It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like…..

…..Summer!

My walk home from work yesterday revealed a bright sun and flowers poking up through the ground. When I got home, I went to the back porch and saw a family playing softball in the park.

Then I saw the Boat House with the sparkling lake behind it.

The park was beauteous! The sun was warm! It was perfect!

In fact, it felt a lot like it does at MasterWorks when we are getting ready for the Pops Concert.

Speaking of which MasterWorks begins in two months! I’m so excited! I know I have mentioned MasterWorks before and I’m thrilled that I get to spend a sixth summer at this amazing place where students learn, great music is heard, and God is given the glory.

In fact there are still spaces open. If you are a musician, actor, dancer, or singer and have a desire to learn how to glorify God through your art, check out masterworksfestival.org to find out how to apply and audition.

You could be here this summer:

Back to School

I am sitting in the cafe of The Tree of Life Bookstore on the campus of Grace College. Apparently today is the day that all the students arrive back from Spring Break. In front of me a couple is celebrating their ten minute old engagement with a shared cup of coffee. To my left, students are already talking about their classes and being able to juggle all the papers they are going to have to write. To my right, friends are catching up on a week and a half of news. At the front of the store, it’s even busier. The line to buy text books is at least 15 deep.

All around me the process of education has begun.

I was glad to finish my degree. I mean, I loved it! It was crazy, chaotic, frustrating, and incredibly brilliant! But being out of the classroom, able to be learning in the world where I was was freeing.

I took a sort of “break” from learning. Not a true break. Every thing that has happened since I left school 7 years ago has taught me something. I’ve learned to trust God like never before. I’ve learned to wait on Him when I have no clue what is going on. I’ve learned to hold on to Him when everything around me seemed to be falling apart. I’ve learned to listen to His prompting even when it made making hard decisions. But it was the sort of break where you don’t have a prescribed course of study.

But that is changing. I know part of the reason God wanted me here was to be able to pursue acting in one way or another. And I’ve been able to perform a few times and audition for a couple of things. The sense of peace in doing what He’s called me to do is overwhelming. I’m listening to His guiding.

I’ve also rediscovered some acting textbooks I picked up at a library book sale (yay! for library book sales!) and I’ve gone through it and set out a number of lessons for me to follow. I’ve also decided to put together a worksheet for watching a movie to help me focus on what I like and why in certain films.

This peace of being where He wants me and doing what He wants me to do has spurred me on to learn as much as I can about this business. I have always enjoyed acting and the whole process that goes with it, but now I feel that I need to be responsible to not just enjoy it, but to pursue it. To not just sit back and say, “That was a good movie.” But to be able to analyze why I thought that and to take those things I learn and apply them to my acting. To not just learn how to recite lines in a specific way, but learn what makes a great performance that will honor and glorify God.

I am excited to delve into the “semester” of learning for me and I’m excited to see what God has for me to learn!

I would also love to hear what God is teaching you. Do you have a set order of studying what He’s called you to do?

To Be…..Or Not To Be

I love acting.

I’m sure that’s not a surprise to many of you reading this, but I’m not sure that I ever shared my journey into acting.

I actually started a lot later than many who pursue this field. I was in my first production when I was 16.

I was privileged to play “Mother” in the play Cheaper by the Dozen. It was an amazing experience. It was a role where the line load wasn’t heavy, but I was on stage almost constantly. I learned to truly act and not just say my lines. And that was a blessing for so many things later on.

From there, I didn’t see much of the stage until I was in my Freshman year of college. I took a foundations of acting and loved it!……And then, again, didn’t do much more for a couple of years when I decided to pursue a degree in Speech Communication.

From then on I was constantly performing. It was exhausting having at least three different performances a week, but I felt so incredibly at peace.

Between my Junior and Senior year, my mother found this amazing place called The Masterworks Festival. I audition for the theatre department and I promise there were squeals involved when I found out I was accepted.

That summer I played Rachel Lynde in Anne of Green Gables. It was, by far, the hardest and most rewarding performance to date. I was stretched as a Christian, person, and actor.

Which was a good thing since I immediately began to work on my senior recital as soon I got back to school.

I decided that I didn’t want to repeat a recital someone else had performed. I wanted to do a new one. So began two months of researching stories and writing, adapting, and editing before I started the long process of rehearsing.

On February 16, 2006 I performed my recital and was allowed to graduate.

Then, as so many acting graduates do, I had very little to do with acting other than coaching kids as school, and coordinating the Night of Recitation.

Then I revisited The Masterworks Festival. This was to be the second of five visits (so far).

I then moved to New Zealand where I currently live. Here I have taught acting classes in a local Christian performing arts school. I have also been blessed to be involved with the end of year concert at the school where I work.

Now, I have just finished co-directing The Wizard of Oz for our school’s main  production.

At this stage, if the Lord continues to open doors, I will be moving back to America next year. To do what? I don’t know. But I feel led to be more involved with acting.

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So that is probably more than you ever wanted to know, but that is the journey God has led me on towards acting.