New dinner theater is Catholic by design |
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Written by ANGELA KESSLER, Chronicle Editor
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 10:40 |
LIMA—With some extra time on her hands and an intense need to fill it, a Lima St. Charles woman is forming a wholly-Catholic dinner theater in the area.
“We’ve said forever that Lima needs a dinner theater,” Mary Blanche Hengstler says, adding that there have been dinner theaters in Lima, but nothing permanent.
CCD — Catholic Community Dinner —Theatre debuts this fall with a production of the 1970s hit “Godspell.” All of the cast and crew of CCD Theatre are Catholic, and range from high school age to mid-50s and hail from the Blessed Junipero Serra Deanery, located in the southwest portion of the Diocese of Toledo.
The mission of CCD Theatre is to “provide and promote good, inoffensive Catholic/Christian value theatrical productions while at the same time utilizing all Catholic artistic talent, fostering a ‘family atmosphere’ and a greater sense of collaboration.”
The idea for CCD Theatre started coming to the fore after Ms. Hengstler lost her job last fall and was having trouble finding a new one. After attending a stewardship seminar at St. Charles, one message stuck with her — live your strengths through stewardship.
“I kept thinking, ‘God, give me something to organize,’ ” she says.
After tossing the idea around for a while, Ms. Hengstler decided she needed to talk with “someone unbiased.” That’s when she contacted Dick Seitz, an active member of St. Charles who also serves on its stewardship committee.
“A half hour meeting went on for more than three hours,” Ms. Hengstler says. From that meeting she came up with ideas on how to make it happen and approached St. Charles pastor Father Stephen Blum for input. He suggested she make a presentation at the next deanery meeting to gauge the response.
“There has been no negativity at all through the whole process,” she says. “People are very excited about the Catholic, Christian values.”
Finding and using the talents of local Catholics is much easier than one would imagine.
“There is a host of talented people here, and they are Catholic,” Ms. Hengstler says. “Again, it’s about stewardship — what talents do you have and can you use them to serve the Lord?”
Whether those talents are acting and singing, building a set or organizing ticket sales, they are being used to help CCD Theatre become a reality.
Ms. Hengstler’s own background is solid to make the theater a reality. She brings nearly a lifetime of experience to the CCD Theatre. She began working in the theater, singing and dancing when she was 3 years old. At the age of 13, she opened her own dance school in her parents’ garage and operated it for 35 years. In addition, she has worked as choreographer for many area high school musical productions and in dinner theaters throughout Ohio. For the past two years she has directed a production of “The Last Supper” at St. Charles.
In addition to using CCD Theatre as a stewardship outlet, Ms. Hengstler also sees the theater as a tool for evangelization. She envisions CCD Theatre as an outreach to the community, and believes strong Christian values can be related through the shows she stages, and can be used to begin a dialog between people of different faith traditions.
The programs will begin with prayer before dinner.
“Even if that prayer or show sparks conversation, if it gets the line of communication going, it’s well worthwhile,” she says.
“Godspell” will be staged at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Lima with 400 seats available for each of four performances scheduled for Nov. 14-16 and Nov. 20. The Nov. 16 performance begins at 2 p.m. (doors open at noon) and other performances begin at 7:30 p.m. with doors opening at 6 p.m. for dinner.
Tickets for “Godspell,” on sale beginning Aug. 1, are $30 for adults and $20 for children ages 5 to 13. Program ads are being sold through the end of July, ranging in price from $100 to $1,000.
Money raised through ticket sales and program ads will pay for royalties, with additional proceeds being donated to Allen County Health Partners.
For more information, tickets or purchase an ad, contact Ms. Hengstler at 419-236-1484 or CCDTheatre@gmail.com.
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Last Updated on Friday, 07 November 2008 09:05 |
