September 3, 2010 - Joe Frost, Chair of the Belhaven University Theatre Department, has recently been published. Frost’s play The Urns: A Pantomime is one of the works in Matter Anthology, an anthology of works and presentations from the Matter ’09 conference, where Frost presented The Urns, as well as two other pieces, last September.
The conference was put on by Shechem Ministries, based in Tyler, Texas. “The focus of the whole event,” says Frost, “was really to draw a further connection between people who are working artists and people who are primarily academic or theology-focused… Artists are dealing with the topics; they’re just dealing with them in the context of a piece of art rather than a scholarly paper.”
Frost presented three plays at Matter ’09: The Urns: A Pantomime, The Silent, and A Burden. Together, the three are entitled Solos. The plays were received well and helped accomplish the conference goals through provoking discussion among the viewers.
In The Urns a man, played at the conference by Frost, carries several urns containing the ashes of deceased loved ones to a remote place to dispose of them; but he cannot bring himself to depart with them, finally collecting ashes from each urn into a single urn, with which he then returns home. “It is almost like a parable, really,” says Frost, “ a story out of which multiple meanings can come.” Solos is similar in style to the abstract plays of playwright Samuel Beckett, a connection which Frost gladly admits.
The Matter ’09 Anthology is available at www.mattercon.com, the Matter ’09 website.
Belhaven University, formerly Belhaven College, prepares men and women academically and spiritually to serve Christ Jesus in their careers, in human relationships, and in the world of ideas. Founded in 1883, the University now serves over 3,000 students from campuses in Jackson, Memphis, Orlando, Houston, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and online.