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Discipline, Vulnerability, and Ministry in Mime with Dawn Day
57 Plays8 months ago
In this episode Jon and Nate chat with Dawn Day. Dawn has been a mime for 40 years, and involved in performing arts for most of her life. We discuss her experience getting into mime, why it matters, and what it takes to pursue that art form.
Dawn has trained with the Betsy Herskind School of Ballet, Mimeistry International, Push Physical Theatre, and was mentored by Pris McDonald, and has worked Silent Light Mime Ministry, and her own solo Mime Ministry.
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Transcript
Introduction and Farewell to Nate
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everybody everyone you're fired this is the last episode with Nate
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It was good.
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We had a good run.
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We being me.
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Three episodes.
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Welcome back to Artists of the Way.
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Welcome back, everyone.
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I'm John, and this is my friend.
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Nate.
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And we're the hosts of Artists of the Way.
Introducing Dawn Day: A Mime's Journey
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This episode, we invited on our friend Dawn Day.
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What does Dawn do, Nate?
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Dawn is a mime.
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She does that classic artwork of performing without talking, using her body in amazing ways to...
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poke a story in emotion.
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It's very fascinating.
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If you haven't, if you've never really looked into mime and you're just sort of picturing street mime, like using the rope, there's a lot more to it than that.
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Exactly.
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Dawn delves into it.
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It's really rich and great.
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She talks a lot about the sort of the discipline of it, the beauty of it, and just her story and experience with it.
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It was a really great conversation.
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She was lovely.
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She was lovely.
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If you're...
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If you're on audio, I would say I might encourage you to throw on the YouTube video.
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She even was sort of... Because she doesn't talk.
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She does talk.
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But she... There was some, like, I think just naturally she was doing some demonstrating and doing some mime.
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That was really cool to see.
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It was cool to see.
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And just the precision...
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of her body, the work that she does is incredible.
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So I definitely encourage throwing it on if you have time.
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Not if you're in the car.
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Don't do that.
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What are you doing?
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You'll be fine.
From Dance to Mime: Dawn's Artistic Evolution
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You won't die.
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It's fine.
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It'll be fine.
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Just hold us right in front of you.
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Make sure you've got a good view.
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You both scream.
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When the cop pulls you over, say, listen, officer.
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Mime.
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Mime.
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You'll get it.
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But yes, it is a really great episode.
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You guys are going to enjoy it.
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Thank you guys for joining us.
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Yeah, thanks.
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Thank you for...
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coming on and being willing to chat with us.
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I'm excited to chat and talk about mime and all that.
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Thank you for having me here.
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It's an honor to be here.
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It's going to be great.
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First, would you mind sharing a little bit about yourself for anybody who doesn't know you or isn't super familiar with what you do?
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Okay, so my name is Dawn Day, and I am a mind performer.
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I didn't start out being a mind performer, though.
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I started out being a dancer.
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Okay.
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That must have translated well, having that training.
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It really did.
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I just didn't know how God was going to use that, because my idea was to be in...
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musical theater.
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Okay.
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So I went from high school right into ballet school and trying out for musicals and whatever I could try out for, I did.
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And I loved it.
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I loved it.
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I didn't necessarily like the atmosphere behind the scenes, but I loved being on the stage and being in the musicals itself.
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Did you do dance in high school?
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I did not.
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I was never good enough.
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They didn't want me.
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I feel like that happens a lot.
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We're like the people that really excel at it further on in life or later on.
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It's like, no, we're not, we're not going to let you.
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I think that, I think that God does that because it makes you work harder and you don't take it for granted.
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Yeah.
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We at the same time.
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Yeah.
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And it didn't make me work harder.
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I was just like bound and determined to go into ballet school and I was,
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in like three different schools at once.
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Cause one of the schools only taught ballet and the other two taught jazz, tap, modern.
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So you learned all that as well.
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I did.
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I learned everything.
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I was like a sponge.
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So I just loved dance and that's what I wanted to do.
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How long were you in those schools?
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Well, the pure ballet school, I was in there for three years.
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And then the other two, it got a little much being working full-time, paying for all that.
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And getting all those classes and no car.
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Oh, no car.
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Well, I grew up in Chicago or near Chicago.
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And so you didn't want a car.
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You wanted to...
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take the bus or the L or something because it was very expensive to have a car.
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So, you know, there's all that traveling time and stuff.
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So, but, um, um, once I, um, I met my husband down there and we got married and once I got married that, that kind of, um,
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Musical I didn't try out for as many musicals as I used to.
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I wasn't a Gilbert.
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I was in several Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Okay.
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Apparatus.
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Not as a soloist.
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Okay.
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That's where I would be too.
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So don't ask me.
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I just just as a chorus but they wanted me in there because I had the dance.
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Sure.
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Yeah.
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And so yeah and then
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My first mime teacher was Tony Daniels who was a student of Marceau's in Paris.
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Wow.
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So I only took mime so I could get better at creating a character.
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Because I knew, and my dad directed me every which way.
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Because he was an artist himself.
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Is that right?
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Yeah.
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Yeah, you know.
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The singer.
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The singer, our illustrations, yeah.
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So everything, if I had interest, he's like directed me towards the best possible scenario, you know, and not...
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trying to cheat or circumvent that learning experience how cool to have that direction advocate from your dad oh yeah yeah and you know when I was growing up there was all these variety shows yeah Marcel Marceau was on all those variety shows so every time he was on my dad's like sit down and look at this and I'm like wow that's awesome
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Yeah, it was awesome.
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So I grew up really loving the art form, knowing that it would help me in musical theater and acting.
Mime Ministry and Family Life Balance
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And that's what I took it for.
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Yeah.
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And then did you just fall in love with it in that class and decide to pursue it more?
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How did you get...
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Well, there's a transition there.
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So we had three kids down there and I was part of a clown group.
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Oh, okay.
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So they hired me out to do birthday parties and Bastille Day because I had the whole pro costume.
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Wow.
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Found out that I really hated that.
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What did you hate about it?
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The audience is very abusive.
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Oh, yeah.
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Not everyone likes clowns.
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Oh, oh, oh.
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Yeah.
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Not a lot of fun.
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So I'm like, I didn't sign up for this.
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At the same time, we were going to move up to Michigan.
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Yeah, okay.
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To Wyoming, Michigan.
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That's where I live.
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That's where I raised my kids.
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What brought you to Michigan?
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Well, Dale had a lot of family up here already.
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And his uncle was going to sell the house.
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It was a nice five-bedroom house.
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And it was right by Grace Bible College, which is Grace University.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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His family all worked there, and the Chicago area, we could never hope to get a home.
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We both have to work, and that's not what we wanted to do with our kids.
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Right.
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Put them in daycare and me work.
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Right.
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musical theater so yeah we so we I said yeah let's move and then that was the same year that Chris McDonald came down to see my father about doing the singer the backdrops for the first time they did the singer oh cool and my dad's like come here you gotta meet her and I'm like okay
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And so I met her down in Chicago at my parents house.
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And my dad's like, she runs a theater.
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You need to, you need to check this out.
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And she talked to me and I, I was like, wow.
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Yeah.
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I'd like to do that.
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You know, work with other Christians.
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Yeah.
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And so, um,
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The minute?
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Okay, so we landed in the house on a weekend.
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By Monday, I was down the street knocking on their door because they were located down the street from me.
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Okay.
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I had three kids.
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Went to, and I'm like, okay, I'm here.
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I'm ready.
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Give me something.
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So she sent me home with street theater skits.
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Oh, yes.
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Yeah.
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And I joined street theater.
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And she also knew I had
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Some mime training, not a lot at that point, but some.
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And she's like, we got to use that.
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Nobody else here does that.
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We got to use that.
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And so I was on the street theater team and she started using me in a different way that I never really thought about, you know, and using the art of mime to minister.
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And it was really a...
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a neat experience because I never, I just never figured I would be doing that.
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That's so interesting to have someone pull you or push you into something that would be a great love and ministry, not something that you planned.
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It wasn't, it wasn't.
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I mean, God just put Pris right there in front of me and she was my mentor.
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She just, when I,
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didn't want to do just mime.
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She's like, why not?
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Interesting.
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Why not?
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You're the only one that does it right now.
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You gotta do it.
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And I'm like, okay.
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So she's like, kind of push aside those desires of yourself.
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You gotta use this.
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I feel like that's a fairly priss response.
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It was.
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It's like, well, that's nice.
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I don't want to do that.
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But you're so good at it.
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So we'll have you do it tomorrow.
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Exactly.
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She doesn't let me off.
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That was a good thing because...
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Through Master Arts, I met the teachers that really like catapulted me into... Is that right?
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Yeah, from like A to Z, all the mime that I could ever want to study and things that I didn't even know existed within the mime experience.
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And I'm like, wow.
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And...
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again i was like a sponge the more you learned the more you fell out with it it's just like oh my gosh there's so much i don't know yeah and my two teachers were also students of marcel marcel wow um they had a school out in pasadena called my mystery international
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Now, it was Todd, Marilyn, Farley, and they were exactly my age.
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They had no kids, and they were in, well, they actually started out in St.
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Louis, and then they moved to Pasadena.
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So I could never go to their school full-time.
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But what made it cool is that he wrote down everything, and he had different lectures and lectures.
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He had written down all the body types and the statues and the hand designs and everything.
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And it was something I could do correspondent like that.
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Like
Mime as Worship and Artistic Depth
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I could, he had a videotape, instructional videotape, and then he kept doing them.
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So I buy them and go through them and master that.
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Read all the material that he had.
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Yeah.
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This is before like online schools were a thing.
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Absolutely.
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It was just truly correspondent.
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Didn't know how to work a computer at all.
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So, yeah, it was before that.
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How did that work with my, because that's sort of similar to a lot of the way I studied acting and kind of got into that as just sort of like.
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We're just going to find what I can, you know, and learn and study it myself.
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But mime is so disciplined and precise.
00:14:04
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How did that work when it's something that you kind of have to observe, I feel like outside of yourself to see how locked in.
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Is someone evaluating you?
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Yeah.
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How did... Well, the dance experience helped because all their basic movements start out in ballet movements.
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Okay.
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So I already knew all that.
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Yeah.
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I was dedicated.
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I would sit and watch the video and master each movement before I moved on.
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I was dedicated.
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And they would have two-week workshops in Traverse City during the summer.
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So me and my friend Christy Warfel, we would always go.
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And so we'd have like
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two weeks solid of just you don't you don't think that there's enough mime to go two weeks eight hours a day but there is wow my body felt it too yeah but yeah but that was a really cool thing that I could do and then I
00:15:16
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By that time, I had a mime team, like, because my church wanted me to train these kids to do a mission trip.
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And these kids liked it so much.
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They're like, we want to do this all the time.
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So I trained them and we traveled all over Grand Rapids.
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And the other thing was that Todd and Marilyn would come here for a workshop for my kids.
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So we got like, we had like a two day workshop and, um, they did that often.
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And, um,
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at least once a year.
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Plus we did CETA.
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Yep.
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And, um, so, um, with all that, you have to be dedicated.
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Christians in theater arts.
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Oh, I'm sorry.
00:16:08
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Yes.
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CETA did kind of, yeah, they've sort of fizzled out since we've kind of gotten heavy in, but it was a national organization.
00:16:16
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It was huge.
00:16:17
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It was in, um, the big one I, I experienced was in Houston and Pris and a bunch of street theater.
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Yeah.
00:16:26
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People went down there for workshops and it was, it was wonderful.
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Yeah.
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Really great.
00:16:34
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Everything that I've, I've heard about just that and that atmosphere and just sort of that time in the Christian arts, uh, a world and sort of a community that was there just to sounded so sweet and special just seeing how God worked and everybody really on this broad countrywide level, it seems like.
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Yeah, it was, you got to network with other, um,
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people that wrote scripts or like did some street theater style things.
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And Pris would actually get material from them.
00:17:12
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That's the first time I ever saw Smoke on the Mountain.
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Jeanette Cliff George's team did that.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So
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That's why Chris is like, oh, we got to do that.
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And I'm like, yes, you have to do that.
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If I could sing, I would want to try out for that.
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But they did a great job with that.
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:17:39
Speaker
Now, I'm curious, how old were your kids when you moved to Michigan?
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All right, Deanna was six, Crystal was three, and Sean was three months.
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Wow.
00:17:52
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Yeah.
00:17:53
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So I want to hear about...
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how your process of doing art while being a mother to these kids and how you prioritize things and just that whole thing because my family is kind of in that place right now.
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We have two boys under two.
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You're undoing it.
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Yeah.
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And I just love to hear your experience and God's calling for you in the midst of that and how you balance those things.
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Well, I think God pulled in homeschooling.
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I never heard about homeschooling before.
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And so your kids do life with you when you homeschool.
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So, you know, they're going with me to street theater things.
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They're volunteering.
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And, you know, two of my kids were actually on my Senate light team.
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So
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When, yeah, they would see me perform, they would go to the plays, you know, we just kinda,
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did life with them like that.
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That was us.
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Just brought them along.
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Yes, just bring them along.
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And it's easier to do that when you're homeschooling.
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For sure.
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For sure.
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Yeah.
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Don't have to drop them off and pick them up and arrange the schedule around it.
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No, it's not like you have two separate worlds.
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Yeah.
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You know.
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So street theater used to practice in my living room.
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And my kids would invite the neighborhood kids to come to the practice.
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I love it.
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Oh, yeah.
00:19:29
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Have volunteers right there.
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You don't have to.
00:19:31
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Oh, all the volunteers we wanted.
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Speaker
That's awesome.
00:19:34
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Yeah.
00:19:35
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That's so sweet.
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That's my wife and I are planning to homeschool.
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We were both homeschooled and had a great experience with it.
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And so I really resonate with that.
00:19:43
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It's so cool to hear that that worked for you guys, that you were able to do your passion, but without abandoning your family to do it.
00:19:52
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Yeah.
00:19:52
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Yeah.
00:19:53
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And, you know, here's what you got to remember.
00:19:56
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You got to keep everything in balance.
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Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:59
Speaker
I was so driven that sometimes I would get out of balance.
00:20:05
Speaker
Sure.
00:20:06
Speaker
And someone would have to pull me back.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:10
Speaker
And stuff.
00:20:10
Speaker
But, you know, so it's not like, oh, yeah, that was all easy and everything.
00:20:15
Speaker
Right.
00:20:16
Speaker
But that makes sense.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, so there's a caution there.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah, very fair.
00:20:23
Speaker
I feel like anybody at any season of life, it's easy to get that out of balance and just get so caught up on one particular thing or oftentimes the same thing over and over again.
00:20:37
Speaker
And everything else just sort of.
00:20:41
Speaker
blows up around you.
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta keep in touch.
00:20:44
Speaker
Okay, how's the rest of my life doing?
00:20:46
Speaker
Oh, man, I need to back off.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:20:49
Speaker
That's exactly it.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:52
Speaker
Cool.
00:20:53
Speaker
I want to come back and talk more about mine, but I wanted to ask a couple questions we always ask guests each episode.
00:21:00
Speaker
First, I'm curious, what are some ways right now for you, either as a creator or as somebody who's engaging with art as an audience member,
00:21:08
Speaker
How is God using art in your life right now?
00:21:12
Speaker
How is God using art in my life?
00:21:18
Speaker
I think that God uses that.
00:21:23
Speaker
He sends along some ideas, choreography, songs, and they really resonate with me for whatever season I'm going through.
00:21:37
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:21:38
Speaker
And it's kind of like a healing process for me, but also reaching out to the audience, someone going through that same thing or going through a hard time.
00:21:57
Speaker
I think God just sends you visions and thoughts and dreams about what
00:22:06
Speaker
you can do with certain certain ideas, certain emotions, in a way that he wants.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's not about me.
00:22:19
Speaker
It's about God touching them.
00:22:24
Speaker
So how can he use me as a vessel to touch them?
00:22:30
Speaker
And sometimes, you know, I'm like, Are you sure?
00:22:35
Speaker
about this.
00:22:38
Speaker
And so I'm like, okay, I really feel it.
00:22:41
Speaker
But you know, it really is resonating with me.
00:22:45
Speaker
But the fear is always, am I resonating?
00:22:49
Speaker
Is it resonating with anybody else?
00:22:51
Speaker
So is it just me doing me on stage?
00:22:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:22:55
Speaker
You know, what he has sometimes have you do like,
00:22:58
Speaker
bolder choices than you would have opted to do by yourself, would you say?
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely gotten more bold or more raw emotion without being too overboard with it.
00:23:18
Speaker
Right.
00:23:19
Speaker
And there's, yeah, I think that's an interesting balance of like, am I doing this
00:23:25
Speaker
for the benefit of others and to create something that is glorifying to God and has sort of an image of truth.
00:23:33
Speaker
Or am I doing this for like my own self-gratification emotionally there?
00:23:39
Speaker
I think that's an interesting...
00:23:41
Speaker
And as a performer, of course, you're you want to be on stage is that performer part of you.
00:23:49
Speaker
And you can't and that's there for a reason.
00:23:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:52
Speaker
You know, because you want to do everything in excellence.
00:23:55
Speaker
There's so many people in my life are not like surrounding me my close circle, but people that come in, why do you have to work so hard?
00:24:04
Speaker
Why do you have to do it this way?
00:24:06
Speaker
Why do you have to have so many rehearsals?
00:24:09
Speaker
Why?
00:24:09
Speaker
And I'm like, well,
00:24:11
Speaker
Um, I don't want to put a sloppy job up on the stage.
00:24:16
Speaker
I want to glorify God.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:19
Speaker
And at the same time, I want to glorify God.
00:24:22
Speaker
I got to erase myself, you know, too.
00:24:26
Speaker
And so.
00:24:27
Speaker
It's kind of that balance again, another balance.
00:24:32
Speaker
In mine though, when you're in full costume with the makeup, it is like you're erasing yourself.
00:24:42
Speaker
Because you can change characters.
00:24:45
Speaker
You and not to be weird about it, but you can change the gender so I can play a male or female.
00:24:53
Speaker
Right.
00:24:54
Speaker
Is nothing weird about that.
00:24:57
Speaker
It's just what you're portraying.
00:24:59
Speaker
But that's the that's the beauty of mime is like you are erasing that whole.
00:25:05
Speaker
like this is Don Jay.
00:25:07
Speaker
You're just the canvas.
00:25:08
Speaker
Yes.
00:25:08
Speaker
Yes.
00:25:09
Speaker
Just the canvas.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:12
Speaker
That's really cool.
00:25:13
Speaker
And I, that is interesting.
00:25:15
Speaker
I hadn't thought about the degree to which that's heightened in mime.
00:25:19
Speaker
Cause I think a lot of times
00:25:22
Speaker
it's good for artists to kind of get rid of themself in the work.
00:25:26
Speaker
Like there's parts of you you need to bring to whatever work you're doing, but you don't want to be in the way of whatever work you're doing.
00:25:34
Speaker
I think it can be easy for artists to get in the way of the work that they're doing.
00:25:38
Speaker
And is that probably the purpose of the makeup is so that they're not looking at you, but you can be anybody that they need to see in that character kind of thing.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah, one of the purposes is that, is to just have a blank canvas.
00:25:56
Speaker
And that's why the costume itself is not ornate.
00:26:01
Speaker
It's like, it's not tight-fitting like, you know... Like ballet.
00:26:09
Speaker
Like ballet, but it's fitting enough where it doesn't get caught in a movement or it's not...
00:26:20
Speaker
it's not going to the costume, right?
00:26:24
Speaker
You're not depending on the costume.
00:26:26
Speaker
They don't see the costume.
00:26:29
Speaker
And then the other ancient reason for the makeup is because it used, that's how they told stories and told news.
Challenges and Growth in Mime Performance
00:26:41
Speaker
Ancient Greece, Rome, and they put on the makeup to
00:26:49
Speaker
emphasize the structure of the face, all the movement of the face.
00:26:57
Speaker
See, so the audience way in the back can see the emotions of the face.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, I see.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:05
Speaker
That is interesting.
00:27:06
Speaker
I think anytime I've watched your pieces or other mime pieces, and often, like I've seen, you have seen Christine Pruitt, who you taught, both of whom I know outside of the context of the makeup and mime.
00:27:17
Speaker
And I do think there's something very distinct about the face that does seem more than just making the expression.
00:27:24
Speaker
It does seem to enhance it in some way.
00:27:26
Speaker
That's really cool.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:29
Speaker
So a lot of different things go with that.
00:27:32
Speaker
It kind of makes it like an archetype almost when you look at that.
00:27:36
Speaker
It's like this is like this essential character kind of thing.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
So.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:43
Speaker
That's neat.
00:27:45
Speaker
Cool.
00:27:46
Speaker
Is there anything that you're actively working on right now that you're creating?
00:27:51
Speaker
Well, a couple of years ago, we did a full mime show.
00:27:57
Speaker
Christine and Ben came in to do that show.
00:28:01
Speaker
It wasn't well attended, but I thought we had a good show.
00:28:07
Speaker
They did their thing.
00:28:08
Speaker
I did my solo pieces.
00:28:10
Speaker
And then we did a group piece called Storyteller.
00:28:14
Speaker
And...
00:28:16
Speaker
Storyteller is about the life of Jesus, ministry while he's down here on earth.
00:28:23
Speaker
So it goes from his ministry, crucifixion, resurrection.
00:28:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:28
Speaker
But instead of having biblical characters,
00:28:33
Speaker
It kind of reminded me of the singer a little bit.
00:28:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:36
Speaker
Where the singer was the Christ figure.
00:28:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:41
Speaker
But the storyteller is the Christ figure.
00:28:44
Speaker
And, you know, all the parables, you know, come right from the Bible.
00:28:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:28:49
Speaker
And... But the...
00:28:53
Speaker
five characters are named anxiety, greed, weakness, fear, and you know, and anyway.
00:29:08
Speaker
And another one.
00:29:10
Speaker
And another one.
00:29:11
Speaker
Anger.
00:29:12
Speaker
Anger.
00:29:18
Speaker
And so you were right.
00:29:20
Speaker
Thank you.
00:29:21
Speaker
Thanks to Pixar.
00:29:30
Speaker
But so the gist of it was everybody could see themselves in these characters and these characters related to Christ.
00:29:43
Speaker
their own way how anger was always like you know this at Christ you know you know I don't need you know I don't need and where weakness was always you know help me help me help me you know and they all had different
00:30:05
Speaker
roles and it was a really cool project and it was written by Steve Fry and choreographed by my teacher Todd Farley and it came out way back in 96 and they made it so
00:30:26
Speaker
each of the groups churches whatever um could buy the package and the training oh wow and the materials that went with it and what it was supposed to be evangelistic piece on the street okay yeah and um
00:30:47
Speaker
We used it a lot.
00:30:49
Speaker
And we were even starting to train in Spanish so we could do the Spanish community.
00:30:56
Speaker
Oh, interesting.
00:30:58
Speaker
So there's like a Spanish track?
00:31:00
Speaker
Yes, yes, very much so.
00:31:03
Speaker
And we used it a lot.
00:31:06
Speaker
The team, both my girls and Christine,
00:31:11
Speaker
were in it.
00:31:13
Speaker
The McDaniel girls were in it.
00:31:18
Speaker
And, you know, they all had their turns in it.
00:31:21
Speaker
And it was such a cool piece.
00:31:23
Speaker
And so I resurrected that for that show.
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:28
Speaker
And we did it and it worked really well.
00:31:30
Speaker
And then, you know,
00:31:33
Speaker
Of course, Christine and Ben have their hands full.
00:31:36
Speaker
Right.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so do my daughters.
00:31:38
Speaker
And they're all homeschool families.
00:31:42
Speaker
So we're like, okay, let's take a break.
00:31:45
Speaker
But I really would like to get that going again.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:49
Speaker
You sent me the video and I had a chance to watch the performance today.
00:31:53
Speaker
And that was really neat.
00:31:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah, just the vagueness of it.
00:32:00
Speaker
And obviously it's mime, so none of the characters are talking, but there's singing going on throughout and just the pairing of the...
00:32:07
Speaker
really crisp and beautiful physical movement and dance paired with the scripture did hit in some cool, and it was cool.
00:32:16
Speaker
The vagueness of it allowed me to identify with some different characters based on where I'm kind of at emotionally right now and seeing Christ interact with that.
00:32:26
Speaker
It was really beautiful.
00:32:27
Speaker
Oh, good.
00:32:27
Speaker
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
00:32:29
Speaker
They filmed that during one of the workshops that I was at.
00:32:33
Speaker
I mean, I knew those people that were...
00:32:36
Speaker
there and they they did that while we were taking the workshops up there um so yeah it was it was really cool to be on the ground floor of that you know as soon as they made it available yeah my team was training yeah that's awesome yeah yeah
00:32:54
Speaker
But then I'd like to put on a, you know, do some of my solo pieces.
00:32:59
Speaker
So we'll see what happens.
00:33:01
Speaker
Right now, my body is taking a little break.
00:33:08
Speaker
And we're in Pilates classes trying to just, you know, keep up, keep up, you know, without constantly injuring myself.
00:33:18
Speaker
Right.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:19
Speaker
Is that as, because I know in ballet that's a...
00:33:23
Speaker
It takes a big toll on your body.
00:33:25
Speaker
Does mine put a similar toll on the body?
00:33:27
Speaker
It can.
00:33:28
Speaker
It can.
00:33:30
Speaker
Probably not as much as ballet because, you know, if you're a ballerina, you're up on the point.
00:33:38
Speaker
Right.
00:33:40
Speaker
But what we started doing...
00:33:44
Speaker
We started getting into more physical theater where we were doing partnering and weight sharing and weight bearing.
00:33:54
Speaker
And that was really cool, but you do need your strength for that.
00:33:58
Speaker
There are some moves that I can't do anymore.
00:34:01
Speaker
Like I used to do a rise my love and I used to go all the way on the floor on my knees, do a hinge all the way back.
00:34:11
Speaker
And then it said, Arise, my love.
00:34:14
Speaker
And it would slowly come up.
00:34:16
Speaker
And then I'd get up and I'm like, yeah, talk about rip your knees apart.
00:34:22
Speaker
I love seeing you do that piece.
00:34:24
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:34:25
Speaker
Thank you.
00:34:27
Speaker
I've had to alter that piece because of that one movement.
00:34:32
Speaker
You just can't do anymore.
00:34:33
Speaker
Sure.
00:34:34
Speaker
But yeah.
00:34:37
Speaker
I'm interested in, you talked about how
00:34:42
Speaker
you kind of wanted to do some different things, but Pris said, oh, you just got to do this one thing.
00:34:48
Speaker
That's just kind of interesting concept to like, there's a little bit of that dying to yourself.
00:34:55
Speaker
And like, how do you feel about that now that focus on like, this is what I'm gifted and I'm going to stay here.
00:35:03
Speaker
I think she's brilliant.
00:35:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:05
Speaker
Because, you know, um,
00:35:09
Speaker
how you can do so many things you're not good at anything.
00:35:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:17
Speaker
Okay, I'm not the only one that experienced that.
00:35:22
Speaker
We were immediately there.
00:35:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:27
Speaker
Well, that was me.
00:35:28
Speaker
I was in street theater, I was in Fiddler, I was in Great Divorce, I was juggling my kids, home school, everything.
00:35:39
Speaker
you know um that's one of the places they got out of balance and someone needed to direct me and go no you need to do this because no one else does it yeah and that's when i ran into my mystery and um
00:35:56
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, you know what?
00:35:58
Speaker
This is really cool.
00:36:00
Speaker
It was because I wasn't bored with the art form anymore because they, it opened up a whole new world for me that I didn't know.
00:36:09
Speaker
And I could, I could learn, I could just learn it.
00:36:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:13
Speaker
And so it was different than what I perceived it to be.
00:36:18
Speaker
Like a lot of people think they know what mime is because they see
00:36:22
Speaker
the street mimes but that's just a very surfacy kind of mime I mean I'm not saying that
00:36:31
Speaker
they're not good mimes.
00:36:32
Speaker
It takes a lot of guts to be out there like that.
00:36:35
Speaker
Right, in their little glass box.
00:36:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:37
Speaker
Somebody can just wheel them away.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:44
Speaker
But that's all anybody is exposed to, including myself.
00:36:49
Speaker
Right.
00:36:50
Speaker
Until I met my teachers in Mimeistry.
00:36:54
Speaker
What was it artistically that excited you as it grew deeper?
00:37:00
Speaker
Were there things about it that you were like, this is so unique how I can express myself artistically with this that I can't anywhere else or that has a special facet because of mine?
00:37:14
Speaker
Well, they told you to use your body as a tool, you know, that you can,
00:37:22
Speaker
used for acting or dancing or, you know, and you learned how to hone that, you know, take charge of your body and command that.
00:37:34
Speaker
You build your character and you knew how to use your body parts.
00:37:37
Speaker
They had it broke down to head, neck, chest, pelvis, feet, hands.
00:37:45
Speaker
I mean, and there was a different... But you're really good at the robot.
00:37:52
Speaker
I try.
00:37:53
Speaker
But to know that the head,
00:38:07
Speaker
portrays a certain emotion.
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:10
Speaker
And where where's that motion come from?
00:38:12
Speaker
Well, it comes from down here and builds and it goes out.
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah, you know, instead of it's here and then it's out.
00:38:21
Speaker
I see.
00:38:22
Speaker
You know, and how do you do that building a character, you know, we studied the masters, sculptures, painters, and with one
00:38:36
Speaker
um with you know they're not moving right none of those things are moving they have to explain a story with no movement at all right and they're still so alive yes even in that so he studies that todd's barley studies that and said well you know like the uh statue of david you know his head's turned and you know and he's got these strong arms and hands and you know the
00:39:07
Speaker
the muscles are tense, you know, getting ready for a battle, you know, and so there's all this body sculpting,
00:39:19
Speaker
rhythms, different rhythms to your characters so you're not moving in the same rhythm all the time.
00:39:27
Speaker
There's hundreds of hand designs that you have to learn.
00:39:30
Speaker
Really?
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
Just the warm-ups are incredibly difficult, you know,
00:39:41
Speaker
backward and forward inclinations, side inclinations, rotations.
00:39:46
Speaker
That's how we open up the class every day.
00:39:48
Speaker
You know, and, and, you know, our,
00:39:54
Speaker
Walking in place.
00:39:56
Speaker
I love you walking in place.
00:39:57
Speaker
Anytime I see that, I'm like, I cannot imagine the strength and discipline of making that happen.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:08
Speaker
It's part of the illusions.
00:40:11
Speaker
But it's condensing time and space.
00:40:14
Speaker
So there's a one piece that I do called treasure.
00:40:19
Speaker
And I'm digging for a treasure.
00:40:22
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:40:24
Speaker
Well, you know, you don't spend like 10 minutes doing nothing but digging.
00:40:31
Speaker
You know, the audience is going to go bye-bye.
00:40:35
Speaker
You condense time and space.
00:40:38
Speaker
So you start digging and it gets harder and harder.
00:40:41
Speaker
Here's where the rhythm comes in.
00:40:44
Speaker
Slower and slower.
00:40:48
Speaker
And, you know, you rotate.
00:40:52
Speaker
to make time pass.
00:40:55
Speaker
Oh, right in front of them.
00:40:57
Speaker
Yes.
00:40:58
Speaker
And then they believe it.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:41:02
Speaker
I believe it.
00:41:04
Speaker
So they believe it.
00:41:05
Speaker
And all of a sudden, you know, there's a treasure you've been digging for hours, you know, yeah, within a minute time.
00:41:15
Speaker
Yeah, incredible.
00:41:17
Speaker
So
00:41:18
Speaker
It's all the stuff that you learn.
00:41:21
Speaker
It's like, you know, I was just a sponge.
00:41:26
Speaker
I just was fascinated.
00:41:30
Speaker
Different rhythms were key to creating your character.
00:41:34
Speaker
And Pris also had me do Mime for Actors.
00:41:42
Speaker
What's that?
00:41:44
Speaker
Well, I was teaching the actor how to use their bodies.
00:41:48
Speaker
And, and it was all plotted out for me by my teachers.
00:41:52
Speaker
I teach them exactly what I learned in mine.
00:41:56
Speaker
Very beginning, very basics.
00:41:59
Speaker
And, um, some actors liked it and some thought that they didn't need it.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yup.
00:42:09
Speaker
But I, um, she would have me come in, um,
00:42:13
Speaker
to do critiquing of a certain play or a certain scene if it required a lot of physical movement.
00:42:25
Speaker
I bet you could really help me.
00:42:29
Speaker
I'd love to.
00:42:29
Speaker
I'd love to.
00:42:31
Speaker
I don't feel like I know what to do with my body.
00:42:33
Speaker
It's a bit dangly.
00:42:37
Speaker
You're really good.
00:42:38
Speaker
I mean, I love it when I see you in something.
00:42:42
Speaker
I think that's most performers, too.
00:42:44
Speaker
I think there's just something about when you're supposed to be something on stage, all of a sudden you're like, this isn't that, though, you know?
00:42:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:54
Speaker
That's where a lot of actors get tripped up.
00:42:57
Speaker
It's like...
00:43:00
Speaker
All of a sudden they forget what their natural self would do.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:03
Speaker
If they were in that situation.
00:43:05
Speaker
Right.
00:43:06
Speaker
If they were angry.
00:43:07
Speaker
If they were joyful.
00:43:09
Speaker
And a lot of them, this is where she would want me to help make their character in a particular scene match their dialogue.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:22
Speaker
In one particular scene.
00:43:25
Speaker
play I was working I don't remember which one it was but the character always wanted she was yelling it was an angry scene but the only thing that changed was the tone of her voice okay but I didn't believe the character because she was in to herself like this now when you're angry
00:43:52
Speaker
you're not into yourself.
00:43:54
Speaker
You create space.
00:43:56
Speaker
You take up as much space as you need and you're aggressive.
00:44:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:01
Speaker
And some of the characters depend on their costumes or the dialogue.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yep.
00:44:06
Speaker
And they never do anything with their bodies.
00:44:10
Speaker
And so that's what she would come in and, or she had me come in and, um, help with, uh, body, um,
00:44:20
Speaker
characters, you know, or she had me do like, um, I came, I was in the great divorce, but she also had me, um, do the different, there's different, uh, mime things in the divorce.
00:44:35
Speaker
Like when he's picking up the apples or when they're holding onto the, um, on the bus.
00:44:44
Speaker
I've not seen the show.
00:44:45
Speaker
I've loved the book.
00:44:46
Speaker
I'd love to see that show sometimes.
00:44:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:44:49
Speaker
It was... Good.
00:44:50
Speaker
It was Pris' favorite.
00:44:51
Speaker
Is that right?
00:44:52
Speaker
We did it three times, and I was in it all three times.
00:44:56
Speaker
Wow.
00:44:57
Speaker
And guess what?
00:44:57
Speaker
I played the dwarf all three times.
00:44:59
Speaker
You were the dwarf.
00:45:01
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:45:02
Speaker
That's kind of a rough character.
00:45:04
Speaker
Coming from auditions, Pris is just like, oh, that's... No, but the reason why she had me doing the dwarf is because, like, I...
00:45:17
Speaker
Well, I'm sure, yes.
00:45:20
Speaker
But it was, I could appear shriveled up.
00:45:25
Speaker
Right, because the dwarf gets smaller and smaller, right?
00:45:28
Speaker
Yeah, I could really appear to shrink.
00:45:34
Speaker
And that was an illusion that, you know, I could actually pull off.
00:45:39
Speaker
That's great.
00:45:42
Speaker
I'm curious...
00:45:44
Speaker
I'm getting like geeky acting, like just listening to him.
00:45:46
Speaker
Like I want to just dissect what all this means for performers.
00:45:50
Speaker
Um, cause I've only dealt, I've dealt some into like the physicality of things.
00:45:56
Speaker
And I, and I think about that, but I tend to be a very spontaneous actor who comes from like the emotion.
00:46:03
Speaker
of it and I'm very familiar with my brain jumping around in various places but is there any dichotomy to you trying to be in the moment and in the emotion of what's happening in the world of the story while also trying to be so precise with your body to communicate that same emotion?
00:46:22
Speaker
Or are you doing it exactly the same every time you perform it?
00:46:28
Speaker
I don't do it exactly the same.
00:46:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:33
Speaker
A lot of it's muscle memory.
00:46:34
Speaker
I don't have to think about it anymore.
00:46:36
Speaker
Sure.
00:46:38
Speaker
But I don't do it
Mime in Church and Outreach Activities
00:46:40
Speaker
exactly the same.
00:46:41
Speaker
I mean, even my own choreography, there might be slight differences.
00:46:45
Speaker
And what's really scary is you get an idea while you're performing.
00:46:50
Speaker
I've been there.
00:46:51
Speaker
And you're like, oh, this is great.
00:46:53
Speaker
I did that in the last show and you thought that I got like hit by someone because I... Well, yes....shamed my choreography.
00:47:04
Speaker
That wasn't a good idea.
00:47:05
Speaker
Well, it was because... Okay, now I have to tell this story.
00:47:08
Speaker
It was because you missed the other choreography.
00:47:10
Speaker
So Nate was in... It was Jesus in Godspell, so he gets crucified at the end as you do.
00:47:16
Speaker
there's a moment where one of the people would kick him in the face um and then he's supposed to get picked up and slapped three times by by different people um and nate goes down with that and then it's like pretends that he's like bleeding i was like what like really like press into oh but like he's like
00:47:38
Speaker
Bleeding maybe?
00:47:39
Speaker
And I want to kind of think about that and portray that.
00:47:41
Speaker
And I forgot, oh, I have choreography I'm supposed to be doing.
00:47:44
Speaker
So all I saw was Nate go down harder than normal with the kick and then get up and miss the slaps while also acting like he's bleeding.
00:47:52
Speaker
And I was like, oh my gosh, Nate got kicked in the temple.
00:47:54
Speaker
Is he going to die in five seconds?
00:47:58
Speaker
And then after the show is over, people come to me like, are you okay?
00:48:01
Speaker
I like rushed across the stage.
00:48:03
Speaker
I was like, did you die?
00:48:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
00:48:06
Speaker
And he's like, no, I'm fine.
00:48:07
Speaker
I just thought I'd pretend that I was bleeding.
00:48:09
Speaker
I was like, Nate, you missed those slaps.
00:48:12
Speaker
You gave me a heart attack.
00:48:13
Speaker
I thought I was really impressed with your singing on the cross because I was like, wow, he's singing really good for having just been concussed.
00:48:23
Speaker
Oh, that's funny.
00:48:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:25
Speaker
So, so it's a lot of it then just training so that when you know, I have to be, I have to be angry about this particular thing and grab at this, that you know what you kind of instinctively know what your body needs to do.
00:48:39
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:48:40
Speaker
And, um,
00:48:42
Speaker
you definitely seem very engaged while you perform.
00:48:45
Speaker
So it's not like I've done this under times, I'm just gonna phone it in my body knows what it's doing.
00:48:51
Speaker
No, no, it's I could do a song a lot or a particular piece a lot.
00:48:58
Speaker
But I'm always
00:49:01
Speaker
In that thought, in that moment.
00:49:04
Speaker
Good.
00:49:05
Speaker
And there's... I don't know about you guys, but there's always some things are easier than others.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yes.
00:49:16
Speaker
And for me, if there's a... I always took on the angry parts.
00:49:21
Speaker
Oh, that's another reason for this one.
00:49:25
Speaker
That's a dwarf.
00:49:26
Speaker
I...
00:49:30
Speaker
the emotion of anger comes very natural.
00:49:35
Speaker
So I can I get angry a lot in your real life.
00:49:40
Speaker
I used to use that.
00:49:42
Speaker
Okay, I got dealt with me.
00:49:45
Speaker
But interesting, but I used to.
00:49:48
Speaker
And, um, yeah, I that there's some emotions that come
00:49:54
Speaker
better than others and you but you have to dig down and just pull them out you just pull them out and um
00:50:03
Speaker
and use it for whatever scene you're doing in stuff and muscle memory, you know, it all comes, it all ties together.
00:50:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:14
Speaker
But you're kind of free to do that exploration because you've done so much work and put in like have disciplined yourself to know what your body is going to do.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:23
Speaker
It's not, it's not like, Oh God, put my feet here and I got to turn my body here and this hand has to go here.
00:50:30
Speaker
Right.
00:50:30
Speaker
It comes out just like that.
00:50:36
Speaker
It's like as an actor, if you have your lines memorized so well, you have so much more freedom in the part.
00:50:45
Speaker
Because of course this is what my character is going to say.
00:50:49
Speaker
We just know that and stuff.
00:50:50
Speaker
And then you're free to act even more natural because you put that work in and you know what you need to do.
00:50:58
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:50:59
Speaker
So it's kind of an interesting dichotomy of having the rigidness of these are the things I need to do.
00:51:05
Speaker
And then it gives you freedom.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yes.
00:51:07
Speaker
Other things.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yes.
00:51:08
Speaker
Marcel said you learn the rules to break them.
00:51:13
Speaker
I love that.
00:51:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:14
Speaker
Yeah, that was his.
00:51:16
Speaker
And so you do you learn you just go through all those pieces and
00:51:23
Speaker
I would never open up a class without doing all those warm-ups.
00:51:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:29
Speaker
Keep it to the fundamentals.
00:51:32
Speaker
Because then they had all that, you know, it's just like doing the scales on the piano.
00:51:40
Speaker
Because you warm up like that, you have all that
00:51:47
Speaker
vocabulary behind you and you can pull from it.
00:51:51
Speaker
Or playing sports.
00:51:53
Speaker
If you know the footwork it takes to make a layup in basketball by doing them over and over, you're not thinking about it when you're in the game.
00:52:01
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:52:01
Speaker
Right.
00:52:02
Speaker
And you never get to this point of being so advanced.
00:52:05
Speaker
No.
00:52:05
Speaker
I think it's easy to think, well, I've gotten to this level, so this is the work that I do now.
00:52:09
Speaker
I don't do the basics.
00:52:11
Speaker
But...
00:52:13
Speaker
I'm going to mention Hamlet.
00:52:15
Speaker
Everybody take a drink.
00:52:15
Speaker
I mentioned Hamlet way too much on this podcast.
00:52:20
Speaker
But like, that's the skull.
00:52:24
Speaker
Like I was in that role and I'm like, oh, this is so advanced and I'm doing such great work.
00:52:29
Speaker
And then opening weekend, I was like, I'm forgetting to just kind of go moment to moment, which is just such simple, basic acting.
00:52:37
Speaker
Let yourself go moment to moment and just live in that moment.
00:52:40
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, I've forgotten the number one rule with everything else that I'm doing.
00:52:45
Speaker
I've forgotten to stick to that basic thing and ground myself in that.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:54
Speaker
Well, it's just been a fascinating journey.
00:52:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:59
Speaker
For sure.
00:53:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:01
Speaker
One of the things we mentioned when we were chatting kind of leading up to this is you talked about...
00:53:08
Speaker
wanting to chat a little bit about some of your struggles as an artist and with the church.
00:53:12
Speaker
And that's a dichotomy I'm sure everybody listening is familiar with because this podcast is all about our Christian faith.
00:53:19
Speaker
Right,
Reflections and Future Endeavors in Mime
00:53:20
Speaker
right, right.
00:53:21
Speaker
Yeah, what are some of the struggles you've had there and how have you navigated that?
00:53:24
Speaker
Because the church, I think, at least in my experience, I think it's getting better with artists.
00:53:31
Speaker
But it's had this weird relationship, I think, for a long time.
00:53:36
Speaker
It has.
00:53:37
Speaker
Especially the performing art part of it.
00:53:40
Speaker
Yes, sure.
00:53:41
Speaker
You know, and then it's been an up and down...
00:53:48
Speaker
rollercoaster ride.
00:53:49
Speaker
You know, when I first met Pris and I was at our church, the music director wanted me to do a mind piece, Christmas mind piece to a song she picked out and I did it.
00:54:04
Speaker
And then I did an Easter piece to watch Lamb, which I still do.
00:54:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:11
Speaker
And you would have thought that I had put a bomb in the church.
00:54:16
Speaker
Really?
00:54:18
Speaker
So the music director she was all about, but she was in Christmas, you know, but oh my word, it was, it started a whole controversy.
00:54:29
Speaker
Oh no.
00:54:30
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:54:31
Speaker
And, um, anyway, um, what were some of the outcries?
00:54:36
Speaker
They did not like dance.
00:54:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:39
Speaker
Even, even mine.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:54:41
Speaker
No, that was anything, anything movement, you know,
00:54:45
Speaker
It's such a shame because God invented that and put that in you and put that in people and using it to honor him in ways that are different that you can't get any other way.
00:54:56
Speaker
Well, to me, it's like you have your sight and your sound in your, um,
00:55:03
Speaker
And you also have movement when you can put all those three together.
00:55:07
Speaker
It's very powerful.
00:55:10
Speaker
You know, and that's why people, you know, in Africa, we were just in Kenya and their churches, they're dancing all over the place.
00:55:19
Speaker
And I was like, this is great.
00:55:22
Speaker
You know, but anyway, to be fair, our church,
00:55:31
Speaker
weren't to love it because the kids responded well to it.
00:55:37
Speaker
And with some of their kids, some of their grandkids that were on my MIME team and they saw there was a real revolution there where they actually saw
00:55:47
Speaker
what good it could do and how they were evangelizing through this art form.
00:55:52
Speaker
Amazing.
00:55:53
Speaker
So some of my biggest critics ended up being my pretty good friends.
00:55:58
Speaker
That is great.
00:55:59
Speaker
That's beautiful.
00:56:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:56:01
Speaker
But I think that right now we're going through worship songs only.
00:56:09
Speaker
you know right and um nobody really knows what to do with me now you know and um it takes a creative um pastor or music master to go i think that one of your pieces would go good with this sermon you know yeah like um we learned how to do um
00:56:34
Speaker
pulpit support.
00:56:36
Speaker
So, you know, the pastor would ask you to do something and you'd be like the, you know, supporting his sermon.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:47
Speaker
Well, that's cool too, because I think that if you think about like church history and how artists have been utilized, that is very...
00:56:55
Speaker
that fits with the norm of like, they can't read scripture, so let's build this stained glass window.
00:57:02
Speaker
And so if the pastor or priest is preaching on, you know, the ascension, there's an image right there that you can look to.
00:57:12
Speaker
I think why can't the performing arts...
00:57:15
Speaker
do the same thing.
00:57:16
Speaker
It's just like different parts of the body and using different parts of the body within the church is so important.
00:57:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:23
Speaker
But it has to be used the right way.
00:57:25
Speaker
A lot of times it got abused because a church we shall not name.
00:57:32
Speaker
has dramas that turned out to be like formulas every week, you know, like it's not a church in Grand Rapids or anything.
00:57:43
Speaker
But they were big on... That's not my church.
00:57:47
Speaker
Huh?
00:57:47
Speaker
That's not my church.
00:57:48
Speaker
No, that's not a church here.
00:57:50
Speaker
But they were, you know, they had to have a drama every week.
00:57:55
Speaker
Wow.
00:57:55
Speaker
So you pump on out all these scripts.
00:57:57
Speaker
Well, the...
00:57:59
Speaker
There was a church up here that wanted me to do those scripts.
00:58:03
Speaker
I'm like, okay, did the first one.
00:58:05
Speaker
I didn't like it.
00:58:06
Speaker
I did it.
00:58:07
Speaker
Did the second one.
00:58:08
Speaker
Isn't this like the first one?
00:58:09
Speaker
No.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:58:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:12
Speaker
Don't give me any more of these.
00:58:13
Speaker
I'm not doing it.
00:58:14
Speaker
It's trash.
00:58:17
Speaker
And so, you know, you go through people handing you stuff that is not inspirational.
00:58:23
Speaker
Right.
00:58:25
Speaker
And you can't really get a thought or idea through because you have no feeling about it.
00:58:31
Speaker
Well, that makes me think of what you were talking about earlier of like people were like, why are you rehearsing so much?
00:58:36
Speaker
It's like, I want this to be excellent for the Lord.
00:58:40
Speaker
And I think Christians can be like, God can use anything, which he can, but...
00:58:48
Speaker
And who more should do excellence than the people who are God's people, who is the author of excellence and who we're supposed to do all things with all our might for his glory.
00:59:01
Speaker
I think there's some value, too, in saying we can't do this excellently.
00:59:06
Speaker
So God is not calling us to do this thing.
00:59:09
Speaker
You know, we don't have the people in our church or the, we don't have the right sort of alchemy or skill set to be able to have dramas regularly.
00:59:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:21
Speaker
So I guess that's not what God's called our church.
00:59:24
Speaker
We'll focus on what we can do.
00:59:26
Speaker
Right, right.
00:59:27
Speaker
And every church has its strengths.
00:59:30
Speaker
And when my team was in existence, you know, those kids worked hard.
00:59:38
Speaker
I didn't expect them to be perfect.
00:59:40
Speaker
I just expected them to work hard.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:59:43
Speaker
That's all.
00:59:44
Speaker
And to really want to do that, you know, and, and that's what I was looking for.
00:59:49
Speaker
Not perfection.
00:59:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:51
Speaker
Right.
00:59:51
Speaker
I was looking for perfection for me, which wasn't always a good thing either.
00:59:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:57
Speaker
Again, that's back to the balance.
00:59:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:00
Speaker
Because God doesn't need you to be perfect.
01:00:01
Speaker
But, um, if I wanted to,
01:00:05
Speaker
them to do a good job.
01:00:07
Speaker
I had to show them excellence.
01:00:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:10
Speaker
You know, if I, if I took it and, well, that's okay.
01:00:14
Speaker
You don't have, you know, you don't have to work on that.
01:00:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:19
Speaker
You know, it wouldn't have turned out to be the team that we had.
01:00:23
Speaker
And, you know, we worked with an evangelist that had AIDS and we went to different schools with him and we,
01:00:34
Speaker
Worked with local rap artists that had block parties in the summertime.
01:00:42
Speaker
And all that stuff was so interesting and fun.
01:00:47
Speaker
And we really ministered to some of the kids and it helped that it wasn't just me.
01:00:53
Speaker
Right.
01:00:53
Speaker
That it was like the kids in the audience could see kids that were their age up on stage doing this.
01:01:00
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:01
Speaker
So, yeah, that's beautiful.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:04
Speaker
This time has flown by.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, we're nearing the end here.
01:01:08
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:09
Speaker
Thank you for coming on again.
01:01:11
Speaker
This has been a long time for discussion.
01:01:12
Speaker
Thanks for asking me.
01:01:14
Speaker
It's been so interesting.
01:01:15
Speaker
I just love your work.
01:01:16
Speaker
Oh, thank you.
01:01:17
Speaker
It's been cool to hear more about it.
01:01:19
Speaker
Oh, thank you.
01:01:20
Speaker
One of the questions I ask at the end, because similar to you, my sort of
01:01:25
Speaker
education has sort of been scrappy in the arts.
01:01:29
Speaker
And so I like to be able to provide resources for people and to our audience when I can.
01:01:34
Speaker
Are there any resources you would recommend either that have really helped you in your Christian faith or for anybody who's interested in mime or exploring more of the physical side of performing arts?
01:01:47
Speaker
Well, I know Push Physical Theater, who also trained me, has a summer intensive workshop.
01:01:58
Speaker
Where are they?
01:01:59
Speaker
They're in Rochester, New York.
01:02:01
Speaker
But people from all over the country go and see them.
01:02:07
Speaker
Christine and Ben were on there.
01:02:10
Speaker
And they do excellent work.
01:02:12
Speaker
Todd Farley has...
01:02:16
Speaker
his stuff on YouTube.
01:02:18
Speaker
Instructional, the video, he's allowed it to be on YouTube now.
01:02:24
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:02:27
Speaker
And yeah, I think it's a very obscure art right now.
01:02:34
Speaker
So your best way would be to look up My Mystery International, Todd Farley.
01:02:44
Speaker
look up the instructional videos, look up Push Physical Theater.
01:02:50
Speaker
And, you know, of course, anybody could get a hold of me at Master Arts.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:03:00
Speaker
Because if anybody's interested,
01:03:03
Speaker
you know, I'd consider holding a class and stuff.
01:03:07
Speaker
Wonderful.
01:03:08
Speaker
We'll have that information in the description below too.
01:03:11
Speaker
Okay.
01:03:12
Speaker
Right down there?
01:03:14
Speaker
Under the table.
01:03:15
Speaker
Under the table.
01:03:17
Speaker
Just scroll, move us this way.
01:03:21
Speaker
Awesome.
01:03:22
Speaker
Well, thank you again, Dawn.
01:03:23
Speaker
It was so great to get to chat and hear your story a little bit more and spend this time together.
01:03:28
Speaker
It was great.
01:03:29
Speaker
Thanks for having me on.
01:03:31
Speaker
I will say that you did a great job explaining all this and talking, but I thought it would be hilarious if you didn't talk at all.
01:03:37
Speaker
He messaged me and was like, we should just have her mime everything.
01:03:42
Speaker
We'll really ramp up our YouTube numbers for this episode.
01:03:46
Speaker
We would talk.
01:03:48
Speaker
We would talk and then you can mime whatever crap you want.
01:03:51
Speaker
I'd be in trouble.
01:03:54
Speaker
Any of our audio listeners would just be like, what on earth?
01:03:57
Speaker
What on earth?
01:03:58
Speaker
It's avant-garde.
01:04:01
Speaker
There's a frustration that would turn into an anger.
01:04:05
Speaker
That would be good.