God Talk

A few weeks ago, I received what for me ranks as a great compliment. At a matinee intermission, I was browsing through a copy of America, a national Catholic weekly, and an usher asked me, "Are you a Jesuit?" I'm not, but I got some of my most significant education from the Society of Jesus and have admired them pretty much unreservedly ever since. Brophy College Prep is not only where I acquired a much broader and, yes, more catholic (small "c") approach to my faith (a sea-change in perspective, in fact, which I can credit for sustaining my connection to institutional religion in spite of it all). It's also where I did my first bit of theater (Macafee in Birdie and Moonface in Anything Goes, if you must know) and committed my first acts of journalism (the Roundup is now online).

All of which is a circuitous way of introducing my first story for America, a critical essay about two religion-themed plays currently on the boards, The Savannah Disputation and This Beautiful City. Thanks to culture editor Jim Martin (unofficial chaplain to The Colbert Report and no stranger to the theater himself). (NOTE: Obviously it's not a column about "Film"--they just haven't had a theater story in their pages for a while and haven't changed the heading.)