Our family has had a fascination with theater since my husband and I were in high school. We spent our honeymoon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Each year or so we would return to see a play or two. Eventually we introduced the kids to Shakespeare. By the time our youngest was old enough to join the family for a play, he had been counting down the days to seeing it. He has been bitten by the bug and has been involved in local theater for the last two years and has participated in three plays. He has been rehearsing for his fourth one coming up this weeke

As a teacher, I have gone through several classes on teaching students about literature. My favorite genre is fantasy. One thing I learned is that the main ingredient for a fantasy tale is magic. As children we can believe in the possibility of magic. We look for it in every nook and corner. As we grow older, we lose that sense of wonder. We may gain a little of it at Christmas, but for the rest of the year, we are tugged down into the humdrum of life. This week I have had the privilege of watching some real life magic.

Our family has had a fascination with theater since my husband and I were in high school. We spent our honeymoon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Each year or so we would return to see a play or two. Eventually we introduced the kids to Shakespeare. By the time our youngest was old enough to join the family for a play, he had been counting down the days to seeing it. He has been bitten by the bug and has been involved in local theater for the last two years and has participated in three plays. He has been rehearsing for his fourth one coming up this weekend.

As I sat this week in the sometimes darkened sometimes fully lit theater, I began to make some connections. As the curtain is closed and the lights dim, suddenly, adults are transported to a point where they can believe in magic again. The lights come up, and the curtain opens. At that moment we are taken on a journey through time and space to a place the playwright has created and planned. Magic happens.

This magic though is created with much hard work. That work begins many weeks or years earlier when the writer sits down and pens the words to the play. Later, tryouts are held. Once the group of people have been chosen, the real work begins. Each member of the cast must learn his or her parts. That isn’t the full work, though. There’s blocking and character development. The stage crew has the job of creating believable scenery and props. Once all of that is together, then it’s time for lights and tech. They add an extra dimension to what’s happening on stage. When opening night comes, and the curtain opens, all the hard work is rewarded, and  magic takes place. The real magic is that dead words on a page come to life as the actors portray them.

As the holidays come, you may have an opportunity to see some magic. As you do, revel in it and enjoy. Then thank those who made it happen. They spent hours on end to give you an hour or two of magic and entertainment.nd.

As I sat this week in the sometimes darkened sometimes fully lit theater, I began to make some connections. As the curtain is closed and the lights dim, suddenly, adults are transported to a point where they can believe in magic again. The lights come up, and the curtain opens. At that moment we are taken on a journey through time and space to a place the playwright has created and planned. Magic happens.

This magic though is created with much hard work. That work begins many weeks or years earlier when the writer sits down and pens the words to the play. Later, tryouts are held. Once the group of people have been chosen, the real work begins. Each member of the cast must learn his or her parts. That isn’t the full work, though. There’s blocking and character development. The stage crew has the job of creating believable scenery and props. Once all of that is together, then it’s time for lights and tech. They add an extra dimension to what’s happening on stage. When opening night comes, and the curtain opens, all the hard work is rewarded, and  magic takes place. The real magic is that dead words on a page come to life as the actors portray them.

As the holidays come, you may have an opportunity to see some magic. As you do, revel in it and enjoy. Then thank those who made it happen. They spent hours on end to give you an hour or two of magic and entertainment.

“The best way to convince, persuade, teach and inspire is with a story.”

In my sixth grade class, I had girls in tears because of words said. I finally settled the students into their desks and I told a story of a shy, insecure sixth grade girl and how words hurt her. You could hear a pin drop in the classroom, a rarity with that group of kids. My seventh grade students were ready to start a family tree project. They could present their own family or the ‘perfect’ family, and they needed to use photos of some sort. The requirement for using clip art and other pictures from online was to site their sources. There were groans and questions of why. I told them a story, this time with pictures. I opened my file on my computer with my art. I showed them the drawings I had done, and asked how I would feel if someone else claimed those photos as their own. The story stuck; not a single person who used clip art failed to site their sources.

As I look through history, it is the storytellers who wove the morals into the fabric of society. People don’t like rules, but they love a story. So, the storyteller would create a story to give evidence to the rules. Aesop and his fables is one of the famous ones. Others line archaeology hallways. What child would listen to their parents saying, “Avoid the sneaker waves”? And yet, every one would sit and listen enthralled to the story of the beautiful Native American princess Ewanua who was warned of Seatka, the evil ocean spirit, and yet at night she wandered to play on the beach with her dog, Komax, and her cat with kittens. She did not head the warnings of her elders and was lured into the ocean. Parents then would point offshore to the princess, immortalized in stone, staring out to sea with her cat and the kittens in a basket and Komax, on low tide, sitting on shore howling to get everyone’s attention.

Legend of Face Rock

In modern times, stories still resonate with our hearts. As authors, our values, morals, and intents come across in what we write. Authors may say they have no intention of sharing any moral story or that their story isn’t an allegory; however, their beliefs color their writings. Take the two most well-known for the modern day high fantasy, Tolkien and Lewis. Tolkien did not want to create a Christian book; yet, his beliefs shone through his writing. Lewis, on the other hand, wanted to share in a story his beliefs. He succeeded to the point where many now just see the story and not the morals behind the story.

As I wrote the Dragon Courage series, I had my own children in mind. I wanted them to learn some lessons, but knew that the best way to do it was as author Antonia Felix said, in a story. So, I began writing. Each book has different themes that resonate with the reader. It was with great pleasure that I read the review from Sandra Stiles stating, “There are subtle lessons and themes throughout the story about friendship, trust, courage, and abuse of power.” I had fulfilled my desires. It was even more satisfying to hear that I had done it in such a way that she “read this book much slower than [she] usually read[s] because [she] wanted to savor every word and didn’t want it to end”. That was exactly what I had wanted to do.

As you finish up this summer, take some time out to curl up in your favorite reading place, whether that is under a tree, at the creek or lake, on the beach, sitting around the dinner table, or cuddled up on the couch or in your favorite reading chair, and read a new book. Dive into a different world and see if your eyes are opened to new truths.

Scrapbook page from Sound of Music

Four years after playing in The Sound of Music, I married my friend, Eric Wyatt. He had had more experience in drama at South. He called himself a ‘drama junkie’. He hung out in the drama room whenever he had the opportunity to do so. He went on trips with the drama club and loved theater. So, for our honeymoon, he purchased tickets at Ashland’s Shakespearean Festival. It was my first introduction to Ashland and to professional theater. I fell in love! Through the years, we returned again and again to Ashland and the festival. In 2003 we decided to introduce our two oldest children to Shakespeare. The kids were 9 and 14; they were old enough to enjoy Romeo and Juliet. We brought along the younger two, ages 6 and 7, to enjoy Ashland. Eric had arranged for childcare for the younger two and we were ready to have fun. To our great surprise, the childcare fell through! To our even greater amazement, we were able to find two more tickets located just a row below the original seats. With grateful hearts, we settled in to enjoy a Shakespeare classic. However, it was not presented in the classic style. When we reached the end of the play, Juliet pulled out a gun and shot herself! The stage rotated upward and showed Juliet in white, on a white stage with the red blood dripping down. Eric and I exchanged glances and grimaces. That wasn’t what we had expected or wanted for our 6 and 7 year olds, but it had happened. Once outside, all four children agreed that was the best thing they had ever done, and they wanted to do it again. We agreed to stick to Shakespeare’s comedies from then on out. It became such a standard in our life that the one year old who had stayed home, counted down the years until he was old enough to join us. As soon as he turned six, we took the whole family to see A Comedy of Errors. David sat spell-bound for the whole time and the next year, when I took him to see another play, he was disappointed when they didn’t introduce it exactly like the year before.

Wyatt family, 2003, after OSF’s Romeo and Juliet

Our love of theater and drama has carried over into our everyday world. From the time the kids were little, they have been in Christmas plays. Our oldest son was Baby Jesus before he was born! Eric and I were Mary and Joseph in a living nativity scene the weekend I went into labor with our oldest son. Each one of them have played a version of Baby Jesus at some point in time. Our youngest son, David, was a very unhappy two year old Jesus who needed a “nanny”, so I sat on stage to keep him with Mary. As the years progressed, we moved from just the kids acting in dramas at church to Eric and I writing, directing, and playing in more grown-up dramas. Our first was a two night production of The Passion Play. It was a dinner theater that moved the audience from one part of the church to another. They started out in the foyer, moved to the gym for dinner, moved to the auditorium for the garden scene and trials, and back to the gym for the crucifixion and burial scene. Eric and I co-wrote and co-directed it. Eric and our oldest son had parts in the drama as well. That led me to my Christmas program writing. I wanted to give the church a solid Christmas and Easter message in one setting. I knew people came to Christmas programs to see the little kids. So, I incorporated the little ones into the plays, but also gave more meaty passages and themes to the adults. My first one was He Made a Way in a Manger. It was the same year as The Passion Play. The play is about the Christmas story but it is seen from Mary’s point of view at the cross. She has monologues as she recounts the story remembering what happened and trying to make sense of why her son is on the cross. It ends with Jesus coming and talking with her about why it all had to happen the way it did. The second was God in Human Form. I used some musings that Eric had voiced to me to showcase Joseph’s reactions to the whole story. Finally, I produced Heaven Bends Down. This play is the Christmas and Easter story from the point of view of the angels looking on. It was so well received that every so often our pastor still refers to it from the pulpit.

David as a shepherd, 2014

Eric, as Jesus, explains to Mary why it all had to happen. (He Made a Way in a Manger)

Eric, as Jesus, in The Passion Play. (the wording went with the ending slide show in He Made a Way Through a Manger)

This early introduction to acting has shaped the lives of our kids. Our two youngest sons have found a love of acting. Our 19 year old surprised us when he joined drama his sophomore year. He blossomed on stage. A quiet, non-talkative teen became a boisterous bell-boy, a hairdresser who portrays a window, and a mentally disabled young man who falls in love. By his senior year, he was quietly encouraging the younger students to step up and take part. Our youngest son, David, was intrigued with his older brother’s performances. His day was made and he was in heaven when the drama teacher said he could tour backstage. So, when his friends told him about a local kids’ theater, he was ready to audition no matter what Dad or Mom thought! We were behind him and let him participate. He was a huge success as a bunny rabbit in Cinderella last year. This year, his acting ability was stretched as he played Colonel Poupon in Clueless in the Ballroom. This Friday he will have opening night of New Artist’s Production, Peter Pan. David is one of the lost boys.

David in New Artist’s Production of Cinderella Reprisal.

Second youngest son in Midsummer’s Jersey.

Second youngest son in Midsummer’s Jersey

As I sit back and see how we have grown over the years, it is amazing to see how much drama has influenced our lives. From one simple audition for me and a choice of class for Eric, we have directed our own lives and the lives of our children. Little did Ms. Bentley know what she was doing when she taught a gangling high school student. How many more lives did she impact over the course of her thirty plus years of teaching drama and English at South Albany High School?

A tribute to Ms Beth Bentley at South Albany High School