The motion/movement Archive, Vol. II

The Kingdom Opening   (Spring 2006)

EDIT: I would suggest clicking the arrow in the lower right corner and choosing “HQ” to watch in high quality.  It’s hard to tell what’s going on otherwise.

This one is near and dear to my heart.  It’s a sequel of sorts to the Leave it Behind opening video (notice the overused cardboard sign motif here yet again), but this time, the idea is what we had wrongly left behind, rather than what we needed to leave behind.

I wrote The Kingdom during a time of great change in my life.  I had survived a year of world-smashing theology study and was in the middle of a one year internship at Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network (GAIHN), an amazing homeless mission directed by the great/peculiar Tony McDade.  I was an idealistic fool for idealism’s sake, and I was too scared of the larger world and too bewildered to be much help, as an intern or otherwise.  I was an infant.  It probably wasn’t a good time to bring my ideas to a public showing like this, but the responsibility was given to me nonetheless.  I poured my heart into that play, and it left me physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted. 

At the beginning of that Spring Break, Tiffany (we’d only been dating for about two months at this point) and I set out on downtown Greenville with a camera.  I wanted to get the feel of the city, the feel of life.  I sought out the beautiful, and the not-so-beautiful hidden in the corners.  I was particularly drawn to the bridges of downtown– a haven for literally hundreds of homeless people every night, hidden amongst the picturesque parks and streets.  This was the setting for the main message of the play– “can you SEE?”  I wasn’t out to change minds, to sway anyone one way or the other.  I just wanted us to see.  

It was an innocent, naive suggestion.  But I miss that place.