OKOBOJI SUMMER THEATRE
DIRECTOR: COURTNEY CROUSE
COSTUMES: BRIANN JOHNSON
LIGHTING: SAVANNAH BELL
SOUND: MICHAEL BURKE
STAGE MANAGED: LENNOX EMERY
Painting Churches is a story about a family with the surname of Church, including an artist's daughter who wants to paint a portrait of her aging parents. The daughter arrives to help her parents pack up the family home to downsize to a smaller cottage. With each item, they pack, memories are both conjured and unrecalled due to memory loss.
There is a lot of confrontation and trauma that the family unpacks to each other as they pack their home. It feels like the clutter in the main room is just as bad as the clutter in their hearts. As the family gets to know each other in a new and honest light, there become fewer and fewer items on stage. By the end, we are left with an empty room and a lonely artist’s easel with the portrait.