A local theatre company has been giving acting lessons to some Richmond United Church parishioners, so they can bring more drama to their otherwise relatively quiet Sunday morning sermons.
Warren McKinnon has been dramatizing some of his Sunday sermons to better teach and entertain his congregation since becoming the reverend at the Cambie Road church three years ago.
For the last four weeks, 13 people ranging from children to seniors, have been taking the Dramatic Discoveries Workshop at the church, lead by the Gateway Theatre, to improve their performing arts skills.
“I’ve always had an interest in theatre and religion from the get go,” McKinnon said, explaining he studied theology in Montreal and did doctoral work in visual arts, in Toronto.
“The history of drama grew out of religious thought.”
McKinnon takes story snippets from various plays, books and films, and adapts those stories so it can be performed in an hour or less, which is how long his Sunday sermons are.
Sermons based on the biblical themes of those stories are given to his congregation over two or three Sundays, before volunteers from the congregation act them out. In the past year, he has presented six plays, including Les Miserables, A Christmas Carol and The Deserted Mine.
“We do plays in the context of a worship service,” McKinnon said.
“Many of the plays have music adapted to the stories as well.”
Wanting to bring up the performance quality of his performers, McKinnon secured financial support from the ProVision Fund of the B.C. Conference and the United Church Foundation, and then approached the Gateway Theatre.
Gateway’s education manager Ruth McIntosh said the theatre had never been approached by a church to put on a performing arts workshop before, however she liked what McKinnon was trying to do and the four-week workshop was born.
“What harkened me to Warren’s request was that he was in pursuit of creating a better theatrical experience for his audience,” McIntosh said, adding one of Gateway’s mandates is theatre education.
“It is to benefit the community,” noted McIntosh.
McIntosh brought actor and instructor Raugi Yu to lead four, two-hour, Monday evening classes. Yu taught participants the basics, such as performance skills and how to interact with one another on stage.
“The progress they made has been great,” Yu said. “They really got into it.”
During the third workshop, Yu asked the group about their progress and what, if anything, has changed for them. One participant said that she started to enjoy who she saw in the mirror more.
“She developed confidence,” Yu added.
For many of the participants, participating in the plays and workshop not only built confidence, it helped them become comfortable with speaking in public, in a language that is not native to them.
“I get to practice my English,” said Helina Huang, who took the workshop with her 17-year-old daughter, Cassie Zhang. “I’m a little shy but this made me more confident.”
For Mina Xue, 13, performing for the public was a whole new experience.
“I didn’t participate in any drama lessons in school,” said Xue, who took the workshop with her mother, Shelly Xiao.
“This was my first time doing this.”
Now that the workshop is over, McKinnon is hoping to secure funding again so he can offer another workshop in the future. In the meantime, he looks forward to seeing performances of a higher calibre in future plays.
“We needed professionals to help bring us up from being amateurs,” McKinnon said. “I think these workshops have done it.”
