Pilgrim’s Progress entertains NGU students
Posted by The Skyliner on March 3rd, 2010Kyra Alexander
Staff Writer
Last weekend the public joined North Greenville University’s theatre department during their production of Pilgrim’s Progress.
The production was showed on Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27, at 7:30 p.m. in Turner Chapel.
“I think this show was a risk,” Karla Neves, senior theatre, commented. “It was not what our theatre department normally does. Even though it is ‘Christian’ material, there are a lot of elements to this show that are challenging in its nature. My hope is that every person looking at this show was able to look at themselves in their walk with Christ. I am proud of everyone involved and their accomplishment.”
Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan and adapted by Tom Key.
Pilgrim’s Progress catalogs the journey of Christian, a man who is seeking his salvation on a pilgrimage to heaven. Bunyan wrote the allegory while imprisoned in 1675. Told as a dream, this 17th century religious drama comes alive in a contemporary adaption by Key, the acclaimed author of Cotton Patch Gospel.
In this story, there are many various parts to be played. In the production put on by North Greenville, the characters are played by Addi Musen, freshman theatre; Nathan Baker, junior theatre; Jessica Berryhill, freshman psychology; Jamie Costa, sophomore outdoor leadership; Will Daniel, freshman theatre; Lindsay Furrow, sophomore theatre; and Thomas Sieberhagen, freshman theatre.
David Schneider directed this production. Schneider holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre from Southern Illinois University and a Master of Arts degree in drama from Bob Jones University.
An associate with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, his directing work includes Gianni Schicchi for the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theater, A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the SIUC Department of Theater and his own original work, The Free and the Brave, at Bob Jones University.
He is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and Christians in Theatre Arts and has participated in workshops with Joe Calarco, Nathan Allen and John Dillon. Schneider taught a Stanislavkian acting system, voice for the actor and Laban movement analysis, and an introductory theatre class at SIU from 2006 to 2009. He also served as interim drama director at the Tipton Christian Academy in Iowa in 2003.
He has been seen on stage as Jason in Medea, Rosencrantz in Hamlet, Philly Cullen in Playboy of the Western World and Arsene in The Swan. Other acting credits include Henry V, Pygmalion, The Winter’s Tale, new plays, and original one-person shows such as Ben-Hur and The Life of Paul presented at churches and schools in South Carolina, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 6