I've directed the theatre program at the MasterWorks Festival since 2005, and over the years we've watched the quality of our actors grow consistently and steadily as they've worked with world-class Christ-centered instructors like John Kirby (acting coach on over 20 major motion pictures including
Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,
Disney's Prom, and he directed
Word of Promise New Testament Youth Edition with Sean Astin of
Lord of the Rings and Corbin Bleu of
High School Musical), Ken Wales (producer on
Amazing Grace,
Christy,
Breakfast at Tiffany's) and
many others. At a certain point I started bringing Bev Holloway, a Hollywood casting director, who's worked on over thirty projects including
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius,
The Ultimate Gift and
Like Dandelion Dust with Barry Pepper and Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino. Bev has joined us four years.
We feel like we've reached another milestone as we're bringing this summer's production of
The Jeweler's Shop to New York City, where we'll perform it in an Off-Broadway theatre. We'll be inviting agents and casting directors to see the talent we've been developing over the years. We'll rehearse the most popular play of Karol Wojtyła, who would become Pope John Paul II, in Winona Lake, perform it for the full Festival, and then perform it in the Pittsburgh area before moving on to New York City.
As soon as we arrive in New York we'll be joining a Bible study for Broadway actors, and an exciting meeting with
Mastermedia members is also in the works. Before we leave for New York, Phillip Telfer, who wrote, produced and directed a recent documentary called
Captivated will be sharing with the whole Festival. We heard Phillip speak to the cast and crew of
Indescribable, the film in which my bride,
Joyce, and I played the parents of nine. The documentary wasn't complete last summer, and in fact Phillip interviewed at least one crew member on set. But his talk was so spot on for many of our goals for the theatre program I'm excited that he'll be speaking to us and sharing his documentary.
Captivated, now complete, was featured at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, where it was runner up for Best Documentary and an Official Selection as a finalist for Best of Festival, which was won by
Courageous. We'll be seeing
Freud's Last Session, which imagines a conversation between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, and afterward the actors and creative team will treat us to a talk-back.
Patricia Mauceri (who's performed on television, film and Broadway alongside Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Richard Dreyfus and James Earl Jones) will be joining us for her seventh straight year, and this time she'll be able to work with our students for the full month.
We've already had as many women apply as we'll need, but we're still looking for a few good men. Click
here for application requirements. If you're interested, move swiftly. We'll start making our selections for men (16-30) after March 31, and you'll need to order the script before uploading your audition.
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