When we see these same professionals looking to one Savior, Jesus Christ, for wisdom and direction, we realize that our mission is the same. A group of theatre professionals from around the world sat in a small theatre with an emerging playwright from New York City. Our task was to help workshop a new script. The facilitator guided the group with wisdom — ensuring that our focus was on the story that was being told rather than on the storytellers in the room who wanted to be heard. It was this same group that was asked the question, “Are you familiar with Aristotle’s Poetics and how it applies to theatre arts?” I looked around the room assuming everyone could also recite Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy. The question was asked again: “What are the elements of a story on stage according to Aristotle?” In my mind, I repeated what professor Jerry Cohagan taught me years before at Olivet: “A tragedy is the imitation of an action. …” And then I continued with the chanting from class, replaying over and over again in my mind: “plot, character, theme, diction, music, spectacle.” I looked around the room, and everyone was shaking their heads, unaware of these foundational elements. I raised my hand and answered what had been embedded in my mind. My colleagues were knowledgeable and had professional training I didn’t at that point. But I gained confidence realizing that, at Olivet, I had been given everything I needed. The difference was my liberal arts education had prioritized faith and viewed theatre as more than an extracurricular but as a rigorous academic venture. Olivet’s theatre program equips students by giving them well-rounded curriculum. And with faith as our priority, students have what they need to be set apart, both personally and professionally, in the world. It’s because of my Western civilization class I was able to write a play about women pilots in World War II. It’s because of my music appreciation, jazz combo and literature courses I was able to compose a jazz adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It’s because of my scriptwriting class I was able to hone my writing skills as a playwright. It was because of my education at Olivet I was able to make connections with fellow students that would later, as alumni, help me bring to life Olivet’s first original musical. And it’s because of my biology courses 20 OLIVET.EDU
and the standard of professionalism that was enhanced in me at Olivet I would be invited to meet Alan Alda and introduce him at a colloquium where he spoke on the art of communicating science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. At the colloquium, Alan discussed the content of his book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating. In an interview with The Atlantic, he summed it up: “I could see that when scientists were in conversation, they could make science in a personal way. ... But if they did not have someone like me pulling it out of them in a personal way, there was a tendency to slip into lecture mode. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be an interesting idea to train scientists to be good communicators while we train them to be scientists?’” This inspired an idea for ONU Theatre. This fall, ONU Theatre and the ONU School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics will bring the idea to life. With Dr. José Manjarrés, a robotics professor, and Dr. Nicole Vander Schaaf, a biology professor, we dreamed up an experience for children to be inspired to learn more about science and technology. Our original play, Detective Holmes, is the collaboration of the three academic areas. Our lead character must solve a crime and, while doing so, she will learn about DNA, fingerprinting and basic coding for robots. As a part of ONU Theatre’s New Works Program, Detective Holmes is a movement for cross-departmental projects that emphasize our strengths as a liberal arts institution and our priority to be mission-focused. When we realize that mathematicians, scientists, philosophers, artists and theatre professionals look to the same scholar, Aristotle, for knowledge and insight, we may see how our different departments can complement one another. And when we see these same professionals looking to one Savior, Jesus Christ, for wisdom and direction, we realize that our mission is the same.
