A great article about my current show

Blocking

I blocked Standing today.  

I hate blocking.

I think in pictures and all, but the pictures are much different on paper than they are on stage.  And then there's height differences and body types etc.

And sometimes, I can't get the pictures in my head to translate.

I know the blocking will change from what it is now to what it will be in the performance.  But I still want to go into blocking rehearsal tomorrow with some idea of what I'm doing.  Just to give a structure.  So people aren't wandering around aimlessly.  It's always worked for me before...but this time I'm having doubts.  

And I'm worried about this cast trusting me.

Yeah...I think that's the bigger fear.

But the more present fear is the fact that I hate blocking.  The trust one will be more present tomorrow in rehearsal.

What's funny is that in all of my shows, all of them, I have been complimented on my stage pictures.

If only they knew...

It's a GIVEAWAY!!!!

The show I'm working on this summer (Standing Still Standing) is doing a free GIVEAWAY!!!  We're giving away 2 sets of 2 tickets to the premier of Pixar's new movie, UP! for this Tuesday evening!

Scoot your bum over to http://www.SSStanding.blogspot.com for details on how to enter the giveaway and more information about this awesome show!

GOOD LUCK!  :D

Unsatisfied

I'm working on the spring show at BYU right now as an ASM.  My friend Dave asked me to be the ASM for the class and I needed some more credits last semester so I agreed.  Currently, my job is to sit stage right, set props, call 5 scene changes, catch an apple...I think that's actually it.  So far, I've played 4 full games of Phase 10 with my crew (I've won two!) and many games of speed.  We've had a lot of down time.

I am extremely unsatisfied with my experience with this show.  I don't feel creatively stimulated or satisfied.  I was just telling Dave that I need to find something about the show that I love.  There were several things that stood out to me during the reading we first did of the script.  I teared up 3 times!  But now that the show is up on its feet and I am involved in back stage-ness, I've lost any feelings of love that I may have ever had for this show.  I need to find something that I love to make this show a good experience.  I really hate how much I dread going to rehearsal, how useless I feel there, and how unhappy I am when I come home.  I know that you choose your own attitude or whatever, and I've tried to think positively about this show, but I haven't succeeded.  I really need to find one thing, even if it's just one tiny thing, that I love!

The sounds and projections are cool (they're fantastic actually!).  But I can only see like 20% of them, so they don't quite make the show for me.  The lighting is also really cool, but again I can only see very little of it, and from the side of the stage I feel like I'm missing something.  I wish that I could say that I loved the acting, but it's not compelling to me.  (Is it bad that when I'm watching the show, I just want to redirect it??)  

I really just feel like I'm putting in my time, like it's some sort of sentence...What can I find to love in this show? 

Wow...

What a lack of blogging!

I guess it's really obvious that I'm not taking any theatre classes or working on any shows that are creatively satisfying or enlarging for me.  

Sorry.

I'll get right on that.

Enjoy the break, I guess.  ;)

We are really resistant to change - if someone tells us "you should do this" or "you should believe this" we are resistant to it.

However, if we can read a story and vicariously experience something through a story, that's when we are able to experience a change of heart within us and be able to change.

That's why God tells us stories in the scriptures, in the Endowment session, and why General Authorities use stories.

It's why we do theatre.

God is a Director

My testimony is closely tied to my experience in theatre.  Last night I had a realization while watching a dress rehearsal of my latest show, Little Happy Secrets.  I was wondering what my role had been as director.  What had I accomplished?  What good did I do?  I felt very much like I wasn't needed for this project, like much of what was good had come from the actors and the writing, and I was the weak link getting dragged along with the production.  I was feeling pretty down about my role with the show (although the show is fantastic).  

I realized that what I was doing to myself I often do to God.  I get caught up in how "awesome" I am and what I can do "on my own."  My pride gets me in the way from acknowledging the Lord's hand as the director of my life.  I discount Him and give myself the credit, just as I did while watching LHS last night (discounting myself and giving the actors the credit).  

How do I solve this??

From Class

Every time you do theatre, there are restrictions or limitations.  If you look at the restrictions as being censors, then you will get discouraged.  However, if you view those limitations as allowing you to be more creative, the limitations are incredibly freeing!

This idea is especially applicable here at BYU.  There are many restrictions placed on us as theatre practitioners here.  The plays that we do cannot have curse words stronger than hell or damn.  Content wise, we cannot do shows dealing with homosexuality, etc.  These limitations may feel like censorship, but if we shift our paradigm, we can see these limitations as freeing us to focus on other kinds of theatre and do them extremely well.  Or try more experimental work in form and presentation.  

Happiness is...

http://twentypercentchicago.blogspirit.com/about_20_chicago/

Thank you Dave for finding this!!

Seeing Shows

I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie last night at BYU. There's a lot that can be said, positive and not so positive, about the show. Before I move on to that, I have other things I want to articulate first.

I went to the show with some of the members of my cast from Rabbit Hole - Paul and Justine. They totally enjoyed the show and watched with a clean slate, no expectations. Just wide eyed and open. I watched them as I watched the show and realized that my training has made me a critic of almost everything I see. I don't know that I can go into something and watch it without asking questions and seeing the choices that were made and wondering why those choices were made and what other choices could have been made and what was strongest and is the world unified and on and on and on. I don't regret my education or gaining a more critical eye and inquiring mind. But sometimes I wish it had an off switch. I wish I could go in to a show and just enjoy it. I mean, I like thinking and talking about and questioning theatre. But I feel jaded almost. Theatre is supposed to be enjoyable right? - but it's hard to enjoy when I'm thinking all the time. (Heh, story of my life.) So basically, I miss my theatre innocence sometimes.

So. Millie.
There were a lot of great choices made - the chorus was fun, Jimmy, Trevor Graden, Muzzie, and Mrs. Meers were fantastic, the set changes were fun, the comdey was enjoyable, and the pit was fantastic! Jimmy and Millie were cute together, which was really fun. I totally got that it was Millie and Jimmy's story and that came through really nicely. Millie had a great voice, but from sitting on the balcony, I had a difficult time hearing her over the pit in the climatic moments. But, overall, I felt that the pacing was slow and commitment was low and urgency was missing. And I wasn't sure what unified the world. The costumes were unified within themselves. The set was unified within itself. The lights were unified within themselves. But I wasn't sure how they all worked together. Some things seemed to be funny for the sake of seeing funny (ex. a lot of stuff with Mrs. Dorothy). But, I honestly think that a lot of things could be fixed by just picking up the pacing. The show didn't seem to be driving anywhere - it just sort of clopped along not hurrying anywhere (which seemed funny for a show that takes place in NYC about being modern). Had he pacing picked up, the urgency would've followed and the commitment would've followed as well because the actors would've known what they were driving to.

Overall, what unified the world? Hmm...maybe the unity would've helped to tighten things too. If people knew how the world all worked together to be unified, it would've found a rhythm and jive instead of feeling disjointed and slow.

I also don't know that it was right for the DeJong space. The set was minimal, the ensemble was small and the whole space wasn't used as perhaps it could've been. I think this version of the show may've been more appropriate for the Pardoe space.

I did enjoy Millie. These are just the quesitons that I had afterwards. What unified the world and what was it driving to and what was the need to get there?

Come See My Senior Show!

Come see Rabbit Hole - my senior project!!  Tickets are $5 (so cheap!) and the show plays four performances in the Margett's theatre at BYU.

Trust me, this is one show you don't want to miss!!

Epiphanies

Ok, so I'm a slacker when it comes to reviewing shows I've seen and what not.  Apologies.  I know you all were so looking forward to reading what I thought about the bajillion things I've seen this semester.  Another time.  Maybe.

I had an epiphany, however, about theatre tonight while finishing some grading.  It came from one of my student's papers (love that!).  Each character needs to have a sensory relationship to the space - sight, auditory, taste, touch and smell.  I might have thought about that before, but not in such a clear way.  Our senses so strongly influence our actions that we should be focusing on what is coming in via all 5 senses to exist in the world we create.

I also had other epiphanies in the last few days.  The second one came care of George Nelson and his trip to Poland.  In speaking with a director there, he was told "We don't live to talk, our talking comes out of living!"  This rang so true for me as I tend to choose pieces to direct that are character driven.  These characters must live in their world and must know why they cannot be silent any longer and must speak every time that they do.  The speaking must come out of the living in their world, the world that is created not only by the language, but by the sights and smells and touches and tastes.  The living is what brings out the language.  It's weird because in theatre, all we have to go off of is a script so the living does initially come out of the talking.  But, in order to create compelling, grounded, believable, honest theatre, the talking must come out of the living.

Lastly, "One is defined by what one is against."  This is a very structuralist thought - that we are defined by our opposition; we are in a binary in which each half defines the other.  It's interesting to think about what we fight for and against in theatre, and in life, and what that says about who we are.  I think about my characters in Rabbit Hole and what they're fighting for and against and it's really revealing. 

I have my work totally cut out for me in these next four weeks before Rabbit Hole opens.  I know that it all will fall into place, I know that this show is supposed to happen at BYU at the time it is happening.  Everything has fallen in to place and there must be a reason.  I am starting to panic a little bit as I look at where we are and where we need to be, but I have every confidence in my team.  And I have every confidence that the Lord will continue to send me epiphanies through the Holy Ghost to help guide my work.  :)  

That is all for tonight.

Help! I'm Being Oppressed!

I know that I am seriously slacking on my theatre reviews and I will redeem myself...sometime.  This post is more important to me right now so it takes priority.  Here we go.

Theatre is an extremely male dominated field.  This has become more and more apparent to me since directing A Piece of My Heart in March 2008.  Piece is a play about women in Vietnam sharing their stories.  While it was written by a female, males are the ones who had to give it importance.  A male collected the stories of these women and said that they were important - because on their own, the stories were worthless.  Males produced, directed, designed and stage managed the first production of this piece - again, lending their male credibility to this piece so that people would take it seriously.  When I directed this piece, I took the males out of it.  A man was never seen on stage - it was only the story of the women.  In doing this research, I was shocked that this story - a story about women - could only be told if men gave it credibility and said it was important.

In my dramatic literature class this semester, we have most recently been talking about the theories of Freud and Lacan.  What has stood out the most to me is the Law of the Father - meaning, males hold knowledge.  Language is the gateway to the Law of the Father because when we learn language we are gaining knowledge.  I realized that the theatre department where I go to school is very much run by the Law of the Father.  Males are the ones who are the authorities, who hold the knowledge.  Two-thirds of our main stage season is directed by males.  All of the plays on the main stage season are written, and/or adapted, by males.  Our department chair is a male.  Males completely dominate jobs in the department.  Females hold jobs in the acting and education because those are more nurturing female positions.  Males are the ones who teach everything else (with the exception of MSJ but she has to fight way harder than her male counterparts to be heard and respected).  

I feel, as a female, that I am running in to walls in the theatre world.  I have to work at least three times as hard for my work to be noticed and deemed as "good."  I can't get away with mediocrity.  People, at first take, do not take me seriously because I'm a female.  What's more, I'm a married Mormon female who is just going to be popping out kids for the rest of her life.  Ha!  If I wasn't serious about doing theatre, I wouldn't be fighting as hard as I am right now to be heard.  I'm working on writing a show, I've already directed two this semester, I'm directing two right now, in preproduction for a third, working on a paper to take to a conference, looking at internships and graduate schools, TA-ing the directing classes, etc.  And yet, I'm still not taken seriously.  I don't see any of my male counterparts fighting as hard.  Because they don't need to!  If they show a little bit of promise, BAM!  They're in!  It isn't fair and it probably won't ever be fair.  

I'm a female and my voice isn't being heard!  Help, I'm being oppressed!

AUDITIONS
Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Landon Wheeler

"An intensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty . . . an uncommonly affecting and absorbing play."-Variety

3f, 2m

November 4 from 7-9 pm in D341
November 5 from 5-7 pm in F430

Please come prepared with two contrasting monologues – one comedic, one dramatic – no longer than two minutes.

Cold reads will also be available.

Callbacks November 6 from 7-9 pm in D341

Show is an Experimental Theatre Company show and a TMA 536 project & can be counted for service hours.

Run is January 28-31, 2009 in the Margetts Theater

If you cannot make audition times or have any questions: landon.wheeler@gmail.com

Thank you!
http://byuetc.com

"Faith Affirming" Theatre

I believe that theatre can be faith affirming. Whole heartedly!

However, I have dislike the idea of creating theatre for the purpose of being faith affirming.

There is a type of theatre called Transcendent Theatre. It's purpose is to bring audience members to a greater source of truth or light. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines transcendent as "being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge." In an LDS world, transcendent theatre's purpose is to bring the Holy Ghost to the audience members, causing a spiritual experience.

The Lord speaks to us in the way that we need to be spoken to - through whatever medium he can reach us. He also prepares us to receive His promptings. For example, I would not receive a prompting today about some doctrine that I'm not prepared for (like eternity or what exactly happens in the three different degrees of the Celestial Kingdom). The Lord doesn't just speak to us through the scriptures or through the prophets. Personal revelation is a fantastic thing! And, it can come to us through many different means, including theatre!

You cannot force someone to feel the Spirit or to have personal revelation. However, it seems that this is the purpose of transcendence theatre. I have a problem with labeling something as "Faith Affirming" because what is faith affirming to one person will likely not be faith affirming to another. And, like I said before, you cannot force someone into have their faith affirmed, especially if he or she is not prepared or if it's not how the Lord needs to speak to that person.

This last set of plays at NPP was a "faith affirming" cycle. I'll be honest - I did not feel the Spirit. (Actually, I felt the Spirit leave me during one of the plays. Does that count?) My faith was not affirmed. However, the plays were all religious in some way. Does religious = faith affirming in this setting? Who decides what's faith affirming? Why them? Why am I supposed to feel the Spirit in the ways that this person/these people are deciding? What if I don't? Why not just do a cycle of religious plays and let them be faith affirming if they need to be for certain individuals?

You can't force someone to feel the Spirit, and yet that's what the purpose of this cycle was, and what most of these plays were trying to do by being "faith affirming." I understand the importance of doing uplifting theatre and I try myself to create uplifting theatre. However, uplifting is different from faith affirming.

Seriously?

This blog is more of a theatre rant. Please skip down to my next blog to read some cool theatre stuff.

Why do people not take me seriously in the theatre world at BYU?!
Is it because I'm female? Because I kind of get that vibe...

Oh, she's married and will probably not be doing theatre seriously ever because she'll probably just have kids and forget about theatre so we don't need to encourage her and take her ideas seriously.

That's ridiculous. I need to do theatre. It's not something I'm just doing for the hell of it. It's not something that I'm going to give up when my mood changes. This is what I'm passionate about and serious about doing for the rest of my life. And I will do it, dang it.

I try really hard not to be cocky. I know that the Lord is in whom I trust and he makes up for what I lack. I know that I have a lot to learn. But I also know I have a lot of good ideas! I know that I have talent!

Take me seriously, dang it!!!!!!!!

When I say I want to do a project, investigate an idea, etc, don't blow me off for something else! Just because I'm not male/graduating soon/whatever your reason is, does not give you reason to ignore me!

Secondly, just because I'm not pushing the envelope does not mean that I'm not doing thought provoking theatre. I understand that it can be frustrating to do theatre at BYU where we're a religiously sponsored university and therefore held to different standards. I know that it would be nice if things were different. However, this doesn't mean that fantastic, thought provoking theatre cannot happen within these limits! Sketchy content does not mean that it's good theatre. Just find the truth and bear your witness of it.

This doesn't mean that I'm not fighting just as hard as you are to improve the theatre department. But just because I'm not fighting to do edgy-for-BYU-stuff doesn't mean that I'm not doing good theatre!! I'm not playing it safe. I'm not taking the easy way out. I'm challenging myself and will also be challenging my audience to think. Again, sketchy content does not make good theatre.

--

I love theatre. I want to do it for the rest of my life. I want to be taken seriously, though! Please! I'm not just some dumb girl doing easy stuff and taking the easy way out. Please give me some credit for what I'm doing!!

My next projects

I am beginning work on two theatre projects:

1. Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire for my senior directing project. This play deals a lot with grief, but there is so much humor in it and it's beautiful.

My concept for this piece comes directly from the script:

Becca: This feeling. Does it ever go away?
Nat: No. I don't think it does. Not for me it hasn't. And that's goin' on eleven years. It changes though.
Becca: How?
Nat: I don't know. The weight of it, I guess. At some point it becomes bearable. It turns into something you can crawl out from under. And carry around - like a brick in your pocket. And you forget it every once in a while, but then you reach in for whatever reason and there it is: "Oh right. That." Which can be awful. But not all the time. Sometimes it's kinda...Not that you like it exactly, but it's what you have instead of your son, so you don't want to let go of it either. So you carry it around. And it doesn't go away, which is...
Becca: What.
Nat: Fine...actually.

The show is in the NELKE/Margettes. The audience is going to sit in the Margettes in thrust (three sides) seating, but the doorway between the NELKE and Margettes will be open. I want the lift to be up and have that be Danny's room. Then on the Margettes floor will be the kitchen and the living room area. I want the bedroom to always be lit, but I want the weight of the lighting to change throughout the course of the show. I want the bedroom to always be lit, but have the lighting change to something that doesn't go away but is less lit. Just like the brick - it's always there, but it becomes something that you can deal with.

I've thought about colors of bricks: Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow. I am thinking about having the characters in solid blocks of colors of brick - like Howie in brown pants, Izzy in a orange blouse, Nat in a red something and Becca in an Orange something. Like a jacket. Or a skirt. But not real obvious. Still contemporary and hip and whatever. And then throughout the course of the play, have those colors become subtly smaller on each of them. Like the pant becomes just shoes. Or the blouse becomes a belt, or a bracelet, etc. The bricks are still with them, but smaller and it's fine.

From 7-7:30, I want to have a little boy (I know a 5 year old boy, acutally) playing on the set with toys and eating crackers or something, just living and playing in the space while the audience comes in. Immediately they're engaged in this cute little boy. And then, he's gone when the play starts and he never comes back. However, the toys on the stage the audience just saw this boy playing with. They see the world similarly to the way Bec and Nat and Iz and Howie see it. Does that make sense? And that way the things in the space are actually endowed with the memories of this child.

The grief cycle is a circle, right? But I think it's really more like a cone. At the base, it seems really long and big, but you move upwards and the grief cycle gets smaller until it's a point where it's fine - it's smaller and it's easier to live with it. All of the characters are on different points of the grief cycle. Howie and Becca move apart because they're not moving through the cycle together. They're moving in different ways. I think by the end of the play they catch up kind of? Come to an understanding of how to move together?

I love the idea that also comes from my concept about carrying a brick and how the brick is a burden, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. That's the theme that I want to explore: Not all burdens are bad. Trials are tragic, yes, but they're not unfortunate because they stretch us and make us grow in ways that we didn't expect. The trials are difficult, but do not have to be bad.

That's where I'm at with the show: a lot of pre-production conceptualizing. I'm loving it, so far, which is fantastic. I love the characters in this play. I love that we're seeing them 8 months after the tragic event, so they're past the point of crying and sobbing and instead trying to get through the day the best way the know how: using a lot of sarcasm and wit.

2. A highly personal project that will come about the same way that The Laramie Project and A Piece of My Heart were created. A lot of interviews with many different people. Males, females, LDS, non-LDS, bishops, counselors, mothers, fathers, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, etc.

I want to explore pornography in a way that will open a dailogue about it. I feel very much like it's something that we don't talk about because it's bad. Because we don't talk about it, there is a lot that is unknown and there's no one to tell you or teach you until it's too late. We're only told "don't view porn." I want to open a dialogue that will help us think about how we can help those ensnared, how we can avoid the pitfalls, how we can find healing, etc.

I'm in the very pre-production stages of this project and I'm exploring the option of getting an ORCA grant for the research that will go along with this project. I feel like there should be some compensation for those that I inverview, plus I would love to get out of the BYU world and explore some other places, which could be funded by an ORCA grant.

Fire and Rain

I've been working on a short play titled Foxgloves written by Matthew Greene. This play is a part of a religions play cycle put on by the New Play Project, meaning it was one of six plays performed all together. Foxgloves is about a mother and daughter who live in very different worlds, but understand each other in their garden. The mother doesn't do any of the gardening while the daughter loves to garden. The mother also has faith in God while the daughter is a non-believer. However, the year the daughter turns 16 is a difficult year and she purchased foxglove seeds to kill herself. Foxgloves seeds are poisonous, fatal if swallowed. The mother found the seeds and planted them because she thought her daughter needed to see something grow that spring. The play takes place one year later when the daughter has started to garden again and the mother wants to know what happened a year ago. And that's all the synopsis I'm going to give.

I love Foxgloves. I love working on scripts Matthew has written. I have loved working with my two actresses and my assistant director. It never ceases to amaze me how as I exercise faith and move forward, the Lord makes up for what I lack. I saw that clearly again as I worked on this piece.

Tonight was opening night of this play cycle. I was able to watch all six plays in the cycle. Some of them were really great. Others...well, here's my review. And it's not gentle. And it's just my opinion, so don't get your knickers in a twist over it.

The first play I did not understand at all. I thought the acting and directing were both poor, and the writing was too ambiguous. I understand not spoon feeding the audience. I'm all about that. But, there is a place where you do have to meet your audience, otherwise, what's the point? My questions after the performance are: what was in the letter from his mother? does he really love his fiance? what did the dream mean? was there a change of heart? Maybe these are all questions I was supposed to have, in which case they did a good job. However, I did not enjoy this play and felt awkward most of the time.

The second play was about a family who has an intervention for a son who has struggled with pornography and masturbation for years. I am not one to get up and leave during a movie or a show or anything.
I got up and left during this play.
Honestly, I'm not quite sure why yet. I know that this play hit way too close to home for me. I know that it said a whole lot nothing. There was never a a suggestion made for how this son could work to overcome this trial. It was said that he went to counseling. But there were a lot of excuses made for why he was struggling and no hope for anything ever changing. I have no problem with seeing difficult things examined through theatre. However, I don't think this was a productive examination. I think I'll have more to say about this show later...

The third play was called Based on True-ish Stories and it was beautifully directed. However, I still had a lot of questions like why was the main character struggling with her faith? Why does she leave her fiance? Why these memories of people? Why??? Mostly just a lot of "why." What was the theme? What was I supposed to walk away with?

Fourth play was Foxgloves. :)

Fifth play was Gaia and there were a lot of doctrinal issues with that script that turned me off. I mean, the concept was really interesting. It was Eve and Lucifer's conversation in heaven before the war in heaven. It was interesting to think about how Lucifer was also our brother and to wonder what the conversations were that took place in heaven. Did he try and lead me away too? There were moments that I really enjoyed, however the doctrinal issues pulled me out of being completely engaged.

The sixth and last play was Burning in the Bossom and I loved it! It was six people sitting during a sacrament meeting and we got to hear one woman's reflections. I totally identified with her crisis of faith - she's trying, doesn't that count for something?! I wonder the same thing. I'm trying, I could be trying harder, but doesn't trying count for something? Doesn't Heavenly Father appreciate how hard I'm trying? I loved this play because it felt so close to me. It was uncomfortable, in a good way, to hear the same thoughts that I have thought during sacrament meetings expressed to an entire audience. It was uncomfortable to examine myself in the same way I do every Sunday on a Friday night in a theater. But the ending was very touching and I was reminded that yes, we are asked to do our best. We can't do anything more than our best. And Heavenly Father loves us. Me. I loved it.

There are six more performances of this same cycle. I encourage you to see it! And if you see it, I would love to talk with you about it afterwards. Because that's who I am. :)

And, PS, I'm so proud of my girls for their hard work! I teared up, ladies!! Beautiful! xoxo

Laying the foundation

Why does theatre make sense to me?

When I'm working on a project, my life seems to fall into place more. (My house falls apart, but I can live with that.) I'm much happier and more fulfilled. But even more than that, I can see the hand of the Lord so clearly when I am working on a show. I know with assurity when ideas come to me that are not my own. I can feel the Lord's guiding influence and I trust him. For some reason, I have a difficult time trusting my whole life to my Father (call me stubborn or stupid), but I couldn't do theatre without Him! I rely so heavily on Him. As I work with his children, I rely on him to help me to know how best to help each of them. As I work with material that bears the truth, I rely on Him to help me know the best way to bring the truth to the audience. As I discuss the pieces I'm working on with my collaborators, my testimony is strengthened. I don't do theatre because it's an addiction and I need a fix. I do theatre because I feel so close to my Father when I'm working with His children, dealing with messages of truth, and creating ways to present these truths. As a director, I feel especially close to my Father when I think about how I am working to create this piece and how our Father is the ultimate creator. I feel very much as if He takes me under his wing and shows me a little bit at a time regarding creation.

But can't theatre be some terrible thing that will drive people away from the gospel? Let me share what I've learned. The Spirit bears the truth of all things - secular and non-secular. When I direct a show, I find a theme. This theme is something that must have truth in it, otherwise the Spirit can't bear the truth of it to the audience. Now, if I were to choose something not truthful, that would be a problem, yes. But, as I work with the Spirit in the process of creating a theatrical piece, I trust that He will bear the truth to the audience. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. That doesn't mean it's wrong! So, really, theatre is an uplifting, edifying experience!

I believe that theatre is a gift - one that is not used enough! Theatre can teach, uplift, serve as an example to others (positive and negative). I'm of the opinion that theatre should make us reflect upon ourselves, why we act and think the way that we do and if that's what we want or not. Complacency is something that scares me, but when I'm working on theatre, I'm constantly self-evaluating. That's one thing I love about theatre. It truly is a blessing!