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DIM
REBIRTHED
DIM has been silent for several months
now; and while you may be interested to hear that activity is
heating up again, you're probably wondering: how have
things changed? What new things can we
expect?
From an audience perspective, you
can expect to continue to see high-quality, thought provoking,
Biblically based entertainment. There will probably be
less of the light entertainment (such as Improv or Comedy
Nights) for a while, however.
From a participant's perspective,
we will be entering a new phase that's not all that dissimilar
to the phase we went through a few years ago following
production of A Quarter Measure. At that point,
DIM's cast of regulars had been well-prepared for "bigger and
better" things, so over the next year we mounted full-scale
productions of Saint Joan and A Man for All
Seasons. While regulars may have thought, "Oh,
well. It was good while it lasted. Now Greg's gonna go
recruit the real actors," quite the opposite was
true. DIM's regulars actually set the tone for many of
the "professionals" recruited for those plays.
We are now in a similar place
with a new crew of players, who have also been put "through
the paces" with the Chi Rho series, The Sign of
Jonah, and our Comedy Nights. And so we will
be "raising the bar" a bit for those who want to take it to
the next level, with longer rehearsals, and higher
expectations for memorization, Bible study and participation
in acting exercises.
Great things are ahead!!
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WHAT'S A
SABBATICAL?
The last issue of the now-defunct DIM
News announced that I would be taking a "Sabbatical" from the
drama ministry. Many of you may be unfamiliar with the
term or the concept, or may be surprised that I thought one
was necessary, considering that DIM is neither "full time" nor
a "job" for me.
Primarily, the concept is Biblical.
On the seventh day of creation, God rested and declared
it the "Sabbath." When He handed down The Law to
the Israelites, He included many "Sabbath Laws" for His people,
not only to remind them of His Creation and Rest, but of
the need for rest in their own lives as well.
In modern terms, "sabbaticals"
are most often practiced by academicians. The sabbatical
is considered a break or rest from teaching responsibilities;
but it is not practiced religiously, in any sense of the
word.
My recent years in ministry have
been guided by the words of God as found in Scripture during
daily readings. In 2000, I was guided by the words,
"Plow up your unplowed ground." And so DIM was given to
trying new things, while giving the old a rest.
When preparing for 2001, the seventh year
of DIM's existence, I was convicted of the need to give
the whole thing a rest. And so the seventh year was given
over (like the Sabbath year of rest God prescribed for the land) to
lying fallow: to rest, recovery and regeneration.
May 2002, with God's blessing,
bring new and vibrant life to the ministry! |
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DIM GOES
PAPERLESS
If you're reading this, it's an
inescapable fact for you that DIM now has a Web
presence! While the primary motivation for this move has
been to provide a cheaper means of distributing the DIM
newsletter, it also represents a very significant next step in
expanding the services provided by the ministry. Check
back often, as the newsletter will be updated monthly, and the
several web pages move from "Under Construction" status to
varied stages of completion! |
SUMMER PROGRAM
SET
You just
can't keep a good play down! In 1999, the planned
production of T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
was scrapped due to a certain fatigue within the group; and as
it turned out, God had other things in mind as DIM moved down
the path that led to the development of the Chi Rho
trilogy. But Eliot is back, and this summer, DIM will be
presenting the play on July 26-28 as part of Normandy's annual
Arts Fest. Plan on attending an informational meeting
Sunday, July 28, from 7-8 PM at
NCC!
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