Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

Audiences enthralled at Louisiana College’s 2010 Drama Festival

by Quinn Lavespere

Wesley Brainard, Kathy Frady and LC's Testify lead workshops.

Louisiana College hosted the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s ninth annual Drama Festival on Feb. 26 and 27 of this past weekend.

When I covered last year’s Drama Festival, I came almost as an outsider. I was not really familiar with the workings of the Festival, and it was a struggle to write a satisfactory article that touched at the heart of the Festival.

This year, after a more intimate experience with the Festival, I can safely say that I have a better grasp of the Festival than I had last year.

Sponsored by the Music and Worship Office of the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Pastoral Leadership Team, the Drama Festival seeks, according to conference leader and puppeteer Cynthia Brown, “to honor God by teaching other people how to minister through creative ministries.”

This year’s Drama Festival followed a schedule similar to 2009’s edition. The Festival’s opening night featured attractions such as “Amateur Night at the Box,” in which amateur performers from Louisiana College and other churches performed skits, and “Funny Bones,” which saw comedy skits performed by Drama Festival regulars such as Wesley Brainard and Kathy Frady.

The second day of the Drama Festival consisted of four main sessions that offered a large selection of drama classes for visitors to enjoy and peruse. In between these sessions was a lunch break and worship showcase titled “Worship through Drama” which mixed comic skits with skits of spiritual intensity.

One of the classes I attended was hosted by Testify and allowed amateur youth performers to fine tune their acting skills. Renee Unsworth, the mother of Testify member Mary Unsworth, stated that the class, titled “Acting for Youth: Performance Class,” gave “a lot of insight on how to work with young people.”

I also attended all of the three main performing showcases, and what I noticed about these shows was both a good turnout and an electric atmosphere. Audience members clearly enjoyed these performances to the fullest extent, to the point where they even participated in some skits. There was much laughter and enjoyment in the confines of the Martin Performing Arts Center’s theatre.

Performances were outstanding, as actors such as Brainard, Brown and Frady gave masterful efforts and even the amateur actors acquitted themselves admirably. Testify member Hali Hunt stated that she “was really impressed with the talent that came in and had a lot to glean and learn from everybody.”

Led by director Dr. Pete Richardson, the Testify group members themselves were eager to top their performance from last year and gave strong performances, particularly in a spiritually dramatic skit that emphasized Christ’s love in the face of feeling unloved.

Brainard was pleased as well, stating that “I’m sensing that the Lord is moving in us to take us in a direction of artistic ministry in creative believers giving their gifts in meaningful ways and worship expressions.”

Overall, the 2010 Drama Festival proved to be as successful as last year’s Drama Festival, both at enthralling audiences and opening the eyes of this journalist to the more complex aspects of the theatre industry.

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