Red Letters

CD Cover

On my Facebook account, I’ve posted tons of images ranging from my baby pictures to pictures from Centrfuge in 2002. It’s made me feel nostalgic and to relive a lot of amazing memories.

One of my memories from College, I want to share with you. It’s the story of Red Letters. At Carson-Newman, every theater student had to produce their own drama production. They could be self-written or they could be pre-written. I chose to write my own. I knew from my freshman year that I would be writing my own story. My original idea was to take Catherine Marshall’s book Christy and make my own play about it. I envisioned a wonderful play on a big scale with the music of this area playing a big part.

In the summer of 2000, I was an orientation leader for Carson-Newman, and I met some amazing people. One of those people was Jeff Davis. He and I hit it off at Orientation, and we remained email friends afterwards. One week inparticular I was feeling lonely and just having a bad week. I opened my email to find one from Jeff. It was just a friendly “hello” message, but at the end of the email, there was a bible verse. “Greater love has no one than this: that he would lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That thought of laying someone’s life down for a friend was a bold concept for me. I started writing a church skit about two friends, one a Christian, and one, not: David (Christian) and Jeff (Not). Named for two people that meant a lot to me. David Evette and Jeff Davis. I started writing…and writing…and writing. An hour and a half later, Red Letters was born. It was a very rough form of the final draft of the show, but there it was.

In the previous spring, my friend Christy Cobb-Leadingham produced a show called Lamp Unto My Feet. It was an all dancing show that told an amazing story. When I wrote that first draft, I decided that my show could do the same. I would combine music, dancing, and acting. I started inserting songs here and there into the show. One song that I started with was the song “Red Letters” by dcTalk.

The show was meant to be a show for youth groups. I wanted to relate to teenagers. I wanted to show that others struggle and that the watcher isn’t alone. Jeff is struggling with who he is and where he fits in life. David has his own struggles, even though he’s a Christian. The show dealt with different themes. Jeff tries to kill himself, he’s brought to a church for the first time, and the death of his father.

Through the next semester, I tweaked the show in places, made additions and subtractions. In the spring of 2001, I was meeting with our drama director to start the process of scheduling the theatre and getting his ideas for revisions, ultimatly getting a final draft of the script completed. Over the summer of 2001, I got the scripts copied and I started working on set designs. I decided I wanted something completely different. I decided that I wanted my set to be like a tent, with the idea of a fancified tent revival. Kevin Koett at the time was the Director of Residence Life and Housing Services for the school (and my boss), and he let me have 260 bedsheets. I went to a store and bought a dye to dye them a dark maroon color. When the sheets came out, they were pink and they were tie-dyed. I was distraught, then I decided why not. Every single space in that theater was covered with the sheets. It provided for an amazing experience where you were surrounded by the show.

In the fall of 2001, we held auditions for the show. I wanted unknowns and non-drama majors for the most part. It wasn’t a typical show, but I had to use some due to the school’s rule. I originally cast Jeff Davis as the main role of Jeff and Ben Apple as the role of David. I started rehearsals in September, but Jeff couldn’t make it because he was in another show. One night, at Perkin’s, I was distraught over my show. I couldn’t get my rehearsals in, and people were dropping out like flies. It occurred to me. Jeff just wasnt’ right for the part. He’s an amazing guy, but he just wasn’t working out. One of my best friends Mitchell Spalding had auditioned for the show as a courtesy to me, and I had cast him as God in the show. He had read the part of Jeff well, so I decided to swtich Jeff and Mitchell to play the opposite role. Jeff Davis made God come to life in a very very powerful way.

Rehearsals were underway, and it was spectacular. I made my cast come to every rehearsal. I did this to show a solidarity among the cast. I wanted all experiences to be shared. The people I had cast in the show were there because to them, it was a ministry, not a performance. I couldn’t stress that enough. I decided early on that I would have a Spiritual Director that would be responsible for keeping us on track spiritually. The SD was Crystal Callahan (now Crystal Johnson). Every day before we started rehearsals, we would have a time of prayer and focus. We would also end with prayer. One of my favorite memories was a cast member asking if we could just sit and listen to the opening song “Holy Roar.” I obliged. I looked around, and saw my 30 cast members being ministered to. That became a tradition for the show, to open rehearsal with “Holy Roar.”

My headshot from the show.

The show opened on November 29, 2001. I was expecting my friends and some family and that was about it. I was already irritated because my drama director made me charge admission. I wanted it to be free, since it was getting a message of faith out there. He wanted me to cover my costs. My costs were around $50. Seriously, everything else was free or donated. I didn’t care how many people came to see the show, as long as the message was out there.

The first show sold out. The second show sold out. We added a performance the third day, which sold out, and our final performance was sold out. I was humbled by the response of the audience. I had an email address for people to write and tell feedback and give prayer requests. I got over 200 emails. It was amazing. My cast made me a book with letters from the cast in it, and I look at it often. You guys blessed my life!

The last night of the show, I had a student minister from a local church approach me and ask if I would be interested in bring the show to his church and performing it. When we were striking the set, I mentioned it to the cast, and they were intersted. The next week, I recieved several calls from churches asking the same. Over the next semester, we performed Red Letters three more times at various churches. Every night, the church was packed. Since I was in charge of that, I didn’t charge for them.

God showed me so much through that process. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” It just shows that when we commit our ways to Him, they don’t fail. I miss that time dearly, but, I’ve recently started to retype the script. Maybe it’s about time to do something with it again.

The soundtrack (after 5 versions) is listed below, just if your curious.

• Holy Roar (Prelude)
• Holy Roar (by Christy Nockels)
• Anybody Out There (by Burlap to Cashmere)
• I Run (by Forty Days)
• Bless the Lord (from Godspell)
• I’ll Stand by You (from The Pretenders)
• Love Song (by Third Day)
• In the Light (by dcTalk)
• Red Letters (by dcTalk)
• Go, and Sin No More (by Rebecca St. James)
• Creed (by Rich Mullins)