Jonathan & Cynthia Austin — Center for Latter-day Saint Arts

we hope this will invite the audience to consider their own views of who god is and what limitations those views create…

[From the Prologue]

WOMAN

We see Him as we are.

MAN

And not as He is.

Background:

The idea for our project has been incubating for numerous years. Various jobs, moves and children have seemed to prevent it from developing beyond its embryonic state. When we saw the [Center’s] Call for Submissions we thought this might be the deadline we needed to finally commit the time to the project’s development and completion.

Through As He Is, we explore the various impressions people have regarding the nature of God as we progress through our lives. From our simplistic notions of Him in childhood to our often ambivalent feelings during trials, we have tried to find characters that represent those impressions, such as: God as magician and God as tour guide. We hope that this will invite an audience to consider their own views of who God is and what limitations those views create.—Cynthia and Jonathan Austin, 2020

Production:

It is important to remember that this play is an allegory. We sought to depict a woman’s journey to understand and build a relationship with God. The character is not meant to be God but to be a personification of the woman’s view of God at different times throughout her life, eventually coming to the most complete understanding of Him as father. While the piece requires the actor playing the MAN to create 14 distinct characters, the virtuosity needed should not upstage the underlying message of the play. The set should be minimal, suggesting the necessary furniture and facilitating quick changes. Costumes should also be minimal, relying on single costume pieces to represent each of the Man’s characters, such as a Santa hat, a breastplate, etc. In order to help the audience understand that the MAN and WOMAN from the prologue and epilogue are acting out the allegory, it is important that they return to those initial characters between each scene and that the transformations into the allegory characters occur in front of the audience. This can be achieved by having trunks onstage containing all costume pieces and having the 2 actors set all set pieces before putting on the next scene’s costumes. We recommend listing all of the scene titles in the program. It is intended that the play be performed without intermission. The entirety of the work may be accessed through the button below.

Interact:

The playwrights appreciate interaction and comments on their work, which is scheduled for performance on Center channels in the late fall. Want to get in touch? Write here.

As He Is

Watch the film production of As He Is produced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

cynthia & j. jonathan austin

Cynthia Austin was born into a theatrical family and has followed the footsteps of the 3 previous generations by marrying someone she met in a play. This occurred while she was pursing an MFA at the University of Florida. Jonathan grew up on stage, in part, because his father was a professor of theatre at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH. Since Cynthia and Jonathan had such fun getting their MFAs together they went on to pursue PhDs in theatre from BYU. Not as much fun, given the added elements of jobs and children but eventually they finished. During that time, Cynthia founded and ran the theatre program at Southern Virginia University and Jonathan, who is currently the Area Director for the NA Southeast Seminaries and Institutes, ran the Institute program at SVU. When Jonathan was transferred from Virginia, Cynthia turned her creative energies to playwriting.

Jonathan and Cynthia have 4 children, 2 of whom are theatre majors, and currently live outside Atlanta, Georgia. You can read As He Is here and get in touch with the playwrights here.