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The CPA Arts purpose statement is equipping and empowering students to engage and influence culture through authentic creativity , artistic excellence , and relationship with Christ . While planning the 2023- 24 Arts season , students were invited to discover more about how God made them and what they have to offer the world through their artistic talents . The Academy saw so many glimmers of imago Dei throughout the arts .
Last fall , US theater students performed Our Town for the CPA Community , a play that engages beautiful and complex conversations about life and relationships – and most importantly , what fades away and what is eternal . Thonrton Wilder ’ s 1938 Pulitzer-prize winning drama is a cornerstone of American theater , and has been produced in schools , universities , regional theaters , on Broadway , and on film and television consistently for more than 80 years . It ’ s considered by many scholars and playwrights to be the greatest American play ever written .
So why Our Town at CPA this year ?
Artistic Director Jake Speck could think of no story more important for the current generation to see and hear in this time of unmatched distractedness : “ Does anyone ever realize life while they live it ... every , every minute ?” says the character Emily at the end of Act III . Wilder ’ s monologues give us an even deeper look at the human hunger for eternal purpose … paired with the unfortunate irony that our affinity for distraction and disassociation will rob us of the gifts right in front of our faces .
“ We all know that something is eternal . And it ain ’ t houses and it ain ’ t names , and it ain ’ t earth , and it ain ’ t even the stars ... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal , and that something has to do with human beings . All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you ’ d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it . There ’ s something way down deep that ’ s eternal about every human being .” — Stage Manager
For our students , the study of these characters , and the acting out of this storyline was a protest for the present — as they rehearsed , each student in the cast and crew was fully dedicated to each scene ( joyful or heartbreaking ). Speck explains the difficulty of
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