Acting group aims to inspire students

Photo by Abby Bellow

 

A new student-run acting group has traveled across the country performing unique plays with hopes of ministering to others.

Senior Luke Simmons brought the group, Visions, to Oklahoma Christian University.

Though its primary mission is to spread the word of God through its plays, Visions also helps inform and recruit for Oklahoma Christian.

“Visions is, as a whole, a theater ministry group,” sophomore Amy Walton said. ”We travel and try to spread the word through a 40-minute to an hour play. We kind of act as an admissions group here because… We will also have information about OC to recruit people. Our main goal is to share Jesus through the play.”

Walton performed with Visions last year, along with Simmons.

Simmons strives to improve the group and with the help of his fellow actors make the shows as entertaining as possible.

“We prepare a show that lasts about one hour but it’s all one story and it is centered around the spiritual message,” Simmons said.

Walton said she enjoyed her time participating in Visions with Simmons last year.

“Luke Simmons does all the casting and all the behind-the-scenes stuff, but this year his dad actually wrote the play that we will be performing,” Walton said. “Luke will be adapting it to kind of make it fit our group a little better.”

Although there are other traveling drama groups on campus, Simmons said Visions tries to be more ministry-oriented than the others.

“We admire what they do, but we try to be more of a ministry first,” Simmons said. “We strive to make the show entertaining and we feel drama ministry is a really powerful tool because we believe that it can really connect with people more and others cannot.”

The group creates their own characters to help the audience connect with their plays.

“We put characters out there and try to make them as relatable as possible,” Simmons said. “The audience can take the spiritual journey with the group and go through those struggles together. And in that way, you don’t feel like you are being preached to so much as you are just learning the material.”

Some of the actors’ own experiences reflect the impact they have in their shows.

“There was an instance last year where a lady was going through stuff that we had acted out in the play and we got to sit down with her and talk to her about that,” Walton said.

Phil Reagan, associate professor of communications and theater, is intrigued about the group and their mission.

“Luke always wanted to start the group ever since he came to Oklahoma and I think it went pretty well,” Reagan said. “It looks like they are in the beginning stages of the group but they are doing great. It could be beneficial to the school and it is great to have another traveling acting group.”

Reagan knows the group is unique and has high hopes for their future.

“I think that if they can reach a goal or focus that can be different than Unbound, [it] would be a good thing since they are reaching out to the same pool of students,” Reagan said. “Because they have a different purpose, I believe the future students and the school can benefit from its performance.”

Walton encourages everyone to try to become a part of this group and their mission.

“I really love how this group combines two things that I love to do,” Walton said. “I love theater and acting, but I love missions and being able to help people. … I feel like it does a good job of sharing the word with people. Theater is an outlet where a lot of people can relate to it. Auditions and casting is coming up and I believe that every one should attempt to be a part of this cool movement.”