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A Conversation with the Cast of Twelve Angry Men
18 Plays1 year ago
In this episode I speak with Mike Boers, Timothy Bright, Ron Hurd, and Tripp Hurst about their experience in community theatre, and the show they're opening this week, Twelve Angry Men.
Twelve Angry Men runs from June 6 to June 22 at Master Arts Theatre, and was directed by Lorna Torres.
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Transcript
Introduction and Show Significance
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey friends, welcome back to Artists of the Way.
00:00:02
Speaker
I'm John, the host.
00:00:03
Speaker
Today, we have more guests than I've ever had in a podcast episode ever.
00:00:08
Speaker
We've got four cast members from the cast of 12 Angry Men at Master Arts Theater coming to chat with us about their show, their experience, making it themselves as artists and just what's been special about this process for both themselves as artists
Opening Weekend Reflections
00:00:23
Speaker
and their faith.
00:00:23
Speaker
Got a lot of different people with different experiences in theater, different...
00:00:28
Speaker
walks of faith life and different faith journeys um they say a lot of really rich stuff i hardly talk at all in this episode because they just they took the questions they ran with it they said a lot of really beautiful rich things so i am so excited to share this episode with you guys thanks for joining us
Faith and Art Backgrounds
00:00:47
Speaker
so how are you guys doing how's your opening weekend going
00:00:52
Speaker
Pretty well so far, I've got to add.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's opening night.
00:00:56
Speaker
We had about 50% crowd, but it was a good crowd.
00:01:00
Speaker
They reacted well.
00:01:02
Speaker
They laughed when they were supposed to, and cried when they were supposed to, that kind of thing.
00:01:07
Speaker
Perfect.
00:01:08
Speaker
Last night, it was pretty much full, I think.
00:01:11
Speaker
Oh, nice.
00:01:13
Speaker
That was it.
00:01:14
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:01:15
Speaker
That was a good crowd, too.
00:01:17
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah, I've got to get a mishap so far.
00:01:21
Speaker
No major mishaps.
00:01:22
Speaker
That's good.
00:01:24
Speaker
They're coming.
00:01:24
Speaker
Don't worry.
00:01:25
Speaker
None that the audience would have seen.
00:01:28
Speaker
Let's put it that way.
00:01:30
Speaker
There we go.
00:01:32
Speaker
We would know, but they won't.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yep.
00:01:35
Speaker
So I know a couple of you guys, others of you I don't know as well.
00:01:40
Speaker
I wanted to just start us off.
00:01:42
Speaker
There's a couple questions that I always ask at the start.
00:01:47
Speaker
So first, I just want to ask how God is using art in your life.
00:01:53
Speaker
And we can start with Ron and then go to Tripp and Mike and then Timothy.
00:01:59
Speaker
Okay, that's great.
00:02:01
Speaker
I'll give you a little bit, a short, brief history first, and then I'll tell you.
00:02:06
Speaker
I was a member of Central Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, for 60 years or so, since the late 60s.
00:02:15
Speaker
And towards 2020 in that area, our membership declined, people were getting older.
00:02:23
Speaker
We had trouble with leadership and there just wasn't any.
00:02:27
Speaker
So we ended up, there were like four or five of us that met for over a year weekly to try to decide how we can get this church going again, revitalizing.
00:02:38
Speaker
Finally, we decided we couldn't.
00:02:40
Speaker
So we ended up closing the church.
00:02:43
Speaker
And then my wife and I joined Cascade Christian Church, which is one of our denomination in Cascade.
00:02:49
Speaker
And we started over there.
00:02:51
Speaker
Now at Central,
00:02:53
Speaker
I was the choir director for 50 years.
00:02:55
Speaker
I was the head of the worship team for a long, long time.
00:02:59
Speaker
I substituted in the pulpit once in a while, those kind of things, and chair of the board, so on, so on, so forth.
00:03:05
Speaker
And we got into, and I thought, after that year and a half of meetings once a week, and they were Zoom meetings because we were in the middle of a pandemic.
00:03:13
Speaker
I thought, I don't want to do this anymore.
00:03:16
Speaker
I want to go to church.
00:03:17
Speaker
I want to worship.
00:03:18
Speaker
And, you know, I'm going to go home after that.
00:03:22
Speaker
But, you know, I get there and they found out.
00:03:26
Speaker
I knew the pastor over there really well.
00:03:29
Speaker
She knew me also.
00:03:30
Speaker
And so she said that she wanted me to, like, take charge of the worship team.
00:03:36
Speaker
Well, I really don't want to get this involved anymore.
00:03:41
Speaker
So anyway, I pulled back some old ideas and thoughts and so on and so forth.
00:03:47
Speaker
So how God is using art in my life right now, this is how.
Transition to Faith-Based Theater
00:03:52
Speaker
Way back when, I decided that one of the things that we can do to enhance every service, if it's a Monday, Thursday service or special Good Fridays or whatever it might be, we could add some
00:04:05
Speaker
some uh a skit or drama of some kind in there somewhere and enhance the whole service and make it even better yeah they didn't do any of that at cascade okay they didn't have a choir at cascade there's a big church there's like 400 members or something so they didn't have a choir they didn't have any of that stuff and i found myself getting back into okay let's do a short skit here see what happens and sure enough
00:04:31
Speaker
There's the art that comes back again, and God's using me to help enhance those services as well.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I'm back in up to here.
00:04:42
Speaker
I didn't want to get quite that involved, but here I am doing that.
00:04:45
Speaker
That's how God is using art in my life right now.
00:04:47
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:04:49
Speaker
Cool.
00:04:49
Speaker
Tripp, what about you?
00:04:51
Speaker
Well, for me, I'm not originally from Grand Rapids, so I'm originally from Memphis, Tennessee.
00:04:57
Speaker
And we've lived here about three years, and I did most of my theater in Memphis.
00:05:03
Speaker
And so a lot of that time, I didn't give my life to Christ until 13 years ago.
00:05:09
Speaker
And so most of the shows that I were doing definitely did not please the Lord.
00:05:15
Speaker
That's for sure.
00:05:16
Speaker
So...
00:05:18
Speaker
Now that I have been walking with him, it's choosing the scripts that I want to do that I believe can honor him.
00:05:26
Speaker
The story with the role that I have now as the guard, I'm going to lay it all out there.
00:05:33
Speaker
So it was great because I was so excited about when 12 Angry Men, when the auditions came out, because this is a show that I've always wanted to do.
00:05:42
Speaker
I love the movie, Henry Fonda.
00:05:44
Speaker
It's just a classic.
00:05:46
Speaker
And so I thought, you know what?
00:05:47
Speaker
That show I want to be in.
00:05:49
Speaker
And so I pray.
00:05:50
Speaker
I said, Lord, this is for you.
00:05:52
Speaker
This is whatever you want to do.
00:05:54
Speaker
If you want me to be in the show, that's fantastic.
00:05:56
Speaker
If you don't want me to be in it, that's fine, too.
00:05:59
Speaker
I will be I'll be OK either way.
00:06:02
Speaker
And I laid it in his hands.
00:06:04
Speaker
So I went.
00:06:04
Speaker
I auditioned.
00:06:05
Speaker
I got the phone call from Liesl and she said, we'd like to offer you a role.
00:06:10
Speaker
I was excited.
00:06:10
Speaker
I said, all right, what role?
00:06:12
Speaker
She said, we want to offer you the part of the guard.
00:06:15
Speaker
And there was a pause.
00:06:19
Speaker
This is the pride in me that's starting to come out.
00:06:24
Speaker
And so she said, I knew exactly what that role was, but I paused and I asked her, what does that role do?
00:06:34
Speaker
Because I had to give time to think whether or not I was going to accept the role or not.
00:06:40
Speaker
And so she said, oh, she told me what the guard did.
00:06:44
Speaker
And then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit was like, take the role.
00:06:48
Speaker
Take the role.
00:06:50
Speaker
And so I took the role.
00:06:52
Speaker
And it didn't mean I was very excited at first.
00:06:54
Speaker
Because I was actually, my wife saw how frustrated I was.
00:06:57
Speaker
I was frustrated over a role until the Lord said, look, I thought you gave me
00:07:04
Speaker
I thought you handed over the reins for me to choose your role because I was expecting one of the jurors or I was expecting nothing.
00:07:13
Speaker
I was not expecting the role of the guard.
00:07:16
Speaker
And he said, I thought you gave that up to me because I choose your role.
00:07:21
Speaker
He said, the Lord said, what are you content in the role that you get or the role or are you content in me?
00:07:29
Speaker
And that just realized,
00:07:30
Speaker
That right there said it all because I said, you know what?
00:07:35
Speaker
You're right, Lord.
00:07:36
Speaker
I am content in you.
00:07:38
Speaker
And from that moment, when he finally revealed that my content at that moment was not in him, that it was actually in the role that I was getting.
00:07:47
Speaker
But once I realized that, it clicked.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I've had more fun in this role than
Influence in High School Theater
00:07:54
Speaker
I thought I would.
00:07:54
Speaker
So it's been great.
00:07:56
Speaker
So he's...
00:08:00
Speaker
Teaching me a lot of things, teaching me definitely about contentment and developing new friendships in the theater world in Grand Rapids.
00:08:09
Speaker
That's an excellent correlation to our life as Christians as well, is that we need to be content in the role that God gives us in our life.
00:08:21
Speaker
And not just in theater because he chooses where we are.
00:08:24
Speaker
And we need to accept that and do the best with what we've been given.
00:08:30
Speaker
Amen.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:08:33
Speaker
That's super cool.
00:08:34
Speaker
I've definitely experienced that myself.
00:08:37
Speaker
I remember there was one year where it was my senior year and I just decided theater was what I wanted to do.
00:08:43
Speaker
And God was like, great, that means you should go to Bible school.
00:08:45
Speaker
And I was like, what?
00:08:46
Speaker
And like that entire year, I just wasn't getting roles.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I was doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but my brother was like getting a bunch of leads.
00:08:54
Speaker
And it was like, well, I've been doing this acting thing longer than him and he's getting all these leads.
00:08:58
Speaker
And God was just like,
00:09:00
Speaker
dude, if you just, I just want you to give this to me and trust me with this.
00:09:04
Speaker
And then I'll, I'll take it from here, but you need to trust me with this and make me the thing.
00:09:09
Speaker
And he's, he's totally blessed through that, but it's, it's just interesting how even things that are good and that we might be like, Oh, I'm doing this for God.
00:09:19
Speaker
Sometimes there's a little bit more of ourself in there than we think there is.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yep.
00:09:25
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:09:26
Speaker
Michael, what about you?
00:09:28
Speaker
So people who know me would not really associate me with art in any way.
00:09:34
Speaker
Okay, let me just put that out there to begin with.
00:09:37
Speaker
But God's given me an opportunity to participate at the South Christian High School with their theater company, doing sound and lights and tech.
00:09:47
Speaker
And I started doing that for the traditional parent reasons.
00:09:51
Speaker
My kids were in it and they needed help.
00:09:53
Speaker
So I do that.
00:09:55
Speaker
But it's really turned into my opportunity to build up kids at a very critical time in their lives, high school times, and provide a program that can bring them together and just help them find their own way through high school.
00:10:12
Speaker
So for me, it's just that opportunity to have a place where my talents can be used
Church Transition and Creative Challenges
00:10:18
Speaker
best to serve him through others.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:10:24
Speaker
I know for me, the people that led theater in high school for me were incredibly formative, both for my spiritual life and my artistic life.
00:10:34
Speaker
So that's really important.
00:10:36
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:10:37
Speaker
Cool.
00:10:38
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:10:40
Speaker
I guess my experience is a little bit similar to Ron's.
00:10:45
Speaker
We're in the middle of transitioning from a church that
00:10:50
Speaker
we attempted to, you know, get involved and do some of the art, art type things, but it was a, it was a church that has three services and it was, you know, 20 minutes away.
00:11:04
Speaker
And so to get involved, you know, would mean, you know, like a six, seven hour stint and because we only have one vehicle, it makes it hard.
00:11:14
Speaker
And
00:11:15
Speaker
So we've always been involved in the art type things.
00:11:21
Speaker
I like to be up on the praise team and just use the different creative skills that I think that God has given to me.
00:11:35
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:11:37
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:11:38
Speaker
So my second question I normally ask is basically the rest of our conversation.
Impact of Show on Personal Lives
00:11:43
Speaker
Because normally I'll ask, what are you working on?
00:11:46
Speaker
And then I'll move on to whatever subject we've decided to talk about.
00:11:49
Speaker
But we've decided to talk about what you guys are working on.
00:11:52
Speaker
So that works really well.
00:11:58
Speaker
What are some ways, we chatted a little bit, Tripp, with some ways that the show's kind of intersected with your life and some things God's doing there.
00:12:08
Speaker
Ron, is there any ways in which, as you've been approaching the role of your juror or just interacting with everybody else in this show, that God's been using the show or it's intersected with things in your life in some interesting ways?
00:12:24
Speaker
That's an interesting question.
00:12:26
Speaker
I thought about that when I read it.
00:12:28
Speaker
your list here.
00:12:28
Speaker
And God interacts with my life in so many ways.
00:12:34
Speaker
It's hard to isolate something.
00:12:38
Speaker
It's a theater only, you know?
00:12:41
Speaker
But this particular show, you know, I grew up in that era.
00:12:46
Speaker
I was in high school when this all happened.
00:12:48
Speaker
And I know what that prejudice is like.
00:12:51
Speaker
I saw it firsthand.
00:12:53
Speaker
It was all over.
00:12:55
Speaker
And it was...
00:12:57
Speaker
at that point it was almost accepted.
00:12:59
Speaker
I mean, it was just the way of life.
00:13:01
Speaker
That's what everything was.
00:13:04
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, this show kind of brought me back into that.
00:13:10
Speaker
Once again, see what it was really like and think to myself, um,
00:13:16
Speaker
Through this whole process of the show and watching all the actors fulfill their roles in such a way that it made me think, you know, there's still prejudice in this world today.
00:13:27
Speaker
It's still here.
00:13:28
Speaker
It's still prevalent.
00:13:29
Speaker
And there must be some way that I can help combat that somehow.
00:13:34
Speaker
And I'm.
00:13:36
Speaker
Don't know how yet, but I have the feeling that God's going to lead me somewhere that I can use all this information I've gathered from the show and do something with that for current life.
00:13:48
Speaker
I think maybe we started a choir at my church, at my new church anyway.
00:13:54
Speaker
They hadn't had a choir in years and years.
00:13:56
Speaker
So we did a big Christmas concert, the first one they've had in 10 years anyway, last fall or last December.
Themes of Justice and Bias
00:14:05
Speaker
We'll do another one this year.
00:14:06
Speaker
And I'm thinking, you know, there's got to be more that I can do because I know this prejudice is still out there.
00:14:14
Speaker
And I'm not sure what that's going to be yet, but I think I'm picking up on some ideas, some thoughts and so on just from being in this show and seeing, reminding me what it was like way back in the fifties.
00:14:28
Speaker
I do remember that.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's profound.
00:14:34
Speaker
It's interesting the way that the art that we work on God uses to prod certain things and seems like he's kind of laying groundwork there for some new stuff.
00:14:44
Speaker
And that's, that's cool.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, Mike, why don't we jump to you?
00:14:49
Speaker
What about you?
00:14:49
Speaker
Is there anything in the show that's kind of hit your life hard or intersected in some way?
00:14:56
Speaker
Definitely this show has had me thinking a lot about justice.
00:15:02
Speaker
Ron mentioned the racial component to this show, and one of our jurors is definitely a racist juror.
00:15:09
Speaker
That's what's interfering with his ability to provide justice to the accused.
00:15:14
Speaker
But when you watch the show, you'll see that every juror brings a different obstacle to justice.
00:15:24
Speaker
Another juror's relationship with his son is his obstacle to justice.
00:15:29
Speaker
Tim's character's impatience.
00:15:31
Speaker
He doesn't care.
00:15:33
Speaker
He wants to go home.
00:15:34
Speaker
That's his obstacle to justice.
00:15:36
Speaker
My character's obstacle is fear.
00:15:39
Speaker
Fear against the majority.
00:15:43
Speaker
All of these different things are happening.
00:15:45
Speaker
And as we've been doing rehearsals and as we've been in the script, it's just been really neat to identify the different obstacle to justice.
00:15:54
Speaker
And when you start thinking about how many obstacles to justice that there are, it really, it affects how you go through your daily life.
00:16:03
Speaker
You have to go, okay, okay.
00:16:06
Speaker
What am I bringing into this situation that might be an obstacle to doing the right thing?
00:16:13
Speaker
And of course, we all agree that there's this wonderful resource we have to help us overcome these things.
00:16:19
Speaker
And that's God whom we should rely on both his wisdom and his promptings to kind of change our perspective.
Christian Witness in Theater
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's beautiful too.
00:16:30
Speaker
Man, I love that.
00:16:32
Speaker
I'm like, I don't have to say anything.
00:16:33
Speaker
I can just sit back and let you guys just go on.
00:16:35
Speaker
You're saying such rich things.
00:16:37
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:16:39
Speaker
Well, I guess not so much in the show itself, but just I've found that it's, I guess, intersecting in my life in terms of
00:16:55
Speaker
the different actors that we deal with, because I know that not every single one of the actors that has been cast is a Christian or a believer.
00:17:05
Speaker
And so it's a big thing to think about while you're there and how you're acting and what you're saying is a witness to those people as well.
00:17:19
Speaker
And how you interact with them and choose to let everything around you affect you can have an influence on them as well.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the things I love about the art and theater in general is it does really bring together people from all different walks of life and people who would not step like 50 feet within a church
Character and Theme Connections
00:17:46
Speaker
all of a sudden or now.
00:17:48
Speaker
getting in really an intimate space with other Christians.
00:17:52
Speaker
And it's a beautiful opportunity.
00:17:55
Speaker
I've seen God use that in some really cool ways.
00:17:57
Speaker
So that is really exciting that you get to do that there.
00:18:02
Speaker
What about the story have you kind of latched onto here of 12 Angry Men for all you guys?
00:18:12
Speaker
Is there something in your character where it's just, this is a special moment that I love?
00:18:16
Speaker
Or is there...
00:18:18
Speaker
something ringing through.
00:18:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:21
Speaker
Just what, what's what, when you're going through the show, you're just like, Oh, this is, this is the reason I'm in this show and trip, we can start with you.
00:18:30
Speaker
For me, it's, it's kind of like, I've had the joy of just sitting back and watching each character develop.
00:18:39
Speaker
And it's been, it's been a real joy to see the uniqueness of, of each character and their little, uh,
00:18:47
Speaker
characteristics.
00:18:49
Speaker
But what jumps out really is not judging on outside appearances.
00:18:55
Speaker
I'm married to a Vietnamese woman who has had her fair share of racial things thrown at her.
00:19:02
Speaker
So I've heard more of her story.
00:19:04
Speaker
I've never been through that myself.
00:19:05
Speaker
And just hearing her story and knowing that a lot of times, even today, we judge on outside appearances.
00:19:14
Speaker
And I'm just, I'm thankful that God does not look at us that way, that he examines the heart.
00:19:21
Speaker
He looks on the heart.
00:19:22
Speaker
I was just reading a story this morning about this evil King Jehoaz, who said he did evil inside the king.
00:19:29
Speaker
And so...
00:19:32
Speaker
And he finally cries out to the Lord, and the Lord sends a deliverer and delivers them over and saves them, and then they go back to what they were doing previously.
00:19:44
Speaker
Even knowing that he was going to do that.
00:19:47
Speaker
He still loves us.
00:19:48
Speaker
And I don't want I'm not going to give away the show, whether the kid's guilty or not guilty, but some of them look at this kid, where he's from, his background, his face, and just decide right then and there that he's guilty.
00:20:03
Speaker
And so I'm thankful that the Lord didn't do that with me or with us, that he's just because of my background.
00:20:11
Speaker
He says, no, we're all guilty.
00:20:12
Speaker
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
00:20:14
Speaker
But he offers redemption and he offers forgiveness.
00:20:19
Speaker
And I'm so thankful for that.
00:20:20
Speaker
And that's what speaks to me mostly in this show.
00:20:23
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:20:24
Speaker
I love generalizing that even beyond just the idea of our own sin and redemption too.
00:20:29
Speaker
Because I think if you've lived with the story long enough, at times it can become rote like, yeah, I suck, but God loves me anyways.
00:20:36
Speaker
But even then bringing that broader to like, okay, the things that you think about in your friends that they probably see in you,
00:20:45
Speaker
Like, you know, we all have those things where, or maybe not all of us, but, you know, many of us have things where it's like, oh, there's this thing that I'm just sure my friends hate about me, you know, and they love me through that, but they probably just hate this about me and it's awful.
00:20:58
Speaker
And just the idea that God doesn't look at that and then think, oh, this is my little son or daughter that, you know, is...
00:21:05
Speaker
the overeater, this is my overeater, son or daughter, or my one who struggles with depression all the time and won't do anything, or my one that's overactive and bossy and is going to say all the wrong things.
00:21:17
Speaker
He just is like, oh no, that's this person whom I love.
00:21:20
Speaker
And he loves through that.
00:21:22
Speaker
It's not even just that he set aside our sin.
00:21:25
Speaker
It's all of what we categorize ourselves as through the outside appearance.
00:21:32
Speaker
he gets straight to the heart and is like, no, I love this person.
00:21:35
Speaker
I love that.
00:21:36
Speaker
That's great.
00:21:37
Speaker
Ron, what about you?
00:21:38
Speaker
What in this story stuck out to you?
00:21:40
Speaker
A couple
Societal Reflections and Personal Growth
00:21:41
Speaker
of things.
00:21:41
Speaker
I wanted to mention also that there's a new song out entitled
00:21:47
Speaker
God loves you and I'm trying.
00:21:53
Speaker
I think it's a great title.
00:21:55
Speaker
I think one of the things that stand out with me that actually fits my life really well is the fact that I'm an old guy.
00:22:05
Speaker
And, uh,
00:22:07
Speaker
the one spiel that I have in the middle about describing the other old man in a way that I really can understand that, and I really am that guy kind of a thing, except that I've always been in the forefront, being a choir director, and, you know, all this kind of thing, but
00:22:24
Speaker
never in the background to me, but it's just, it's one of those things that that particular portion of the script is going to stick with me for a long time.
00:22:35
Speaker
It's really important because
00:22:38
Speaker
The person I'm describing in there, even though I say I am that man, the person I'm describing in there is not unlike a lot of people today.
00:22:47
Speaker
They just don't, they're never at the forefront.
00:22:52
Speaker
They've forgotten about, pushed to the side.
00:22:55
Speaker
There's a lot of people like that.
00:22:57
Speaker
And some of them end up homeless and some of them end up in just not so good environment and so on.
00:23:06
Speaker
They get in trouble and so on.
00:23:08
Speaker
And it's all because they basically feel that society has rejected them.
00:23:15
Speaker
And this little speech that I give kind of brings that out.
00:23:20
Speaker
And that's the one that's going to stick with me more than anything else.
00:23:24
Speaker
An ability to really express my true feelings about that, which I'm doing in this case.
00:23:34
Speaker
And it's just...
00:23:36
Speaker
It's one I probably won't forget that for a long time.
00:23:39
Speaker
It is so true today.
00:23:41
Speaker
There's so many people like that.
00:23:43
Speaker
It's fall through the cracks.
00:23:44
Speaker
That's just too bad.
00:23:46
Speaker
That's true.
00:23:47
Speaker
I worked at Mel Trotter for a few months during COVID doing security.
00:23:50
Speaker
And just some of the people and the stories I saw there just broke my heart.
00:23:54
Speaker
And people that we had a gentleman who, I don't know if he'd always lived that way, but had gotten to the point of being, you know,
00:24:03
Speaker
pretty much just nonverbal and just kind of shuffling around.
00:24:06
Speaker
And it was like, man, we don't even know if this guy has any family still, but he did at some point.
00:24:11
Speaker
And society often just forgets about him.
00:24:15
Speaker
And we were trying to get him in adult protective services.
00:24:17
Speaker
And that was just going so slow.
00:24:20
Speaker
Which is part of why I think for us Christians, it's important.
00:24:23
Speaker
Like Jesus says, we should care for the widow and the orphan and those forgotten because they're there and they're in our backyards.
00:24:30
Speaker
And a lot of times they're not as flashy as like a refugee crisis or a civil rights movement, but they have just as much hurt and value as people.
00:24:43
Speaker
That's, yeah, heavy.
00:24:46
Speaker
Mike, what about you?
00:24:47
Speaker
What's sticking out for you?
00:24:49
Speaker
Well, there are so many good moments in this show.
00:24:52
Speaker
It's really hard to narrow down one.
00:24:55
Speaker
My character is a bit of the comic relief in the show, which is kind of nice because we're dealing with some heavy stuff.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's nice to give the audience a break now and again.
00:25:06
Speaker
So I look forward to many of the small little gags that we do that can let the audience react.
00:25:14
Speaker
release.
00:25:15
Speaker
Of course, everyone likes making people laugh.
00:25:19
Speaker
I definitely enjoy the balance.
00:25:21
Speaker
It's very similar to Kill a Mockingbird came through Grand Rapids not too long ago.
00:25:26
Speaker
I went to it expecting this really heavy show and I was surprised at how much I laughed and how appropriate it was to have laughter up against the serious.
00:25:37
Speaker
I think we're doing the same thing and it's really good.
00:25:41
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:25:42
Speaker
I love shows that do that for so many reasons.
00:25:45
Speaker
I feel like
00:25:48
Speaker
A, this is my slightly evil director side.
00:25:50
Speaker
I'm like, if I know something really sad is coming and I get the audience to laugh, then they're letting their guard down so I can hit them with a bunch even harder.
00:25:59
Speaker
But I do think it just, it lends to a more truthful, lifelike experience, right?
00:26:04
Speaker
There's a place for the super deep, heavy, depressive shows that are like just two hours of sadness being vomited on stage.
00:26:11
Speaker
But...
00:26:12
Speaker
We go through these hills and valleys of joy and sorrow, and the joy usually makes the sorrow harder, and the sorrow usually makes the joy even brighter.
00:26:22
Speaker
So I love that balance.
00:26:24
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:26:25
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:26:28
Speaker
I think the line that stands out to me, again, is one of Ron's lines, that it takes a great deal of courage to stand alone.
00:26:39
Speaker
And even when you believe in something so deeply,
00:26:43
Speaker
And I mean, that's actually the line, the phrase that we chose to have on our show shirt because of how important that is.
00:26:56
Speaker
And it's...
00:27:03
Speaker
It's difficult.
00:27:05
Speaker
Even when you know what's right, it is still difficult to stand
Character Dynamics and Audience Engagement
00:27:09
Speaker
alone.
00:27:09
Speaker
But the importance of us standing alone or standing for what is right is so important, especially as the world continues to crumble around us to stand and show God's light, to show what is right is just so important.
00:27:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, that is such a powerful image, that first juror.
00:27:39
Speaker
It's like, I don't know, I think we've got it wrong, maybe.
00:27:42
Speaker
Because I don't know if I would do that.
00:27:45
Speaker
And a lot of times it's so hard, even if you know what's right, and you're like, okay, I want to stand, then how do you do that is even another question.
00:27:53
Speaker
But then that's where hopefully God comes in and can help kind of give us that strength to stand and give us that
00:28:04
Speaker
that prodding and that foundation.
00:28:07
Speaker
That's a great line.
00:28:08
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:28:10
Speaker
I think too much.
00:28:11
Speaker
I, I, I end up like my character and end up being a coward and not standing up and not, not saying what's important.
00:28:22
Speaker
Does your character do that because of,
00:28:27
Speaker
fear of something or because of not knowing exactly like what what do you I've almost put on my director hat now of like asking character questions but what what is it in the character that prompts the nothing that he does in those moments it's it's a matter of not having any good basis to stand on
00:28:51
Speaker
Like the backstory that I gave my character is that his mother died when he was young and he had kind of a shakester of a father.
00:29:00
Speaker
And so he didn't really have any good qualities to look on and nothing positive to base his life on.
00:29:10
Speaker
And so he often stands behind other people and waits for them to make a decision.
00:29:16
Speaker
and then follows along with them.
00:29:19
Speaker
And that's kind of how I act in the show.
00:29:21
Speaker
I end up, you know, everybody else is voting guilty.
00:29:25
Speaker
And, you know, we're blaming other people.
00:29:27
Speaker
And, you know, I'll just get right on board until I, well, yeah, we won't give away anything.
00:29:34
Speaker
Anybody that might be listening that doesn't know the show.
00:29:36
Speaker
So we'll leave it at that.
00:29:38
Speaker
You have to come and see the show now, right?
00:29:40
Speaker
There we go.
00:29:42
Speaker
I am just so excited just hearing the snippets from you guys.
00:29:47
Speaker
I just, I love shows that are just a bunch of people in a room and the actors just get to make those characters and bounce off of each other.
00:29:54
Speaker
I'm so excited to just come and see all of you guys playing together and stuff.
00:29:58
Speaker
Has that been exciting as you've like discovered these characters to just...
Humorous Rehearsal Moments
00:30:03
Speaker
see the different ways they end up bouncing off each other and the ways that that changes from rehearsal to rehearsal.
00:30:10
Speaker
Well, to answer that question, John, yeah.
00:30:12
Speaker
I mean, you know what?
00:30:14
Speaker
Again, I mentioned this earlier, but just from the start of the practices until opening night, even last night, it's just each of these guys, Ron, Mike, Tim, I mean, everybody else, it's just each character has grown significantly.
00:30:33
Speaker
And the more you're in the script, the better you're going to start.
00:30:37
Speaker
Once you get the script out of your hand, you start to dive into your character.
00:30:41
Speaker
And so it's been, for these three guys on the screen, it's been a joy to watch.
00:30:48
Speaker
And you can just point out, okay, I don't like this guy.
00:30:51
Speaker
I don't like this guy.
00:30:52
Speaker
Oh, this guy's good.
00:30:53
Speaker
You know, Mike gets all the laughs.
00:30:55
Speaker
So, I mean...
00:30:57
Speaker
Audiences love Mike, but they love the whole crew together because they work so well together.
00:31:04
Speaker
It's just one big friends and family core.
00:31:09
Speaker
If a cast works well together, the audience is going to love it.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:31:15
Speaker
Is there anything that's surprised you guys as you've delved into the characters, where something about that character's just caught you off guard?
00:31:21
Speaker
Ron, we could go to you for that.
00:31:24
Speaker
Just as you've been, because I mean, it's all written out there, but as you've delved into the emotions or thinking through something, has something just like clicked and been like, oh, I was not, I didn't see that at first or I didn't kind of expect that.
00:31:35
Speaker
And then it just sidelined you.
00:31:42
Speaker
This is not so easy.
00:31:43
Speaker
That's one of my lines too.
00:31:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:31:50
Speaker
I really didn't know what to expect.
00:31:52
Speaker
I read, I read through the script, of course, and when we did our read through and so on, um, I started to get an idea of what this guy was like.
00:32:01
Speaker
And it wasn't really until we were having into rehearsals that, um,
00:32:07
Speaker
My first thought, we had to build a backstory, and I was dead wrong about it.
00:32:14
Speaker
And until we got into it and started getting away from the book a little bit, I started to realize this guy has a different background because he's on the opposite side of prejudice.
00:32:28
Speaker
And he can recognize it by the way to other people.
00:32:31
Speaker
And he must have been involved in something when he was younger.
00:32:36
Speaker
And I made it so that he kind of befriended in grade school and in junior high, the custodian who was an African-American guy and very kind to him.
00:32:47
Speaker
And they had a relationship.
00:32:49
Speaker
and it was a great relationship now it comes into the adult stage and finds those people wait a minute i knew one of those people personally it was a great guy that kind of thing i came around i didn't really realize that until we got into some of their other rehearsals and i saw what some of the other actors were doing with their part and by the way tim i really appreciate one of your lines
00:33:15
Speaker
memorable for me.
00:33:16
Speaker
You kept telling me they wanted to have attention and those kind of things.
00:33:20
Speaker
But then one of them says, well, maybe I was right after all.
00:33:24
Speaker
Maybe that is what he's like kind of a thing.
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that now.
00:33:29
Speaker
That kind of a come around.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I saw that come around to reality in a lot of the actors in their part too.
00:33:37
Speaker
And they play it so well.
00:33:39
Speaker
They really do.
00:33:41
Speaker
But it's kind of...
00:33:44
Speaker
That kind of sticks out in my mind about the character that I played.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised at my own evaluation of that as we got later into the story.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:55
Speaker
Mike, how about you?
00:33:56
Speaker
Is there something in delving into your character that surprised you?
00:33:59
Speaker
Well, one thing I should say first is this is a weird show.
00:34:03
Speaker
Our characters don't even have names, right?
00:34:06
Speaker
I'm two.
00:34:07
Speaker
You're talking to two, seven, and nine.
00:34:10
Speaker
Okay, that's how much the script gives you about your character.
00:34:14
Speaker
And guard.
00:34:15
Speaker
Boom, that's where you start.
00:34:17
Speaker
So you really do, you have to comb through your lines and you have to figure out
00:34:23
Speaker
what makes sense to this guy and on top of that you're not really having conversations with people you're having arguments it is it is a show of arguments back and forth arguing so finding the emotional center of your character it's like wow this this is really challenging but um i was fortunate that my character is a bit of a waffler he kind of goes back and forth on his attitude versus um not guilty and guilty
00:34:53
Speaker
which allowed me to just kind of try to find what is he thinking?
00:34:58
Speaker
Why is he here?
00:34:59
Speaker
Why is he moving?
00:35:01
Speaker
Why does he move back?
00:35:03
Speaker
Which actually gave the character a little bit of depth for me because I had to find those reasons.
00:35:09
Speaker
And it was a fun journey finding those reasons.
00:35:13
Speaker
My kids tell me I probably put more thought into Juror Number Two than has ever been put into Juror Number Two in the history of this film because that's what I do.
00:35:21
Speaker
But you nail it every night.
00:35:26
Speaker
I'm not sure if I was surprised at anything that I found, but I really enjoyed the journey.
00:35:32
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:35:34
Speaker
I love the thought that you're putting into that, though.
00:35:36
Speaker
The iceberg that's underneath the character that the audience doesn't see is everything to that character.
00:35:43
Speaker
It affects everything that the character does.
00:35:45
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:35:47
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:35:48
Speaker
And that, that why question that you're asking anytime I'm, I'm talking about acting or thinking about acting or directing, it's like, it, everything ends up boiling down to the why, like, I think you can distill everything to like, looking at the moment or the line, or the action and being like, why?
00:36:04
Speaker
So I love, I love the, the thought and care that's being put into that.
00:36:09
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:36:11
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:36:11
Speaker
Is anything surprised to you?
00:36:14
Speaker
Not specifically, but it has been kind of a surprising journey, I guess.
00:36:21
Speaker
When I went into this and auditioned, I had watched the 1980-something movie, the one with Jack Lemmon in it.
00:36:32
Speaker
And I was watching it, and I thought, man...
00:36:37
Speaker
If there's one character I just don't want to play, that'd be number seven, Tony Danza's character.
00:36:43
Speaker
I just don't like that character.
00:36:45
Speaker
I don't identify as that character at all.
00:36:50
Speaker
And then I got the call from Liesl and said, yeah, we'd like you to be juror number seven.
00:36:55
Speaker
And heart fell a little bit.
00:36:59
Speaker
I had already decided, you know what?
00:37:01
Speaker
I'm going to take any role that I'm offered because I just love doing it.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I took it and it was, it has been a surprising transition to see he's not just this impatient guy that just wants to leave and is, there's, there's a lot to the character and I've been able to make it my own, but just to be able to see how he's thinking underneath and,
00:37:37
Speaker
interacting with the other characters and honestly looking at all the other characters, I don't, I think this one was the best fit for me and I've actually really enjoyed doing it.
00:37:49
Speaker
I wouldn't want to be any other character.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:53
Speaker
Tripp, what about you?
00:37:54
Speaker
What surprised you in playing the role of the guard?
00:37:59
Speaker
How much I would enjoy it.
00:38:04
Speaker
That really has been a surprise, but yeah, the rehearsal that we had to dive deeper into our characters, you really, even the guard, you know, the backstory of the guard, why does he do the things that he does?
00:38:18
Speaker
And, you know, I got to just, you know, the tail end kind of reveal that.
00:38:25
Speaker
kind of what he was thinking throughout the entire process because the guard has been in the court those past weeks or whatever it was listening to the entire case.
00:38:36
Speaker
And so he also has some judgment as well and what he thinks.
00:38:41
Speaker
And so I get to
Why See '12 Angry Men'
00:38:42
Speaker
reveal slightly about what was going on in my mind toward the end of the show, which is good.
00:38:49
Speaker
So it's been a lot of fun.
00:38:52
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:38:53
Speaker
Do you guys have...
00:38:55
Speaker
A favorite experience behind the scenes, a funny story or a sweet moment in rehearsal or something.
00:39:03
Speaker
We can start with you, Ron.
00:39:06
Speaker
Oh, let's see here.
00:39:07
Speaker
Well, I guess there are several that...
00:39:17
Speaker
we make them a mistake or put out something wrong or it comes out different than it should be.
00:39:24
Speaker
There's always those things and we chuckle about those and go back over it again kind of a thing.
00:39:31
Speaker
I can't think of anything necessarily that I would remember as memorable as far as being funny is concerned.
00:39:41
Speaker
I suppose a couple of times when...
00:39:47
Speaker
When Stephen gives one of those lines about he doesn't even speak good English...
00:39:53
Speaker
I started thinking about that.
00:39:57
Speaker
The first time he said that, it didn't register anything.
00:40:00
Speaker
Mike, the same way, some of the things that he said, too, didn't really register as we went through it.
00:40:06
Speaker
But as we got into the play, and that came out, I'm thinking, this is really funny.
00:40:13
Speaker
I chuckled at those as well.
00:40:16
Speaker
But it's just...
00:40:18
Speaker
There was nothing strange that happened that I could think of that would make me think it was really funny at this point.
00:40:25
Speaker
We had some funny stories down in the green room, however, down in where the actors go.
00:40:31
Speaker
There were a lot of funny stories down there the way everybody told.
00:40:34
Speaker
That's always a good time, too.
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:40:37
Speaker
Mike, what about you?
00:40:38
Speaker
Something really stuck out in the process of making this as memorable or a sweet moment or a funny moment.
00:40:44
Speaker
Well, I think the funniest thing for me is something that no one else got to see, which was my reaction to being cast.
00:40:52
Speaker
This is my first show.
00:40:53
Speaker
I'm 53 years old.
00:40:55
Speaker
This is my first audition, my first show.
00:40:58
Speaker
And the night I auditioned, there were three guys named Mike auditioning.
00:41:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:05
Speaker
Which is fine.
00:41:06
Speaker
It caused a little confusion about scheduling and stuff.
00:41:09
Speaker
Which Mike?
00:41:10
Speaker
That Mike.
00:41:10
Speaker
We were doing all this kind of stuff.
00:41:13
Speaker
And so I get home and I get the offer text that says, we'd like to offer you the part of juror number two.
00:41:23
Speaker
Now, juror number two in the movie was played by John Fielder, who voiced Piglet.
00:41:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:41:31
Speaker
I am 6'4", okay?
00:41:37
Speaker
And I am playing this meek, timid little man.
00:41:43
Speaker
And I thought they sent it to the wrong mic, right?
00:41:46
Speaker
That's clearly what happened.
00:41:48
Speaker
The confusion about which mic was... So I'm expecting to go into the first rehearsal going, why are you here?
00:41:56
Speaker
Like, you're not supposed to...
00:42:00
Speaker
But it actually turns out that Lorna did cast me as juror number two.
00:42:05
Speaker
I think she likes the dichotomy of this 6'4", big, meek man on stage.
00:42:13
Speaker
And I wasn't too sure about it at first, but I've really enjoyed it.
00:42:20
Speaker
So that is my best moment from the show is that surprise.
00:42:25
Speaker
And to anybody listening right now who has not come to see the show, you need to come see this six foot four man.
00:42:32
Speaker
The absolute most timid person that I have ever seen in my life.
00:42:39
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:42:40
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:42:42
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:42:45
Speaker
Well, one of the ones that kind of stands out to me is Mike's son is in this role, is in this cast as well.
00:42:54
Speaker
He's playing Juror number six.
00:42:59
Speaker
And we have a couple of interactions between him and I. And Mike must have just raised his son to be a wonderful, happy person.
00:43:11
Speaker
Because here we are in a courtroom with angry men.
00:43:16
Speaker
And this young person can't help but
00:43:21
Speaker
crack a smile at every single thing that's going on so I'm three inches away from his face at one point yelling at the top of my lungs and there he is smiling during rehearsals Lorna has begun to charge him 10 cents for every time that he smiles when he's not supposed to that's awesome that makes me laugh that's great Tripp what about you?
00:43:49
Speaker
You know, I was thinking about the same thing because I had a conversation with Josh about that note that Lorna had given him about smiling.
00:43:58
Speaker
I said, you know, I have been given that same note multiple times in my shows.
00:44:06
Speaker
In the importance of being earnest, it's a sad, at one point there's a sad part in it.
00:44:10
Speaker
I was playing the role of earnest and I just had this perpetual, it looks like I'm smiling.
00:44:14
Speaker
My director said, Tripp, stop smiling.
00:44:17
Speaker
You're supposed to be at a funeral.
00:44:20
Speaker
I said, I don't think I am smiling.
00:44:24
Speaker
And then one director on a death of a salesman, for some reason, something just made me start laughing.
00:44:30
Speaker
My director said, trip, this is not a comedy.
00:44:33
Speaker
And so I couldn't, I couldn't stop laughing.
00:44:35
Speaker
So he just said, all right, everybody go home.
00:44:38
Speaker
Trip's done.
00:44:42
Speaker
You have resting, smiling face.
00:44:46
Speaker
So I get, I get, I get Josh.
00:44:51
Speaker
that's great um why do you guys think people should come see this show if they haven't yet or if they were on the fence about getting tickets why should they come and see 12 angry men ron we can throw that to you to start well first of all um
00:45:12
Speaker
It's live theater.
00:45:13
Speaker
And I think I would rather go to live theater than movies.
00:45:19
Speaker
Movies have the opportunity of digital manipulation, all kinds of computer stuff.
00:45:28
Speaker
And sets can be built without being a set built kind of, you know, merge things together.
00:45:35
Speaker
But live theater, there's no such thing as a retake.
00:45:39
Speaker
You know, you can't get through that.
00:45:41
Speaker
And plus the fact that it is so real, when the actors are really good at it, it becomes real.
00:45:50
Speaker
And you can understand that stuff.
00:45:52
Speaker
And I think this particular play epitomizes that as well.
00:45:56
Speaker
These actors, all of us, all 12, 13, 13,
00:46:02
Speaker
Everybody is so good at what they do.
00:46:03
Speaker
They have developed that role so well that there is no mistaking that they are that person.
00:46:10
Speaker
And people should come and see that show and watch that happen and watch their attitudes morph into something that you didn't expect when it all started.
00:46:21
Speaker
It was 11 to 1 Guilty.
00:46:24
Speaker
It ended up 11 to 1.
00:46:26
Speaker
Well, I'm not going to say that.
00:46:27
Speaker
But anyway, you come and see that show and watch that happen.
00:46:34
Speaker
And through the hour and a half or two hours, the hour long it is, everybody morphs into something completely different than what they start out with.
00:46:42
Speaker
It's an amazing, amazing capture of that identity thing.
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:47
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:46:48
Speaker
Mike, how about you?
00:46:50
Speaker
Well, I think if you never go to live theater, you should definitely go to this for a new experience.
00:46:56
Speaker
And if you go to a lot of live theater, you should definitely go to this because you're going to be very close to the action,
Art and Faith Resources
00:47:04
Speaker
right?
00:47:04
Speaker
If you've ever gone to a bigger production, you've gone downtown, gone to DeVos, and you sit in the balcony or the upper mezzanine and you see shapes moving around.
00:47:15
Speaker
Um...
00:47:16
Speaker
This show, you are going to see faces.
00:47:19
Speaker
You're going to see when one actor just glances with his eyes over to somebody else.
00:47:25
Speaker
You're going to be able to see that.
00:47:27
Speaker
And it's a very different experience that I think everyone should do at least once because it just draws you in so much more.
00:47:36
Speaker
It's a great show.
00:47:37
Speaker
It's a powerful show.
00:47:40
Speaker
it will make you think and it will make you laugh and you're just going to see something that maybe you're not used to seeing that's awesome sweet tim what about you well mike kind of kind of took mine on that one but it's kind of a combination of what ron and mike says that is that yes you're you're right there it's you you're close to be able to see that to see them but
00:48:05
Speaker
The room itself is small in the first place, but the way that Lorna has designed the set with chairs on both sides of the table, you almost feel like you are right there in that deliberation room with those characters.
00:48:19
Speaker
And those little looks back and forth, like Mike was saying, is you can see those.
00:48:26
Speaker
You feel like you're interacting with the characters just sitting there watching them.
00:48:34
Speaker
And like Ron was saying, each and every single person, including Maddie, who plays the accused, who doesn't have a single line in the show, we've seen what she can do.
00:48:47
Speaker
And just the look on her face as the accused, the despair and the discouragement of being accused of murder,
00:48:58
Speaker
is just amazing.
00:49:00
Speaker
Every single one of the people that are playing in this just do an amazing job.
00:49:04
Speaker
And the music and the costumes and the lighting, the directing, everything is just
00:49:12
Speaker
perfect in my opinion that's great trip how about you it is it's a classic uh if you love classics if you love uh the courtroom drama type scene uh even if you don't go with somebody who does because you'll i promise you you'll you'll love this show there's not a bad seat in the house and it just keeps you engaged some shows will kind of have a high and then kind of linger off and get
00:49:39
Speaker
A little bored, and then it brings you back in, but this is constant.
00:49:43
Speaker
This is constant bickering and conversation and a couple jokes, but it just, it will, the two hours flies by.
00:49:54
Speaker
It's a fantastic directed show.
00:49:57
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:49:59
Speaker
Cool.
00:49:59
Speaker
So for the last question here, one of the things I like to do with the podcast and the website is I try and build out some resources for people who are wanting to grow either in their art or in their faith.
00:50:10
Speaker
Because I know throughout my life, I've needed that.
00:50:13
Speaker
So just having this resource page for people.
00:50:17
Speaker
Something I care about.
00:50:17
Speaker
So free to you guys.
00:50:20
Speaker
Do you have a resource that you would recommend to people if they're wanting to either grow as artists or deepen their Christian faith?
00:50:27
Speaker
And Ron, we can start with you again.
00:50:29
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:30
Speaker
Just keep putting you on the hot seat.
00:50:33
Speaker
Well, there's actually a couple of things.
00:50:35
Speaker
First of all, the best way to expand your love for anything is to get involved with it.
00:50:43
Speaker
And I would recommend if somebody wants to explore art in any of its forms, many forms, music, performance, you know, drawing, whatever it might be,
00:50:54
Speaker
You need to get involved in it.
00:50:56
Speaker
And I would recommend highly that you get involved in your church work.
00:51:04
Speaker
If your church doesn't have a drama group, start one.
00:51:08
Speaker
And get some things going with that.
00:51:09
Speaker
You will learn more by doing that than anything else.
00:51:13
Speaker
The other thing that I would recommend is Master Arts.
00:51:18
Speaker
has a number of classes that they have for acting, for script writing, for other things as well.
00:51:26
Speaker
And they are excellent.
00:51:27
Speaker
They're people who have been there, have done that, can teach you so well.
00:51:32
Speaker
If you want to explore some of this, come and take one of those classes.
00:51:35
Speaker
That's how I got started with Master Arts.
00:51:37
Speaker
I got a note from Chris McDonald, one of the original founders,
00:51:41
Speaker
at church, basically.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I had already been doing skits and so on at church to come to see an acting class and so on.
00:51:48
Speaker
So I went through that and I thought, well, I'll just go see what it's like.
00:51:51
Speaker
First time I was ever there and that was in 04.
00:51:55
Speaker
And I just fell in love with it.
00:51:58
Speaker
And I got offers for street theater and improv and, you know, I auditioned for the next play coming up and I got involved in it.
00:52:07
Speaker
I was able to expand my love for the theater at that point in time.
00:52:11
Speaker
But take that back with you also, wherever you go, just keep working at it and working at it.
00:52:17
Speaker
God will guide you into that.
00:52:19
Speaker
But you have to initiate a few things yourself.
00:52:22
Speaker
Yeah, love that.
00:52:24
Speaker
Mike, how about for you?
00:52:25
Speaker
Something to grow as an artist or to deepen your Christian faith?
00:52:29
Speaker
Uh, honestly, if CS Lewis wrote it, I think you should read it.
00:52:33
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, my favorite is probably the problem of pain.
00:52:38
Speaker
I think that's a really interesting, um, set of essays on trying to figure out how can God be good in such a broken world?
00:52:48
Speaker
Uh, I recommend it highly.
00:52:51
Speaker
Awesome.
00:52:52
Speaker
Tim, what about you?
00:52:55
Speaker
Well, especially in terms of the arts or learning a new art or something like that, I would recommend, honestly, going to YouTube and looking up videos on certain things, whatever you might be interested in.
00:53:12
Speaker
I know that there's a lot of people out there that have a hard time getting involved in something art, especially if there's other people involved, like stage, because they...
00:53:24
Speaker
they don't want to get involved and fail in front of other people.
00:53:29
Speaker
If you go to YouTube, there are hundreds upon thousands of videos that can teach you to do anything from something broad to something very specific, whether it is painting or acting or how to change your voice or...
00:53:49
Speaker
puppetry or you know anything that you can think of it's out there and that gives you a chance to to practice it maybe to experiment a little bit and then might give you the confidence to get out and try it in front of other people that's awesome yeah i know i relied on that a lot growing up so youtube's a great resource trip what about for you
00:54:15
Speaker
I'm going to tackle both of those things.
00:54:19
Speaker
First, in the arts, there's a great book called Drama in the Ministry that helps you.
00:54:25
Speaker
If you start a drama ministry, it actually helps you to start that and what it takes and how you hold auditions, I guess you could say, and all that kind of thing.
00:54:37
Speaker
But there's also a show that I found a few years ago.
00:54:40
Speaker
It's probably 15 years old now, but it's on Tubi.
00:54:43
Speaker
It's called Seventh Street Theater.
00:54:46
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever seen it or not, but it is actually is literally a show based around a group of four or five people.
00:54:54
Speaker
And it's a Christian theater called Seventh Street Theater.
00:54:57
Speaker
And the whole show takes place as they're writing a show.
00:55:01
Speaker
They direct, they write, and they perform what they wrote each weekend.
00:55:06
Speaker
So they have these...
00:55:07
Speaker
this performance.
00:55:08
Speaker
And so sometimes they'll, they'll do one skit or they'll do two, but it's a, you should look it up because it's a, it's actually fantastic.
00:55:18
Speaker
And something that every time I watch, I was like, gosh, I want to do that so badly.
00:55:23
Speaker
But to strengthen your faith, definitely dive into the word of God.
00:55:29
Speaker
Don't stop reading the word.
00:55:31
Speaker
That is where, that's where comfort comes from.
00:55:33
Speaker
That's where joy comes from is his word.
00:55:36
Speaker
So that's key, number one right there.
00:55:39
Speaker
But if you want to know how to answer critics, if you're out sharing the gospel, I'm an evangelist at heart.
00:55:44
Speaker
And if you want to share your faith and want to know how to share your faith, More Than a Carpenter is a great book by Josh McDowell.
00:55:51
Speaker
You can also go to Ray Comfort's, his Evidence Bible.
00:55:57
Speaker
I've got, it's called the Evidence Bible.
00:55:59
Speaker
And in the Evidence Bible, it's got the 100 most commonly asked questions from atheists.
00:56:06
Speaker
and how you relate to other religions and denomination, whatever it is, it's in there.
00:56:12
Speaker
So it'll definitely help strengthen your faith.
00:56:16
Speaker
Nice.
00:56:16
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:56:17
Speaker
Cool.
00:56:18
Speaker
Well, thank you guys for taking some time to sit down and chat with me.
00:56:21
Speaker
I am so excited about this show.
00:56:22
Speaker
I can't wait to come see it.
00:56:24
Speaker
And just, I love Lorna and her direction and hearing you guys talk about it.
00:56:28
Speaker
It's just making me even more excited.
00:56:30
Speaker
So yeah.
00:56:31
Speaker
Thank you, John, for having us too.
00:56:33
Speaker
Thank you.
00:56:34
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:56:35
Speaker
Of course, you guys break a leg this weekend.
00:56:37
Speaker
I'm excited to come see it.
00:56:38
Speaker
It'll be great.
00:56:39
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:56:40
Speaker
Thank you.