Saturday, September 10, 2011

SCREWTAPE LETTERS

A masterpiece of satire! This CS Lewis classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a world wise sleuth who devises to screw us out of real ever lasting joy. Wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence between the old Devil and his nephew, Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation, and triumph over it, ever written. READ IT, LISTEN to the AUDIO or GO SEE IT! How Theatre Impacts Culture ~ Think how culture has changed in the last thirty years. Ideas and attitudes that were inconceivable then are mainstream now. Those ideas are often legitimized through making emotional connections. Nothing does that better than theatre. Theatre has the unique ability to create empathy; to feel for characters we don’t know and experience ideas we’ve never considered. It gives us permission to put down our guard and enter another world. In the 1930’s, a small cell of artists created The Group Theatre. Its members are now the ‘Who’s Who’ of American theatre. Their influence has been incalculable, empowering almost every Oscar or Tony winning writer, director, producer and actor since the 1940s. Their leader, Harold Clurman, the dean of American Theatre, famously remarked “Make them laugh, and while their mouths are open, pour truth in.” Fellowship for the Performing Arts has co-opted that vision to create theatre from a Christian worldview that engages a diverse audience. As an instant New York Broadway play, The Screwtape Letters became the rage in a unique way. A teacher who brought 25 students to see the play said, “The show was unlike anything we had ever participated in. Usually drama/film leads us to escape into another reality. This one did just the opposite; it caused one to focus back on the reality within. It was a very powerful tool for revelation and conviction.” When audience members attest to the power of self-reflection in our plays, the truths of the Christian faith are experienced anew. And it goes beyond the audience. Our influence reaches the mainstream media as well. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “As funny as The Screwtape Letters is, it’s all aimed at exposing human sin, some which we’re unaccustomed to considering a different angle on gluttony, another aspect of pride, and there were occasional deep silences in the audience as a point hit home.” The FPA, Fellowship for the Performing Arts is impacting culture with fresh insights of the ever brilliant author C. S. Lewis.

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