I have too many ideas. If I stop whatever I'm doing for even a second, my brain immediately starts creating characters, scenarios, situations, and plots. Once I woke up at 3am after dreaming an entire concept for a pretty crazy book or movie. Wanna hear it? Okay. These are the notes I quickly jotted down when woke up:
A boy has an imaginary friend who has all sorts of adventures with him as he grows up. Strangely the imaginary friend stays with him through high school and college. They privately still have adventures in his mind. Later he decides to write a novel about him. It becomes a hit and he writes several more hits about his imaginary friend. But fame goes to the imaginary friend’s head and the two break away from each other. But they can’t because he’s imaginary so he’s always with him. The guy becomes jealous of the fame of his character and begins to despise him. He goes on a downward spiral, drinking, drugs, etc. He begins to hate anything and everything to do with the novels. Rude to fans. Arrested for assaulting a cosplayer. Trashes the novels and the character to the press. Ends up desperate and alone. Redemption arc? We'll see...
Crazy, right? I dreamed that! Who does that?!? I guess sometimes inspiration strikes and you just have to write it down.
Speaking of writing it down, back in 2016, I did something that changed my life forever. I wrote and directed (along with my wife, Becky and our dear friend, Darren McKown) an amazing play set in the 1920's called, "The Prodigal Christmas." I wrote the guts of the story and Becky and Darren wrote the music. It was based on the Bible parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The story follows a rich young man named Henry whose grandfather dies and leaves his company to Henry and his brother, Charlie. But Henry wants to live his own life and become a famous jazz musician. So he asks his father to cash out his share of his grandfather's company and leaves to make it big in Chicago. He falls in with the wrong crowd and eventually has to make some tough decisions. You can view the play here. The Prodigal Christmas
It started as just a thought in my brain."Wouldn't the prodigal son story be cool if it were set in "The Roaring 20's?" I sat down at my computer and started writing. It just started flowing out of me. Within just a few days, I had the full script written. After just a few short weeks of cutting and polishing our uncut gem it was ready to release it into the world. We held auditions, found our cast, and got to work rehearsing. If you've ever done any kind of theater work, you know that your cast and crew very quickly become a second family. I cherish every moment I spent with those amazing people. At the beginning of every rehearsal we would spend the first 15-20 minutes sharing how God was working in our lives and praying for each other over life's struggles. Then we would get to the business of rehearsal. This group worked hard and dedicated themselves to telling this story.
After 5 months of set building, costume designing, and rehearsing the lights came up and everything went off perfectly...almost. The day of our first performance a major ice storm hit northern Indiana. IT WAS TERRIBLE. The roads were so, so slippery. But as they say in Showbiz, "The Show MUST Go On." The cast and crew were amazing. They gave it everything they had and the show was fantastic. The only problem was not many people were able to see it. The ice caused a lot of people to not make to the show. But I know that God used us and His amazing story to change lives. He brought everyone who need to be there.
But, what a ride! It was an exhilarating feeling to create something that started as just a thought. Then see it come to life right before your eyes. I was overwhelmed as God used the experience to grow my stronger in my faith and draw me closer to him through this whole experience, beginning to end.
Well, guess what? We've got a BRAND NEW story to tell this year! This play is called "It's a Wonderful Loop!" Think Groundhog's day meets the Office at Christmas... We are getting ready to hold auditions on July 31st. If you might be interested in being a part of the cast just fill out the form here. We would love for you to join our new family!
