ACTING UP. Alynzia Fenske (above) is the self-described “organizer and head dreamer” for TAG Skit Group (shown in rehearsal at Peace Church in Eau Claire), a Christian teen theater troupe now producing its first full-length play.

Put the words “church” and “theater troupe” in the same sentence and you generally conjure images of kids clad in old bathrobes portraying shepherds in the annual Christmas pageant.

That’s not the vibe you’ll find with Eau Claire’s TAG Skit Group, a troupe of seventh- through 12th-graders who’ve been performing at churches, camps, and other venues since 2011. Yes, the group is theatrical, and its message is Christian. (“TAG” is an acronym for “Teens Acting for God.”) But the material they stage usually isn’t millennia-old Scripture; instead, TAG performs five- to 10-minute skits written by its own members, primarily Alynzia Fenske, who helped create the group and calls herself its “organizer and head dreamer.”

“We try to break the mold,” says Fenske, 19, of Eau Claire. “We try to come up with stuff that’s fresh and new.”

Fenske has had the acting bug since age 10, and has performed in numerous theatrical productions. Her interest in a nationally known Christian theatrical duo, the Skit Guys, inspired her to begin writing her own skits and to create TAG. “The idea sparked in my mind and my heart that this was something I wanted to do,” Fenske says.

TAG has more than 20 members, some from Fenske’s church, Jacob’s Well, and some from other local denominations. Their skits are sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and typically deliver a moral punch at the end. For instance, a skit titled “Burden Bricks,” which focuses on bullying, centers on a new girl in school, portrayed by Mackenzie Pecor. Each time someone says something unkind to her, they literally drop a brick into her backpack. In the end, she prays, and God relieves her burden as the brick-laden backpack falls to the floor. “It’s just a huge crash, and the whole theater goes silent,” Fenske explains.

Typically, the members of TAG meet weekly to rehearse, socialize, and pray. “Our primary goal is to give teenagers a place to be where they feel comfortable,” Fenske says. TAG has shows every few months, and they have traveled as far as Michigan to perform.

This spring, typical rehearsals were put on hold as TAG tackled a new venture: a scripted musical. The troupe will present Pilgrim by Janice Landry and Cathy Mays – a modern adaptation of the classic Christian allegory Pilgrim’s Progress – at Calvary Baptist Church June 25-27. “It’s taken a lot more organizing than a skit does,” Fenske, who is directing, acknowledges. However, she says, the troupe has been up to the task, and the teens have ably tackled the acting, singing, and choreography.

Fenske, a 2014 graduate of Wildlands Charter School, has several other creative endeavors cooking. She’s fostering TAG Jr., a skit group for pre-teens; this summer she’s directing the Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild’s Golden Trunk Players, a touring high school theater troupe; and she recently published her debut fantasy novel, Fluents and Shadows: The Iridian Dagger. She hopes the Pilgrim production raises some money to build TAG, and she and her father, Gerald, have even talked about writing a book to explain to others how they can create similar groups.

“If I could do this for the rest of my life,” she says of working in the theater, “I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Pilgrim: A Musical Based on Pilgrim’s Progress, presented by TAG Skit Group • June 25-26, 7pm; June 27, 3pm • Calvary Baptist Church, 3036 Epiphany Lane, Eau Claire • FREE, donations welcome • teensactingforgod@yahoo.com • www.tagskitgroup.com