I came across this interview of writer and culture expert Andy Crouch. It originally appeared in a student magazine but there's plenty in the interview to interest those of us who aren't students.
Coming soon: an actor, a composer, a photographer, and more!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Roundtable 4: Engaging with the Arts
I’m concluding this week’s Roundtable by talking with arts enthusiast Calvin Edwards. Calvin is an executive with more than 20 years experience working with charitable, educational, and religious institutions. In 2001 he founded Calvin Edwards & Company (www.calvinedwardscompany.com), to “maximize the good of giving” by consulting with philanthropists as they support faith-based causes.
LeAnne: Why do you love the arts? Have you always loved them?
Calvin: I love the arts because they make me think in new ways, they help me see the world from a different perspective. I like who I am, or who I become, when I engage with the arts.
Now, I realize that some people will think this is a little peculiar, that my love for the arts revolves around thinking—some would say the arts are about feeling, imagining, and experiencing, not something cerebral like thinking. And the arts surely are about all those things. My point is precisely that one thinks differently as a result of feeling things.
One cannot help but be deeply moved by the contrast between grace and law in Les Miserable, that monumental metaphor set in the French Revolution. To immerse in that profound and engaging story is to emerge a different person. How? After being there, I think about life differently. I understand the power of grace and want to show it to others. It is more than just a great story, it changes lives. Ultimately the arts help to shape who I am, what I believe, and how I think.
Have I always loved them? The short answer is “no.” I grew up in rural New Zealand where sheep grazed outside my bedroom window. My friends’ dads drove bulldozers in a logging town. There was beauty in my life, but not the arts. However, my father had a great collection of classical and sacred music on 7” spools of tape that I learned to load on a tape player when I was a teenager.
I came to love and appreciate the arts as a college student when I was invited into a circle of friends who loved music, drama, and literature--and many performed, some even performed live on the Australian ABC. I remember thinking how peculiar it was to lie on the floor and listen to Mozart or Handel on an old gramophone when others were listening to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, or AC/DC. I’m grateful to those friends who introduced me to the world of the arts.
Coming soon: a photographer, a composer, and an actor
LeAnne: Why do you love the arts? Have you always loved them?
Calvin: I love the arts because they make me think in new ways, they help me see the world from a different perspective. I like who I am, or who I become, when I engage with the arts.
Now, I realize that some people will think this is a little peculiar, that my love for the arts revolves around thinking—some would say the arts are about feeling, imagining, and experiencing, not something cerebral like thinking. And the arts surely are about all those things. My point is precisely that one thinks differently as a result of feeling things.
One cannot help but be deeply moved by the contrast between grace and law in Les Miserable, that monumental metaphor set in the French Revolution. To immerse in that profound and engaging story is to emerge a different person. How? After being there, I think about life differently. I understand the power of grace and want to show it to others. It is more than just a great story, it changes lives. Ultimately the arts help to shape who I am, what I believe, and how I think.
Have I always loved them? The short answer is “no.” I grew up in rural New Zealand where sheep grazed outside my bedroom window. My friends’ dads drove bulldozers in a logging town. There was beauty in my life, but not the arts. However, my father had a great collection of classical and sacred music on 7” spools of tape that I learned to load on a tape player when I was a teenager.
I came to love and appreciate the arts as a college student when I was invited into a circle of friends who loved music, drama, and literature--and many performed, some even performed live on the Australian ABC. I remember thinking how peculiar it was to lie on the floor and listen to Mozart or Handel on an old gramophone when others were listening to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, or AC/DC. I’m grateful to those friends who introduced me to the world of the arts.
Coming soon: a photographer, a composer, and an actor
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Roundtable 3: Why Do You Love the Arts?
In this week’s Roundtable, I’ll be talking again with both Sandra Glahn, fiction writer, teacher and speaker, and Calvin Edwards, an executive who works with philanthropists to “maximize the good of giving.”
LeAnne: Sandra, let’s start with you. Why do you love the arts? Have you always loved them?
Sandra: Since I can remember I have loved the arts, and I hate that so many of today's fine arts--opera, symphony, museums--are inaccessible to those in lower economic groups.
I grew up in Oregon's lush Willamette valley in a modest home that sat on five acres. The two living room windows looked out on Mt. Hood in one direction and the Willamette River in the other. We sang on car trips, and Mom read us great stories. I remember my dad singing me to sleep at bedtime playing the autoharp. Going to the library was a weekly event in the summer.
Then when I was ten, Dad volunteered for a transfer to Washington, D.C., because he wanted to expose his five kids to culture. So for the next seven years we went to free Juilliard String Quartet concerts and National Geographic lectures and Smithsonian tours. My favorite attractions were Jefferson's Monticello (so much creativity!) and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, where we watched money being made.
By the time I hit ninth grade, I'd had a year of piano and seven years of viola. Every kid in my family played an instrument, and we'd attend each other's endless concerts and we'd also have hootenannies with other families. (As grown ups, we turned out to be a musician, a curator, two teachers and a writer.) We didn't think of ourselves as creative types. We just loved music and history and problem-solving, and we played outside instead of watching a lot of TV (though we complained bitterly at the time). And we watched our mom sketch during afternoons on camping trips. The arts were not a separate category in our lives. They were interwoven into everything we did. They were just "normal."
On Thursday, we’ll hear from arts enthusiast Calvin Edwards about how and when he came to love the arts.
Coming soon: an actor and a photographer
LeAnne: Sandra, let’s start with you. Why do you love the arts? Have you always loved them?
Sandra: Since I can remember I have loved the arts, and I hate that so many of today's fine arts--opera, symphony, museums--are inaccessible to those in lower economic groups.
I grew up in Oregon's lush Willamette valley in a modest home that sat on five acres. The two living room windows looked out on Mt. Hood in one direction and the Willamette River in the other. We sang on car trips, and Mom read us great stories. I remember my dad singing me to sleep at bedtime playing the autoharp. Going to the library was a weekly event in the summer.
Then when I was ten, Dad volunteered for a transfer to Washington, D.C., because he wanted to expose his five kids to culture. So for the next seven years we went to free Juilliard String Quartet concerts and National Geographic lectures and Smithsonian tours. My favorite attractions were Jefferson's Monticello (so much creativity!) and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, where we watched money being made.
By the time I hit ninth grade, I'd had a year of piano and seven years of viola. Every kid in my family played an instrument, and we'd attend each other's endless concerts and we'd also have hootenannies with other families. (As grown ups, we turned out to be a musician, a curator, two teachers and a writer.) We didn't think of ourselves as creative types. We just loved music and history and problem-solving, and we played outside instead of watching a lot of TV (though we complained bitterly at the time). And we watched our mom sketch during afternoons on camping trips. The arts were not a separate category in our lives. They were interwoven into everything we did. They were just "normal."
On Thursday, we’ll hear from arts enthusiast Calvin Edwards about how and when he came to love the arts.
Coming soon: an actor and a photographer
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Thomas Ward, Part 2: Resistance of Self
Today I’m concluding my interview with Thomas Ward, an actor, playwright, screenwriter, and teacher currently teaching acting and stage combat at Baylor University. His play Keeping Watch won the 2005 Christians in Theatre Arts (CITA) national playwriting competition before receiving its world premiere by Theatrical Outfit (Atlanta, GA) under the direction of Tom Key. It was quickly hailed as the "season's finest new work" by Curt Holman of Creative Loafing and has since been produced at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC.
As an actor, Thomas has performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare, Theatre in the Square (Atlanta), WaterTower Theatre (Dallas) and the Cumberland County Playhouse, among others. He holds a BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian University and an MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/U. of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program. He is a member of Actors' Equity and the Dramatist's Guild of America. He is married to Sherry Ward and they have a son named Christopher.
LeAnne: In addition to acting and writing, you also teach acting at Baylor University. What are three things you try to pass on to your students?
Thomas: Hmmm. That’s a good and tough question. I want to really try for three important things here. 1) Be a pro. That means be on time, prepared, and pleasant to work with. I don’t care how much talent you have, if you’re a pain to work with, it won’t matter. 2) Understand the story that’s being told and your role in it. Resist ego. Resist the urge to make it just about you. 3) Listen. For real.
LM: What has been a highlight of your acting career so far?
TW: A couple years ago I got to play the role of Felix Humble in a play called Humble Boy. There were a few ‘firsts’ in that experience. It was the first time I was really playing a character my own age, my own size, etc. I was really playing a British version of myself. It was also the first time I was playing the lead role in something professionally, and that was very challenging. As a character actor, I’d gotten used to being in the background, coming on stage every now and then to keep the plot rolling along, and I was very comfortable with that. There’s a lot of work out there for male character actors, especially in Shakespeare. Humble Boy was challenging because I was on stage the whole time and really had to carry the momentum of the play. It was also very timely. My father had passed away a few months earlier, and the play is a modern, very loose re-telling of Hamlet. So I was playing a guy who is coming home for his father’s funeral. It was very cathartic for me at the time.
LM: How does your faith inform your acting, writing, and teaching?
TW: I have to be perfectly honest and say I don’t really know. I have some hunches, but I never sit down to write with a theme in mind. It always starts with character and situation. It’s always a discovery. It’s like the story is there and I’m just gradually unearthing it. Once it’s done, I can look and see all sorts of things or have them pointed out to me. The intersection of spirituality and religion crops up a lot in my writing. I grew up in the Church of Christ and I think I’m sorting out what that means to me, especially when it comes to scripture, ritual, etc.
As for my acting, I think it really depends on the role, doesn’t it? Context is everything to me so I just try to do plays that are making the world a better place. And I happen to believe that most plays are, in some way. Whether my worldview lines up with that of the playwright, I believe that most plays are written to tackle the same questions that I might think I have different answers to. So it keeps me on my toes, spiritually.
In my teaching of acting, I think the most important thing that I carry from my faith into it is the resistance of self. It’s a beautiful irony. You’re on stage being watched, and I’m asking you not to be aware of yourself. To listen. To respond. To be in the moment.
Coming soon: a photographer, a painter, and more
As an actor, Thomas has performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare, Theatre in the Square (Atlanta), WaterTower Theatre (Dallas) and the Cumberland County Playhouse, among others. He holds a BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian University and an MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/U. of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program. He is a member of Actors' Equity and the Dramatist's Guild of America. He is married to Sherry Ward and they have a son named Christopher.
LeAnne: In addition to acting and writing, you also teach acting at Baylor University. What are three things you try to pass on to your students?
Thomas: Hmmm. That’s a good and tough question. I want to really try for three important things here. 1) Be a pro. That means be on time, prepared, and pleasant to work with. I don’t care how much talent you have, if you’re a pain to work with, it won’t matter. 2) Understand the story that’s being told and your role in it. Resist ego. Resist the urge to make it just about you. 3) Listen. For real.
LM: What has been a highlight of your acting career so far?
TW: A couple years ago I got to play the role of Felix Humble in a play called Humble Boy. There were a few ‘firsts’ in that experience. It was the first time I was really playing a character my own age, my own size, etc. I was really playing a British version of myself. It was also the first time I was playing the lead role in something professionally, and that was very challenging. As a character actor, I’d gotten used to being in the background, coming on stage every now and then to keep the plot rolling along, and I was very comfortable with that. There’s a lot of work out there for male character actors, especially in Shakespeare. Humble Boy was challenging because I was on stage the whole time and really had to carry the momentum of the play. It was also very timely. My father had passed away a few months earlier, and the play is a modern, very loose re-telling of Hamlet. So I was playing a guy who is coming home for his father’s funeral. It was very cathartic for me at the time.
LM: How does your faith inform your acting, writing, and teaching?
TW: I have to be perfectly honest and say I don’t really know. I have some hunches, but I never sit down to write with a theme in mind. It always starts with character and situation. It’s always a discovery. It’s like the story is there and I’m just gradually unearthing it. Once it’s done, I can look and see all sorts of things or have them pointed out to me. The intersection of spirituality and religion crops up a lot in my writing. I grew up in the Church of Christ and I think I’m sorting out what that means to me, especially when it comes to scripture, ritual, etc.
As for my acting, I think it really depends on the role, doesn’t it? Context is everything to me so I just try to do plays that are making the world a better place. And I happen to believe that most plays are, in some way. Whether my worldview lines up with that of the playwright, I believe that most plays are written to tackle the same questions that I might think I have different answers to. So it keeps me on my toes, spiritually.
In my teaching of acting, I think the most important thing that I carry from my faith into it is the resistance of self. It’s a beautiful irony. You’re on stage being watched, and I’m asking you not to be aware of yourself. To listen. To respond. To be in the moment.
Coming soon: a photographer, a painter, and more
Monday, May 12, 2008
Thomas Ward, Part 1: Keeping Watch
Thomas Ward is an actor, playwright, screenwriter, and teacher currently teaching acting and stage combat at Baylor University. His play Keeping Watch won the 2005 Christians in Theatre Arts (CITA) national playwriting competition before receiving its world premiere by Theatrical Outfit (Atlanta, GA) under the direction of Tom Key. It was quickly hailed as the "season's finest new work" by Curt Holman of Creative Loafing and has since been produced at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC.
As an actor, Thomas has performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare, Theatre in the Square (Atlanta), WaterTower Theatre (Dallas) and the Cumberland County Playhouse, among others. He holds a BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian University and an MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/U. of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program. He is a member of Actors' Equity and the Dramatist's Guild of America. He is married to Sherry Ward and they have a son named Christopher.
LeAnne: You are an actor and playwright. What draws you to theater? Have you always been a performer?
Thomas: It’s interesting, but I’m kind of a shy person and I love being in front of an audience. Weird, huh? I grew up going to play practice with my mom who is still a high school theatre teacher and who directed me all through high school. My father was also an actor in college before going into the ministry and broadcasting. So I know I got a theatrical spark from them.
What draws me to theatre is the one on one with the audience. The instant feedback of the audience. The community feel. Again, as a somewhat shy person, I can too easily isolate myself, and I think with technology as it is these days (and as it will continue) it is so easy for us to become isolated, to stay home with our gadgets, so these days I’m drawn to live theatre because it forces me to take a break from that. It’s a meditation of sorts. I also crave understanding. I enjoy writing and performing the most when there’s a common experience, feeling, emotion, action, shared in the moment.
LM: Let's talk about Keeping Watch, the play you wrote that received its world premiere at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta and dubbed "the season's finest new work" by Creative Loafing. First, describe the play and then tell what was that experience like--to take this project from the idea stage through the writing process, see it produced by one of Atlanta's finest theater companies and then receive critical acclaim.
TW: An all around amazing experience that I will always be incredibly grateful for. Keeping Watch was really two plays that came together after a few years of writing. I wrote a one-act play right after college about these guys getting together for the first time since high school in a small town in Alabama (I grew up in Florence). It's about dealing with how they had changed as well as some skeletons in the closet. Personally, I was in a weird transition when I wasn’t quite sure where home was. I was recently married, graduated from college, and it was time to be a grown up (or so I thought) and I didn’t like it one bit! So I think those three guys probably represent different parts of my personality at the time – one who is staying put with no ambition whatsoever (wouldn’t it be nice?) – one who is hell bent on being rich and successful (wouldn’t that be nice?) – and one who is dealing with some huge questions about spirituality, life and death type stuff (eventually we all have to, right?). Setting the play in a small southern town, I wrote about my experience of “southern” and what that means. I didn’t really relate to the south that I had seen in film and on stage, so I think I was reacting to that as well. That play was called Keeping Watch and it was one act, and I put it in a drawer and got on with my life.
Jump to about four years later and I got an idea to write about a preacher meeting a young woman in a cemetery. With that one, I was writing more explicitly about where I was in my faith, my doubts, my questions about the religion I had grown up with, and it was a very cathartic experience for me. I was also at a point where I was really not enjoying any of my “real jobs” and I wondered if preachers ever felt that way. I finished that one, another one act, and I had to think of a title. I kept coming back to the title Keeping Watch because it was so appropriate, though I was frustrated that I couldn’t come up with a different one. (Incidentally, the title is from a song my brother wrote before I wrote my play, and the song appears in the play itself.) But that’s probably when it dawned on me that I had two plays set in a small town with the same title. Eureka!
I revisited the guys from the first play and it turned out there were a lot of natural ways that the two stories could intertwine. I really believe that I was working on one play the whole time, and I just didn’t know it. Seeing it performed at Theatrical Outfit was amazing. I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience because Tom Key read the play and never once asked me to re-write it. I did, out of some work with the cast that he assembled, which was amazing. But it’s not like the play was workshopped to death. I think that happens a lot in American theatre right now. I’m incredibly blessed to know Tom, and I wish more artistic directors were as bold as he is. I feel like he’s my biggest fan and I’m grateful everyday for that.
LM: Next season, Theatrical Outfit is producing another of your plays, Going With Jenny. Tell me about that one.
TW: I started GWJ around the same time that I was finishing Keeping Watch. One night there was a loud party going on in the apartment complex we lived in and I got up and looked out our balcony window at these college-aged kids having a grand ‘ol time. I was a couple of years out of college. The truth is that there was a part of me that felt like I was missing out on something. So I started writing from that standpoint and it became a reflection on marriage, relationships, and my comical dating history. I finished it as a one man show, hoping to perform it myself somewhere. I gave it to Tom Key. And once again, he said he loved it and wanted to produce it, still to my astonishment. (I wonder if that feeling will ever go away?). And once again I asked if I needed to change anything, to which he said no. His only concern was that it wasn’t long enough to put in his season so I quickly said, “What if Sherry [my wife] writes something in response? A ‘he said, she said’ thing?” Tom jumped at the idea and what Sherry wrote really turned out beautiful and complimented my ramblings nicely. It’s only fair. And her writing really drives home the challenges of marriage. It’s funny for me to read it now, because it really is a snapshot of myself at a very specific time, and I’d like to think I’ve matured at least a little bit.
More from Thomas Ward on Thursday.
Coming soon: a photographer, a painter, and more
As an actor, Thomas has performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare, Theatre in the Square (Atlanta), WaterTower Theatre (Dallas) and the Cumberland County Playhouse, among others. He holds a BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian University and an MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/U. of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program. He is a member of Actors' Equity and the Dramatist's Guild of America. He is married to Sherry Ward and they have a son named Christopher.
LeAnne: You are an actor and playwright. What draws you to theater? Have you always been a performer?
Thomas: It’s interesting, but I’m kind of a shy person and I love being in front of an audience. Weird, huh? I grew up going to play practice with my mom who is still a high school theatre teacher and who directed me all through high school. My father was also an actor in college before going into the ministry and broadcasting. So I know I got a theatrical spark from them.
What draws me to theatre is the one on one with the audience. The instant feedback of the audience. The community feel. Again, as a somewhat shy person, I can too easily isolate myself, and I think with technology as it is these days (and as it will continue) it is so easy for us to become isolated, to stay home with our gadgets, so these days I’m drawn to live theatre because it forces me to take a break from that. It’s a meditation of sorts. I also crave understanding. I enjoy writing and performing the most when there’s a common experience, feeling, emotion, action, shared in the moment.
LM: Let's talk about Keeping Watch, the play you wrote that received its world premiere at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta and dubbed "the season's finest new work" by Creative Loafing. First, describe the play and then tell what was that experience like--to take this project from the idea stage through the writing process, see it produced by one of Atlanta's finest theater companies and then receive critical acclaim.
TW: An all around amazing experience that I will always be incredibly grateful for. Keeping Watch was really two plays that came together after a few years of writing. I wrote a one-act play right after college about these guys getting together for the first time since high school in a small town in Alabama (I grew up in Florence). It's about dealing with how they had changed as well as some skeletons in the closet. Personally, I was in a weird transition when I wasn’t quite sure where home was. I was recently married, graduated from college, and it was time to be a grown up (or so I thought) and I didn’t like it one bit! So I think those three guys probably represent different parts of my personality at the time – one who is staying put with no ambition whatsoever (wouldn’t it be nice?) – one who is hell bent on being rich and successful (wouldn’t that be nice?) – and one who is dealing with some huge questions about spirituality, life and death type stuff (eventually we all have to, right?). Setting the play in a small southern town, I wrote about my experience of “southern” and what that means. I didn’t really relate to the south that I had seen in film and on stage, so I think I was reacting to that as well. That play was called Keeping Watch and it was one act, and I put it in a drawer and got on with my life.
Jump to about four years later and I got an idea to write about a preacher meeting a young woman in a cemetery. With that one, I was writing more explicitly about where I was in my faith, my doubts, my questions about the religion I had grown up with, and it was a very cathartic experience for me. I was also at a point where I was really not enjoying any of my “real jobs” and I wondered if preachers ever felt that way. I finished that one, another one act, and I had to think of a title. I kept coming back to the title Keeping Watch because it was so appropriate, though I was frustrated that I couldn’t come up with a different one. (Incidentally, the title is from a song my brother wrote before I wrote my play, and the song appears in the play itself.) But that’s probably when it dawned on me that I had two plays set in a small town with the same title. Eureka!
I revisited the guys from the first play and it turned out there were a lot of natural ways that the two stories could intertwine. I really believe that I was working on one play the whole time, and I just didn’t know it. Seeing it performed at Theatrical Outfit was amazing. I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience because Tom Key read the play and never once asked me to re-write it. I did, out of some work with the cast that he assembled, which was amazing. But it’s not like the play was workshopped to death. I think that happens a lot in American theatre right now. I’m incredibly blessed to know Tom, and I wish more artistic directors were as bold as he is. I feel like he’s my biggest fan and I’m grateful everyday for that.
LM: Next season, Theatrical Outfit is producing another of your plays, Going With Jenny. Tell me about that one.
TW: I started GWJ around the same time that I was finishing Keeping Watch. One night there was a loud party going on in the apartment complex we lived in and I got up and looked out our balcony window at these college-aged kids having a grand ‘ol time. I was a couple of years out of college. The truth is that there was a part of me that felt like I was missing out on something. So I started writing from that standpoint and it became a reflection on marriage, relationships, and my comical dating history. I finished it as a one man show, hoping to perform it myself somewhere. I gave it to Tom Key. And once again, he said he loved it and wanted to produce it, still to my astonishment. (I wonder if that feeling will ever go away?). And once again I asked if I needed to change anything, to which he said no. His only concern was that it wasn’t long enough to put in his season so I quickly said, “What if Sherry [my wife] writes something in response? A ‘he said, she said’ thing?” Tom jumped at the idea and what Sherry wrote really turned out beautiful and complimented my ramblings nicely. It’s only fair. And her writing really drives home the challenges of marriage. It’s funny for me to read it now, because it really is a snapshot of myself at a very specific time, and I’d like to think I’ve matured at least a little bit.
More from Thomas Ward on Thursday.
Coming soon: a photographer, a painter, and more
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Corrie Eddleman, Part 2: Seeking the Truth
Today I’m concluding my interview with Corrie Eddleman, Assistant Professor of Acting at North Greenville University. She holds a BS in Theatre and Speech Communication from Hannibal LaGrange College and an MFA degree in Acting from Illinois State University. A member of Actor’s Equity since 1999, she has worked professionally off Broadway and across the mid-west. Her training includes work at the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford, England), The National Theatre Institute and the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory. She has also studied Alexander, Michael Chekhov and Laban techniques. In addition to teaching, acting and directing on campus she directs the Act Two traveling drama ministry team. She is married to Matthew, a hospice chaplain with Spartanburg Regional. Their favorite hobby is spoiling their English Bulldog, Harley.
LeAnne: Tell me about Act Two, the traveling drama ministry team you direct.
Corrie: Act Two is made up of five female and five male student actors who travel on the weekends to perform at churches across the state. They perform Sunday mornings and evenings and sometimes have the opportunities to work with youth groups on Saturday nights. We all meet a week before classes start in August as sort of our “boot camp” week. During this time, we put up the program that we will be working with all year. Usually we develop a series of short sketches with a common theme that lasts anywhere from 20 – 40 minutes in length.
I am very excited about next year’s program. We decided to produce a one-act play on the life of Job. It is a play that starts out in present day with a married couple who is dealing with a lot of the same issues and problems that Job faced. Then we jump back to the actual Job story and finally circle around to present day once again. We will also work up sketch material to have on hand as alternative choices. I have been blessed with hard-working students who have big hearts for God. They want to use their gift of acting/theatre to minister to the church and to people who do not have a relationship with God.
LM: As an acting teacher, what two or three things do you want your students to know or understand when they leave the program?
CE: I attended a chapel service a few weeks ago in which we had a choir come and sing for the entire hour. The last song they sang had a chorus that stated: “Go in peace, Live in grace, and trust God’s love.” This is what I want my students to know and understand as they leave the comfort of the university and enter the real world.
We as Christians have been given an amazing gift of Peace. Not a peace as Man understands, but a Peace that passes all understanding and we need to 1. Remember and find comfort in that Peace and 2. Share that Peace with those who are hurting. We also need to remember that Grace truly is an amazing gift. I am humbled when I reflect on His Grace and the love He has shown me. Trust in God’s Love… easier said than done a lot of times. To imagine that the Creator loves me… me, the beautifully flawed human… is just hard to comprehend at times. But, when I do trust and believe in His Love, I am free.
In regards to acting and theatre, I want my students to let go of the idea of right and wrong. I don’t want them to think of a performance as trying to get the character “right”. I want them to explore in rehearsal and throughout the performance run. To understand that freedom will help break down the actor’s barriers so that s/he will allow her/himself to be more vulnerable and honest through her/his character. To let go of the end result and to enjoy the journey will aid the actor creatively, intuitively, and will also help alleviate stress and pressure (which leads to more fun!).
LM: Have you faced challenges in the world of theater because of your faith? Have you been able to blend your faith and your acting? How?
CE: I can’t recall a time in which I was challenged because of my faith. I have had many moments in rehearsals or performances in which I have grown closer and sometimes farther away from God. I have been able to blend my faith and acting. Faith to me is about trusting and believing in the truth. Acting to me is about seeking the truth. Sometimes that truth is beautiful and sometimes that truth is ugly. If I agree with what a play is saying then I have no problem playing the “evil” or hell-bound character. When I was in undergraduate school, I was sweating over whether or not I should become an actor because I might encounter some foul language or questionable behavior. My mom asked me if I’d have any problem playing Bathsheba in the story of David. At that moment it all clicked for me. Let’s get past the “right and wrong” behavior. Let’s focus on the message and what we can learn from the character and from the play. Let’s focus on relationships. The Bible is full of immoral behavior; it is also full of truth. The Bible is full of beautiful and ugly stories… so is my life, my very real, honest life.
LeAnne: Tell me about Act Two, the traveling drama ministry team you direct.
Corrie: Act Two is made up of five female and five male student actors who travel on the weekends to perform at churches across the state. They perform Sunday mornings and evenings and sometimes have the opportunities to work with youth groups on Saturday nights. We all meet a week before classes start in August as sort of our “boot camp” week. During this time, we put up the program that we will be working with all year. Usually we develop a series of short sketches with a common theme that lasts anywhere from 20 – 40 minutes in length.
I am very excited about next year’s program. We decided to produce a one-act play on the life of Job. It is a play that starts out in present day with a married couple who is dealing with a lot of the same issues and problems that Job faced. Then we jump back to the actual Job story and finally circle around to present day once again. We will also work up sketch material to have on hand as alternative choices. I have been blessed with hard-working students who have big hearts for God. They want to use their gift of acting/theatre to minister to the church and to people who do not have a relationship with God.
LM: As an acting teacher, what two or three things do you want your students to know or understand when they leave the program?
CE: I attended a chapel service a few weeks ago in which we had a choir come and sing for the entire hour. The last song they sang had a chorus that stated: “Go in peace, Live in grace, and trust God’s love.” This is what I want my students to know and understand as they leave the comfort of the university and enter the real world.
We as Christians have been given an amazing gift of Peace. Not a peace as Man understands, but a Peace that passes all understanding and we need to 1. Remember and find comfort in that Peace and 2. Share that Peace with those who are hurting. We also need to remember that Grace truly is an amazing gift. I am humbled when I reflect on His Grace and the love He has shown me. Trust in God’s Love… easier said than done a lot of times. To imagine that the Creator loves me… me, the beautifully flawed human… is just hard to comprehend at times. But, when I do trust and believe in His Love, I am free.
In regards to acting and theatre, I want my students to let go of the idea of right and wrong. I don’t want them to think of a performance as trying to get the character “right”. I want them to explore in rehearsal and throughout the performance run. To understand that freedom will help break down the actor’s barriers so that s/he will allow her/himself to be more vulnerable and honest through her/his character. To let go of the end result and to enjoy the journey will aid the actor creatively, intuitively, and will also help alleviate stress and pressure (which leads to more fun!).
LM: Have you faced challenges in the world of theater because of your faith? Have you been able to blend your faith and your acting? How?
CE: I can’t recall a time in which I was challenged because of my faith. I have had many moments in rehearsals or performances in which I have grown closer and sometimes farther away from God. I have been able to blend my faith and acting. Faith to me is about trusting and believing in the truth. Acting to me is about seeking the truth. Sometimes that truth is beautiful and sometimes that truth is ugly. If I agree with what a play is saying then I have no problem playing the “evil” or hell-bound character. When I was in undergraduate school, I was sweating over whether or not I should become an actor because I might encounter some foul language or questionable behavior. My mom asked me if I’d have any problem playing Bathsheba in the story of David. At that moment it all clicked for me. Let’s get past the “right and wrong” behavior. Let’s focus on the message and what we can learn from the character and from the play. Let’s focus on relationships. The Bible is full of immoral behavior; it is also full of truth. The Bible is full of beautiful and ugly stories… so is my life, my very real, honest life.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Corrie Eddleman: On Shakespeare
Corrie Eddleman is Assistant Professor of Acting at North Greenville University. She holds a BS in Theatre and Speech Communication from Hannibal LaGrange College and an MFA degree in Acting from Illinois State University. A member of Actor’s Equity since 1999, she has worked professionally off Broadway and across the mid-west. Her training includes work at the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford, England), The National Theatre Institute and the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory. She has also studied Alexander, Michael Chekhov and Laban techniques. In addition to teaching, acting and directing on campus she directs the Act Two traveling drama ministry team. She is married to Matthew, a hospice chaplain with Spartanburg Regional. Their favorite hobby is spoiling their English Bulldog, Harley.
LeAnne: When I’m talking to artists, I’m always fascinated to learn when their love for art began, so I inevitably ask questions like these: Have you been a performer your whole life? When did you start acting?
Corrie: I remember my first experience with a play production was when I was in the second grade. My class was putting together a short play on the digestive process (a thrilling topic, I know). I took it upon myself to design the set and costumes. A huge mouth was to be cut out to shape the proscenium, the tongue was going to come out into the house and act as a stage extension, and the costumes I designed looked oh-so-fab in my mind. To my disappointment, the teacher was unable to use my ideas. Looking back, we would have needed a grandiose budget to develop my concept; but we opted for construction paper costumes and a bare stage. I had fun playing my role as Salivary Gland and was looking forward to playing in the future.
Throughout grade school and middle school, I was able to play many parts in play/musical productions at my church; but it wasn’t until high school when I got to experience a true traditional theatre experience. My freshman year I was cast as Mrs. Harper in Arsenic and Old Lace. A very small role, but in a high school of over 2,000 students I was happy to participate in any capacity. From there I was hooked and continued to audition for every play and musical that came my way.
LM: You just landed the lead roles in the Illinois Shakespeare Festival’s summer 2008 season. Congratulations! How does that feel? The two roles-- Katherine in Taming of the Shrew and Tamora in Titus Andronicus—are very different. What will be your biggest challenges in playing them?
CE: I am thrilled and nervous about this summer at ISF. I am a huge Shakespeare fan and to be able to tackle two fabulous female roles in the same summer is somewhat daunting. Not only is his language beautiful, but he creates complex, realistic and completely human characters to which actors are naturally drawn. People have been enjoying his plays for 400 years for a reason: he speaks to the human condition in all of its beauty and its flaws. Shakespeare seeks truth, and that is exactly what I will be after this summer as well.
One of the biggest challenges with Katherine will be that this play is so well known. Many people have seen good if not excellent productions of Taming of the Shrew that it will be natural for the audience to compare my Kate to the Kate they first saw. I will be working on letting those preconceived notions and ideas of Kate leave my mind. She will be created form scratch and I am so excited to see how she develops. My ultimate goal will be to create a three-dimensional woman, not just a “shrew”. I want to highlight her uniqueness while zeroing in on who she is at her core. What did Shakespeare intend with this play? What has made Kate a “shrew”? How can I relate to Kate on a personal level? These are all of the questions I will be asking myself this summer in hopes to develop an honest, yet entertaining woman.
I think Tamora will be a bit more freeing for me. Titus Andronicus is a play that is not often produced; ideas of how this play “should” be will not be as prevalent among viewers. Tamora is evil. I always enjoy playing a role that is completely not me. Don’t get me wrong, I have the capacity to be evil and have unfortunately participated in evil things, but not to the extent of Tamora. The challenge with this character will be for me to see and bring to life her redeeming qualities. Tamora isn’t evil just because--something brought her to this place in her life and I want to discover how she became this woman.
LM: What have been your two favorite roles so far? Why?
CE: I thoroughly enjoyed playing Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire for many of the same reasons I enjoy Shakespeare. Tennessee Williams creates these worlds that are beautiful and ugly all at the same time. He wrote about topics that were edgy for their time while not preaching or being didactic in his telling of the story. Blanche is an iconic role, but she is also very accessible from an actor’s view point. William’s use of language is breathtaking, pointed and emotionally charged. Working on any of his plays is always an honor.
Another role that ranks at the top of my list is Mable Tidings in Pride’s Crossing by Tina Howe. It is a beautiful play about memories, dreams, joy, hardship and regret. Written in episodic form, the scenes switch back and forth from the present (when Mable is 90 years old) to the past (Mabel at various ages throughout her life). What a challenge it was to create a believable 90 year old woman and then to switch to the age of seven within a matter of seconds! With a symbolic set and minimal props & costumes the age difference and believability fell square on my shoulders. The show was received with many accolades and the director, Deb Alley, will also be directing me in Titus Andronicus this summer. I am excited to see what she does with Titus.
LeAnne: When I’m talking to artists, I’m always fascinated to learn when their love for art began, so I inevitably ask questions like these: Have you been a performer your whole life? When did you start acting?
Corrie: I remember my first experience with a play production was when I was in the second grade. My class was putting together a short play on the digestive process (a thrilling topic, I know). I took it upon myself to design the set and costumes. A huge mouth was to be cut out to shape the proscenium, the tongue was going to come out into the house and act as a stage extension, and the costumes I designed looked oh-so-fab in my mind. To my disappointment, the teacher was unable to use my ideas. Looking back, we would have needed a grandiose budget to develop my concept; but we opted for construction paper costumes and a bare stage. I had fun playing my role as Salivary Gland and was looking forward to playing in the future.
Throughout grade school and middle school, I was able to play many parts in play/musical productions at my church; but it wasn’t until high school when I got to experience a true traditional theatre experience. My freshman year I was cast as Mrs. Harper in Arsenic and Old Lace. A very small role, but in a high school of over 2,000 students I was happy to participate in any capacity. From there I was hooked and continued to audition for every play and musical that came my way.
LM: You just landed the lead roles in the Illinois Shakespeare Festival’s summer 2008 season. Congratulations! How does that feel? The two roles-- Katherine in Taming of the Shrew and Tamora in Titus Andronicus—are very different. What will be your biggest challenges in playing them?
CE: I am thrilled and nervous about this summer at ISF. I am a huge Shakespeare fan and to be able to tackle two fabulous female roles in the same summer is somewhat daunting. Not only is his language beautiful, but he creates complex, realistic and completely human characters to which actors are naturally drawn. People have been enjoying his plays for 400 years for a reason: he speaks to the human condition in all of its beauty and its flaws. Shakespeare seeks truth, and that is exactly what I will be after this summer as well.
One of the biggest challenges with Katherine will be that this play is so well known. Many people have seen good if not excellent productions of Taming of the Shrew that it will be natural for the audience to compare my Kate to the Kate they first saw. I will be working on letting those preconceived notions and ideas of Kate leave my mind. She will be created form scratch and I am so excited to see how she develops. My ultimate goal will be to create a three-dimensional woman, not just a “shrew”. I want to highlight her uniqueness while zeroing in on who she is at her core. What did Shakespeare intend with this play? What has made Kate a “shrew”? How can I relate to Kate on a personal level? These are all of the questions I will be asking myself this summer in hopes to develop an honest, yet entertaining woman.
I think Tamora will be a bit more freeing for me. Titus Andronicus is a play that is not often produced; ideas of how this play “should” be will not be as prevalent among viewers. Tamora is evil. I always enjoy playing a role that is completely not me. Don’t get me wrong, I have the capacity to be evil and have unfortunately participated in evil things, but not to the extent of Tamora. The challenge with this character will be for me to see and bring to life her redeeming qualities. Tamora isn’t evil just because--something brought her to this place in her life and I want to discover how she became this woman.
LM: What have been your two favorite roles so far? Why?
CE: I thoroughly enjoyed playing Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire for many of the same reasons I enjoy Shakespeare. Tennessee Williams creates these worlds that are beautiful and ugly all at the same time. He wrote about topics that were edgy for their time while not preaching or being didactic in his telling of the story. Blanche is an iconic role, but she is also very accessible from an actor’s view point. William’s use of language is breathtaking, pointed and emotionally charged. Working on any of his plays is always an honor.
Another role that ranks at the top of my list is Mable Tidings in Pride’s Crossing by Tina Howe. It is a beautiful play about memories, dreams, joy, hardship and regret. Written in episodic form, the scenes switch back and forth from the present (when Mable is 90 years old) to the past (Mabel at various ages throughout her life). What a challenge it was to create a believable 90 year old woman and then to switch to the age of seven within a matter of seconds! With a symbolic set and minimal props & costumes the age difference and believability fell square on my shoulders. The show was received with many accolades and the director, Deb Alley, will also be directing me in Titus Andronicus this summer. I am excited to see what she does with Titus.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Roundtable II: Why Christians Should Care about the Arts
Today is the second part of a new feature I'm calling the Roundtable. I'm talking with Sandra Glahn, fiction writer, teacher and speaker. Her answer is so thorough that she's the only person at the roundtable today!
LeAnne: Why do you think Christians should care about the arts?
Sandra: The Bible is filled with places where we see God's passion for art. In Genesis He makes the world, animals, humanity. In Exodus we see Him giving fantastic instructions for a beautiful tent complete with a wardrobe for those who serve in it. In Leviticus we see him creating all sorts of symbolic ways to express His holiness. Fast forward to Ezekiel or Hosea where we see him giving bizarre instructions to serve as object lessons...
Christians should care about the arts because God created us all to be artists and to appreciate art. It's a human thing and humans are made in God's image. The first verb/second word in Genesis is "created," and the subject is God. Part of reflecting God's image is creating. We were made for this! Have you ever handed a preschooler a piece of paper on which to draw and heard, "I'm just not creative"? (Only when we get old enough to compare our work with that of others do we shut down creativity.) God reveals himself through special revelation (the Word) and through general revelation (creation in its many forms), and we learn about God and express the works of the Almighty in our lives through interaction with both.
And think of Jesus using metaphor--I am the way, the door, the bread, the good shepherd... And communion with its bread and wine engaging our senses of touch and taste and smell and sight as we partake, and sound as we hear the familiar lines "This is my Body." Even the least literate societies can "get" communion and baptism.
I saw an exhibit of Early Christian Art not long ago at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum, and the predominant image was of Jonah. Much more than crosses, images of Jonah's three-day entombment and deliverance were the favorite images of Christ-followers in the first few centuries of the church.
And that's not to mention the Sistine chapel.
Where would art historians be if they knew nothing of the Bible? How much sense would Rembrandt's Prodigal Son make without the story it illustrates?
My brother is a curator for a museum in Oklahoma and when he was in art school, he saw a painting of Bathsheba holding a pomegranate--a symbol of faithfulness. His classmates had no idea what that meant. But he had enough biblical tools to discover the painting was probably not intended to express irony. Many scholars believe Solomon wrote Proverbs 31--and that he wrote it about his mother, Bathsheba, who was--as a righteous woman--taking a ceremonially cleansing bath when a sex-starved king sent his troops to bring her to his palace. Art--including storytelling--and theology intersect beautifully.
Not long ago I attended the funeral of a former boss for whom I'd prayed for more than a decade. To my delight, I learned at that service that he had come to faith in the past few years. As his son-in-law described it, he had walked into a country church and heard the strains of "Amazing Grace," and he knew he was home. I love how God uses art to move people!
Next week, I'm featuring an actor and professor.
LeAnne: Why do you think Christians should care about the arts?
Sandra: The Bible is filled with places where we see God's passion for art. In Genesis He makes the world, animals, humanity. In Exodus we see Him giving fantastic instructions for a beautiful tent complete with a wardrobe for those who serve in it. In Leviticus we see him creating all sorts of symbolic ways to express His holiness. Fast forward to Ezekiel or Hosea where we see him giving bizarre instructions to serve as object lessons...
Christians should care about the arts because God created us all to be artists and to appreciate art. It's a human thing and humans are made in God's image. The first verb/second word in Genesis is "created," and the subject is God. Part of reflecting God's image is creating. We were made for this! Have you ever handed a preschooler a piece of paper on which to draw and heard, "I'm just not creative"? (Only when we get old enough to compare our work with that of others do we shut down creativity.) God reveals himself through special revelation (the Word) and through general revelation (creation in its many forms), and we learn about God and express the works of the Almighty in our lives through interaction with both.
And think of Jesus using metaphor--I am the way, the door, the bread, the good shepherd... And communion with its bread and wine engaging our senses of touch and taste and smell and sight as we partake, and sound as we hear the familiar lines "This is my Body." Even the least literate societies can "get" communion and baptism.
I saw an exhibit of Early Christian Art not long ago at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum, and the predominant image was of Jonah. Much more than crosses, images of Jonah's three-day entombment and deliverance were the favorite images of Christ-followers in the first few centuries of the church.
And that's not to mention the Sistine chapel.
Where would art historians be if they knew nothing of the Bible? How much sense would Rembrandt's Prodigal Son make without the story it illustrates?
My brother is a curator for a museum in Oklahoma and when he was in art school, he saw a painting of Bathsheba holding a pomegranate--a symbol of faithfulness. His classmates had no idea what that meant. But he had enough biblical tools to discover the painting was probably not intended to express irony. Many scholars believe Solomon wrote Proverbs 31--and that he wrote it about his mother, Bathsheba, who was--as a righteous woman--taking a ceremonially cleansing bath when a sex-starved king sent his troops to bring her to his palace. Art--including storytelling--and theology intersect beautifully.
Not long ago I attended the funeral of a former boss for whom I'd prayed for more than a decade. To my delight, I learned at that service that he had come to faith in the past few years. As his son-in-law described it, he had walked into a country church and heard the strains of "Amazing Grace," and he knew he was home. I love how God uses art to move people!
Next week, I'm featuring an actor and professor.
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