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Acting, Truth, and Studying at Sight and Sound with Jordan Awe
21 Plays2 years ago
In this episode Jon speaks with his friend, Jordan Awe about acting, finding God's truth in a performance or piece of art, and what it's been like for Jordan to study acting. Jordan is a fellow actor and has shared the stage with Jon a couple of times. Jordan has performed with HPA, Master Arts Theatre, Kalamazoo Civic Theatre, and has toured with Arise Collective Theatre's touring production of Pilgrim. Currently Jordan is studying musical theatre at the Sight and Sound conservatory.
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Transcript
Creations Reflecting Creators: A Christian Perspective
00:00:01
Speaker
You'll see something that you're just like, that can't be inherently Christian necessarily.
00:00:09
Speaker
But then you dig deeper into it and you're like, oh, there's Jesus in that.
00:00:13
Speaker
You know, like you see it.
00:00:16
Speaker
The creation can't help but reflect its creator because the creator is in some way infused into that creation.
00:00:24
Speaker
Exactly.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:25
Speaker
Just like how when we as humans create something, you can kind of see the human creator in it, but going back even further, you can see the great creator in it.
Introducing John and Jordan: Theater Connections
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello, everybody.
00:00:39
Speaker
Welcome back to Artists of the Way.
00:00:41
Speaker
I'm John, the host.
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, I am joined by a good friend of mine, Jordan Awe, who I haven't seen in like a long time.
00:00:48
Speaker
It's been a while.
00:00:49
Speaker
A couple months, maybe, yeah.
00:00:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:52
Speaker
Jordan, we got to know each other through the Grand Rapids theater scene.
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Speaker
You, kind of like me, have done things in as many theater communities as you can.
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Speaker
You've done Kalamazoo Civic, Master Arts, Arise, HPA, and
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Speaker
a whole lot of stuff.
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Speaker
And now you're studying at Sight and Sound with their conservatory.
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Speaker
That is correct.
00:01:13
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:14
Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
Just like you said, just trying to
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Speaker
get my, uh, artistic hand, I guess, in as many areas as possible.
00:01:25
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:01:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:01:27
Speaker
I am, I'm super excited to chat with you about that.
00:01:31
Speaker
Cause like conservatory and theater training is something I've always thought would be like really cool.
00:01:37
Speaker
Um, but was never just not where God led me.
00:01:40
Speaker
So I'm, I'm really excited to delve into your experience there.
00:01:43
Speaker
Um, and just catch up and see how you're doing.
00:01:47
Speaker
So I got a couple questions that I ask everybody at the start of each episode.
00:01:51
Speaker
First, are you working on anything at the moment?
Theater Journey: Conservatory and Productions
00:01:56
Speaker
Um, that's a good question.
00:01:57
Speaker
Uh, there's a lot, um, kind of as you would suspect with, um, a conservatory program.
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Speaker
Um, I think the main thing that I would say I'm working on right now, um, is being a part of a conservatory in a theater setting, um, being, being attached to a theater that like we are,
00:02:19
Speaker
Um, we are not only just students there, but we are also working alongside cast members with their current show.
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Speaker
Um, so that show currently is Moses.
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Speaker
Uh, we opened back in March and, uh, we're actually, as of recording today, um, we only have 44 performances of Moses left.
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Speaker
So we got about four weeks left of, of Moses.
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Speaker
Um, so, um,
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, so that's what I would say I'm currently working on, and then we're about to, once we're finished with Moses, we get right into rehearsal for the Christmas show, Miracle of Christmas, which will be November to December.
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Those are shows that I would say I'm working on right now.
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Of course, there's things for classes, monologues, songs, a lot of movement-oriented things.
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Speaker
This semester, I have
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Speaker
two dance classes and a stage combat class.
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Speaker
So that keeps me physically active as well as doing shows, uh, nine to eight times a week.
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Speaker
So, um, yeah.
Venturing into Writing and Composing
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Speaker
And then, um, I was debating when you asked me this question, I was debating if I was going to talk about this or not.
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Speaker
Um,
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Speaker
But I feel like it'll, the more people that know about it, the more it'll kind of push me to keep working on it.
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Speaker
I started dabbling in writing and composing as of the beginning of this year.
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Speaker
Me, it started with just an idea that I wanted to work on.
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Speaker
And then eventually a classmate of mine, we kind of became a team and started working on this together.
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I've started dabbling very lightly in writing and composing with some just simple, simple song ideas and stuff like that.
00:04:15
Speaker
And then overall, we're working on trying to write a full musical song.
00:04:25
Speaker
that hopefully will happen.
00:04:27
Speaker
I'm not sure if it will.
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Speaker
It's a very big daunting task.
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Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
And we're very busy.
00:04:36
Speaker
We started it when we were in rehearsals for Moses back in February.
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Speaker
And then as soon as we opened in March, we did nothing with it again until it re-entered my brain a little bit a couple weeks ago and started working on it again.
00:04:52
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But yeah, so...
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Speaker
That's super exciting.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's everything I would say I'm working on at the moment.
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Speaker
Yeah, that's super cool.
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Speaker
That...
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Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
Writing is a whole, whole different process and is a whole different timeframe from, from doing shows and acting, but that's super cool.
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Yeah.
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I'm really finding that like, it takes way more.
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Speaker
I mean, I knew this before, but like really doing it, it takes way more than just an appreciation.
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I feel like as, as performers, you have an appreciation for
00:05:25
Speaker
the intricacies of writing.
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Speaker
Like I love when composers or even the writers of the, the, the book of a, of a play or a musical, they create such depth with,
00:05:38
Speaker
reoccurring themes, especially musically.
00:05:41
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I love reoccurring themes and like the ability to story tell with the orchestration and then trying to be that complex with my own writing when I have never written anything and have had the very basics of music theory in conservatory.
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Speaker
And now I'm like, I'm going to write a whole two act musical.
00:06:06
Speaker
It's a very daunting task, but yeah, you really learn appreciation for what others do when they do that regularly.
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Speaker
Yeah, that's super cool.
00:06:16
Speaker
And I do think there's something to be said for like, yeah, it's daunting, but you do learn a lot by just jumping right in because every other minute, a lot of times it's like you're running into something where it's like, oh, I haven't encountered this before.
00:06:30
Speaker
What's the way that I approach this?
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Speaker
And so I feel like
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Speaker
Yeah, that's a lot, but it's also, it can be a great way to like learn because you're just constantly checking off new things that you're discovering how to navigate and do with something.
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Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:06:45
Speaker
Cool.
Art Reflecting Divine Narratives
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Speaker
So the second question is how has God been using art in general in your life right now?
00:06:55
Speaker
yeah um wow he every day uh every day he uses it um just um i think i am a lot more in a better situation to
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Speaker
for for god to work in in art um as i'm surrounded by not just art but surrounded by christian art all the time um both in shows and in classes with um different bible and discipleship classes um
00:07:36
Speaker
I mean, he's just been really honing in on, and this is something that I've been learning for years, but...
00:07:45
Speaker
has just become such a bigger part of my life as I am studying, studying musical theater.
00:07:52
Speaker
And that's just that, that every story is his story in a way, in a much deeper way.
00:08:01
Speaker
And that's, I think that just stems from the, the,
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Speaker
us as humans, as his creation, we are the living, what's the word?
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Just the living creation of his story.
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Speaker
Like his story is just weaved into our very being.
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Speaker
So you see that even in Christian art and secular art or non-Christian art and all that stuff is just seeing
00:08:38
Speaker
seeing him in in everything and um yeah he's just been really making that apparent in like you'll you'll see something that you're just like that that can't be inherently christian necessarily but then you dig deeper into it and you're like oh there's jesus in that you know like you you see it
00:09:02
Speaker
um the creation can't help but reflect its creator because the creator is in some way infused into that creation exactly yeah just just like how when we as humans create something you can kind of see the human creator in it but going back even further you can see the the great creator in it and that's yeah that's been something um
00:09:27
Speaker
that that he's been working on.
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah, working on for a long time, but very much so this, this, this year.
00:09:35
Speaker
And, yeah, I think that's awesome.
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Speaker
anything else, but yeah.
00:09:41
Speaker
I mean, that's enough.
00:09:42
Speaker
That's cool.
00:09:45
Speaker
I mean, I guess the glory of God and things is fine.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:48
Speaker
I'm sure that question could take us the whole entire podcast to be like, well, there's this thing and this thing.
00:09:55
Speaker
And yeah.
00:09:56
Speaker
Awesome.
00:09:57
Speaker
Cool.
00:09:57
Speaker
Well, I want to jump to chatting about just what, what it's been like working training at, at sight and sound with the conservatory and especially how that's been,
00:10:08
Speaker
intersecting with your faith.
00:10:10
Speaker
But first, just in general, like, what's that experience been like studying at this conservatory?
Studying at Sight and Sound: A Christian Theater Experience
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:19
Speaker
Um, it's great.
00:10:20
Speaker
Um, I, it's both entirely what I expected and not at all.
00:10:28
Speaker
Um, I think was one of the biggest discoveries getting here, um, a year ago.
00:10:33
Speaker
Um, literally it's very interesting that we're, we're talking about this now, cause it's literally been a year that I've been here like this week.
00:10:42
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Um, so yeah.
00:10:45
Speaker
Um,
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a great environment to be surrounded in.
00:10:51
Speaker
I mean, theater has always been a love of mine to be in that sort of family community.
00:10:58
Speaker
Theater just creates sort of a family dynamic of how tightly knit you are.
00:11:06
Speaker
But then for that to be a Christian family,
00:11:11
Speaker
people that you know you can go to about things that are going on or struggles that you're having.
00:11:19
Speaker
Just looking for advice.
00:11:22
Speaker
People that you know you can count on and trust.
00:11:24
Speaker
And I know that, like John, I know you're kind of familiar with that, with like the experiences that we have shared, like Arise.
00:11:36
Speaker
It's like Arise, but on steroids.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:40
Speaker
Which is an insane thing to think of with, um, Arise already feeling like it's on steroids.
00:11:45
Speaker
Yup.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:47
Speaker
It's steroids taking steroids.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
Um,
00:11:53
Speaker
But yeah, and it's just so nice to be, because even people outside the cast, like people that we'll run into, because there's so much more than just the cast and the crew.
00:12:06
Speaker
It's, sight and sound is a huge operation, not just in scale of building, but in team.
00:12:12
Speaker
You run into people from HR or customer service or the people that work in the lobby helping the guests with
00:12:21
Speaker
ticket sales or with merchandise or any of those things and all these people are just it's so cool to see all these people just working for the same goal um of just bringing christ to the world yeah um but yeah and then and then just being able to to study something that the lord has
00:12:45
Speaker
worked in me with and and and placed a desire to work on of my artistic craft just being in a place where that is like celebrated and in a way redirected because of course it's it's you go to any you know secular conservatory they're going to celebrate your creativeness right
00:13:07
Speaker
But here it's, it's like, that's great.
00:13:10
Speaker
And how are we going to use that for the Lord, you know?
00:13:12
Speaker
And it's just great to have that, um, that knowledge and direction.
00:13:19
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:13:20
Speaker
Cool.
00:13:22
Speaker
Has there been something that you've studied so far, like a class or something that has been super fresh or exciting that you haven't gotten a chance to work on before in like the high school or community theater world?
Appreciating Shakespeare: The Power of Listening
00:13:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
It's there's so much because I feel like when you're in high school and I really appreciate all the training I got in high school, I would not be the performer that I am today without any of the people that helped me in high school.
00:13:55
Speaker
But even when you have like with HPA nine months, you're, you know, it's so little time to like instill a lot of like
00:14:06
Speaker
very intricate ideas because acting is on the surface.
00:14:11
Speaker
Acting is kind of, oh, you're, you're acting, you know, you're doing the thing.
00:14:15
Speaker
But then I got here and we started learning specific things and I'm like, there's so much more to everything because, you know, you break theater up and it's like, oh, you got singing, dancing, acting.
00:14:26
Speaker
But like then you go deeper and you're like, OK, with singing, you know, you have tons of different techniques there.
00:14:34
Speaker
Music theory, instruments, all that kind of stuff.
00:14:37
Speaker
You get to dancing, you have ballet, you have tap, you have musical theater.
00:14:42
Speaker
And then with acting, it's the same way.
00:14:45
Speaker
I think we talked about this a little bit before I even knew any of it, but I'm a little bit more trained now.
00:14:51
Speaker
We've had our first semester with Stanislavski and followed the second semester with Chekhov.
00:14:57
Speaker
And right now we're doing Meisner, which are just hitting all my homeboys, man.
00:15:03
Speaker
Those are the acting homeboys.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:08
Speaker
So just to like have my eyes kind of like opened to, oh, we're not, we're not just acting.
00:15:14
Speaker
There's like, there's a method to this madness.
00:15:17
Speaker
And of course what's great is there's no one way to do it.
00:15:22
Speaker
Right.
00:15:23
Speaker
Um, that's one of the things that's been really cool that they've instilled in like what they're doing is they're not being like, you have to be, when you leave here, you need to be a Stanislavski actor.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker
Because they're like, nobody does that.
00:15:35
Speaker
Nobody has one thing.
00:15:38
Speaker
So I really like how they're like, we're going to give you, as kind of our motto has become for all these acting classes, they're giving us tools in our tool belt that we can just use later.
00:15:49
Speaker
Well, and that's so important because it's such a psychological thing that if you're trying to do it in a way that either doesn't click with your brain or that isn't emotionally healthy for you,
00:16:03
Speaker
then that can be not just unhelpful for you as an actor, but so dangerous.
00:16:09
Speaker
If you're doing something that just doesn't work for your brain, but it's like, oh, this is the way to do it, so I have to.
00:16:15
Speaker
Right.
00:16:17
Speaker
And another aspect of it is actors, we are not just storytellers, but we're truth tellers.
00:16:23
Speaker
Even though we may be playing something that is not necessarily in the real world true for us,
00:16:30
Speaker
But we're still portraying truth.
00:16:32
Speaker
And to do that consistently, I think that's one aspect that Sight and Sound really covers because they're familiar with
00:16:41
Speaker
long show runs.
00:16:42
Speaker
I mean, on a normal year when they're doing their premiere show and they do one show throughout the whole year, they're doing over 400 performances.
00:16:51
Speaker
Luckily, we're switching up being able to do two shows, but still we've been, by the time we're done with Moses, we'll have have done 300 shows.
00:16:59
Speaker
And so one of the things they really hammer in is like, if you just do one type of acting,
00:17:04
Speaker
And you're just doing the same thing every single day.
00:17:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah, you're eventually going to just lose that authenticity, that truthfulness.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I know our Chekhov teacher talks about this all the time.
00:17:16
Speaker
He's like, there are there are things that will work great in this for a while.
00:17:21
Speaker
And then you just need to be ready that like when that stops working, you need to know what the next thing to go is.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, the next thing.
00:17:28
Speaker
the next center to work in or the next memory to pull from.
00:17:33
Speaker
And
Keeping Performances Fresh: Challenges and Techniques
00:17:34
Speaker
so something that you can keep that performance fresh and alive, not necessarily changing your performance because you don't want to mess with the whole picture, but it's something new for you that you can keep being real and telling the truth.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, I remember when I did, I've done, I've done like traveling troops for years and years and years, and you've always got to keep them fresh.
00:17:55
Speaker
But when we did Fiddler, for some reason, I had a really hard time at the end when everybody's leaving Anatevka, still being emotional.
00:18:04
Speaker
I like just somehow like once we got to opening, I was like, it's sad, but like I've already been sad.
00:18:10
Speaker
So we were all like separated into these family units.
00:18:13
Speaker
And so every time me and my family unit would meet together before we went on stage for Anatevka, and we would talk about a new memory and create this new fun story from our past as a family unit.
00:18:26
Speaker
And then our family unit was splitting in Anatevka.
00:18:29
Speaker
Half of us was going one way and then the other half was going another way.
00:18:32
Speaker
And so then we would always walk on with that memory in mind.
00:18:36
Speaker
And that was always that new fresh layer, because then eventually it would expire.
00:18:40
Speaker
Like at a certain point, my yarmulke was like really emotional.
00:18:43
Speaker
And then like two days later, I was like, yeah, she gave me this yarmulke.
00:18:47
Speaker
That's sad.
00:18:48
Speaker
But it didn't expire.
00:18:50
Speaker
So...
00:18:51
Speaker
right yeah because it's it's it's difficult to be even even though you're reliving the same moment every night for you you you can't keep reliving that because eventually right because you're numb to it yeah you're like you're like oh well it's it's what it is and that's and that's something that's helpful to us in the real world when with true sad things or true difficult things
00:19:13
Speaker
But when you need to convey the same emotion every night, eventually the audience is going to get that from you unless it's fresh and it's new.
00:19:21
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:19:22
Speaker
So just going deeper in everything and realizing there's so much more.
00:19:28
Speaker
Not that I came with the thinking that I was like, I wasn't going to learn here or that there's not a deeper level to it, but just realizing how much of a deeper level there is to every aspect of performing.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's crazy.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm...
00:19:49
Speaker
decently studied on it and I still am like there's so much more that I could learn if there were resources in the area for it it's just the amount of people that have written such wisdom on acting which is of course my love but there's just there's just yeah it's crazy so um are there any ways where throughout the process of studying acting or dance or music um
00:20:19
Speaker
or any other classes at the conservatory that you found it like assisting or like God using it in your spiritual growth over the last year?
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:32
Speaker
I mean,
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, the easy answer I feel like is in our discipleship classes because that's a real direct line of like, of being in the word or being reading books and commentary on the word and just discussing our faith has been just really influential to have this a weekly meeting of just
00:21:05
Speaker
discussing biblical themes and, and, and living our lives as Christians, um, has, has been one of those, those really obvious, understandable, um, ways of, of the Lord reaching, um, me, but yeah, I mean, um,
00:21:26
Speaker
I think, I think in, in all of my classes, um, there's a, there's a common theme of, um, just the Lord, um, just opening up my, my heart and mind to, yes, this is what he has called me to do.
00:21:50
Speaker
but I still have much to learn, which I know, but a lot of the times, one of the hardest things for me is comparing myself to others, which I think is a struggle for a lot of performers.
00:22:09
Speaker
Because in this industry, that's what everybody else is doing.
00:22:12
Speaker
They're comparing you to so-and-so and so-and-so to so-and-so.
00:22:15
Speaker
So then to
00:22:21
Speaker
um just just be working so tightly with um nine other classmates that are all so talented and and i mean you're all in this program together for for a reason but just um seeing where others succeed and you're you're struggling is just tough and then and then
00:22:44
Speaker
other areas when you're, when you're striving and, and they're struggling.
00:22:50
Speaker
But yeah, the Lord has just really instilled and worked on community.
00:22:57
Speaker
I feel we even had, we had a whole book for discipleship one, a couple of weeks for just building a community as Christians.
00:23:08
Speaker
Because of course we have the church as our community, but
00:23:13
Speaker
within that you have you have closer communities and you need communities where you are each day, where you work, where you your family unit is a community in a way.
00:23:24
Speaker
So yeah, just just growing in the the awareness of
00:23:32
Speaker
we are all there with different gifts and talents and abilities within this grander gift and ability of performing that he has given us.
00:23:43
Speaker
And just kind of finding where we fit in that.
00:23:48
Speaker
Hey friends, I hope you're enjoying today's episode.
00:23:50
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.
00:23:55
Speaker
We're going to be staging a production of Godspell in 2024.
00:24:00
Speaker
Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of Matthew.
00:24:02
Speaker
The script is comprised mostly of excerpts from the Gospel of Matthew.
00:24:07
Speaker
And the songs are mostly old hymns or straight scripture, which has been recomposed into kind of a rock musical theater style song.
00:24:16
Speaker
It's a wonderful show.
00:24:18
Speaker
I grew up on it.
00:24:19
Speaker
It's been a passion project of mine to direct for five years, and I'm so excited to tackle it.
00:24:24
Speaker
If you want to know more about that, you can visit our website, artistsoftheway.com, and visit our Godspell page.
00:24:30
Speaker
There you'll be able to find show details and information on fundraising if you're interested in helping support the production.
00:24:37
Speaker
If you want to stay up to date with everything regarding Godspell or our podcast, sign up for our email newsletter.
00:24:43
Speaker
We have a newsletter that goes out every two weeks.
00:24:46
Speaker
We'll let you know when new episodes are posted.
00:24:48
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.
00:24:55
Speaker
Thanks.
00:24:56
Speaker
Enjoy the rest of the show.
00:24:58
Speaker
So, um...
00:25:01
Speaker
As you guys have been working on things, have you guys done scenes together, scene work, and then presented stuff?
00:25:07
Speaker
Or has it mostly been monologues and solos and things like that?
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:14
Speaker
We've had a few chances to work on things together.
00:25:22
Speaker
One of the actually very cool aspects that I
00:25:27
Speaker
we didn't know about until we actually were in class and being told this.
00:25:34
Speaker
What they like to do a lot, and we've gotten a couple chances too, is
00:25:39
Speaker
um not only do we get scenes with other classmates to work on um but they get volunteers from the professionals in the company um to then come and and and work with us so we'll we um we've gotten a couple chances where we'll get paired up with um a cast member and the first time we did it we didn't know anybody but they
00:26:03
Speaker
They just paired us up for scenes that they had picked out.
00:26:07
Speaker
And then we were in charge of like the rest of the weeks before presenting it, we would meet together and run the scene and work on it.
00:26:17
Speaker
And then we'd present it in class and we'd get notes and we'd work on it for a couple of minutes and then somebody else would go.
00:26:28
Speaker
And then in like two weeks after that,
00:26:30
Speaker
we would present it finally for a grade to kind of see like where the scene will grow from there.
00:26:40
Speaker
We've done that I think only in two classes.
00:26:46
Speaker
We've done scenes with castmates and classmates in our Stanislavski class and we've so far only done
00:27:00
Speaker
Excuse me.
00:27:01
Speaker
We've only had scenes with castmates for Shakespeare.
00:27:08
Speaker
But we're about to... We're actually about to do scenes with classmates for this semester of Shakespeare.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, I completely forgot about Shakespeare.
00:27:21
Speaker
Crazy.
00:27:22
Speaker
Have you done Shakespeare before doing it here?
00:27:26
Speaker
I have not.
00:27:28
Speaker
And it...
00:27:31
Speaker
That kind of bums me out, but I'm also thankful for that.
00:27:36
Speaker
Just because I thought I kind of liked Shakespeare.
00:27:41
Speaker
I thought it was interesting and I was excited to learn about it, but I had never been like truly introduced to it and getting to do it.
00:27:49
Speaker
And then coming here and like.
00:27:55
Speaker
during the first semester we had a theater history course and we had to watch or read Hamlet so that was like my first time like watching a full real Shakespeare thing that wasn't like an adaptation of the story so I watched the one with what's I'm totally blanking on his name what's he played
00:28:23
Speaker
Dr. Who.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yes.
00:28:25
Speaker
David Tennant.
00:28:25
Speaker
David Tennant.
00:28:26
Speaker
Thank you.
00:28:28
Speaker
It was really good and I really enjoyed it.
00:28:31
Speaker
And, and something I found over this year.
00:28:36
Speaker
I mean, it, it kind of stemmed from kind of learning this in our Shakespeare class of like Shakespeare is meant to be heard.
00:28:44
Speaker
Like a lot of people will read Shakespeare and they'll be like, I don't get it.
00:28:48
Speaker
And then other people will like,
00:28:50
Speaker
listen to Shakespeare and they're like, I kind of get it.
00:28:53
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, that makes so much sense.
00:28:55
Speaker
But also just seeing the difference in classmates of like kind of who gets Shakespeare and who doesn't.
00:29:04
Speaker
Um,
00:29:05
Speaker
There are some who get it, some who still struggle with it, but they're trying.
00:29:10
Speaker
They're not like, I give up.
00:29:12
Speaker
I don't get it.
00:29:12
Speaker
But they're like, it's just a lot harder.
00:29:15
Speaker
And I'm like, good for you for still trying.
00:29:16
Speaker
But like, some of them will watch it and then have subtitles and have the script.
00:29:23
Speaker
And they're just trying to absorb as much as possible.
00:29:26
Speaker
And I remember when I watched Hamlet, they were like, how did you intake it for class?
00:29:30
Speaker
And I was like...
00:29:32
Speaker
I just watched it.
00:29:33
Speaker
I threw on subtitles to make sure I didn't miss anything, but I just watched it.
00:29:38
Speaker
And they were like, and you understood it?
00:29:39
Speaker
I was like, yeah.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, when you have actors that understand, which this is the challenge of doing Shakespeare, but when you have actors that understand it,
00:29:51
Speaker
then even if you're not catching all the lines or every meaning of every word, like you understand the story because the actors are communicating that to you.
00:30:00
Speaker
Right.
00:30:01
Speaker
And that's definitely like what I found so much more helpful was like, I was like, well, you could tell kind of what they were saying just from the inflection of their voice, how they were saying the line, the intentionality behind it.
00:30:12
Speaker
And it really just clicked.
00:30:14
Speaker
And, but I also, I also feel like I've been finding things,
00:30:19
Speaker
It feels like a blessing from the Lord of him being like, you're going to understand Shakespeare just a little bit more than some other people.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I'm like, cool, thank you.
00:30:30
Speaker
It's also great too.
00:30:33
Speaker
And the more you understand it, the more you start to see where he's coming from, and especially from a Christian perspective, there's so much in those.
00:30:43
Speaker
Because we just did Hamlet, and there's like...
00:30:46
Speaker
Now I'm totally off topic.
00:30:47
Speaker
Now we're just talking about Shakespeare.
00:30:49
Speaker
But I mean, there was just, and I'd spent, I wanted to do Hamlet for like five years before we did Hamlet.
00:30:57
Speaker
I wanted to do it.
00:30:59
Speaker
when I did Mary Poppins in 2017, Brad Garnott was like, you could do Shakespeare.
00:31:03
Speaker
And I just watched Hamlet.
00:31:05
Speaker
And then Tim and I joked about it.
00:31:07
Speaker
And we were like, we could be like David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.
00:31:10
Speaker
Then we were like, hang on, that would be super cool.
00:31:11
Speaker
So for like five years, I'd read it once or twice a year and was like forming what I would want to do with this character.
00:31:19
Speaker
And then when I was actually doing it, just so much more rich theological meaning came out of that story.
00:31:26
Speaker
And he just put...
00:31:28
Speaker
So much in there, and it's so incredibly Christian.
00:31:32
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:31:35
Speaker
What's crazy is Hamlet is just...
00:31:39
Speaker
I love how it's it's always Hamlet because that was the same thing for me.
00:31:42
Speaker
Like it's always Hamlet is the introduction.
00:31:44
Speaker
Like I just just being on the Internet like two years ago, I think it was the first time I saw it.
00:31:51
Speaker
Probably just being on the Internet.
00:31:53
Speaker
I scrolled across a video of.
00:32:00
Speaker
I'm terrible with actors names.
00:32:03
Speaker
um but he is a i think he's a scottish actor and he is he the was he the one who played more andrew scott and sherlock yes andrew scott yep i just i almost said adam scott and that's a completely different actor who i don't think has done shakespeare or should do shakespeare but shakespeare parks and rec let's go oh
00:32:29
Speaker
You know, it would be its own thing.
00:32:30
Speaker
It would be its own strange thing.
00:32:33
Speaker
But anyway, yeah, I just saw it like it was just the to be or not to be speech of his performance.
00:32:40
Speaker
And that was the first time that I like heard Shakespeare because I had heard Shakespeare before because it's referenced everywhere.
00:32:46
Speaker
It was the first time I heard it.
00:32:48
Speaker
And I went, oh, he's talking about death.
00:32:52
Speaker
He's talking about like I literally just pieced it all together.
00:32:55
Speaker
I was like, I know exactly what he's saying and thinking through.
00:32:59
Speaker
And I think that was very much on Andrew Scott's performance of that.
00:33:03
Speaker
And so then I just kind of became obsessed with the to be or not to be speech.
00:33:07
Speaker
So that was one of my monologues in Stanislavski.
00:33:09
Speaker
I did that and I was not prepared to yet because I hadn't taken any Shakespeare.
00:33:14
Speaker
It was fine.
00:33:15
Speaker
It's crazy how differently everybody interprets, well, just his character as a whole, but that speech especially too.
00:33:22
Speaker
Like, he's such an ambiguous character.
00:33:25
Speaker
You can really...
00:33:26
Speaker
almost make him whatever and it's so cool to see what an actor does with that when they approach it right which i think is just it's just shakespeare's excellence just shining through like you wrote a character that so many people take in so many different directions and unless they're way off base which i mean i'm sure there are some out there but unless they're way out there
00:33:47
Speaker
Even then, it may still work, but most of the time, it's like, wherever you take it, wherever they take it, if they are understanding the text, it works really, really well.
00:33:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:33:59
Speaker
Anyways, let's get back on topic here after geeking out about Shakespeare a little.
00:34:02
Speaker
We can nerd out about Shakespeare some other time.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:07
Speaker
He's been here for 600 years.
00:34:09
Speaker
He'll be here still.
00:34:10
Speaker
He'll be here still.
Insights from 'Pilgrim's Progress': Roles and Reflections
00:34:14
Speaker
I guess as you've been...
00:34:17
Speaker
exploring more characters or even before conservatory, just in the process of creating a role and, and living that out on stage, which I think is a really profound experience.
00:34:28
Speaker
Um, is there one that really sticks in your mind where the process of playing a character or delving into them, God has highlighted something or helped you with something or used that in some way, or it's, or it's made you realize something else about the world or God.
00:34:47
Speaker
Wow, yeah.
00:34:52
Speaker
I know, it's a really small, easy question.
00:34:54
Speaker
I'm, like, thinking through all of my roles.
00:34:57
Speaker
I know.
00:34:58
Speaker
Luckily, I can skip most of the, like, the ensemble ones, you know?
00:35:01
Speaker
The ones I think they created.
00:35:02
Speaker
Playing the plant in Mary Poppins, I'm sure, revolutionized.
00:35:06
Speaker
I just learned so much about nature.
00:35:10
Speaker
I love how you brought up the plant.
00:35:12
Speaker
I didn't even get the chance.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, you know, just Mr. Bundles just completely changed me.
00:35:20
Speaker
No.
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, probably the one which I feel like this is kind of cheating because it's not, but it's not.
00:35:29
Speaker
But Pilgrim was such an experience that, I mean, for the first, honestly, for the first run when we were in Colorado, there was a little bit of work being done, but kind of that was just the preliminary, I feel like, softening of my heart to certain themes because...
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, I was just doing the role, whatever.
00:35:56
Speaker
This is, you know, I'm good at being the funny, flamboyant British guy.
00:36:01
Speaker
Like, it's what it is, you know?
00:36:04
Speaker
And then when we brought it back to Michigan, it just, it kind of, I dove even deeper into it.
00:36:10
Speaker
And then...
00:36:15
Speaker
I can't think of when it actually was, but at some point through touring and stuff like that, hearing a devotional that we got before a show, I was just like, I think it's time that I actually look for myself in these characters.
00:36:30
Speaker
And it was not hard once I started doing that.
00:36:32
Speaker
Once I opened my mind and heart to it, I was like...
00:36:36
Speaker
okay how is not necessarily how am i like but how is lord formality like me or how is uh judge hate good or even eventually later how is um um discontent like me you know and um yeah just just being able to search within those characters and i think that's
00:36:59
Speaker
that one's really easy because it's Pilgrim's Progress.
00:37:04
Speaker
And, you know, that's such a human story of like, you can see yourself in almost any of those characters.
00:37:14
Speaker
And that's the real power of the show because, I mean, after shows, you'd have people coming in and be like, I saw myself and so-and-so and so-and-so.
00:37:21
Speaker
And I know you had stories of that with persecution and other roles.
00:37:26
Speaker
But, yeah, just...
00:37:29
Speaker
taking the time to like dig in and find yeah, just parts of parts of myself that just needed to be worked on through that.
00:37:44
Speaker
And I feel like that's most of the time where where it feels like
00:37:56
Speaker
where you see yourself in a character um it's it's i feel like it's rarely oh me and this character are good in this same way you know like it can be but like most of the time you're like man this character did this awful thing shoot i would do that i've done that oh man um
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:21
Speaker
I, could you remind me of the question real quick?
00:38:23
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:38:24
Speaker
It was, it was how's God used the roles or the process of portraying or creating one to kind of highlight something or shape you in some way.
00:38:32
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:33
Speaker
I'm like, I was like, I feel like I'm veering off, but no, um, no, you're good.
00:38:37
Speaker
So just, just really to, um, work on me in that way of, um,
00:38:45
Speaker
And that kind of opened me up to, okay, now you need to look in these characters that you're playing and find things.
00:38:58
Speaker
I feel like in that way, even though somebody on Earth here has casted me in a role, I think it's something that I don't often think about, but I think we should, of like, yes, somebody on Earth cast you in this role, but
00:39:14
Speaker
But more importantly, God cast you in this role for some reason.
00:39:18
Speaker
And yeah, I feel like he always has some sort of something you're going to learn, learn from that.
00:39:24
Speaker
And now it may be an experience, like it may be something from the experience of being in that role.
00:39:29
Speaker
But I feel like more often than not, like, there's going to be something that you have to do as that character or something.
00:39:36
Speaker
that is just in that character's story that's going to relate to you.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah, and there's some directors that are aware of that too.
00:39:46
Speaker
And I'm even thinking about that too.
00:39:48
Speaker
There's a show I'm going to direct next year that I'm almost at the point of going public with talking about.
00:39:57
Speaker
But...
00:39:58
Speaker
There's one role in particular that I'm like, I really want whoever God wants to play this role.
00:40:05
Speaker
Well, there's several, but one in particular.
00:40:08
Speaker
I'm trying to be very vague because I haven't announced things.
00:40:12
Speaker
But it's a similar role to one I've played before.
00:40:18
Speaker
And so I just know the power that is in playing a role that...
00:40:24
Speaker
Somehow God was just like, hey, you're going to get this at just the right point in your life where it's going to... I'm going to use it to shape you so much.
00:40:34
Speaker
I really do think there's some divine ordering there in who plays what characters.
00:40:41
Speaker
Right.
00:40:42
Speaker
But you definitely... I feel like you definitely just can't look at the surface of a character.
00:40:47
Speaker
You have to dig deep into that character.
00:40:49
Speaker
Because, I mean, you can...
00:40:52
Speaker
totally destroy yourself if you keep getting villains and you're like ah what am i doing what's i know what about me is like you're evil you're a villain you know well i i legit like had that for a second because around the time of pilgrim i kept playing bad guys and i was like i just need a break from bad guys because i i keep doing that thing where i'm finding the similarities between me and the character and i was just like this is just unhealthy for me
00:41:16
Speaker
Then I got Quasimodo and everything was okay.
00:41:18
Speaker
And then it was all good.
00:41:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:21
Speaker
No, I definitely feel that of like Pilgrim was eye-opening, but also at the same time.
00:41:27
Speaker
Well, it was eye-opening in a lot of different ways because I think definitely before that, I would see interviews with actors who either...
00:41:41
Speaker
um are believers or are not believers and are playing some sort of um evil or demonic role or something something very dark and they talk about just the heaviness of the role and like having to shake it off and in my little little child of an actor brain i was like that's crazy that's weird don't get that into acting but then doing pilgrim like
00:42:07
Speaker
Vanity Fair is a tough scene.
00:42:10
Speaker
It's easy.
00:42:13
Speaker
It's child's play.
00:42:16
Speaker
I don't know.
00:42:16
Speaker
It was tough for me.
00:42:17
Speaker
When we first did it, I was barely in it because I came in just for the courtroom scene.
00:42:25
Speaker
My character's name was Hate Good and I had that grouchy face on the whole time.
00:42:29
Speaker
It was physically taxing, but then later I realized this is emotionally taxing too because I'm just...
00:42:36
Speaker
radiating hatred.
00:42:38
Speaker
I'm just spewing hatred from every orifice of my body.
00:42:42
Speaker
And people could definitely feel that because they would be like,
00:42:46
Speaker
avoiding me.
00:42:47
Speaker
Like I found at the end of the show when we all come out in costume, nobody would talk to me.
00:42:52
Speaker
I think I had one person talk to me at the end of the show when we did it in Colorado.
00:42:57
Speaker
I had like one.
00:42:58
Speaker
It was like, that's because I murdered somebody.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:01
Speaker
And you can take that as a bummer, but also I did my job.
00:43:08
Speaker
But yeah.
00:43:08
Speaker
And then once I got moved up to discontent, I was in that scene a whole lot more.
00:43:13
Speaker
And I was just like,
00:43:16
Speaker
It's less about like – it was just such a different character and different things I was finding of like different areas of like where this is like, whoa, I need to separate from this.
00:43:25
Speaker
And luckily the Lord is with me and so it's never in such a dark place that I can't get out of it.
00:43:31
Speaker
But then I started to open my eyes to it.
00:43:33
Speaker
It was like, oh, that's no joke and I need to – I need to not worry about it but also not –
00:43:41
Speaker
just fufu it.
00:43:42
Speaker
Just pretend like it's nothing.
00:43:45
Speaker
I just need to be aware of that.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely something to be said, which I think especially in community theater is not often taught, and I'm hoping to shine a light on a little bit more, to separating yourself from the character even as you identify similar things.
00:44:01
Speaker
And Stanislavski talks about the magic what of what would you do in that situation if it were actually you to help you
00:44:09
Speaker
disconnect, but because there was one show I did the singer where the character was so much like me that I just like, I, that's the closest I've gotten to method acting, which is why I, uh, method acting is the one method of acting where I'm very, uh,
00:44:25
Speaker
strongly like maybe maybe don't um yeah because it was it was it took me back to all my spiritually dark places and I didn't disconnect at all because the character every line connected back to something in my relationship with God so I was just like I'm just gonna play me yeah and that was in a way it's like yeah which in a way like I think we can sometimes go there because it's just easier you're just like oh well if it's just me then it I'll just be me
00:44:52
Speaker
Right.
00:44:53
Speaker
Like, wait, you're being you, and it's... And it just led to, like, an unhealthy kind of... Because my brain just went back there, and I was like, well, I just regressed.
00:45:04
Speaker
But then doing Hamlet, and it kind of built this up doing all these villains as well, but Hamlet especially, he's such an emotional character, you have to really get into him.
00:45:14
Speaker
But everybody has a really strong view of Hamlet, and Hamlet generally makes a lot of bad, bad, bad decisions.
00:45:23
Speaker
And so I was like... I know!
00:45:26
Speaker
So from the start, I was like, I have to work really hard at making sure that Hamlet is Hamlet, not John.
00:45:33
Speaker
And John is John, not Hamlet.
00:45:35
Speaker
Even though I can get in and relate.
00:45:37
Speaker
And I think there's not a lot talked about in community theater about how to do that healthily.
Professional Training in Community Theater: Potential and Opportunities
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:45
Speaker
Because I feel like it's because, like I said before, you're such a limited time to then...
00:45:51
Speaker
to teach such intricate ideas because those are those are very intricate ideas in stanislavsky and yeah stanislavsky and chekhov and utahagan and all those different things there's just so much untangling you have to do when you get into it that yeah you know you're coming in for two months to do a production of
00:46:17
Speaker
I don't know, some sort of musical.
00:46:20
Speaker
You're coming in trying to do the Sound of Music.
00:46:22
Speaker
I was just about to say Sound of Music.
00:46:24
Speaker
What's the most money-making musical we can think of?
00:46:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:46:29
Speaker
You're coming in to do Sound of Music for two months.
00:46:32
Speaker
You can't be like, okay, sit everybody down.
00:46:36
Speaker
How are you not a Nazi?
00:46:37
Speaker
Let's talk about that.
00:46:38
Speaker
How are you not like them?
00:46:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:42
Speaker
So.
00:46:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:44
Speaker
That's cool.
00:46:45
Speaker
I do feel like
00:46:48
Speaker
I'm almost soapboxing here, so I'm going to say it and then be done so I don't soapbox too long.
00:46:52
Speaker
But I definitely feel like there's a lot of room for, especially in GR, because I feel like it's borderline a professional theater city.
00:47:03
Speaker
It's almost there.
00:47:06
Speaker
So I feel like there's definitely room for the theaters and the creatives to take a lot more time in forming the artists that are there and working together to...
00:47:18
Speaker
Do that now we've talked about that at master art some, and I think the broader community is looking into that a little bit, but I think, I think bringing that more in-depth professional training to a amateur quote unquote, or hobbyist.
00:47:34
Speaker
realm has a place because people are like smart enough to get it.
00:47:38
Speaker
Um, so I'm hoping that happens.
00:47:42
Speaker
Anywho, um, before I monologue too long, um, we are getting near the end of this episode.
00:47:50
Speaker
It's been really lovely to talk to you again and really great to see you.
00:47:53
Speaker
Great talking to you, John.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
I've missed you too, man.
00:47:57
Speaker
This is awesome.
00:47:58
Speaker
Um, so I have a final question that I ask everybody.
00:48:02
Speaker
Um,
00:48:04
Speaker
Again, I'm going to get back on my soapbox because this connects to my soapbox.
00:48:09
Speaker
Bring it back on.
00:48:13
Speaker
I grew up in the amateur theater world, but I have such a passion for acting.
00:48:18
Speaker
And so for me, it was hard to find resources, and I felt like I had to learn from doing.
00:48:25
Speaker
So something I really want to do with the podcast is help people find resources to grow in their art and their faith.
The Value of Experience and Diverse Acting Materials
00:48:32
Speaker
So if there were some resources you would recommend, or what are some resources you would recommend for people who want to grow as an actor or grow as a follower of Christ?
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
Definitely.
00:48:48
Speaker
I, I, I've been listening to the podcast since the beginning and I know this is the question.
00:48:53
Speaker
And literally since like the first episode, I have been thinking about,
00:48:59
Speaker
If John ever asked me to be on the podcast, what might answer this question be?
00:49:04
Speaker
So I've had a lot of time to think about it.
00:49:08
Speaker
It's not going to be a great answer, I feel.
00:49:10
Speaker
But anyway, yeah, because I agree.
00:49:15
Speaker
I think.
00:49:17
Speaker
Especially before coming here and even being here, this is why the sight and sound was such a draw for me is that unlike a lot of what I've heard of college theater programs,
00:49:33
Speaker
there's a lot of hands-on doing and i feel like theater is learned best hands-on doing yeah now that i've been here and i've gotten some of the stanislavski udahagan check off meisner all that stuff i i'm finding that idea is important those techniques and stuff like that but on top of that what we do here so it's so hands-on
00:50:00
Speaker
yeah with those that i just i um that's that's my main main thing of resources like just go do it like it's it's it's hard at first but like you just got to jump in wholeheartedly and do it um it's also hard to recommend stuff i should since i'm in school for it i should have resources but we kind of don't
00:50:24
Speaker
do a lot of book learning, like any book learning we do, we get like handouts and like, we're going to talk about this and stuff like that.
00:50:30
Speaker
So I don't have a lot of books.
00:50:32
Speaker
Um, I would say for acting, do research, um, just try and just, just get as much as you can, because it's, that's the beautiful thing about acting techniques is they're, they're, they're so subjective and objective in a way of like, yeah,
00:50:54
Speaker
You can learn the history of it.
00:50:56
Speaker
You can learn everything about how Stanislavski, you know, started it and then the, the modern style of acting.
00:51:04
Speaker
And then just, there's this tree trickle down of all of the students that took their own ideas.
00:51:10
Speaker
And that was the thing that like Stanislavski started it.
00:51:12
Speaker
And then they all were like, I really liked this part of it.
00:51:15
Speaker
I'm going to expand on this.
00:51:16
Speaker
Almost like immediately.
00:51:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:18
Speaker
Immediately.
00:51:19
Speaker
They were just like, just spread out and do whatever you want based on this.
00:51:23
Speaker
so but i feel like we're blessed with the the the hindsight of being able to now go and just study stanislavski and then study each of those students and those the students of theirs and students of theirs and just accumulate knowledge and then the beautiful thing is if some you don't agree with something you don't understand it if you don't understand something i would highly recommend trying to understand it even more research it more but if it's it's something that just doesn't work for you as an actor
00:51:54
Speaker
you don't have to use it.
00:51:55
Speaker
But it's good to just have knowledge to be able to
00:52:06
Speaker
discuss with other performers when you're working with a director or other actors.
00:52:11
Speaker
If you can speak in the same language, it's so helpful.
00:52:16
Speaker
So that would be my thing for acting.
00:52:21
Speaker
Do you have a technique or method that you're vibing with in particular?
00:52:28
Speaker
I...
00:52:29
Speaker
I was really vibing with Chekhov.
00:52:33
Speaker
That was very helpful and interesting, especially once we got later into it.
00:52:41
Speaker
And I thought I was starting to struggle with it,
00:52:44
Speaker
And then we got done with the class and I was getting feedback from my teacher and he was like telling me all the, all the areas of where it was really working for me.
00:52:51
Speaker
And I was like, I, okay, I didn't think it was working in those areas, but apparently it did.
00:52:56
Speaker
And so it was just really, cause I already used,
00:53:00
Speaker
i already knew that imagination was such a key part of of that and check off really harnesses on the imagination um so yeah that's that's method i'm not saying i'm a checkoff actor but i'm right i'll probably use ideas of that um more than in in other areas because i can i have his book so i can throw that on the website if that's yeah yeah that would be a good one with yeah um
00:53:29
Speaker
And I honestly can't give Meisner a fair shout out because we were very new to Meisner.
00:53:36
Speaker
Meisner's a little weird.
00:53:37
Speaker
I did Meisner with an acting class I just taught and it was all community theater actors.
00:53:41
Speaker
And I was like, okay, you're just going to say the same thing back and forth over and over again.
00:53:44
Speaker
And they were like, what?
00:53:46
Speaker
They had such a hard time wrapping their heads around it.
00:53:49
Speaker
But then by like week three, they were like, wow, this is amazing.
00:53:53
Speaker
But, and I wish I had like taken a picture and like reminded myself this book.
00:53:59
Speaker
Cause now I'm thinking of it.
00:54:00
Speaker
One thing that I also found very helpful from Stanislavski was actioning.
00:54:04
Speaker
And there's a, there's a specific, I can picture it.
00:54:08
Speaker
It's a little red book and it just, it has all these like actioning words in it.
00:54:15
Speaker
Oh, like verbs.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:18
Speaker
I have, I don't know if it's a red book.
00:54:20
Speaker
Hang on.
00:54:20
Speaker
It's like,
00:54:22
Speaker
you might, there's also two versions of the book.
00:54:24
Speaker
There's like the purple one.
00:54:25
Speaker
It's this little thesaurus of verbs.
00:54:28
Speaker
That one, there's the purple one that kind of like explains it a little bit, but the red one, this one that's just like, here, do you need a verb?
00:54:36
Speaker
That was so helpful.
00:54:37
Speaker
Once that was explained in Stanislavski, I was just like, um, okay.
00:54:42
Speaker
Um, yeah, I'm going to interrogate.
00:54:45
Speaker
I'm going to interrogate.
00:54:46
Speaker
That was, I hold on to get that, get that book and then hold on to that.
00:54:52
Speaker
Um,
00:54:54
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to try and get through here and try to condense my thoughts.
00:54:57
Speaker
Yeah, you're good.
00:55:00
Speaker
The other thing I would just highly recommend being an actor, something I didn't even do.
00:55:04
Speaker
I did in one area, but not in another area when I got here.
00:55:07
Speaker
It's just just consume the material that you want to work like that that is in the area that you're working on.
00:55:15
Speaker
I already nerded out and listened to as many musical theater albums as I could get my hands on, but I'm still, there's still so much that I haven't heard and I need to listen to and stuff like that.
00:55:25
Speaker
And that's the, that's the great thing with musical theater is music.
00:55:28
Speaker
You can just listen to it.
00:55:29
Speaker
That one's really accessible.
00:55:31
Speaker
One thing that's hard for me that I haven't done is just reading plays.
00:55:35
Speaker
I need to read more plays.
00:55:37
Speaker
That's really hard because you usually have to go to the publisher and order the script and read it or watch a bootleg, but those are hit or miss.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:46
Speaker
And, and I mean, even my Chekhov teacher and we've gotten really close and his advice to me was just like, just read plays and they may not be, but you'll find material you'll get used to stuff like that.
00:55:59
Speaker
And luckily, even though I don't like reading,
00:56:01
Speaker
Reading plays is a lot easier.
00:56:03
Speaker
It's dialogue, you know?
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:06
Speaker
But yeah, just get as much knowledge as you can in those areas.
Resources for Spiritual and Artistic Growth
00:56:11
Speaker
And then kind of switching gears to the more Christian aspect.
00:56:17
Speaker
Easy answer, read your Bible.
00:56:19
Speaker
Just dig deep in that.
00:56:22
Speaker
That's something I've been trying to do a whole lot more.
00:56:26
Speaker
And if you can, Hebrew and Greek, look into that part of it.
00:56:32
Speaker
Cause there's a lot there.
00:56:33
Speaker
Um, that's just really cool.
00:56:36
Speaker
Sometimes I just get lost in like studying Hebrew names and going, oh, that's, oh, cool.
00:56:44
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I think I can't a hundred percent condone this book, not condone.
00:56:52
Speaker
That's a weird word.
00:56:54
Speaker
um recommend yeah i i recommend the book but again like with any sort of like um material that isn't just straight up the bible um
00:57:08
Speaker
Examine it for yourself, dig deep into it and just figure out what aligns with scripture and what doesn't really.
00:57:20
Speaker
But we had a book in our discipleship class called Who Do You Think You Are by Mark Driscoll.
00:57:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:30
Speaker
And I knew exactly what that face was.
00:57:35
Speaker
That was the oh, Mark Driscoll face.
00:57:37
Speaker
Oh, Mark Driscoll.
00:57:38
Speaker
Yeah, so that's now you can understand why I'm not like this book because they were even things and and that's what they encouraged us to do when we read through the book and made a book report on everything they were like What do you agree with?
00:57:49
Speaker
What do you disagree with?
00:57:50
Speaker
What did we and we just it was just all discussion of like our thoughts on different things and There there are some definitely good things in there about Identity it's a book on identity and all right how our identity is in Christ and all areas of that and
00:58:06
Speaker
And that was such a good book just describing to me how I need to live my life as a artist because I'm not first and foremost an artist, even though that's what the Lord has made me.
00:58:19
Speaker
He has put me on this path to pursue this field.
00:58:26
Speaker
I am first and foremost primarily a Christian, a servant of God.
00:58:31
Speaker
I'm in Christ.
00:58:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:35
Speaker
And then just, and then, and then, and then secondary, I'm an, I'm an actor.
00:58:42
Speaker
And, and just having that mindset has just changed so much.
00:58:48
Speaker
I kind of had that mindset before, but it just, it really honed in on that.
00:58:53
Speaker
And if I'm to recommend one more thing, it would be.
00:59:01
Speaker
Oh, I remembered it.
00:59:03
Speaker
I was like, do I remember the name of this book?
00:59:06
Speaker
Living Together...
00:59:07
Speaker
uh by dietrich bonhoeffer um that was another book that really um impacted me i because i kind of talked earlier about community and how we are community and that just was eye-opening of community with your your family with your church and with your workplace and yeah and ministry in that way so yeah that's awesome
00:59:34
Speaker
I feel like I really stretched that question out.
00:59:37
Speaker
That's okay.
00:59:38
Speaker
That was good.
00:59:39
Speaker
Awesome.
00:59:40
Speaker
Jordan, thanks again for coming on to the podcast.
00:59:42
Speaker
This has been super awesome.
00:59:44
Speaker
It's been great to catch up with you.
00:59:45
Speaker
Thank you.
00:59:46
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:59:47
Speaker
It's been awesome.