitious world in which the characters reside, the literal stage on which the actors perform, the cultural reality into which the audience is born, and the folly that permeates all of these layers—whether by the hand of others or our own.
The Cast
of Chesil
Chesil gets his name from the Biblical Hebrew word כְּסִיל which is defined as “stupid fellow, dullard, fool.”1
of Aphron
Aphron gets her name from the Koine Greek word ἄφρων which is defined as “foolish, senseless, unwise.”2
Both are recent converts to Christianity, and as such their lives are yet full of the folly characteristic of unbelief.
The Supporting Cast
of Tom
(Check back soon. The cast will be growing!)
of Kevin
Kevin Gillispie
Writer, Illustrator, Stage Manager
Kevin gets his name from the Irish word Caoimhín which is defined as “of noble birth.” Just kidding! His mother thought of it while reading a magazine on the toilet.
He began drawing at an early age, taking his first formal art lesson from the “How to Draw Garfield” page from the Garfield Bigger Than Life collection. In addition to his artistic pursuits, he is a poet,3 teacher,4 programmer,5,6 musician,7 audio engineer,8 and world traveler.9
He has served as a church planter in South Korea and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at The Master's Seminary.
Help Keep the Stage Lit!
Patronage, pourboires, and pourovers all keep the foolery flowing.
Footnotes
- Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).↩︎
- Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 386.↩︎
- He publishes regularly in Buc-ee's restroom stalls across North America.↩︎
- A cautionary tale of great pedagogical import.↩︎
- What do you get when you cross a gorilla with a computer? A Hairy Reasoner.↩︎
- If you get that joke, you're probably too old for webcomics.↩︎
- Layabout.↩︎
- SSCCREEEEEEEWWEEERRRROOOWWW goes the vocal mic.↩︎
- Fugitive.↩︎