Transcript
Speaker: Ghost of Christmas Present was by far the biggest role I've ever done on stage and so the fact that she was willing to say well the crowd can suspend belief and you just have to make yourself believable in the character and I really do feel that as the show went on I got more and more into character I was not able to pull off the British accent I always tell people I was probably every fourth word was British and if that was okay with people that was fine but
Speaker: Hello, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Artists of the Way.
Speaker: I'm John, the host.
Speaker: Today, I'm joined by a good friend of mine, Andrew Gommason.
Speaker: Andrew is a traveling preacher with his organization Speaking for Him.
Speaker: He's done the Speaking for Him podcast for almost 11 years now.
Speaker: You're coming up on your 11th anniversary next month, right?
Speaker: Probably this month by the time this is posted.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: October 12th will be the 11th anniversary.
Speaker: That's exciting.
Speaker: With that, you've done a lot of cool creative projects.
Speaker: I know you've done a lot of readers theater.
Speaker: And then Andrew has also assistant directed several productions with Master Arts as well and recently took the stage in Christmas Carol, which was really cool to see.
Speaker: So how are you doing today?
Speaker: I'm doing really well.
Speaker: I'm excited to be here.
Speaker: I've really enjoyed your podcast thus far.
Speaker: I just told my brother the other day that I feel like
Speaker: You're farther along in your podcasting acumen than I was 11 years ago.
Speaker: So it's kind of cool to see.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: I mean, I am assisted by the advent of technology and podcast is much more in the zeitgeist now than it was 11 years ago.
Speaker: So there's a lot of resources out there for sure.
Speaker: That is very true.
Speaker: That is very true.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, I want to dive right in.
Speaker: I've got a couple questions that I ask every guest that I've got on here.
Speaker: First, what is it that you are working on right now?
Speaker: Well, right now I am continuously working on the podcast and I'm actually in the process of writing a full-length passion plate
Speaker: that's kind of based on some of the monologues that I've done for my podcast.
Speaker: John is familiar, but for several Good Fridays, I've done one-person monologues that gave a first-person perspective on a major character.
Speaker: From the passion story, one time I did Simon of Cyrene and our mutual friend, Greg Apel,
Speaker: did that role for me and you played the apostle john for me one year i had a friend play mary mother of jesus one year so i've just had a lot of fun with those type of things and i decided to take up the challenge of writing a full cast recording uh well a full cast play based on those monologues and the research that i did there and hopefully i
Speaker: be able to present it to Master Arts at a future time.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: That's exciting.
Speaker: I'm excited to see because I really enjoyed when I did that.
Speaker: That narrative was really cool.
Speaker: And I've enjoyed listening to them.
Speaker: They've always been a cool
Speaker: a unique artistic thing to kind of get you in the shoes of the people that are experiencing what was happening in the, in the gospel time.
Speaker: So I feel like a, a wider show based on that could be really sweet and would be, would be great in a black box setting.
Speaker: So that would be awesome.
Speaker: Sweet.
Speaker: So as you're working on those things, or maybe as you're just in taking art, as we all do, what are some ways that God's been using art in your life right now?
Speaker: Well, I think some people will say,
Speaker: Because I actually recently heard a clip from Vadi Bakam who was talking about Jesus and the portrayals of Jesus.
Speaker: And someone asked him, do you encourage your people to take down images of white Jesus?
Speaker: Because, you know, there's this controversy that Jesus wasn't actually white.
Speaker: And so our portrayals of him fall short because he wasn't white.
Speaker: But actually, I don't think he was black either.
Speaker: So that's kind of an interesting conversation for another time.
Speaker: But what I'm getting to is he said, well, I don't really think of images of a white Jesus or a black Jesus because I think any portrayal of Jesus is a violation of the second commandment.
Speaker: That's essentially what he said.
Speaker: And I, I don't think so because I think that God is the author of story.
Speaker: And I think Jesus used stories to teach lessons.
Speaker: And so I think we should portray him with humility.
Speaker: We should portray him with awe.
Speaker: We should be sure that we are being biblical about it.
Speaker: But I think showing him as flesh and bones on stage is actually a good thing and a great opportunity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One of my friends who I've had on the podcast, John Taylor, graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary.
Speaker: He's very sharp theologically and has a huge passion for like multi-ethnic ministry and things like that.
Speaker: He really wants at some point in his office to like commission a painting of four different Jesuses across different ethnicities because he and I both feel...
Speaker: that there's a certain beauty in a culture being able to look at Jesus and take some ownership of this is my Messiah, you know, not that he, not to disrespect that he was obviously Israeli.
Speaker: He was a Jewish man, you know, so he was obviously Middle Eastern heritage, but the idea that people can look at Jesus and be like, yes, that's, that's my Jesus.
Speaker: That's my savior who came to save me regardless of the ethnicity or the culture I think is,
Speaker: can be a really cool act of worship for cultures.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think it's cool to see the ways people can kind of, not reinterpret that, but I guess they're different perspectives on the Christ, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: I think that, as I said, I think it needs to be with regard and respect for the biblical source.
Speaker: You and I have talked before this about
Speaker: how I kind of bristle as some of the more modern interpretations, because when I, when I portray Jesus through the podcast, my desire is to portray the biblical Jesus.
Speaker: And if I do add something, quote unquote, to the story, it's something that is plausible.
Speaker: I very much take the same approach in my mind, as I feel that Dallas Jenkins takes with the chosen where he's not trying to
Speaker: reinvent the story but he's just asking the question what are the people around jesus going through what are their thought processes we know that peter had a wife for instance because jesus healed his mother-in-law so what was that husband and wife dynamic between peter and his wife and how might that have influenced his writing of
Speaker: Peter when he says husbands, uh, love your wives and give reference to them as onto the weaker vessel.
Speaker: Obviously he was speaking from experience.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So I want to, I want to dive in, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I'm really, I want to talk to you about the podcast some too, but I also want to talk to you about some of your involvement in Master Arts and what kind of led you there.
Speaker: And then also, I didn't mention this because I don't think of it as a major defining thing of you, but you also have disability, you're in a wheelchair.
Speaker: And so I feel like that affects us, I mean, it's a big part of your life.
Speaker: So it certainly affects you.
Speaker: the way that you can do art.
Speaker: And so I'm definitely curious into diving into some of those things.
Speaker: But to start, I guess, with theater, because you definitely have a huge love for master arts when we've talked about it.
Speaker: You've assistant directed several things.
Speaker: And again, we're able to be on stage in Christmas Carol, which was so fun.
Speaker: What was it that kind of led you first into wanting to get involved in theater?
Speaker: And then I guess with master arts in particular, even beyond that?
Speaker: Well, what's interesting about that story is I've always had an actor's bug in me.
Speaker: From the time I was like seven, I thought, well, what I really want to do is I want to do commercials and I want to eventually start my own sitcom.
Speaker: When I started watching Full House as a kid, I was like about the third or fourth season.
Speaker: I was like, how cool would it be if I got to be on Full House and then became a series regular and got to hang out with
Speaker: all those wonderful people on that show.
Speaker: And Jody Sweeten was one of my first crushes, TV crushes.
Speaker: So I always thought it'd be cool to hang out with Stephanie.
Speaker: But I just always have enjoyed the idea of acting.
Speaker: I went to civic theater as a kid and,
Speaker: to see several productions and then I found out about their acting camp.
Speaker: So I went to the civic theater acting camp in 1992 and 1993.
Speaker: We discovered master arts actually in 2003.
Speaker: I guess my parents had known a little bit about them before that, but we, we discovered them as a family in 2003 because my brother, Matthew,
Speaker: um was asked to come out and fill a gap they needed people for pirates and pen vans and i was actually talking to brad garnett when i went and saw jane air just this past weekend because he was in the first production of
Speaker: that I saw at Master Arts 20 years ago, and he was in Jane Eyre.
Speaker: So this September marked 20 years of being involved with Master Arts.
Speaker: And so, so far, Brad Garnott has bookended that experience for me, which I think is kind of awesome, actually, to think about.
Speaker: But I've been to almost every show that Master Arts has done since then because I just really enjoyed it.
Speaker: And the day that I saw...
Speaker: Pirates of Penzance.
Speaker: I remember coming into the building that we have there for Master Arts and being like, how are they going to pull off Pirates of Penzance in this space?
Speaker: Cause they'd already seen it at a college and it's a big show, but they did.
Speaker: And over and over and over, we asked that question and over and over and over, we pull it off.
Speaker: I mean, I think the biggest surprise, even though I knew it was possible,
Speaker: I was still shocked when I worked on Sound of Music and realized that we could do a 38-person cast and pull off the Sound of Music in that small space.
Speaker: But thanks to Pris' ingenuity, Pris McDonald, the late founder and executive director of Master Arts for many years, thanks to her ingenuity and her vision, we pulled it off and it was one of the most
Speaker: amazing experiences I've ever had in theater.
Speaker: It's still probably my favorite production I've ever been involved in.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: What was the first project that you did at Master Arts or that you were involved with?
Speaker: The first thing I did at Master Arts was to portray Sam Wainwright in It's a Wonderful Life in 2005.
Speaker: Because there was just one scene that he did and it was one half of a phone call they showed
Speaker: both halves of the phone call on stage, which is actually really challenging because we were talking to each other across the stage, but we couldn't look at each other.
Speaker: I always wanted to look at them, but you can't look at somebody who is on the phone with you in the 1930s because they didn't have FaceTime.
Speaker: So that was the challenge, but it was really fun.
Speaker: At the time that we did it, there were five Gamma Sins,
Speaker: five of my family in it.
Speaker: And there were five Van Lopics, which was another mainstay family at Master Arts.
Speaker: And so when they did a newspaper article about us, they focused on those two families.
Speaker: And back at that time, there were several years where they reprised their Christmas show the next year for a shortened weekend at outside venues.
Speaker: And so we did It's a Wonderful Life.
Speaker: you know, six and the inside joke was that there were six Gamasens and five Van Lobbicks the next year because my brother, Matthew, married somebody from the cast.
Speaker: And so she became a Gamasen.
Speaker: And, uh, so that was exciting.
Speaker: That's fun.
Speaker: What do you feel like have been, I guess, some of the challenges and maybe if there have been some of the blessings of working in theater with disability, um,
Speaker: Cause it's, well, I definitely think involved.
Speaker: Well, I definitely think that the challenges are finding a place, you know, I do enjoy assistant directing.
Speaker: I hope to sit in the main director's chair someday.
Speaker: Uh, but my passion is actually the stage.
Speaker: Um, I wish there were more roles I could do that were believable and,
Speaker: I'm really proud of Lorna Torres for believing in me and allowing me to be in the show as the ghost of Christmas present and putting it on the audience to suspend belief.
Speaker: Because at first when I, when I was going to do it, I had this thought that we would use my manual chair to be less conspicuous than my electric chair, but that would have made it extremely difficult for me to move around.
Speaker: and have somebody push me, especially since it was such an involved role, like the ghost of Christmas present was by far the biggest role I've ever done on stage.
Speaker: And so the fact that she was willing to say, well, look, the crowd can suspend belief and you just have to make yourself believable in the character.
Speaker: And I really do feel that as the show went on,
Speaker: I got more and more into character.
Speaker: I was not able to pull off the British accent.
Speaker: I always tell people I was probably every fourth word was British.
Speaker: And if that was okay with people, that was fine, but.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: No, it was really cool to see.
Speaker: And I feel like audiences in more recent years, I just think, I think in general in theater, there's more of a movement of trying to accommodate for disability on stage.
Speaker: Like there was a production of Hunchback.
Speaker: Oh, I don't even remember where it was, but it was, they had a deaf and mute actor playing Quasimodo.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then one of the gargoyles would like sing for him.
Speaker: I think he still said the lines, but he was completely deaf.
Speaker: And so there's definitely been a lot of movement into how can we integrate disability into people with disabilities into theater and give them the opportunity to portray stories and be on stage because there's people like you who have a passion for it where there maybe necessarily hasn't been a great amount of space before.
Speaker: And so I think it's cool that
Speaker: theaters in general are trying to move that way and I think audiences are are getting more on board with it and they're like oh yeah I can kind of suspend my disbelief and the ghost of Christmas present can just kind of be floating around and that just you know it worked it worked in the context of the story and so that was really cool to see well I think that one of the challenges is that most theatrical pieces are period pieces like we don't usually do
Speaker: a play set in 2023 and so everybody's modern so everybody has cell phones or or electronic wheelchairs that just doesn't happen and so that's part of it is you're telling a story that is actually very old and so you want to be true to the story but at the same time yes i'm just so thankful that
Speaker: Chris saw beyond that and was like, we can use this guy.
Speaker: I think part of it was that there weren't a lot of people that would do that small of a part.
Speaker: So I think when you're willing to do any part, you get more opportunities.
Speaker: And that's the way I've always been because truth be told, being in theater is for the most part about getting to spend three months with a group of people and getting to know them.
Speaker: So regardless of whether I'm,
Speaker: behind the curtain or center stage, I'm having a blast the whole time.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So you've kind of, excuse me, spun out of, um, some of the experiences you've had in theater and acting and assistant directing and taken that into your podcast with some readers theater.
Speaker: So we've talked a little bit about the gospel pieces, but I know, um,
Speaker: just recently, well, recently, a couple years ago in COVID, you did Pilgrim's Progress as well.
Speaker: What's it been like working on those radio theater kind of productions?
Speaker: And do you, like, what's special about those for you?
Speaker: I like the radio theater thing because I could play any role for one thing.
Speaker: You know, my wheelchair doesn't limit me if I'm using my voice.
Speaker: The thing for me is I struggle with
Speaker: changing my voice and as i already said i struggle with accents so pretty much i mean with with a few solid vocal inflections here and there pretty much my voice is what you hear i'm never gonna be this crazy guy like jim carrey or somebody like that that can just change up their voice totally and you're like i know i know that guy but i don't know where from you'll always know it's me
Speaker: But I like the fact that that radio theater or even animation maybe someday is a venue where I could play any part because my legs don't matter.
Speaker: I think one of the cool things about Pilgrim's Progress was that I wanted to do it for like five years.
Speaker: And I was thinking about doing it in the studio of JQ99 because for those who don't know, my first seven years of podcasting were in a radio studio.
Speaker: And then every time we started to think about scheduling the times so I could recruit actors, then it got pushed off.
Speaker: I had like two or three times where I was going to host it and then there were problems with my co-hosts.
Speaker: And then COVID happened and you think, well, that just closed the door entirely.
Speaker: But actually it opened it wider because the ability to have people come together on Zoom in their own homes and produce a radio theater production of A Pilgrim with Progress was really amazing.
Speaker: And I was able to have an easier job of adapting it because it was already done.
Speaker: kind of written like a play in a lot of places in the story.
Speaker: And so I just took it and basically word for word, there were a couple of things that I changed because it is in the public domain, uh, that wouldn't necessarily be as kosher today.
Speaker: Um, or it would be unclear, but for the most part, I wanted to keep the wording, uh, because I think it's a powerful story and I was able to do it and it was really a great thing.
Speaker: And it's, it,
Speaker: Spanned 10 episodes of my podcast.
Speaker: So that made it easier from a production standpoint of having to come up with new stuff every week.
Speaker: And I really had a vision to do it once a year, but that hasn't worked out because once COVID was over, people were busy doing live theater and they weren't as available to do the radio theater thing.
Speaker: I'm still hoping to do some more.
Speaker: I actually have Anna Green Gables all scripted out and ready to go.
Speaker: As my next production, if I can pull people together, but it's been a struggle to do that, but that really made 2020 a special time, even though it was also a time when I was kind of pulling my hair out.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: It was really interesting to see.
Speaker: And I think Pilgrim's Progress was one of the more, as I look back on it, one of the more special ones.
Speaker: But just all the ways that artists adapted to the challenge of we can't do our art together.
Speaker: And so, like, there were so many, like, virtual script readings just for fun that I was...
Speaker: invited to be a part of like everybody was creating these different little online communities but it was really special with pilgrims progress to just dip in and then dip out because i played a couple different roles there um and i think i was probably only in like half the episodes but it was cool to dip in and dip out and be a part of the broader project that was also like accomplishing something we weren't just doing it
Speaker: for our own enjoyment of it, like a lot of the COVID production things.
Speaker: But that one was like, we're putting out a piece of art actually still, even with all the restrictions that we have going on and everything going on in the world.
Speaker: And so that was really cool.
Speaker: And it is available for free of charge on my website to this day, but I am hoping that eventually I can
Speaker: figure out how to do a storefront where I will sell probably at a donation rate just the dramatic parts because I always do intro stuff and at that time I was doing current events and news reaction at the top of every show.
Speaker: Now I've split that off into two podcasts so I actually do a news and information from a Christian perspective podcast called Culture Watch every Monday and then I do my
Speaker: Speaking for Him podcast on every Wednesday on the same podcast stream.
Speaker: So if you subscribe to Speaking for Him, you'll get both.
Speaker: But you have a choice because I actually had some people really bristle at my political stances, even that were involved in that project.
Speaker: So that was kind of a challenge, too, that you don't anticipate, because I think part of me
Speaker: naively thinks that because someone's a Christian, they're going to agree with me on what I consider to be the major moral issues.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's not necessarily the case.
Speaker: So that was definitely a culture shock of sorts for me.
Speaker: And just trying to love people within that space, but then also stay true to what I know, I believe has been a challenge.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's definitely a challenge of... I just think Christian art in general is how can we be ecumenical, but also not have to feel like we're not being true to what we believe, you know?
Speaker: So I think because there's Christians from every political walk of life and different viewpoint, and we definitely, in the work I've done at Master Arts and stuff, we definitely...
Speaker: I mean, Master Arts is even broader.
Speaker: We're blessed to have a lot of non-Christians that come and enjoy creating art there as well.
Speaker: But I just think, yeah, it's interesting to navigate if, you know, you're called to be a preacher, that's a core part of your calling and, you know, implementing sort of the reaction, news reaction and political commentating sort of side to your podcast.
Speaker: You know, how do you
Speaker: Navigate that while also navigating these ecumenical relationships of people from different walks of life.
Speaker: I have no answers there.
Speaker: I'm just pontificating.
Speaker: I think that's an interesting aspect of art, too, is because I know some people, as the Kendrick brothers started coming out with movies, I know of a particular acquaintance that I have who said, well, their movies are just too preachy.
Speaker: Because they always talk about the gospel.
Speaker: They always bring people to decision.
Speaker: That's the way their stories work.
Speaker: But the point of that and the reason for that is because the Kendrick brothers were all pastors before they started making movies.
Speaker: So they're going to make a movie from a pastor's perspective.
Speaker: And you and I have talked, you kind of have a pastor's heart too.
Speaker: So when you make art, I'm sure that comes into your thought process of how you make art, that you kind of make it from a pastoral perspective, whereas somebody else might not.
Speaker: The Irwin brothers aren't quite as preachy with their movies as the Kendrick brothers are, even though the Irwin brothers tell true stories.
Speaker: Because I know my dad and I,
Speaker: went and saw American Underdog one of the things he said that was the Kurt Warner movie for those who don't know the story of Kurt Warner who went from stocking grocery shelves to being a Super Bowl champion quarterback with the St.
Speaker: Louis Rams but my dad came away from that saying well they should have talked more directly about his faith because his faith is very important to him and I think what the
Speaker: erwin brothers do is they tell a story and they hope that it encourages you to investigate the true story more you know they're not necessarily there to shove the message down your throat but they want you to find out more about the true story yeah and and like there's value in both because god created and shaped both and so you know and i mean you've got the whole spectrum like even to um
Speaker: like actors that are deeply Christian, but it doesn't really like, so like, uh, my brain went all scatterbrained there.
Speaker: Let me reset my sentences.
Speaker: I grew up on a show called Star Wars, The Clone Wars, which is a Star Wars show set during a particular time period in Star Wars.
Speaker: I don't need to geek out about Star Wars right now.
Speaker: But it was an animated show, and all three of the lead actors, at least at the time, if not still, were all Christians.
Speaker: And if you look on their social media, that's definitely very evident.
Speaker: But since it was the world of Star Wars, it's...
Speaker: their faith was not necessarily a part of the story they were telling blatantly, but like they're still able to, through the community that they're in impact people, they're still able to, through the positive elements of the stories they're telling, God can use that.
Speaker: And so I think through that whole spectrum, God has created people that he wants to use in different avenues.
Speaker: Cause I've been,
Speaker: impacted by Star Wars The Clone Wars and by those voice actors and their performances.
Speaker: And I enjoy that.
Speaker: It brings me a lot of joy.
Speaker: And a lot of those characters are very inspiring to me.
Speaker: And I've also been impacted by a Kendrick's Brothers movie, even though they're kind of more preachy than I would want to make a story personally.
Speaker: I've gone and seen a movie and it's hit me where I was at in my life.
Speaker: And I was like, wow, OK, that was preachy, but that was encouraging to me, you know.
Speaker: And so I think God can really use
Speaker: his people on any side of that spectrum.
Speaker: Well, I was already doing speaking for him and ministry things, or at least on the cusp of speaking for him when courageous came out, but courageous really, uh, as an example, solidified, uh,
Speaker: my desire to continue doing what I'm doing and to broaden my efforts to bring people back to the blueprint of God's word because that was the goal of the Kendrick brothers when they made the film and it really spoke to me and you can argue that they make their movies largely for Christians and not as much for non-Christians but sometimes Christians need to be encouraged too and sometimes it's not
Speaker: you need to repent and believe the gospel.
Speaker: Sometimes it's, well, if you believe the gospel, you need to start living like you believe the gospel.
Speaker: And I really feel like that's my main calling with speaking for him too.
Speaker: I have a heart for the lost.
Speaker: I want everyone to come to know the Lord Jesus and to come to know the powerful presence that he is and can be in their lives.
Speaker: But when I started speaking for him, it was because I saw so many people in the church
Speaker: living milquetoast Christian lives and saying, you know, we could do so much more for God if we would be sold out and 100% passionate for him.
Speaker: Do I hit that mark every single time?
Speaker: No, I don't.
Speaker: But I think aiming high, even if you miss a mark when you aim high, you still hit a higher mark when you aim low.
Speaker: And I think there's so many areas in life where people are victimized by the soft bigotry of low expectations, and they just
Speaker: don't set high marks for themselves.
Speaker: They set low marks and they're like, Oh, I reached my low mark.
Speaker: I'm not going to go any further, but we need to be better.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I totally agree.
Speaker: And there's great value in that.
Speaker: And I think there's a lot of people that would... And I mean, I'm guilty of this.
Speaker: I mock the stereotypical Christian movie, because there are some very bad ones that try and be preachy and are just not well done in any sense, just because they're bad movies.
Speaker: But I think...
Speaker: There's value for us as an audience and as artists who can get really passionate about things to take a step back and be like, okay, well, that person does have that particular calling to that particular group of people to this particular theme.
Speaker: And that's what God's placed in them.
Speaker: And if that's where God has them, even if that's their...
Speaker: sort of realm and it's not where I would necessarily go, I can be grateful and glad that they're functioning well in that lane, even if it's not what I'm interested in, even if aesthetically it's not something that I would even necessarily enjoy, I can see the good that it's doing and say, okay, that's not for me necessarily, but God has them working well in the lane he has them in.
Speaker: And so I'm happy for them and praise God for that.
Speaker: Well, that brings up an interesting point too.
Speaker: And that is, I think with particularly the pure flicks, God's not dead franchise.
Speaker: I saw the latest one.
Speaker: God's not dead.
Speaker: We the people.
Speaker: And I was like, this is a powerful movie, but I feel like it would be even more powerful if it wasn't part of the God's not dead franchise.
Speaker: Because trying to squeeze in the same pastor character and,
Speaker: a couple other characters just to tie it in.
Speaker: I feel like it made it a weaker film.
Speaker: And whenever they come out with a God's Not Dead movie, the first thought in my mind is, we know God's Not Dead.
Speaker: Why do you keep telling us that?
Speaker: And so I think that there's something to be said for making a movie with a powerful story, but not having to tie it into another franchise.
Speaker: Well, and that's even, that's going to be even a entertainment industry wide issue of
Speaker: everything is trying to franchise, at least in the film world.
Speaker: I feel like it's very rare to get a just really original idea that people latch onto.
Speaker: But that's what audiences want.
Speaker: I think that's why...
Speaker: Barbie and Oppenheimer did so well, which granted Barbie's a franchise, but like it was just an original movie that wasn't, didn't have to come with baggage that people were able to just step into, enjoy a story and then step out of.
Speaker: There's definitely value in that, which I think theater does really well.
Speaker: Like theater, it's kind of probably because it's hard for theater to franchise, but it's pretty good at being like, let's present a new story and step into that story for a temporary time and then it's done.
Speaker: And then we move on to another one.
Speaker: But I think film struggles to do that.
Speaker: There's only,
Speaker: There's only a couple of theatrical places where there actually are sequels.
Speaker: I know there's three Sanders family plays and there's actually, um, a play that Nate and Ellie Knobloch who were on the show, uh, they did last year that they're going to continue that story in another play.
Speaker: So there's a couple of them, but for the most part, you're right.
Speaker: Plays are kind of a one and done.
Speaker: And if there is a book series, they will do like one, one movie or one play that's based on the whole series.
Speaker: Like they did with that home in Midford, which was a bit of a stretch and a little hard to watch for that reason, even though I did like it.
Speaker: But then there's also like the Chronicles of Narnia where they basically everybody shows the lion, the witch and the wardrobe and not very many people have staged the other ones.
Speaker: So I find that very interesting about theater.
Speaker: Yeah, and I feel like when there's a sequel in theater, with the exception of the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, because I think that's creatively bankrupt.
Speaker: I didn't even know there was one, so this could be another discussion.
Speaker: My brother likes it, so I shouldn't speak too poorly of it, but he also doesn't listen to the podcast, so I could bash it and it'd be fine.
Speaker: But it undoes a lot of the story.
Speaker: Andrew Lloyd Webber write another musical?
Speaker: He did.
Speaker: It's not good.
Speaker: It undoes a lot of the original one, and I think it was just made to make money.
Speaker: But that's a conversation for another time.
Speaker: Outside of that one, I feel like, when sequels happen.
Speaker: It's interesting that you mention that, because I was just talking to my brother last night about whether anybody had ever made a movie out of the book that wasn't a musical.
Speaker: Because it is a book, the musical.
Speaker: musicals based on which i've never read by the way i'm not gonna sit here and say that i read it um my my brother matthew was in a non-musical play production of it which was pretty interesting um and i love the music i love the musical but i feel like there'd be more chance for the storytelling if you did one that was a non-musical
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like there were some classic movies about it, like back in the 20s and 30s, when there was all the big universal movie monsters and all that.
Speaker: I feel like that was one of them, but I can't remember for sure.
Speaker: But yeah, I do feel like usually play sequels are done for the art of the thing.
Speaker: They have a story they want to continue, which I think is...
Speaker: is cool because theater just in general doesn't usually make money so it's more for the for the art of it well another another sequel on the do not watch list which i haven't watched but my uncle told me absolutely do not watch this is hamlet 2 i've heard it's very irreverent and
Speaker: just played comedically.
Speaker: Obviously everybody died in Hamlet.
Speaker: So the only way you're going to have to play it comedically, but it is an actual movie.
Speaker: Oh no.
Speaker: I'm like, how do you even continue that story?
Speaker: Oh goodness.
Speaker: Hey friends, I hope you're enjoying today's episode.
Speaker: I just wanted to take a second to share with you guys the exciting project that's in the works here at Artists of the Way.
Speaker: We're going to be staging a production of Godspell in 2024.
Speaker: Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of Matthew.
Speaker: The script is comprised mostly of excerpts from the Gospel of Matthew.
Speaker: And the songs are mostly old hymns or straight scripture, which has been recomposed into kind of a rock musical theater style song.
Speaker: It's a wonderful show.
Speaker: I grew up on it.
Speaker: It's been a passion project of mine to direct for five years, and I'm so excited to tackle it.
Speaker: If you want to know more about that, you can visit our website, artistsoftheway.com, and visit our Godspell page.
Speaker: There you'll be able to find show details and information on fundraising if you're interested in helping support the production.
Speaker: If you want to stay up to date with everything regarding Godspell or our podcast, sign up for our email newsletter.
Speaker: We have a newsletter that goes out every two weeks.
Speaker: We'll let you know when new episodes are posted.
Speaker: I'll share some thoughts that I've had over the last couple weeks, and we'll be keeping you guys up to date on everything Godspell related.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: Enjoy the rest of the show.
Speaker: I'm curious, kind of looking at your faith life and touching again on the topic of disability.
Speaker: What are some ways you feel like your disability has impacted your relationship with God in your spiritual life in some negative ways and maybe in some positive ways that he's used that to your benefit?
Speaker: Well, it started out very negative.
Speaker: And by that, I mean, I was raised in a Christian home.
Speaker: My parents always told me that God does things for a purpose.
Speaker: They knew that God had a
Speaker: special plan for my life.
Speaker: They told me that from a very young age.
Speaker: I remember one time my mom pointed out the scripture in Deuteronomy that talked about how the firstborn are to be dedicated to the Lord.
Speaker: And she said, I take that seriously.
Speaker: I dedicated you to the Lord.
Speaker: I believe that you're going to do marvelous things for him.
Speaker: And so that was the upbringing that I had, which was good.
Speaker: And I came to know the Lord personally right before my fifth birthday because my great grandfather died.
Speaker: I asked my mom, I said, did he go to heaven?
Speaker: And she said, I don't know.
Speaker: They don't know what he did with Jesus.
Speaker: And it was at that point that I realized I needed to make a personal decision about who Jesus was in my life, not just who he was in the Bible.
Speaker: And I made a commitment to follow him.
Speaker: But the next day I still couldn't walk.
Speaker: The next day I still had to grapple.
Speaker: with the idea of being a disabled young man who couldn't do a lot of the things I wanted to do.
Speaker: So the next nine years were really a journey of bitterness and confusion and struggle with the way God made me.
Speaker: And I think everybody struggles with identity.
Speaker: I think as we see these issues crop up, particularly in the gender field,
Speaker: I'm not going to get too far into left field with that.
Speaker: But I think a lot of it stems from the fact that God created us with a particular identity and we all struggle at one time or another with how he made us.
Speaker: And so for nine years, that was the struggle.
Speaker: God, if you would heal me, then I could serve you.
Speaker: If you would heal me, then I could do great things.
Speaker: But since you haven't, since my temporary assignment stinks, I'm just going to be mad at you.
Speaker: And when I was 13, I,
Speaker: My three-month-old baby brother died of sin.
Speaker: He went to bed for a nap and never woke up.
Speaker: And at that time, I remember weeping multiple times in my mom's arms saying, why did God take my healthy baby brother and leave me when I'm completely useless?
Speaker: That was my perspective on my life was that I was completely useless.
Speaker: And so what followed was a really bad year for me.
Speaker: where I was angry at God.
Speaker: I never walked away from God.
Speaker: I really struggle with people who say that they totally walked away from God or failed to see that God existed because I feel like when God does a work in your spirit, you can't truly walk away from him.
Speaker: But I was definitely mad at him, but I was arguing with him a lot.
Speaker: So you can't argue with someone that you don't believe in.
Speaker: So, but that was my journey.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: When I was 14, about a year later, I went to a conference and one of the sessions was on 10 things you can't change about yourself.
Speaker: And one of those was the way you're made physically.
Speaker: And I was just faced between the eyes with this idea that God made me for a purpose and I have to be thankful for my disability because it was God's plan for me.
Speaker: And it was at that point that
Speaker: I committed to getting off the throne of my life and letting God take full control.
Speaker: And again, it's not an issue of being perfect from that point forward, but it's definitely the day that the mission was set in my heart to lead people closer to Jesus.
Speaker: My parents always told us that they gave us names to live up to.
Speaker: And the first passage that you see with Andrew is him running along the beach.
Speaker: and going to find Peter and saying, we found the Messiah.
Speaker: And so that is really, in a nutshell, my desire, as I do speaking for him, is to let people know we found the Messiah, and he loves you, and he wants to have a close, intimate relationship with you.
Speaker: I still struggle.
Speaker: I still have bad days.
Speaker: Particularly, it's been a struggle for me being 44 and being still single.
Speaker: I kind of half joke about it, but I'm also serious that I kind of thought that by this point I would have a minivan with at least, you know, two booster seats and a car seat in the back and a wife that I could share my ministry with.
Speaker: I'm still praying for her.
Speaker: I know that she's out there somewhere.
Speaker: But so I still struggle with that because I
Speaker: I see other people having successful relationships and I know it's not easy.
Speaker: I know that there's a lot of struggles in relationships.
Speaker: I know that relationships sometimes end and end horribly, but I also believe that God intended for marriage to be a picture of Christ and his church.
Speaker: And I am trying to encourage as many married couples as I can to,
Speaker: well, I'm single to continue to maintain that goal, to realize that they made a commitment to each other, but more so to God.
Speaker: And, and I take that very seriously, especially when I go to a wedding because, because for instance, in your case, I was there when you made your commitment to your wife.
Speaker: So if I notice anything going on, I probably won't be afraid to call you on it.
Speaker: And, and I won't, I will always do it in love.
Speaker: But I am not afraid to say tough things.
Speaker: And I always hope that I have friends that aren't afraid to say tough things back.
Speaker: So that, that's my story.
Speaker: You know, God has been faithful.
Speaker: Um, there are still days when I struggle.
Speaker: I was actually texting your wife the other day and I told her that I have a little bit of struggle with the seasons changing because I thrive in the summer because you don't have to move around very much to stay warm in the summer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But then the late fall and the winter comes in and it can be a real struggle for me to stay warm and to stay not depressed.
Speaker: But I know that after winter comes spring.
Speaker: So I look forward to that every year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: That's beautiful.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're just the way you've...
Speaker: what's the word?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Tackled the struggle, I suppose.
Speaker: Just the way you still do life and the way that you've continued to live out a calling that God has for you and made space to do the things that you're passionate about, including theater and in what you've built with the podcast and was speaking for him is just, I think, so beautiful to see and inspiring to see.
Speaker: And I just...
Speaker: love to see that you're able to so successfully live an abundant life.
Speaker: Like Christ says he, he desired for us to live even in the wake of you're in a wheelchair and there's, there's things that others can do that you're not physically able to do.
Speaker: But I feel like you still have fulfilled, like you're, I think is still a picture of that abundant life that Christ has.
Speaker: calls and says, this is what I want for you.
Speaker: And, and a picture of somebody who does chase down that calling that God put on them and, and owns it and does it.
Speaker: And so that's just really inspiring to me and really beautiful.
Speaker: So I'm glad that you're doing what you're doing and keep it up, man.
Speaker: Cause it's awesome.
Speaker: Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker: I've seen articles, I think particularly from secular people in wheelchairs that say that it annoys them when people say that they're inspiring because they're just out there living life.
Speaker: And I can see that from a certain perspective.
Speaker: Um, cause every once in a while somebody will be like, well, it's good to see you out.
Speaker: And I'm like, just at the grocery store or just at the bookstore.
Speaker: Like it's not, not this monumental thing, but I kind of just chuckle.
Speaker: I'm book shopping.
Speaker: Cause I'm just like, well, are you here because you like books?
Speaker: Cause that's why I'm here.
Speaker: No, Andrew, I go to the bookstore to inspire people.
Speaker: There have been a few of those moments, but you know, that's another thing that I'm kind of unfolding on YouTube.
Speaker: Actually, I've started to do YouTube videos on the Fridays that I don't have a sermon to post.
Speaker: And I'm talking about walking through disability.
Speaker: The newest video that I just posted yesterday on my speaking for him YouTube channel is about parking and the adventures that I've had there.
Speaker: which is something that a lot of people probably don't consider.
Speaker: But I've had some really interesting experiences trying to find a decent parking spot, especially after I got my latest vehicle because the ramp is really, really long.
Speaker: Oh, yikes.
Speaker: And then you've got like the ones that have like the little narrow handicap section.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: As a matter of fact, we, we usually try to get to master arts plays, for example, really early.
Speaker: Cause there's really only like one space in the winter that I can use when it's nice weather.
Speaker: I can park in the back of the parking lot and it doesn't bother me.
Speaker: But when it's winter, you have to get close.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, this has been lovely.
Speaker: We're getting close to wrapping up here, so I'm going to ask you our final question.
Speaker: What resources would you recommend to people who are wanting to grow in their faith or grow as artists or grow as both of those together?
Speaker: Well, I think I would definitely recommend just...
Speaker: going to like sermon.net and listening to sermons there of a variety of different people.
Speaker: Also, I'm trying to think of what the other one is called, but there's several different places where you can listen to sermons.
Speaker: And I really like the fact that you can do that at any time of the day or night.
Speaker: it's never been easier to grow your Christian faith that way.
Speaker: I think that C.S.
Speaker: Lewis is a really...
Speaker: inspiring guy and I really like his material.
Speaker: I had the opportunity to go see a one act, uh, play of his, um, further out and further in, uh, this past summer at the DeVos place.
Speaker: And it was really well done.
Speaker: Max McLean does these one, one act, uh, one person shows where he plays CS Lewis.
Speaker: And there's a lot of richness in, in CS Lewis.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And I really appreciate him.
Speaker: I appreciate Charles Spurgeon.
Speaker: He's a good person to look up as far as growing your faith.
Speaker: As far as acting resources, I don't really have a whole lot on that scale.
Speaker: But I will say that the play John His Story by Jeanette Cliff George is
Speaker: is one of my favorites and I've seen it a couple of times at master arts and it's always very powerful.
Speaker: Again, it's telling the stories from the Bible, from a fresh perspective, usually from the audience perspective of what they're going through when they are observing the things that Jesus did.
Speaker: And I just think that's, that's a really powerful thing.
Speaker: I really like,
Speaker: If you want something fun, but also to challenge your faith, I would say that if you look up the Wally Show podcast, Wally is a morning show host out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker: And he is very funny, but they also have serious conversations about faith issues.
Speaker: And they also really try to help people walk through difficult things.
Speaker: So I really like that.
Speaker: podcast and I do periodically do podcast episodes about my favorite podcast so that's another topic that you can look up when you are looking through my podcasts and I will say that on my audio storage site you can pull down the sort options and find the series list and you'll find a bunch of series there and one of them
Speaker: is my Good Friday shows.
Speaker: So you can just go right to those and hear John and many other friends bringing Good Friday to life.
Speaker: So I haven't really read a whole lot of books about acting or art, but maybe I should read more.
Speaker: I need to get on your resources page.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: So I can have a recommendation next time.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Andrew, this has been super great.
Speaker: If people want to find out more about you or your podcast, where should they go?
Speaker: The best place to go is my website, speakingforhim.com.
Speaker: That's speakingthenumberforhim.com.
Speaker: You can go to my YouTube channel at speakingthenumberforhim on YouTube.
Speaker: And please subscribe.
Speaker: As I said, I'll probably be posting videos two or three times a month.
Speaker: And I really want to grow that subscriber base.
Speaker: So give it a watch.
Speaker: And I always appreciate feedback too.
Speaker: This is something that as a podcaster and as a content creator, I don't get a whole lot of feedback.
Speaker: But I really, I know people are listening.
Speaker: So if you are listening, don't be afraid to actually give some feedback.
Speaker: I'm sure John feels the same way.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much for coming on, Andrew.
Speaker: This has just been a lovely discussion.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: I appreciate it, John.
Speaker: I am always up to be on the podcast.
Speaker: That's for sure.
