Bethany Sarazen and Corie Savage become Accepted by their audience
Posted by The Skyliner on February 3rd, 2010
Corie Savage acts out a scene in her senior project Accepted. The play took the place of the Baptist Student Union’s weekly service. (photo by Timur Kamilov)
Kyra Alexander
Staff Writer
Last Thursday at Baptist Student Union, Corie Savage, senior theatre, and Bethany Sarazen, senior theatre, preformed their senior project for North Greenville University. The name of the project was Accepted.
“We had a great crowd reaction, much better then I ever could have hoped for. Many people told Corie and I how much they liked it and said that they know God worked through it,” Sarazen commented. “Corie and I were so excited and thankful to be able to perform this show for our senior project.”
Both Sarazen and Savage wrote the play. In the parts Savage wrote, Sarazen played the role, and whatever parts Sarazen wrote, Savage played the roles.
“We came up with the idea together,” Savage said.
The production allowed the two actors to portray four characters and their stories. Two of the stories were straight from the Bible with minimal interpretation. The Biblical stories were of two heroic women in the Bible: Gomer from the book of Hosea and Ruth.
The other two women’s stories were similar to the Biblical stories of these two brave women, just written in modern times.
“Biblical stories are important to reach youth,” Sarazen said.
Rene is a lot like Ruth. She is a widow who wants to go with her mother-in-law wherever she goes to take care of her. Rene finds a job at a hospital and is confronted by a sweet, handsome doctor named Bradley. With help from her mother-in-law and the Bible, Rene finds out that God comes first in her life and that He made a Boaz just for her.
Genny is similar to Gomer; she is a prostitute who sells her body to various men to earn a living. One day she meets a man named Henry who shows her there is more to life and that God created her and loves her. Henry teaches her about the Bible and treats her the way all women should be treated. Genny stays up reading about Gomer and how she meets the godly man, Hosea, who leads her to God. In this, Genny finds out that God loves her and she is his creation.
With all four of these stories going on, each woman portrays a part of a painting. When the play ends, the painting is shown to be an outstretched hand, reaching out and pulling in.
“Doing this show was challenging. We not only wrote it but performed it as well, and that is a humbling experience,” Savage explained, “We wanted to present the Biblical characters in truth and not just our own interpretation.”
In doing their senior project, Savage and Sarazen had to come together and do research on prostitutes and battered women. In doing this research, they discovered that many of the women did not have any access to a phone to dial 911 in case of an emergency.
In addition to presenting their play, Savage and Sarazen also asked people to donate old or unused cell phones to Verizon Wireless. These phones will go to women who need them in case of emergencies.
Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 2