By Kim Messer

A few days ago on the first glorious day of fall, I pointed my car toward St. Louis.  I had found someone to stay with my daughter for a night so that I could steal away from Nashville to Mustard Seed Theatre for one of the final showings of Deanna Jent’s original play Falling.

Deanna and I have been connected for a long time through CITA (Christians in Theatre Arts) and she told me about Falling this year while we were attending CITA’s summer conference in Puerto Rico.  I was immediately intrigued on a number of levels.  The play is a very personal work as it puts a spotlight on life with an autistic teenager—Deanna’s autistic son is 17.

A few months before the Puerto Rican event, I attended the inaugural Applied Theatre Conference in Greenville, South Carolina. We learned about and were trained in some of the powerful ways theatre can help people whether they might be in prison, suffering and recovering from addiction, or struggling with autism.  Deanna’s play was a perfect way for me to learn more about autism through the lens of theatre even though the play did not specifically employ applied theatre techniques.

Well-written, directed and performed, Falling has all the good theatre and storytelling marks I expected.  Centered around five main characters, all family members, I was immediately drawn in as the actor playing Josh Martin entered Scene 1 and spent a about a minute establishing his world through the eyes of a teen with autism. Mom to Josh, Tami Martin was next to appear. The tension between her patient methods as she worked with Josh versus taking care of the rest of the household is one of the major driving forces towards the climax of the show.

We never really know someone since we cannot walk in another person’s shoes, but one thing art can do is to help us be more informed and more understanding when it comes to someone else’s story.  Though Falling is not entirely autobiographical (Deanna drew from other research and stories of other families with autistic children for some of the scenes), I was surprised by the emotion that rose up in me as I specifically thought about Deanna raising a child with autism.

Exhaustion, confusion, frustration, true love, self-sacrifice, patience, trust, faith, doubt, prayer—all these things and more were explored and illuminated as parts of the play.  And this was just a snapshot of what living with someone with autism is like.  I’m not trying to be esoteric here when I say this, but there is a complex simplicity to Falling.  The fourth wall view into everyday life in the Martin household is as common and comfortable as it might be in any number of homes, but the added layer of never knowing exactly what to expect from Josh and the years the family had been dealing with that makes for some complex issues and relationship problems.

The dialogue was expertly written and executed.  Scenes between Tami and husband and father to Josh, Bill Martin were especially wonderful to watch as the couple ran the gamut of positive and negative—operating at times like a well-oiled machine and at others like an old truck in need of a major overhaul.  And just like in life, the conversations were often stolen moments between handling the latest concern with Josh or daughter Lisa’s teenage drama or grandma Sue’s occasional visits to her spiritual soapbox.

As you watch Falling, you want someone to win.  You want some resolution or at least some short-term relief to appear for the family.  But there are no clear-cut answers, and even if there were, you know you have to ask how long they would hold in the ever-changing landscape of a household living with autism?  Deanna reminds us as the play comes to a close that many times, we don’t get answers to tough questions, and that sometimes the best thing to do is to let yourself fall into the void.  Not a void of darkness, mind you, but rather of letting go and letting the answers come as they may as we trust in what is higher and bigger than we are.

The actors and Deanna did a talk back session at the end of the evening.  Several audience members talked about their experiences with family members that have autism.  The subject of how hard it is to find good people who will work with autistic teens and adults came up several times.  One family mentioned that they regularly employ actors to work with the person with autism in their household because the actors have games and methods that work and because the actors often have more empathy for the situation than others do.

Bravo to Deanna Jent for sharing this intimate and important story, and bravo to all those out there using theatre to help people across the spectrum of autism.  Falling got a standing ovation the night I saw the show, and everyone of you using applied theatre deserve one too.

Kim Messer is a writer and creative consultant living in the Nashville area who served as CITA Board Chair for several years.  For more information on Deanna Jent and Mustard Seed Theatre Productions visit: www.mustardseedtheatre.com

By Dale Savidge, Executive Director, CITA

After 3 years of planning by the creative team of Arte Escenico in San Juan the annual summer CITA conference convened at the Teatro Francisco Arrivi June 10-17, 2011. Three days of preconference workshops in applied theatre and scripture performance (led by Dale Savidge and Carol Jaudes) were followed by 3 days of workshops, performances, networking and celebration of all things theatrical during the conference. Luisa Acevedo and her staff pulled together a stellar conference.  They were abetted by several theatre companies in PR as well as performers from North America and Spain.

Credit is due to the tenacious dedication of Arte Escenico (Luisa Acevedo, Ariel Baez (her husband), Dania Rodriguez, Gerardo Renovales (her husband) and Charlene Quinones. Together they traveled to 3 CITA conferences in the States over 3 years and worked tirelessly to generate sponsors, including a major sponsorship by the PR Ministry of Culture which gave CITA use of a 2-theatre complex downtown San Juan. They met with theatre artists and companies, they arranged for workshops and presentations. They created a website, promotional materials, and traveled widely to promote the event. They oversaw the production of several fully staged plays and dance companies.

A staff of dozens of volunteers and translators fanned out across the facilities we used, making the conference go without a hitch. From the first day the enthusiasm was high and it didn’t abate. Leaders of theatre companies and churches began to talk about what would follow CITA 2011. The finale on Saturday night, with 2 dance/mime companies alternating performances and the unexpected appearance of a drum and dance corp (and 2 performers on stilts!) had the audience on their feet. Even the North Americans couldn’t stay seated for the rousing ending to a wonderful event!

Now, we look to the future. The potential for CITA to impact Christian theatre artists across Latin America has been realized in San Juan and we intend to seize the momentum with immediate plans to return in 2012 and 2013. CITA has added a fifth region to the four in North America. The new Latin America region will be led by a new regional director, Luisa Acevedo. She will join the CITA board this October in Atlanta for strategic planning. We are excited and prayerful about what God will do through the ministry of CITA among artists in Latin America.

This conference was also personally significant for me. I’ve overseen CITA activities and conferences since 1985. The San Juan conference felt very much like the early years of CITA gatherings in Chicago, Houston and San Diego.  But I’ve witnessed a decline in attendance since 600 people gathered in Ridgecrest, NC in 2000, as our members in North America have used other ways to stay connected. Churches have turned to media, and academics and professionals now network in other ways. God has turned the focus of CITA southward, to Spanish speaking people who are clamoring for the ministry we’ve been polishing for 3 decades. I’m grateful that there is still important work for CITA to do, both here and in Latin America. And I’m grateful for a small group of people in Puerto Rico who caught the vision of encouraging and equipping Christian theatre artists in Latin America just like a small group of people in OH had a dream for an organization that became CITA.

We all live and work within borders: geographic, imaginative, ethnic – borders that unconsciously define the way we think and the work we create. Not all borders are bad – good art happens inside boundaries of time and resources. But sometimes something happens to bring our borders into focus and, when we can see them, we can choose to move beyond them. Theatre allows us to see, question, challenge and move beyond the borders in our lives.

Our goal for CITA members this year is to move all of us “beyond our borders” to create fresh and unexpected theatre.

You’ll notice that our conference/event programming this year is pushing traditional CITA borders. For those of us in the US and Canada we’re encouraging you to literally go beyond the borders of our countries to the middle east and the Caribbean. My own travels abroad have stretched me as a person and an artist and I look forward to exploring other cultures in 2011.

Perhaps this year you will stretch beyond the border of traditional theatre and explore the field of applied theatre – in missions, ministry, or in the service of disadvantaged people. If you’re a North American or European we offer you an opportunity to reach out beyond the cultural borders you are comfortable and conversant with and immerse yourself in the theatre culture of Latin America (in July) or the middle east (in May).

Whatever your comfort zone – make a commitment this year to go “beyond borders” and stretch yourself spiritually, artistically, culturally. See how much richer your theatre can become by venturing out into new territory. You will undoubtedly meet other Christians in the theatre on your journey beyond borders and you will return encouraged and equipped!

Dale Savidge
Executive Director
CITA

http://sites.arbor.edu/cita/ 

PERFORMERS, PRESENTERS (so far, as of 7.21.2010)
Priscilla McDonald, MasterArts Theater, Grand Rapids, CITA board member (directing,
artistic directing workshop(s)
• John Peck, College House Ministries, Greenbelt Arts Festival) Ipswich England
(perhaps a plenary session talk entitled, “Artist as Servant”)
• David Minniefield, SaltWorks, Pittsburgh (a one-man show reciting the book of
Ecclesiastes)
• James Brandon, professor of theater history and dramaturgy, editorial board member
of two theater journals (two presentation workshops: first an audition workshop and,
second, a workshop for theater historians and academics, “Writing for Theater
Journals”)
• Emily Patton, MFA student, Theater for Children, Eastern Michigan University,
(one-woman show, “Homestays,” and workshop for performers, “Process Theater”)
• Debra Freeberg, Theater Professor, Calvin College, CITA board member (playwriting
workshop, perhaps co-lead with Paul Patton, Spring Arbor)
• “Meeting in Kansas,” a historical one-act set in 1858 Kansas, performed Friday
night and Saturday afternoon at the historic Harmony Park one-room schoolhouse,
circa date, 1840
• “The Celebrity,” ten-minute opening one-act for Friday evening’s session,
performed by Jackson Western High School’s theater ensemble.

For more info email Paul Patton at: Paul.Patton@arbor.edu

Published by Baker Academic, a Division of Baker Publishing Group

Performing the Sacred is the first book-length exploration of the intersection of theatre and theology, illuminating the importance of preserving live performance in a virtual world. This compelling dialogue unfolds between a theologian and a theatre artist who revisit theatre’s rich history and paint a picture of its promising future while building bridges between theatre and Christianity.