On Sunday afternoon, March 20, Pastor Neil Earle and his wife, Susan, drove with two teens to a very enjoyable performance of William Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
“Dream” of course is one of Shakespeare’s most well-loved and often-performed plays. Everyone who attended was intrigued by Director Kelly Ford’s attempt to present the classic in the style of music and personalities from the 1980s. So there they were – Theseus, Duke of Athens was local church hero Steven Rogers as Ronald Reagan/Theseus and Titania, Queen of the fairies, was Chelsea Pope in the role of Madonna.
The concept was quite inventive and the Chaffey College students threw themselves into their roles with gusto. Kelsey Cole and Mechelle Haines stayed in character as “Valley Girls” Helena and Hermia throughout. The overacting and exuberant Bottom the Weaver in the world according to Shakespeare was more than matched by the play’s Co-Director Hero Carlisle in that pivotal role.
College students are never going to miss any chance to be bawdy or risqué (like the Bard himself!) and that trait was in evidence throughout. But “Dream” – like everything in Shakespeare – comes larded with lots of embedded psycho-spiritual/philosophical messages. Hermia loves Lysander but her father (mother, on Sunday), Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius. This sets up the main action in the play but also offers a sober reminder of the blind force of unbending legalism – Egeus demands Hermia’s death by the ancient laws of Athens for disobeying her father and Theseus (Reagan/Rogers) concurs. Shakespeare knew the confusions of love and on the side of the underdog quite often and the whole “Dream” revolves around the fact that “Jack will get Jill” in the end. Legalism undone with the help of some bumbling spirits and pixie juice!
Pastor Earle enjoyed exposing his thirteen year old charges to their first date with Shakespeare, however removed. It was fun to catch their youthful reactions to the hammed-up death of Pyramus and Thisbe and to actually meet “President Reagan” after the show. Reagan a.k.a Steven Rogers often attends services of Grace Communion house churches in the Inland Empire.
Just days before, Senior Pastor Earle was treated to another live performance, this time on the grounds of the busy and bustling Western Christian Schools campus in Claremont, CA. In action since 1920, this lively center for some 4-500 students up to the eighth grade sponsored a Pastor Appreciation Day on March 17 and more than a dozen pastors from the Inland Empire made the visit.
It’s hard to turn down a hand-written (sort of) invitation from a cute little five year old.
Principal Browning introduced a wide array of student entertainers, the highlight of which was probably the fifth grade recitation of Philippians 2. More than one pastor commented on how sweet was the sound of clear musical youthful voices taking us through the elegant insistent phrasings of “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
What a treat to hear this and other scriptural themes sounded out in the crisp cool spring air. The pastors were then given the “royal treatment” being asked to march to a specially laid-on breakfast through the entire cheering, applauding student body lined up in double rows like a Roman triumph, another biblical echo (1 Corinthians 15:57).
More lay in store. While the pastors and wives enjoyed a filling meal they were entertained by about a dozen of Western Christian’s award-wining high school chorale bussed in from Upland for the occasion. Three days of resounding public success enjoyed by one and all. A great few days in the Inland Empire with two of our foundational pillars being celebrated – the Bible and Shakespeare!
(Grace Communion International has sponsored Grace Communion Church in the Inland Empire since 2004. Phone 626-256-4919 for more information.)