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Spring 2003 | Volume 26, Number 2 | Campus | |
| Spring Play Brings “A Joyful Explosion
of Shaker Music
and Dance” IF ANGELS SHOULD choose to visit, would they choose to visit your town, your church … you? It’s an intriguing question — and one raised by Seattle Pacific University’s spring Mainstage Theatre production of As It Is in Heaven by Arlene Hutton. Set in a Shaker village in the 1830s, this is a moving drama about the struggle to find true faith. The members of the religious community are forced to re-examine their faith and daily life when an outsider begins to see visions. “It’s a new work that is a joyful explosion of Shaker music and dance,” says director and veteran Professor of Theatre George Scranton. “The set is minimal to match the ‘simplicity’ of the Shakers in their focus and style.” The all-female cast remains on stage the entire time (except for one intermission), its work as a community of actors mirroring the life of a community of worshippers. Hutton, a New York director and playwright, based the play on the real-life communal activities of a group of nearly 600 Shakers who lived at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, in the early 19th century. This is the Northwest premiere of her just-published work. “It’s a positive, up-lifting and fun play to do,” says Scranton, “and it raises some interesting issues with which Christians deal today. What happens when new things occur that upset the equilibrium of a tight-knit religious community, especially when those things come not through the leadership, but through the young?” As It Is in Heaven opened April 24–26 and continues May 1–3 in Seattle Pacific’s E.E. Bach Theatre. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Fine Arts Box Office at 206/281-2959. |
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 From the President Cultivating hope in the face of chaos is vital today. "This is the time for a Christian university to dig down deep into its formative foundations … and decide quite clearly what bread we have to offer,” says President Philip Eaton. Homecoming 2003: The Weekend in Photos The World of Teng Chiu Playing With Joy |
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