Christian Theatre for the Arts - Making an Impact

If you have been stopping by and visiting my blog you can see that I have alot going on in my life.....from my husband and son at home to my daughters and grandchildren, two Etsy shops, church, baking and cooking and of course shopping for vintage items! And, once a month I do theatre with my husband and son.

Frank and I and a very dedicated, talented troupe, run a Christian Community Theatre for the Arts in Palmyra, New York. It is called Impact Theatre. Have you heard the name yet? They say that word of mouth is one of the best ways to spread your name, and so it has been for Impact Theatre. Now operating in our 12th year, through prayer and God's timing, Impact Theatre has grown from its humble beginnings to a full-fledged Christian Community Theatre for the Arts worthy of talking about. Our slogan? "It's Significant Theatre!"

Each month the gym of the Palmyra Town Hall is transformed into a comfortable, off-broadway type atmosphere complete with a stage, lights, sound and tables that seat about 100 people. The off-broadway atmosphere came from Frank. He was born and raised in New York City. His friend's father painted for the theatres on Broadway and would give his son and friends, Frank included, tickets to the shows. Frank recalls going to the shows with the gown and tux crowd, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. He saw Guys and Dolls, Westside Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and The Little Shop of Horrors.....shows that are still his favorites today.

Frank took this experience and feeling the call from God to minister to his community through drama he started writing skits, directing performances at local churches. That grew into the vision to offer an evening that included drama and various local Christian artists outside the church walls. Each month artists such as acoustic guitarists, bands, poetry or dance are performed onstage as well as live, original drama all under the direction of Frank.  The skits are humorous and light-hearted, or thought provoking when dealing with social issues such as suicide, divorce or domestic abuse. In all of them the message is to show how God can help in every situation in our lives.

Impact Theatre is a labor of love for the 13 commited, non-paid troupe members that assemble and disassemble the theatre monthly.  They come from all walks of life to do ministry through theatre for the Lord. Our sound guy is an executive manager at Xerox. We have many behind the scenes helpers that by day are a truck driver, are retired, are an 8th grader  and a stay at home Mom. The actors include a school administrator, a chemist and a senior citizen who is a very talented painter. The age ranges from 13 to 82 and each one lends their gift from God to help in this outreach of free theatre.

The evening includes coffee and homemade desserts during intermission and free counseling materials and bibles to take home.

The Lord has blessed Impact Theatre and those He has chosen to be a part of it. Our audience is blessed each month with good amatuer theatre run with a professional standard and they are as varied as the troupe. We have our regulars each month and the new people who come to see the featured artist.

In God's timing our desire is for a building of our own to enchance what the Lord has built over the past 12 years. Frank has lots of ideas like having a council for the arts, a Christian bookstore, and offering acting lessons and counseling services.

If you are ever vacationing or driving through the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State on a Friday night, stop in for an evening of music and drama and leave filled with God's word on your heart. Or visit the Impact Theatre website to see what's going on....

Some of our troupe members relaxing and having a good time at our year end celebration...........love these guys!

AnnMarie :)