In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said let there be light. And there was theater.
Did I get that quote wrong? Actually, there is something about God's act of creation and the creation of art that is very interesting and exciting.
I remember seeing a dance performance done to a harpsichord concerto. The music was sometimes smooth, sometimes rough. The dancers as they appeared on stage all had limitations: one couldn't use his arm; another couldn't use her legs. They moved to the music with their limitations. In the middle of the piece a woman with no limitations came on stage and moved. The dancers continued their movements to the music. Near the end, the person with the greatest limitations reached over and touched someone with fewer limitations; gradually a spiral formed that grew and rose higher until the last person with limitations touched the person who was whole. She in turn reached for the heavens.
It was an incredible statement about what it is to be human, what it is to be a community, what it is to believe in something beyond ourselves. For me it was an experience of God. Since 1978 I have been trying to take that same experience and share it with students at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis, where I teach drama.
A year ago we started building a new theater. Lots of planning and discussion went into the project. We needed a new theater because the old one was hot, crowded, and inadequate for both audience and performers. But questions arose: How were we going to pay for it? Were we spending too much or too little? Were we ordering the right equipment? Would the design work?
While we worked on the new theater we also began planning the opening show, a revue of Stephen Sondheim's songs, including "Send in the Clowns," "Fair Brooklyn," and "Being Alive." We wanted to involve current faculty and students, but we also decided to bring back alumni and alumnae of our productions -- boys and girls I worked with over the years who are now men and women, busy with their careers and families.
But another whole flock of questions arose: Was the music going to work? Could we get the blocking down in time? Would we get the lights hung and the sound equipment in place? How were we going to advertise this show? That last one was important; the show didn't have an obvious theme.
Everything became clear after a discussion I had with Rachele and Thomas Hunter. The new theater was to be named after their son, Thomas, Jr., an '85 De Smet grad who, after finishing college and getting married, died unexpectedly. His parents wanted to do something in his memory; Tom Jr. had been very active in theater at De Smet, so his parents decided to help build the new theater. During a discussion about the show, Mr. Hunter said, "I want you to do what you've always done -- form young people through the performing arts into people who are concerned about others."
I want you to do what you've always done. I realized that I had overlooked the obvious. Jesuits have always used the arts, whatever is good in our culture Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, for the greater glory of God. Mr. Hunter had reminded me that we find God in all things. When I do theater I do it because it's a way to talk about God and to talk with God.
The Hunters gave us a focus for our project simply by reminding us of our roots and our tradition. In high school we form young people, hoping they'll be concerned about and aware of other people the rest of their lives. As we were preparing for the show, I got reassurance on that count.
I watched Mark Mongold, class of '73, active in theater during his high-school days and now a lighting designer with the New York City Ballet. He was working with a freshman on our new computerized lighting board, patiently helping him learn how to operate it. Next he was spending time with the stage manager and his assistant, explaining to them how to do their jobs. Then he was doing the same with the spotlight crew. He was a confident professional with infinite patience for enthusiastic freshmen.
I saw Mary Pat Gallagher rehearsing "Not a Day Goes By" for our show. She would come over from her own high school in the mid '70s to appear in De Smet productions, including Godspell, Oliver, and West Side Story. Now she's a grade-school teacher and a mother of five, married to a De Smet alumnus, Gerard Erker. Their son Neil will be in De Smet's class of '00.
I watched Meg Seiler run through her number. I remembered her as dedicated and very pleasant to work with. She went on to work in theater in Chicago for the last eighteen years. Her rendition of "Send in the Clowns" on opening night reminded me that she is a great performer.
And then there was Tom Hornof, class of '78, whom I had invited as a special guest for the show. He'd been a football player, one of those huge guys in the middle of the line. When I taught him dance it was like teaching a bear to dance. I gave him a C the first quarter because he didn't show a lot of style. Tom was indignant. "What can I do? You're a big football player!" I remember telling him. He showed me. He's an actor now in Los Angeles, writing plays and surviving in a tough professional environment.
They all reminded me of other times and other students, including Kevin Roach, a leading man who memorized his lines, played leading roles, and gave some really outstanding performances at De Smet. I remembered Rodney Yarnal, a slightly spacy actor whom I'd repeatedly have to drag down to earth when we were working on a scene. But he found time to be there for Kevin when Kevin's mother was dying of cancer and helped him get through his mother's death. Underneath the short attention span was an incredible person whom I saw developing through theater.
And so we continue the theater tradition at De Smet of putting on shows, but in a new space now, a new theater. I invited a friend of mine, Tria Thompson, to help me bless the theater. She arrived Saturday morning, and we discussed the blessing that was to take place that evening. She had given it a lot of thought.
"Maybe we could do a reading from Ezekiel," she said. A theater should be blessed theatrically, not just with words. So we decided to do it by dancing. We rehearsed. She led me through the movements, and we read from the word of God: "For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land, I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be cleaned from all your uncleanness and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you." And so we -- this community of alumni and alumnae, current students, faculty, and audience -- blessed the theater, and then we put on a great show. God bless us all.![[Company]](../gifs/compquad.gif){kind=small}
Fr. John Craig, SJ, who teaches English and drama at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis, has spent many summers taking classes in mime, theater, and drama at universities across the country.
Page created by R VandeVelde, vande@math.luc.edu. Updated: Sun., April 20 1997