Dear Friends and Supporters of the SJN Theatre Ministry,
As I struggle with how best to communicate this news, the quote from Ecclesiastes keeps coming to mind: “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
The St. John Neumann Theatre Ministry has lost its summer performance space in the parish center auditorium.
As many of you know the week long “Crocodile Dock” Bible Camp this past summer was quite popular. Our parish now has many young families with children, and, I am told, Religious Education had to turn away campers! This program involves the creation of a “set.” They use the stage, the stage extensions we built and the auditorium.
When I met with Fr. Tom and Sandy McCarthy to secure dates for next summer’s musical, I learned that the Bible Camp program will return again next summer starting the week of July 12th. Their needs make it impossible for the Theatre Ministry to use the auditorium to hold a musical, since we would not be able to construct and paint a set for the show until after their program concludes. There are valid reasons why the Bible Camp cannot be moved into June nor later in the summer. First commencing the construction and painting of a set for a musical that late in the summer is simply not feasible for a variety of reasons. We explored all possible options.
The yearly summer musical is the “fuel” that feeds the Theatre Ministry’s other outreach programs. Without the musical I do not believe we will have the talent pool needed to staff any such programs.
We were fortunate to have the space for so many wonderful summers. I feel blessed to have been part of this ministry, and privileged to have worked to achieve its’ goals. Perhaps, in the future, God will bring us together again.
Lou Ann K. Behan
