Bishop Flaget Grade School Sees Theater of The Word Performance

Bishop Flaget students sit on the gym floor as they await the start of The Great Adventure of The Faith.


Deadly Dark, (the villian in black) is flanked on his left by The Prince and on his right by The Guardian Angel.


AnyKid, (the hero in the red cape) receiving advice and guidance from The Prince and The Guardian Angel.

January/February Issue of Gilbert Has Arrived in Bainbridge, OH

Here's the cover of the latest issue of Gilbert. It arrived in the mailbox today. It's another great cover by Gilbert Art Director, Ted Schluenderfritz. I think I'll suggest a contest for the ACS Blog to see who can correctly name all the folks caricatured on the cover. I recognize a few of them, but not all. I'll have to do some research.

Attention all Lurkers

If you check out this blog occasionally (but have not made comments), and attend any of the up-coming Theater of The Word or History on Stage events, please say hello to me. I'd love to meet you. I'll be at all the events.

Theater of The Word to Perform at Bishop Flaget School March 26, 2010, at 9:30 a.m.

From The Theater of The Word Promotional Material:

Quests, Obstacles, Virtues, and Vices—what will keep our young heroes from living the Great Adventure of the Faith? And what will they need for help? This interactive epic, starring the kids of your parish or church, will answer the question! The choices they make determine the very plot of the show—and the obstacles they encounter along the way.

In this updated and funny version of the allegorical drama Everyman, we take several volunteers from the audience, one of whom plays Anykid, the hero, who must make right choices to complete his quest. Other volunteer actors portray the allegorical figures Faith, Hope and Love, as well as the Seven Sacraments,Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. Each volunteer has a short poem to read at some point during the show.

When that dastardly villain, Deadly Dark, steals our hero’s Faith, Hope, and Love, our hero’s prince and guardian angel must help him to recover them—through three dangerous adventures: the Forest of Doubt, the Way of Despair, and the Valley of Tears. Along the way, our hero must ask for help from the Sacraments, must combat the Seven Deadly Sins, and must learn the value of Love and the necessity of depending on God’s grace.

A perfect combination of catechesis and entertainment! Your kids on stage with our professional actors—Faith, Formation and Fun!

This is scheduled to be perfomed on Friday, March 26 at Bishop Flaget School. Time is 9:30 A.M. The Chillicothe Chesterton Society is supporting this presentation.

March 17 Meeting

It was a beautiful summer-like evening last night. Folks were sitting at the tables outside of Schlegel's. A photographer was taking pictures of a couple seated at one of the tables. I took it as an ill omen. Folks would be out playing in their yards or relaxing on their porches and not driving into Chillicothe to talk about Chesterton at Schlegel's. In fact, after waiting for only five minutes after the 7 pm start time, with no one other than me and Andrew (who was working and is the guy on the right in the picture) attending, I was about to leave the Coffee House and attend choir practice at St. Peter's. At 7:05, the member with the longest drive, Tim Binkley (the guy on the left in the picture), walked in the door. Tim drives down from Columbus, after work, to attend the meetings, and then has to drive about 50 miles to Lancaster, OH, to get home.

So, Tim and I discussed several things. Tim mentioned that he had tried to generate some interest in Chesterton at the Lancaster Catholic schools, and the public library, to no avail. I mentioned that when I requested that the Chillicothe Library allow me to post a notice of the Chillicothe Chesterton Society, my request was rejected. However, on a very positive note, The Chillicothe Gazette ran a very nice article on our up-coming one-man shows. For that, we are very grateful.

We then talked a bit about Kevin O'Brien's The Theater of The Word, Incorporated and Chuck Chalberg's History on Stage. Tim said he planned to attend both events. Since I had brought along the nine new Belloc books I recently bought, we talked a bit about Belloc and, of course, ChesterBelloc. Tim had not heard that term. Now he's heard of it. The hour flew by and before we knew it, the meeting was over. We both hope that the up-coming presentations will generate a little more interest in our Society. It would be nice to have a couple more folks join in our conversations.

Take a Look at This Before our "Old Thunder" Presentation

I must confess, I did not know what The Great Heresies were. From Belloc's perspective and his book, they are: 1. The Arian; 2. The Mohammedan; 3. The Albigensian; 4. The Protestant; 5. The Modern. Three of them are still with us. If you want to learn more, read the book. It's available from TAN books, and/or attend the upcoming March 22, 2010 presentation of Old Thunder: An Evening With Hilaire Belloc. The presentation is a Theater of The Word production. Kevin O'Brien will portray Belloc. It should be an exciting evening. Here's Kevin as Belloc.

Gilbert ?????

Who knows what the next cover of Gilbert will look like? Not me, but I've heard that it should be mailed out during the week of March 8th. I'll be checking my mailbox.

March/April Issue of The St. Austin Review

From the ACS Blog:

Dear Fellow Chestertonian,

The March/April issue of the Saint Austin Review is hot off the press. It's another exciting, power-punching issue, filled to the brim with great articles. The theme of the next issue is "G. K. Chesterton: Fidei Defensor" and we've assembled a veritable cornucopia of Chestertonian delights for the delectation of our readers.

Belloc's Books Arrive

My Belloc books arrived yesterday from TAN Books. I didn't notice them on the front porch until late. I've pretty much given up on the Post Office for any shipping requirements. UPS is much safer. And you can track the status of your orders on-line.

I've started on The Great Heresies, in anticipation of Kevin O'Brien's upcoming performance of "Old Thunder: An Evening With Hilaire Belloc". From the quick scan I did of the book, it looks like I'll be learning quite a bit of history from the Catholic perspective. I'm looking forward to it.

Standford Nutting of The Theater of The Word Incorporated

Here's another episode of Standford Nutting. I think this is hilarious! Who knows, maybe we can get Kevin O'Brien to do a few minutes of Standford Nutting before or after his Old Thunder preformance.

This sketch is from Season 5 of The Apostle of Common Sense.