Benjamin Lloyd
Benjamin Lloyd is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist. He teaches acting at Temple University and Penn State, and has taught acting at Princeton, Arcadia and Villanova Univerisites. In addition to performing at every major theatre in Philadelphia, Ben has acted and directed in New York; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Prague, the Czech Republic.
Ben has directed works by Shakespeare, John Patrick Shanley and Beth Patton. As an actor, Ben most recently appeared as Walter Griffin in Up at Bristol Riverside Theater and Scapin in Scapin at the Lantern Theater in Philadelphia. He is the founder of White Pines Productions.
His book, The Actor’s Way: A Journey of Self-Discovery in Letters, was published by Allworth Press in May 2006. He has an M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and he lives in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two children.
Ben Posted on July 31st, 2011:
Bill George is my spirit-brother. We have been reaching out to each other in between Allentown and Philadelphia for about eight years now. We find a mutual interest in the connections between spirituality and performance.
I invite Little Ponders and Touchstoners to visit the White Pines site. Bill and I both sense that there will be a more robust connection between our communtiies in the future. In the meantime, through the miracle of technology, allow me to share a couple of tidbits with readers of this blog.
First is the newly minted White Pines mission:
Mission
White Pines is dedicated to creating a place where community members and artists come together to make new work in the performing arts, new publications, and classes for young and old; and to explore new economic models for creating art and supporting artists.
Statement of Principles
Creativity is a gift: we seek to offer what we make as an exchange of gifts and not a sale of commodities. Simultaneously, we seek to fully support the artists creating for and through us.
Open access: we believe in absolutely open access to art for all people, regardless of their personal economic circumstances.
Continuing revelation: we are a flexible and evolving production company, able to change and develop as our membership expands and our artistic ensemble grows. Therefore, we are not bound to a rigid aesthetic mission, but rather remain open to the leadings of our artists and membership. We enjoy living in the questions.
Transformation: we believe that artistic creativity is a spiritual act, invigorating that which is best in human beings. We believe that everyone has the potential to be creative; and therefore, we believe that creativity has the potential to transform lives, and repair the world.
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The second is an invitation:
Creative Worship
What is spiritual? Divine? Godly?
What is creative? Expressive? Inspired?
Where do these two worlds collide? How are they joined? And what does discovering their connection do to the spiritual and creative parts of ourselves? Or, are they the same world?
These are some of the questions we explore in Creative Worship, an unusual Quaker worship/improv performance blending, happening once a month at the Elkins Estate. Based on a workshop I created in 2005, Creative Worship essentially re-opens that exploration and gives it a different name, as it invites new participants into it. These participants tend to fall into two groups: actors/dancers/artists with spiritual curiosity, and Quakers with aesthetic curiosity. But is open to all people.
The initial concern (in Quakerism, this means “focus” or “thesis”) was the sense that the energy which leads to inspired Quaker ministry is the same energy that leads to inspired performance on stage. A related concern was with the physically constricted decorum of traditional Quaker worship (heart pounds, mouth goes dry, stand, speak, sit). So we gather in a room and invite each other to express our ministry in any way we are led: through dance, speech, interaction with others, music, song, drawing . . . whatever. We articulate some boundaries for safety at the outset and we define the context: this is a Quaker meeting for worship. We begin sitting quietly.
We meet on the 11th day of each month. Our next meeting is August 11th.
We have been experimenting with structured worship, by beginning our worship with an agreed on theme or image. The reason for this is that we have a goal: we want to meet on September 11th, 2011, and invite a larger congregation to be with us, and we want to be open to responding to the energy swirling around that day as a ministry of healing, transformation, love and grief.
Would you like to explore with us? Register here.
Benjamin Lloyd
Founding Producer
White Pines
