South Carolina, Malta, & Seniors Plotting in the Kingdom
Just back from South Carolina, and just off the phone with a man I met there during the MRPC conference. Dean had helped start a theater company in Greenville, and was now fundraising to expand facilities. When I asked if he had tried Go Fund Me, his eyebrows raised. Before we could finish the conversation, we were whisked off to lunch.
When I arrived at the restaurant, there was Dean, in a crowd of seniors, an open chair next to him. Coincidence?
"I don't think so," Dean responded, as I sat in the chair and we continued our earlier conversation.
Back to Go Fund Me
I showed Dean the app, my page, and its ease of use. Dean didn't miss a beat. Pulling out his phone, he asked how to download the app and we were done before our roasted tilapia and hush puppies landed on the table.
Back to this morning’s phone call with Dean: Would I have time later in the morning to talk with his board, he asked, specifically on how to raise $32 million to purchase a second facility the theater group hoped to purchase? Because in addition to new ventures, Disney had recently donated all props and costumes from their Lord of the Rings productions. They had to be stored somewhere. How could I say no?
The Logos Theater, The Logos Ship
Dean's new vision for this theater group, The Logos Theater, is to help raise funds for its expansion. The group is producing theater pieces of The Chronicles of Narnia, in conjunction with Doug Gresham, Lewis' son. Gresham has visited the theater twice, and approved the purchase of the new building to be named The C.S. Lewis Theater, the only one of its kind as far as we know. In tiny Taylors, SC.
Dean asked me if I knew who Doug Gresham was, and I smiled.
"I swam in his pool in Malta!" I responded. I told him of our outreach in Malta (2012). On our baking-hot day off, Doug drove our team around as a tour guide, then invited us to his villa for a swim to cool off. He also invited us up to his studio, filled with C.S. Lewis memoribilia.
I went on to tell him of the theater group we had created in Inspiro Arts Alliance, producing Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. That production, performed on OM’s ship Logos around the world.
Kingdom Expansions
From modest beginnings, the group has expanded into five facets:
theater productions at the high school
theater productions in schools (including homeschoolers)
summer traveling productions
An Academy of the Arts to train Christians in theater
a film company
What an incredible connection to Dean and The Logos Theatre. What incredible memories it evoked. From Malta, to Go Fund Me, to Taylors, God continues to connect seemingly random dots into an incredible story. Maybe I only get to connect some dots with Dean, or maybe there's more to come. As Ashleigh Brilliant brilliantly put it, "My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot."
