the past few years...

I taught Theatre at Abilene Christian University from 1990-1996, and moved to Seattle in May of that year.

Since then, I have been writing and performing, mostly one-man shows. I've done a small amount of commercial work, though I am no longer actively pursuing it. By God's grace, along the way, I wrote a novel was published about a year ago, and Leaving Ruin continues to sell. I didnt' really set out to do a novel, and yet . . . here we are. The solo work has been challenging, rewarding, and at times, maddening. The solo shows in order:

When Comes the Way
Leaving Ruin
Set Loose from the World
The Little Guy
Postmodern Art

Taproot Theatre has also been a wonderful component of these years. Scott Nolte and company have been great friends, and I admire their mission and commitment to it. Just recently, it was my pleasure to appear in a benefit concert version of Boomers. And in 2003, I will be appearing in May-June in their production of David Rambo's God's Man in Texas, directed by Karen Lund. I've done several shows at Taproot including:

Edith Stein
Smoke on the Mountain
Boomers
The Clearing
The Boys Next Door
Terra Nova

I've also been speaking and teaching. First of all, I teach a class on the intersection of Christianity and the Arts every January at Abilene Christian University--a short course made up of a cross section of students. I also teach acting in the Taproot Theatre acting studio from time to time.

Another little thing: Check out three short multi-media short I've scripted, produced by Hillcrest Publishing. Go to Hillcrest Publishing's Websiteand click on GetWisdom.

THE FUTURE

Currently, I am working on a second novel chronicling the life of Cyrus Manning, and working on the Arthur Cycle. Check other parts of this website for ongoing news.

TRAINING

MFA in Directing for the Theatre from the University of Texas at Austin
BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian University

With that said, let me tell you what I think about Jesus, and how it is increasingly defining my life and my search for truth and meaning. Following the line of thought in Dallas Willard's work (see The Divine Conspiracy), Jesus is the one who truly gets it. He knows the human heart, He knows the environment, He knows history, He knows relationship, He knows epistemology and metaphysics, He knows cosmology, He knows theology. In other words, He is the source of things. Now I recognize that to say this is to say nothing if all of it is simply religious feel-good mumbo speak. As infants, we make sounds that feel good in our mouths without any understanding of the accompanying realities (if those sounds are indeed words.) So I suppose that for us to call Jesus Lord without understanding in the beginning of the walk is fine enough, but now that I have supposedly been following Him for over 30 years, you would think things might have become clearer.

Not always.

My effort these days is to turn to Him for life, for the sustenance required to get on in all the catagories I live in. Religion, family, work, play--in Him we live and move and have our being. There is no question that new demands are being made on my life as Jesus exerts more influence and power in my thought, in my daily action, in my writing--indeed, in all my human effort. Hopefully, I am being reshaped according the Word, The Holy Spirit inside, and scripture. It is a slow, painful process, but it is also joyful, and full of redemption. Salvation is for today, and all days are thankgivings.

Going on...

from Philokalia
by Scott Cairns

Not the one whose courtesy and kiss
unsought for are nonetheless
bestowed. Instead, the largely
more familiar blasphemy
borne to us in the little boat
that first cracked rock at Plymouth
--petty, plainly man-inflected
demi-god established as a club
with which our paling
generations might be beaten
to a bland consistency.

He is angry. He is just. And while
he may have died for us,
it was not gladly. The way
his prophets talk, you'd think
the whole affair had left him
queerly out of sorts, unspeakably
indignant, more than a little
needy, and quick to dish out
just deserts. I say him when,
as a boy in church, I first
met souls in hell. I made him
for a corrupt, corrupting fiction when
my own father (mortal that he was)
forgave me everything, unasked.