June 16: Where It Hurts

Today is day one of our two-day preparation and coaching exercises before we film on location Wednesday, June 18. I started the day at Cafe 116, one of my favorite places, and set up my "table" for primary crew check-in. We quickly realized that moving to a larger table was necessary, and for two hours these wonderful individuals came to ask questions, pick up their crew badges, and talk about the process. Some of the conversation turned into some impromptu rehearsal at the table, and I felt like a little kid at Christmas time. There was so much activity I could hardly stand the excitement, and I didn't want anyone to leave. What dedication they have. What interest. What faith.

Improvisation creates an important and necessary foundation.

Joshua Tysver as "Evan" and Greg Brady as his father-in-law "Christopher Shaw" using the foundation they've created through improvisation to better perform in their scripted scenes. 

At 1:00 in the afternoon, we headed over to the rehearsal spaces generously provided by A Center for the Arts. For nine hours (with only an hour break to go kiss my son and daughter) we created and discussed and immersed ourselves in the histories and lives and evolving characters of this story we call "Sacred." And you know what? The entire process became one giant reminder: a reminder that there's a Spirit directing something far bigger than anything my limited vision wants to create.

Alixandra Johnson, our costume director, reviewing notes with Meredith Turner ("Riley")

Meeting cast members for the first time...and pretending you've been friends forever.

It's not as easy as it looks. Or is it?

And it starts with this verse...

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple." (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17)

Few individuals know what it's like to be a director of a play. Far fewer individuals know what it's like to be a director of a film, and not any one of those individuals can tell you exactly what it's like to be any other director in the world. It's that unique. It's an art. And it's very personal. Sometimes, so personal it hurts.

"Sacred" deals a lot with very personal issues and life experiences. What's so interesting about this project is that so many of our cast members can relate to those very specific issues and life experiences in very real and painful ways. We discovered this, quite a few of us, today as we explored each character and connected those characters to the individuals playing them. I don't know how many times so many of us swallowed back tears, held our tongues, distracted ourselves with other things so that the real pain that surfaces when watching some of these scenes doesn't spill out unintended. Not just me. Many of us. It was a very personal thing.

Because it's art. Art that tells a real story of the most intimate place in the world: our hearts.

What I love about our Creator is that He is a very personal artist, too. The art that He creates reflects the nature of who He is: the art of comfort, the art of patience, the art of reconciliation. Not framed. Not put away to be taken out and put away again. This art is living, breathing, moving among us, priceless, and given to us freely. These beautiful gifts, this priceless art, gives us an awesome picture of what His heart really looks like. A heart that loves us so very, very much. So much He calls us sacred.

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