‘There’s a Great Awakening’ of Arts in the Church: Director of Museum of the Bible Play
Written by on
The director of a new C.S. Lewis stage play at the Museum of the Bible says the American church is experiencing what she calls a “great awakening” in arts, yet more needs to be done so that Christian actors and actresses nationwide have opportunities in their field.
The Museum of the Bible is hosting more than 40 performances through March 3 of The Horse and His Boy, which is based on C.S. Lewis’s fifth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. The stage play, produced by Logos Theatre in association with the C.S. Lewis Company Limited, features epic sets, costumes and puppetry and is appropriate for all ages. illumiNations Twelve Verse Challenge is sponsoring it.
“The arts have been really kind of neglected by the church for several years. But there’s a great awakening happening, I think, amongst believers,” said Nicole Stratton, the stage play’s director and the artistic director for the Logos Theatre, a Christian-owned theater company based in Taylors, S.C. “… We were so excited to see that Museum of the Bible had the same passion and vision to be able to bring not only an epic production but an epic production being produced by a Christian production company with a Christian cast with a wonderfully classical Christian script.”
The Horse and His Boy takes place during the reign of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy and follows the story of a slave boy, Shasta, who discovers he was born a prince. The Narnia character of Aslan plays a prominent role.
The story is filled with themes of hope and God’s providence, Stratton said.
“That is a really important message,” she said.
Stratton is passionate about theater and the arts, she said, because the arts are part of “God’s nature.”
“We believe that the arts are not something that is created per se, [but instead] it is a part of the nature of God,” she said. “… We are very passionate that people would understand that the arts are not just something that have been given to us to kind of check our minds out and entertain us to death, but they’re actually a part of the nature of God [and] absolutely are a part of our nature as being made in His image.”
It can be difficult, she said, for Christian actors and actresses to make a living in the world of the arts without compromising their beliefs.
“The need is really great for more opportunities like this for Christians to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing with my life. I’m taking the things that God has given me, and developing them and using them full-time to reflect Him and to give out His truth’ There are countless people around the country,” she said, “who have amazing abilities but where do they go and use them without having to sin against their conscience in some way, or do it in some way that they just wouldn’t feel comfortable?
“It’s a very big need.”
Photo courtesy: ©Museum of the Bible, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
