The minute I walked into Union’s theatre on an early fall Saturday morning for my first Second Act Theatre Company rehearsal my freshman year, several people came up to me with huge smiles on their faces and introduced themselves.
“Hey, I’m Caroline! What’s your name?”
“Hey Julia, remember me from acting class? I’m Sully. It’s good to have you on the team!”
After about five minutes I went from a nervous freshman to feeling at home. We prayed, played games, and talked about our lives. We got to know one another. By the end of the day, I could tell that this was a group of people who loved the Lord and loved theatre, just like me. On this team, I would make friends who shared a common purpose.
Second Act Theatre Company (SATC) is an organization that exists under the Union University theatre department. Its purpose is to provide students from all majors with an opportunity to use the gifts God has given them in the arts for His glory, all while earning scholarship money.
In the four years since it started, SATC has been able to do many events at churches for Sunday morning worship services, Sunday evening services, Wednesday nights and special events.
John Klonowski, associate professor of theatre at Union, is the faculty member in charge and SATC’s creator. He came to know Christ through a drama during a church service, much like the events SATC now puts on. He is passionate about not letting our talents go to waste and passionate about building a team that believes the same thing.
“I always say this, but we function like the church functions,” Klonowski said in an SATC rehearsal last week. “All of our gifts are different, but they complement each other, and we can build one another up as a team using them.”
Within the church as a whole, people have been given talents in order to serve the Lord and their church community. I experienced this at young age as I served in children’s ministry alongside my parents and attended various services and events at my church. Getting to witness this aspect of ministry in a more creative way through SATC is one of my favorite parts about being on the team. I have never seen so many different personalities get along so well outside of the church. Christ truly is our common ground, and He holds our team together as we travel to and from churches for our events.
The events are usually structured around one short play that illustrates a facet of the gospel. They are comedic at times, but in the end the truth always hits home. “Lost and Found” is a script the organization uses regularly. It is about a group of people lost in the wilderness until they are shown the only way out through a hiker named Jesus.
“It comes in a cute package, but it’s a very deep subject,” said Steve Williams, sophomore business administration major and member of SATC.
At each event alongside the performances, there are worship songs, testimony monologues and sometimes dramatic psalm readings or other creative pieces.
“I feel like the monologues are really unique and strong. They’re unique to us, no one else is doing anything like that,” said Sullivan Hogan, senior digital media communications and theatre double major and assistant director for SATC.
Each member of the team has written a testimony monologue on a time in their life or a repeated situation where they have seen the Lord work in them and others. These pieces are impactful because audiences can usually relate to some, if not all, of the aspects of the stories communicated. They are unique because they use dramatic elements to keep the story moving and emphasize pieces of the narrative. The monologues allow the students involved in SATC to use theatre to exalt Christ through stories.
This Sunday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m., Second Act Theatre Company will host a worship night for Union students. It will be on the Bowld patio, and there will be music, monologues and psalm readings. This event will be an opportunity for SATC to do something for Union students, which has not been done in the four years it’s been around.
Hogan hopes that this event will be encouraging for the Union community and that the material, especially the monologues the team shares, will have an impact on the students who attend.
“We use our gifts for God through theatre to minister to others, that’s what I love about SATC,” Williams said. “We’re quirky, we’re funny, we’re classy, we’re all different, but we come together for the good of the Lord and use the gifts and talents that he gives us.”
Every team member would tell you the same thing because that is why we do this. It is fulfilling to use your singing voice, your ability to act or your gift of public speaking for God’s glory, especially because it is so much fun to do so with friends.
“The team has been a really good community since the get-go and gave me a family at Union when I was a freshman who needed friends,” Hogan said. “And still it’s such a tight group of people that you know you can count on. It’s beneficial to be in, and then it’s nice because then we can benefit others too.”
