SOME BASIC THINGS I TEACH IN MY THEATRE CLASSES

· You need three things for theatre to happen: ACTOR, STAGE, AUDIENCE

· Acting shares imagination through physical and/or verbal means.

· What matters most is what the audience sees and hears and feels.

· The difference between acting and real life is that acting is framed within the context of a mutually understood beginning and end, with both actor and audience remaining aware of the difference between being on stage and off (acting onstage is theatre, acting offstage is hypocrisy).

· Theatre skills can help Christians better understand what it means to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). In the theatre of life, all humanity is “onstage” together playing before an audience of One (with whom there is no offstage) who will judge our performance in the end. Human beings have been created in the image of God; this image is perfectly expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is to become an imitator of God through following the example of perfect obedience set for us by Jesus (see Ephesians 5:1). Because of sin, even our best efforts cannot produce the character of Christ in ourselves, but by grace we are able, through God’s Holy Spirit working in us, to become like Christ. The Church provides us the place where we can rehearse with one another the right way of living.