Wow . . . what a meeting!

We had an incredible meeting last night. We started off by brainstorming some possible series topics and drama elements and we came up with some amazing ideas that will definitely go in the "hopper" (whatever that means) to be used. Mark Meyer also had a great suggestion to produce our own art for youtube (or sermon spice as Steph suggested) so we can keep producing great art for the kingdom beyond the bounds of the big ideas given for weekend services. What a great way to continually stretch ourselves as artists! We'll talk more about that later!

We moved on to another amazing part of the evening, the characterization monologues! Janet performed as "me" retelling my story of the night my father-in-law passed away. She completely captured the story and "me" as a character as well as working really hard not to nod as much as she does in her natural character. Steph performed a hilarious conversation that Janet once had with her daughter about "appropriate clothing"and added a few nods and Janetisms to add to the authenticity. Sherry's monologue from Diana's viewpoint was compelling and thoughtful. Sherry altered her posture and motions and it was like watch Sherry paint a clear portrait of Diana right before our eyes. Phil slowed his tempo a bit as he delivered Dave's soothing storytelling style when he talked about a turning point in his faith journey. And Dave in turn sped up his delivery and captured Phil's no nonsense sincerity in a great story about his grandmother and learning to trust God. Lisa didn't tell us who was her partner at first but it didn't take us long to see Becky appear before our eyes as she retold an incident with "officer handsome" and a near speeding ticket. I increased my energy level a bit to capture Steph's hystericl true story about how someone actually tried to steal her prize cake. John M. captured a memory from Jon C.'s school days adding layers of Jon's spirit and delivery style that drew us all in. In turn, Jon C. captivated us as he presented the beginning of John <.c faith journey as he visited various churches with his beloved Aunt. I still can clearly picture her in my mind and see John sitting on the Cleveland buses! Paul's monologue from Kyle's point of view offered a huge range of emotions from the hilarious humor at the beginning to the transparent honesty of his worries about being a father. Paul revealed many of Kyle's quirky mannerisms that truly make him whole as a human being, which is what this particular exercise in characterization was all about!

Great job, everyone! Our next step is to read the chapter on "Observation". Be on the look out for the dialog throughout the chapter that we will hold here and for someone different from you that you can observe for the exercise. See you March 24th!