Author: Michael

  • What to Expect Tomorrow?

    Tomorrow I will be performing the Gospel of Luke at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Boise, Idaho. The administrative staff there has been great about getting the word out and being very supportive. Announcements have been placed in other church’s bulletins, and there is a full-page ad in St. Mark’s Sunday bulletin.

    The church has seating for 1,500 people. But it is impossible to know how many will be there. It could be 10 people, it could be over 1,000. I will find out tomorrow.

    Anxiety is starting to set in, because I want it to be a success. I want people to like it. So far, it has been well-received, but this is a much larger venue with more people. I just don’t know what to expect.

    And I don’t know what to wear. This is an ongoing issue. I don’t have a ‘biblical’ outfit, and that’s fine because I don’t really want to harken to the past. This is, in my mind, a contemporary experience. But even so, there should be some costume elements that evoke the biblical time and the biblical mission, without implying that I have more knowledge or authority than I do. I am just a layperson. But this kind of costume idea takes some nuance and expertise, these are things I do not have. I don’t know what to wear.

    I think many friends and acquaintances are coming, and I cannot bear the thought of disappointing them. I want them to like this performance, because I want them to like me! It feels like I am flirting with catastrophe here.

    I’ve always been uncomfortable as a performer. Even small roles and small projects fill me with dread and anxiety. But so far, I have always been glad that I dealt with the uncomfortable feelings and went onstage anyway. I hope this situation is the same.

    This the opportunity of a lifetime, and that is not hyperbole. I started memorizing pieces in 1983 in drama class at South Junior High School in Nampa Idaho. My career as an audiobook narrator was a logical progression on this path. And now I have returned to Idaho, with professional experience and my own choice of material and now a real audience. It’s because this is so meaningful to me that I am so uncomfortable in the day leading up to the performance.

  • A Second Performance at the Prison

    When I first performed at a local prison at the beginning of the month, there were three people present. They seemed to like it. They were engaged the whole time. And after it was over, the idea was that if they actually liked it, word would get around and the next performance, there would be more people present. But if they didn’t like it, no one would show up for the next one.

    Today I performed for two residents. They were engaged the whole time, and seemed to enjoy it. There were others in the building who didn’t choose to attend. I’m grateful for the opportunity, and it was fulfilling, but this doesn’t seem to be headed in the right direction.

    Part of the problem was the lack of promotion or marketing. There didn’t seem to be any anticipation that this was going to happen. An announcement was made over the intercom as it started, but that seemed to be the only advanced notice.

    I am going to the prison as an act of charity, and it sounds off to complain about promotion and marketing. But there really does need to be some institutional support for this to work.

    Perhaps it is just a matter of regularly showing up. I’ve only gone twice, without it being a regular event. But if I were to show up every week, there might be some opportunity for the audience to grow.

    I am a little deflated after this experience, but it is still a rare opportunity, and I don’t want to become discouraged. Also, there is every reason to expect difficulties and setbacks in this kind of endeavor. I will keep trying, and see if this plant will grow.

  • Big Week Ahead

    I have some trepidation about the upcoming week. There will be two performances of the Gospel of Luke. On Tuesday, a performance is scheduled at the prison, and then on Friday, at St. Mark’s Catholic Church.

    The number of people who come to the prison performance will depend on how much the residents liked the first performance earlier in the month. Their reaction will filter through the population, for better or worse. If they didn’t like it, there probably won’t be anyone at the upcoming performance.

    On Friday I have no idea what to expect. I will be performing in the main church at St. Mark’s, which seats about 1,500 people. There will probably be somewhere between ten and 1,500 people. Which is not a lot to go on.

    At the prison, I will wear normal garb, nice pants and a button-up shirt. But for the church, there has been some debate about whether to dress according the time, which was before there were even needle and thread, or just something like a suit jacket and tie. I don’t want to go ‘too biblical,’ because I am afraid it will look silly.

    Also, at the church the space is large. It is overwhelming to be there, a single person, for over an hour. If I try to make large gesticulations throughout, it might just seem silly.

    The truth is, I feel underprepared for the show at St. Mark’s Church. I hope it goes well, of course, but this should be a good opportunity to learn for future performances. And I am so grateful to the team there, and Fr. John Mosier, for letting this proceed. I want to them to be glad they made this happen.

  • First Prison Performance

    First Prison Performance

    Today was the first performance of the Gospel of Luke at a minimum-security prison in Kuna, Idaho. Three residents stayed for the whole thing, and we had a nice discussion afterward. 

    It some ways, this was an audition. I am scheduled to return next week, and a lot will depend what these men tell the other residents. If they liked it, there should be more at the next performance. If not, there will probably not be anyone there. 

    The entrance gate to the Idaho State Correctional Complex in Kuna, Idaho.

    At this early stage, every performance is an audition for the next performance. There is a long way to go before it becomes self-sustaining.

    I’m learning that discussions afterward are as important as the performance itself. This is something I hadn’t anticipated. It’s an entirely different skill to address each person and enter into a conversation that includes the whole group. Every performance will be an opportunity to develop this skill.

  • The First Full Performance

    On Wednesday, June 17, I performed the Gospel of Luke, verses 1:1 to 9:50, in the Faith Formation Room at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Sixteen people attended, including a high school principal, and two theology teachers, and two priests.

    Rear exterior view of St. Mark's Catholic Church
    St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Boise, ID.

    I started with some butterflies, but settled into the performance after a couple of chapters. The audience was fully engaged, and I took a pause after chapter 6, to check in with them and make sure they would like the performance to continue. They encouraged me to continue, and it proceeded to the end.

    I do wish that I had some promotional materials at hand, like a business card or something to hand out. When it was completed, I didn’t know what to expect. There were a few questions, but I should have organized the conclusion better, to make sure everyone had a chance to respond and ask questions. This is one of those things that only become apparent after an actual performance.

    I am very happy with how it went, and it will take a few more live performances before it starts to become something polished. 

    In the audience was a longtime drama teacher who offered to discuss what can be done to improve the piece. We met at the Boise State University campus, and had a good discussion about how to rise to the next level.

    There is a lot of work to be done on this project, in almost every area. But it seems to be off to an auspicious start, and I am grateful for the opportunity to perform for a real audience for the first time.

  • The Emergence

    The Emergence

    This week I will be giving the first performances of the Gospel of Luke at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Hopefully there will be some school administrators there to assess whether this is something they’d like in their classrooms.

    It’s high stakes, but it’s also necessary stakes. It’s like the ante in a poker game. You have to be willing to take some risk in order to be allowed to play the game.

    I am trying to transform my life, to engaging full with the Gospel of Luke. I mean that it needs to become my main source of material support, so that I can commit to memorizing the rest of it, and performing throughout or society, from prisons to schools to churches to assisted living facilities to parks to events, and so on.

    Sometimes I realize how far way this goal lies. And the biggest obstacles to its realization are my ingrained habits, both of activity and of perspective.

    This is not a project that comes naturally to me, and I’ve never tried something like it before. It requires a great reframing of how to organize my life and how to feel about strangers witnessing the project.

    It was begun and developed in private. Not only do I have to take it public, I have to spread it as far and wide as possible. The nature of the thing has to change. It’s like a necessary metamorphosis, or like a plant emerging from within the ground and having to suddenly interact directly with the entire sky.

    I will report back how things have gone at St. Mark’s. This is a crucial time in the growth of the project.

  • How Did I Memorize So Much?

    How Did I Memorize So Much?

    When I recite the Gospel of Luke from memory, up to chapter nine verse fifty, it takes more than an hour. Sometimes actors have to memorize a lot of lines, and sometimes monks memorize large portions of scripture. But apart from these two instances, I don’t know who would be compelled to undergo such an exercise.

    It’s not that I have a great memory. When I started, it was with the notion that my limits would become apparent, and that would restrict how much I could memorize.

    A woman studies a large book, deep in concentration, in a room with many books and notebooks and binders.
    Image by Gemini

    But with consistency, regularly adding lines and reciting what I know daily, the amount grew beyond what had at first seemed possible. When the total reached more than an hour, then the limitation emerged of how much I could rehearse each day to maintain what I had learned.

    It would have been nice to continue on to the end of the Gospel of Luke, but in order to keep that in memory, I would have to recite it for more than three hours a day. I’m sure that with good organization, I could set up a routine where a section is recited each day, with the sections cycling through a weekly pattern, so that all of the material is covered. That may become necessary in the future.

    I would like to memorize all of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, because they are by the same author and are a single, continuous narrative. This will certainly require proper organization to keep things memorized.

    I haven’t experimented with delays, to see how long it takes for something to disappear from my memory. That’s because I don’t want to lose what I’ve already worked to acquire. But that may become an issue as I try to expand the project.

    If there is enough interest in the Gospel of Luke Project, and there are plenty of venues in which to perform it, then I will work on the rest of the Gospel. Until then, it seemed prudent to stop at an hour and a half of material, so test the waters, and see if there is enough interest to sustain it.

  • So It Begins.

    So It Begins.

    The Gospel of Luke will be performed next week at St. Mark’s Catholic Church next Wednesday at 12:30pm. This will be the first full performance, and it will be for clergy, deacons, and school officials, with the hope that they will see enough value in it to consider it for their school curriculum in the Fall.

    Yesterday, I met a Volunteer Services Coordinator at a local prison, and we set up a tentative schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays, after I have completed the required volunteer training in a couple of weeks.

    So thing are beginning to get underway. Now I will be focusing on assisted living facilities, to see if there is any interest in performances there. 

    All of this might allow me to fulfill all the requirements for my senior project in the Fall at Boise State University, part of which requires me to perform the Gospel of Luke in at least three different venues.

    I should mention that this is not the entirety of the Gospel of Luke. I have memorized from the beginning through chapter nine, verse 50. This is a natural break in the narrative, and at over an hour long, this seems enough to start with. 

    If there is enough interest, and the project seems to be self-sustaining, I would like to add chapters of Luke’s Gospel until the entire thing is completed, and then start adding chapters from the Acts of the Apostles, but that is a much longer-term goal.

    Now all the preparation and effort will be tested. Real people will see it, and deliver their verdict on whether it should be allowed to expand. I always expect difficulties along the way, including here at the first performance. It would be great if they decided to include it in their schools.

    This is beginning in a local Catholic church, and I hope to expand to other churches and denominations. It will be interesting to see how it is received elsewhere. I don’t really know what inter-church relations are like, and this will expose me to some of these outside relationships.

  • Meeting at the Prison

    Meeting at the Prison

    This morning I met the Volunteer Services Coordinator at a prison in Idaho. He is enthusiastic about the project.

    I still need to take a volunteer training class in a couple of weeks. After that, I will be coming in on a regular basis to recite the Gospel of Luke for the prison residents. 

    The entrance to South Idaho Correctional Institution.
    South Idaho Correctional Institution entrance.

    I hope that this is a starting point. If things go well, and there is a good reception, it will be possible to expand to other prisons and facilities in the area. 

    My personal goal is to perform the Gospel of Luke on a regular basis, to improve my performance, and to expand into more venues, like schools and assisted living facilities.

    I hope to have news soon about an upcoming performance at a local church.

  • First Performance

    First Performance

    On Saturday morning, I performed a part of the Gospel of Luke for a small group of men at my local church. This was the first public performance of The Gospel of Luke Project.

    A rear view of Risen Christ Catholic Church in Boise, Idaho.
    The local church where the first performance occurred.

    It was a small group, and rather than take an hour and a half of their time, I asked them to pick a chapter from one to nine. Someone called out, “six!” and that seemed like a good choice because that chapter contains the sermon on the plain.

    It was very nice to see how people reacted to this project, with a ten minute version. It was positive, and gave me confidence that the entire project can work, and work well. 

    Tomorrow morning, I will be visiting with administrators at the Idaho Department of Corrections about The Gospel of Luke Project, to discuss performing the Gospel of Luke at the prisons. The performance on Saturday convinces me that this can be a valuable exercise, and could even be well received!

    It has also been valuable because I am encouraged to contact other venues in the area, including assisted living facilities and schools. This can be a success.