Tanya and Tim Chartier perform Saturday afternoon.
Davidson College Presbyterian Church’s biannual Festival of Faith and the Arts returns this month with performances, an art exhibit and other events that encourage using artistic expression to enlarge faith. The theme of this year’s festival is “Faith, Doubt, and the Spiritual Journey,” and the focus is on drama. All events are free and open to the public. A complete schedule is below.
The festival begins Saturday with a mime and spoken word performance at 3 p.m. by mimes Tim and Tanya Chartier. That’s followed at 4 p.m. by Barbara Bates Smith, who performs a humorous account of her spiritual journey.
Ms. Bates Smith also performs a second one-woman show Sunday, Feb. 15, called “The C-Word: A Life-meets-Art Cancer Story.” The festival also includes an art exhibit, theater and a worship service with the Chartiers.
2009 FESTIVAL OF FAITH AND THE ARTS
SATURDAY, FEB. 14, 3 p.m., DCPC Congregation House, 208 Concord Road – Mimes Tim and Tanya Chartier will present reflections on the spiritual journey through mime and spoken word. Tim is an assistant professor of mathematics at Davidson College. Tanya has taught at both middle school and elementary school levels with five years as a middle school drama teacher. They have trained with artists from around the world to learn skills like mime, puppetry, clowning, juggling, and storytelling. Their mime training includes master classes with Marcel Marceau. The Chartiers will present several mime pieces with musical accompaniment, with time to ask questions at the end of the performance.
Barbara Bates Smith and Jeff Sebens
SATURDAY, FEB. 14, 4 p.m., DCPC Congregation House, 208 Concord Road – Actress Barbara Bates Smith will perform a candid and humorous account of her spiritual journey, in which she questions her husband, a physician-turned-minister, her priest, and her therapist while quoting Nhat Hanh, Joseph Campbell, and Bishop Spong. Reviews say “the show is a zinger . . . compelling, authentic, brave.” Winner of the 2003 Southeastern Theatre Conference Best Actress Award, Barbara Bates Smith is also known for her Off-Broadway adaptation and performance of Ivy Rowe from Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies. Her performances will have musical accompaniment by Jeff Sebens of Cana, Virginia, who plays hammered dulcimer, finger cymbals, and singing bowl.
SUNDAY, FEB. 15, 4 p.m., DCPC Congregation House, 208 Concord Road – Actress Barbara Bates Smith presents “The C-Word: A Life-meets-Art Cancer Story.” This is a frank, humorous, and poignant story of Ms. Bates Smith’s own breast cancer diagnosis, which she learned of while playing the lead role of the cancer patient in Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Wit” in 2001.
SATURDAY, FEB. 21, 3 p.m., DCPC Congregation House, 208 Concord Road – Artists reception for an exhibit of works by members of the congregtion on the theme of “Faith, Doubt, and the Spiritual Journey” in the Congregation House. Come view the works, meet the artists, enjoy some refreshments, and stay for the Readers’ Theatre production of the award- winning play “Doubt.” See below.
SATURDAY, FEB. 21, 4 p.m., DCPC Congregaton House, 208 Concord Road – DCPC will present a Readers’ Theatre production of “Doubt: A Parable.” This 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play is a compact, complex drama that explores the repercussions of suspicion, guilt, and innocence. The play is directed by Alan England and stars Wilma Ahrens, Genny Bosak, Iretha Kerns, and Larry Ligo.
SUNDAY, FEB. 22, 8:45 a.m., Lingle Chapel, 11 a.m., DCPC sanctuary – mimes Tim and Tanya Chartier will enact Opening Our Eyes, based on Acts 9: 10-19 and accompanied by the music of Ken Medema. The Reverend Lib McGregor Simmons’ sermon for the day will be a reflection on faith in the midst of doubt, utilizing the Acts text and the Transfiguration narrative found in Mark 9:2-9.
Need more info?
Call 704-892-5641 or visit www.dcpc.org.
Director Alan England (left) and the cast of "Doubt," from left, Genny Bosak, Iretha Kerns, Larry Ligo and Wilma Ahrens.
