A stage show featuring Canada’s first female rabbi, a gay priest and a gay minister will take the audience behind the pulpit as the clergy share their stories about their call to the ministry, the challenges they faced within their congregations and their personal joys and struggles.

The Clergy Project brings together Father Daniel Brereton of St. John the Baptist Anglican church in Mississauga, Ont., Rev. Shawn Newton of Toronto’s First Unitarian Congregation, and Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, the spiritual leader of the City Shul, who shattered the rabbinic glass ceiling in Canada when she was hired as an assistant rabbi by Holy Blossom Temple in 1983.

The project was developed by the artistic director of Toronto’s SoulOTheatre, Tracey Erin Smith, an actor, playwright and teacher who guides her students through the process of sharing their life stories on stage. Two years ago, Smith, who once considered becoming a rabbi herself, contacted professional clergy with the idea of taking them through her course and creating a show with their experiences.

Originally, the project was going to include six clergy, but within 24 hours of their first class, half of them had dropped out.

“That showed me we were doing something risky, to ask clergy to step forward in front of their cloaks or robes and reveal a little more about the person behind the role,” she said. She added that for the clergy who stayed, rehearsals became a support group.

“It really was like a mini-support group for multifaith clergy in that we created a very safe place where confidentiality was No. 1 and they were able to openly share what it’s like to take on the responsibility of being clergy.”

Smith called them trailblazers, saying that being professional clergy is hard enough as it is, “so these three people have really forged their own way.” She added it took a lot of strength for Father Brereton “to come out to his conservative congregation and risk saying, ‘This is who I am,’ and knowing not everyone is going to be happy about it.”

As the show’s director, Smith helped the clergy bring forward the stories and characters from their lives. They are on stage at same time, speaking monologues about their experiences and sometimes interacting.

“Even though they’re from different faiths, their experiences are very similar,” Smith said. She and the three clergy – whom Smith described as people who “honour their own traditions while being open to other people’s belief and traditions” – enjoyed working together.

“I think it really shows on stage – the love for each other, the fun. There was so much laughter and there’s a lot of comedy in the show.”

She added that Father Brereton, Rabbi Goldstein and Rev. Newton have “wonderful stage presences because they preach for a living, so they’re great storytellers, they’re powerful on stage, passionate, insightful and wise.”

In the age of social media, people are “starting to look for more genuine, real and faith-based connections,” Smith said. “I think some of them are turning back to their faiths of origin or to relatively new religions such as Unitarian Universalism, that are more secular but definitely very community minded.”

What’s important for people now is “getting to know clergy at the level of who they are, and that makes people feel more connected,” she said. “I don’t know that people want their clergy to be on a pedestal anymore.”

She said that having wanted to be a rabbi, she’s always been fascinated by people who become clergy. “I wanted to see what was behind the roles and I think we’ve accomplished that.

The Clergy Project is on at Revival, 783 College St., Toronto, on Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a Q and A and an after party. For $25 advance tickets, visit www.soulo.ca/clergy. At the door, admission is $30; $20 for seniors, students, arts workers, clergy and exotic dancers.