Author Archives: Joseph Frost

About Joseph Frost

Associate Professor of Theatre. Head of BA emphasis programs in Dramatic Writing and Theatre Ministry. MFA in Script and Screen Writing, MA in Theatre Acting/Directing from Regent University. Married to Shannon, five children (Nina, Darby, Emory, Beau, Violet)

Opening Angel Street

Posted on by
Reply

This week is the show week for our Theatre 151 production of Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton.  Last night’s opening was a wonderful performance, and was followed by a delicious tea and biscuits reception.

Angel Street is the first Theatre 151 production to flex the expectations of a performance in a small venue – usually the stage is set up as a traditional proscenium set-up, but for this show it was arranged as an ‘alley’ set-up, with the stage in the center of the room and a bank of seats on either side.  This made for an even more intimate presentation – which heightened the sense of suspense in the play; a Victorian thriller.  The impending return of a suspicious character is all the more intense when the furthest seat from the stage is hardly more than 10 feet away…

Congratulations to student director Ginny Holladay, the cast and crew of the show!

 

An evening of rehearsals

Posted on by
Reply

It’s a joy for me to be in a rehearsal room – I love to see actors at work, and watch a director guiding the process. I got to sit in on 2 rehearsals tonight- Angel Street (which opens in two weeks) and Henry V (in initial blocking rehearsals to open in mid-October).

Rehearsing is practicing – trying different ways of moving, of saying a line, attempting to draw out every possible meaning and deciding which ways communicate the most of what could be meant. A rehearsal room has the space to fail, and fail in the most effective way: the way that leads to discovery. And that’s why a rehearsal room is a place of trust – in fellow actors, in the director, in the crew; trust in the fact that we are all there, together, serving one another, serving the text, and that our valuable failures here results in work that ultimately serves our audience. Otherwise, it’s hard to have the freedom to fail well.

20120912-201345.jpg

20120912-201438.jpg

An unusual celebration…

Posted on by
1

Today, we are having new seats delivered for the theatre.  We’ve called in all theatre majors to come in to the theatre today (any time they aren’t in a class) to help us assemble the new seats.  As this is being typed, the party has already begun.

It my seem like an unexciting event (and way) to celebrate -new chairs, an ‘all-day’ work call.  The fact is, the seating upgrade is part of a significant set of renovations happening in our Blackbox Theatre space, and it has started with one of the ‘unsung’ aspects of an audience’s theatre-going experience: the seat in which they sit.

We are happy to have a brand new set of Wenger adjustable seating risers and audience seating that our patrons will be able to enjoy when they visit us for our shows this semester.  Previous seating made it a challenge to comfortably view our productions, especially if they lasted for longer than 15 minutes.  We felt your pain (trust us).

So we celebrate, in the way theatre people know how: by gathering together as a community, and working together to bring our audience comfort, and enabling them to engage each production, without suffering.

A New Year!

Posted on by
Reply

A new academic year has begun at Belhaven University, and this means new students, new classes, a new production season, and this year, for us, it means new faculty (more on that in future posts).  We are very excited and blessed by the arrival of new students, the return of current students, and the development of new programs and classes that will be expanding the education we provide to our students.

Less than a week of being together and we’ve started classes, had an ice cream social, held auditions for the first production, had a department meeting, and have begun the annual 24 Hour Theatre Thing (a slate of original plays written last night and performing this evening) – with auditions for the second production coming up early next week.  We like to get started right away…

Transpositions: the Art in the Church Workshop

Posted on by
Reply

Transpositions, the blog of the students of University of St. Andrews’ Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts, has been hosting a ‘virtual workshop’ that includes posts from around the world on the topic of “Art in the Church.”  It started this past week, but links the the entries already posted are at the main page.  Some amazing ideas about the inclusion of the arts within the context of worship.  Check it out!

Catching up on the Spring Semester 2012!

Posted on by
Reply

In the flurry of activities at the end of our spring semester left us a bit behind on blogging through our process.  We apologize, and offer the following recap of the end of the spring 2012:

March – The beginning of the month saw about a dozen students and three faculty members head off to the Southeastern Theatre Conference convention in Chattanooga, TN.  Faculty presented as part of panel discussions, attended Undergraduate Auditions, staffed our information booth, and took part in the leadership meetings for SETC; students participated in workshops, auditioned and interviewed for professional summer work, auditioned for graduate study, competed (and won) in the improv comedy competition.  A great conference year, and an opportunity we look forward to every year – convention will be held in Louisville, KY in 2013.

April – A busy time of the year for us as we wrap up our production and academic calendar.  Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing was directed by senior Eleanor Baxter in our intimate Theatre 151 space.  Ms. Baxter then followed up the closing of that show by performing her Senior Recital two days later!

The last week of the semester saw our 2012 Belhaven Theatre Festival, which featured 11 different events, from staged readings, class presentations, original productions, music concerts, improv comedy, and a presentation from our Alpha Psi Omega student-led organization.  A great tradition – which leaves us all both inspired and exhausted!

After the semester concluded, 10 students from both the theatre and dance departments at Belhaven went on a two-week trip to visit The Art Factory, a missions organization in Kandern, Germany.  While there, students worked at the Factory (doing various cleaning and organizing tasks), led workshops in dance, acting, and improv comedy, visited Black Forest Academy to lead chapel services in both the high school and middle school, and presented Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  We were very grateful for the hospitality of Rick and Mary Beth Holladay, who head up the work of the Art Factory, and look forward to future connections with their work for the kingdom.

There are many more exciting things happening in the community and work around Belhaven University’s theatre department – we promise to be more active in sharing our joys, struggles, thoughts, processes and news with you in the future!

The Mayfair Affair opening

Posted on by
1

A fantastic opening night last night for The Mayfair Affair – a new farce by Joseph Frost.

Our production is the premiere workshop of this play, which will continue rewrites after the show closes – the Belhaven audience response will help to reshape the play!  Frost and director John Maxwell worked through several drafts of the play before the production and made adjustments to the scenes and dialogue through rehearsals – a challenge for the student actors, which they met admirably.

Mayfair Affair has 7 more performancesFeb 24, 25, 29, Mar 1 & 2 at 7:30 and Saturday matinees on Feb 25 and Mar 3 at 2 pm.