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07446 July 21, 2007
Chasing the Holy Spirit
Youth Triennium's theatre troupe enlightens while entertaining
by Jerry Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - Mark and Cheryl Goodman-Morris, a clergy couple from Portola Valley, CA whose theatre troupe has "performed" at every Presbyterian Youth Triennium since 1983, think they have finally hit on the right name for the seven-person ensemble.
"We've used a different name for ourselves every time," Cheryl told the Presbyterian News Service and Presbyterians Today in a July 20 interview during a break in rehearsals for the 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium here. "But we really, really like 'Goose Chase, Inc.'"
The name comes from the Iona Community in Scotland, Mark Goodman-Morris explains. "When they were sent out to either do chores or pray and meditate, the Iona monks were told to 'follow the goose.' Now, there literally are geese there, so there was some practical value, but because the goose is a Scottish symbol for the Holy Spirit, there was a far deeper meaning to the instruction as well. We like to think of what we're doing as following the Holy Spirit around."
During this Triennium, they have chased down - in spell-binding, poignant and often side-splitting presentations during worship - the story of Noah, the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water via a hilarious parody of "The David Letterman Show," and scheduled for Saturday (July 21): "The Road to Emmaus - The Musical."
The Goodman-Morrises began their "goose chase" while attending Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the mid-1970s. "We were assigned a sermon on a gospel story about a deaf mute for April Fool's Day. We decided to do the entire service in mime. The reaction of the seminary congregation demonstrated how powerful the possibilities are for using the performing arts as liturgical expression."
After seminary, the Goodman-Morrises continued to employ theater as ministry, "mostly with youth groups in the first churches we served in southern California," Mark said. "But what really got us going was the response to our stuff at the 1983 youth triennium. The next year they "performed" at the Montreat Youth Conference, where they met a young UCC pastor, Mark Montgomery. He's been with the troupe ever since.
"Meeting Mark and Cheryl was a life-changing experience," Montgomery said. "In this day and age, more and more churches are going to have to do more about incorporating the arts into their life. It's an ideal outreach, drawing the church and community into working together. The appeal is universal."
Goose Chase, Inc. - "We're not really incorporated, it just sounds cool," Mark Goodman-Morris muses - is just one aspect of the arts ministry at Portola Valley Presbyterian Church in San Francisco Presbytery, where Mark is pastor and Cheryl is parish associate and director of the Portola Valley Theatre Conservatory.
Cheryl started the conservatory in 1994 as a community outreach of the church, which up until then had been mostly known "as the prettiest place in the area to have a wedding because we're in a redwood grove," she said. The conservatory sponsors theatrical programs for children (135 are currently enrolled), youth and adults.
It's also served as a rich recruiting ground for Goose Chase. "A lot of the kids came to Portola Valley Church through the conservatory, said Goose Chaser Lindsay Saier, a high school student who started at the conservatory at age five. She joined Goose Chase last fall, along with fellow high-schoolers and conservatory veterans Alisa Scannell and Andy Seckler.
Scannell, a Catholic, said "I seriously maybe might want to convert - we don't do ANYTHING like this in my church."
The seventh member of Goose Chase is Noelle Goodman-Morris, Mark and Cheryl's 22-year-old daughter, who recently graduated from the University of California-San Diego with a major, of course, in theater and dance. She's back home in Portola Valley - "for now," she says - serving on the staff of the theatre conservatory and starting up her own troupe, "Seat of the Pants Theatre Company."
Noelle has been working with her parents since age 5. This is her fifth Presbyterian Youth Triennium. "There are so many possibilities," she said, "performance, worship, teaching, reaching out to the community, helping kids, particularly those who are underprivileged and learning-disabled."
Saier is a living testimonial. "My life has been changed by this," she said. "At an early age I was diagnosed with a learning disability, but theater is the one thing that has always made me feel comfortable in my own skin. Theater got me through."
Saier's service work for school is working with troubled and learning disabled kids through the arts. "I want to be a drama therapist," she said. "The Goodman-Morris clan has been the major influence on my life."
Mark Goodman-Morris said the Portola Valley church has been very supportive. "For all 20 years we've been there we've been clear that our priorities are worship, arts, spirituality and mission. It's evolved over the years, but you always go for those glimmers of creativity, nurture them, and then hang on for the long run."
Cheryl Goodman-Morris calls the Portola Valley church and its theatre conservatory "an incredible gift. I grew up in a time when opportunities for women in ministry weren't at all what they are today. That I've been able to find my way into ordination through the arts is so affirming."
Ministry through theater is not without its risks. The Portola Valley Theatre Conservatory, in addition to providing drama for worship at the church, stages several productions each year. With each production, proceeds are earmarked for charitable causes related to the theme of the show. A recent production of "Fiddler on the Roof" benefited Habitat for Humanity, for instance.
But the controversy in the PC(USA) over homosexuality led the troupe last fall to stage "The Laramie Project," a play about the murder of Matthew Shepherd, a Wyoming young adult killed by a group of gay-bashers.
"We scheduled dialogues between the actors and the audience after each performance and during its run we built our adult education classes around issues raised by the play," Cheryl Goodman-Morris said. Proceeds from the production benefited the United Religious Initiative (which promotes interfaith dialogue and peace), the local chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and the local peer counseling center.
Still, Cheryl said, the church lost three members because of the controversy.
The goose chase will continue. "Mark and Cheryl are really effective at encouraging people to share their gifts with each other and with the church," Montgomery said.
"I truly believe that God wants and accepts our best," Cheryl Goodman-Morris said. "This is it for us."
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