Progressive Adventism

Mei Ann Teo is the Resident Artist and the Artistic Director of the Dramatic Arts Society and the Napa Valley Musical Theatre at Pacific Union College. Her PUC and professional credits include: Waiting for Godot, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Our Town, Measure for Measure, The Misanthrope, Fiddler on the Roof, The Skin of Our Teeth, Twelfth Night, Porcelain, the Bay Area Premieres of Boy Gets Girl, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bee-Luther-Hatchee,and the World Premiere of Middle Flight at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has trained as a performer with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company and the DAH Teater of Belgrade, and is an associate artist of Crowded Fire Theatre Company and Theatre of Yugen. Her current project as collaborative writer/performer is Red Books: Our Search for Ellen White, a play dealing with Ellen G. White and Seventh-day Adventism—a world premiere that will open PUC’s new Alice Holst Theater on March 3-14.

Why a play on Ellen White? What inspired you to do this project?

The inspiration for this project came about 5 years ago when I was still a student at PUC. I happened to attend Choir Room Sabbath School when Paul McGraw gave a presentation on the Shakers. He found this pattern. The first generation, who is still alive with the founder or leader, considers the person an enlightened leader. The second generation, after the leader dies, lifts that person up onto a pedestal, and makes that person perfect, inerrant, unique. The third generation tears the pedestal down. The fourth generation is left with nothing. He then asked the group—could this apply to us? There was a visceral reaction in the room. Being more or less a member of the fourth generation, I understood that there was a wound, but didn’t understand if it had a scab, or if it was festering, or how large it was. But I knew that there was much that was unresolved.

What is theater if it is not to address the difficult questions? Not to answer, but to seek for answers. Theater brings a community together and provides a common experience that is shared—an experience that is heightened by the convergence of time, space, and an audience made up of people that you might not find in the same room otherwise. I wanted to extend that idea to the stage, to bring together the perspectives of Ellen G. White that would not be found openly voiced together. These are voices that may be heard from the pulpit, in magazines like Spectrum, or in the privacy and intimacy of one’s home. These are voices that may have been heard many a time before, or never at all. In the play, they all exist together—juxtaposed in a brief space and time, as a microcosm of our community.

What was your view of White growing up, say during your childhood and teenage years?

I knew that she was important. I knew the stories of the rock, the holding up of the Bible, and the visions. I understood that there was supposed to be something mystical about her, but as Christianity for me was about logic—I didn’t know how to hold the two ideas at once.

What influenced your view of her?

I visited the General Conference in DC when I was in 8th Grade. It was on a trip down the Eastern Seaboard, playing handbells at Adventist churches from Massachusetts to Florida. I remember that first time I saw that large painting of Ellen White’s vision—the narrow road with people falling off. That was right across from some scrolls with mathematical equations and Nebuchadnezzar’s statue with the feet of clay. Trippy. It didn’t inspire me, but actually made me think about how she would look at the painting—would she like it? Was it her likeness? Would she rather the reds be more orangey? Did that resemble the vision at all? It made me think about that special place of inspiration, that meeting where God whispers to us, and how maybe sometimes it can be translated, or maybe sometimes it can’t.

Did that view change in any way while attending PUC as an undergrad?

At PUC, when I had to read her work, I was so frustrated by her writing style that I pretty much blocked out whatever she had to say. I also went through a rebellion of Adventism and Christianity as a whole, and decided to reject all previous assumptions that had been handed down to me about God, the purpose of life, the cause of sin and suffering, etc. So while I was intrigued by Julian of Norwich, I completely dismissed Ellen White—simply because I had to get rid of all that had been known in order to try to start anew. I understand now how that is an impossible task—but realize that I had to try to gain some sense of what was truth, and that was what I needed then.

So, back to the play, how would you describe the play in one sentence?

An investigation into why we create and destroy our icons, through the perceptions of Adventists on Ellen G. White.
Or
The journey of 9 actors through the manifestations of themselves and their professors, fathers, mothers, and friends.
Or
An attempt to heal.

So . . . is this a play about the life of Ellen White, or is it about how Adventists view her?

It’s most definitely about how we view her. Or actually, about how we use and/or abuse her.

Without giving out any spoilers, what kind of characters and plot lines can we expect from the play?

You can expect to hear someone you probably know give a testimony you probably have never heard. Something in the play will surprise, I promise.

What sort of process did you go through in writing the play?

A very long one. We (9 actors and a writer/director) collected interviews of varying lengths (some 10 minutes, some 3 hours) from over 200 people. Then we transcribed all of them, and the writers (Zach Dunn, Eryck Chairez, and myself) started to cut them up to see what would tell the story of why us, the fourth generation, doesn’t know much about Ellen White. We assembled the cut up portions in a rough journey and then started writing the dramatic event that would hold a section together. There are also scenes, mostly written by Eryck Chairez, that represent the journey of the actors. Throughout the collection period, we would bring in the interviews in rehearsal and perform them for the others as our interviewees. We would figure out dramatic ways of interpreting the text, and much of that work is evident in the final play. We used a great deal of techniques developed by the Tectonic Theater Project in their work in The Laramie Project, Word for Word, and a slew of other theater ensembles who have gone before. We developed our own techniques as we needed to, since to my limited knowledge, there’s never been a play done exactly like this.

What kind of difficulties did you encounter in the research process?

I think the biggest difficulty was deciding what to cut. We collected so much fascinating material that isn’t in the play—particularly on the definitions of a prophet and inspiration.

What was different about casting this play in comparison to others? What were the criteria you used?

Eryck Chairez, our director, cast the play. While he claims that it was largely due who needs to be where and when, I think that the current casting brilliantly reflects the journey of the actor in some way. For example, Greg Schneider doesn’t only play the liberal intellectual that he is, he also is the voice of “The Man” (the White Estate in this case). The casting forces us to find the paradoxes in ourselves, to speak opinions we never took the time to understand before, and to manifest the complexities of the experience and wisdom of our interviewees.

How did the process of putting all this together influence your view of White and of Adventism?

I came to realize that the most positive way of looking at it is that this is a story of historians searching for truth, and the church trying to pastor. The trauma happened despite the best of our impulses and intentions, due to the way we chose to respond to each other. I have more patience for both sides now. I think Ellen’s a whole lot sassier than we are taught, and now appreciate that Adventists have a deep and profound attachment to our roots.

What are you hoping to communicate to the audience through this play?

I’m hoping that people will leave the play with the understanding that it’s okay that we might not be on the same page on many issues. That one person’s faith is built differently than others, and that we should respect it. That maybe what’s most important is embracing the complexities in ourselves and others.

Is this the beginning of a series of Adventist-themed plays? What other ideas and plans do you have along this line?

There’s a joke in the play about inspiration and the Bible, and how it should be handled by another play. Well . . . it may or may not be a joke. We’ll see, if I still have a job after this one. . . .

Comments on this interview can be made on the Forum.

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