All I Ever Needed to Know in Life I Learned in Covenant Players

As I approach 45, I find myself looking back at what is–if I am very fortunate–the first half of my life (Who knows?  Maybe it is the first three-quarters? ).  I have had an extraordinary life.  If I had died last year, which the doctors told me was entirely possible–although things look good now–the joys, adventures, blessings, gifts would have far, far, far exceeded the regrets.  If I ponder what lies beneath that last sentence for any length of time, it takes my breath away.  In truth, the word extraordinary doesn’t begin to name these almost-45 years.

My time in an international Christian repertory theater company, Covenant Players, although only five years, makes up a significant number of the experiences that are extraodinary.  Getting to tour and perform on three continents in three languages for thousands and thousands of people . . . well, how can I even give you a taste of how deeply that shaped who I am today?

On Facebook, people with whom I toured or served while in the company, as well as people who went before and after me, have found each other and we are (re)connecting.  I think it is because we understand what it was to live out of a van with three or four other people for 10 months of the year, learning and performing at least 200 new roles during that time and performing hundreds of times, and living on very little money while feeling very rich.  And also because in that environment, you tend to bond quickly and deeply.  There is one woman who served in Covenant Players about 10 years before I did, Andie Casey, who I have gotten to know through Facebook and we can’t wait to meet face-to-face.  We know each other because we share a foundational and unique experience.

Alright, the above was a long introduction to what is below, which is a questionnaire that some former Covenant Player put together and has been dropped on all of us.  I can’t tell you how much fun it has been to read others’ responses!  I held off filling it out because it felt overwhelming, and because some answers are experiences shared with my ex-husband–”we stories” that I am still trying to figure out how to tell because “we” aren’t a “we” anymore.  But the other day, I sat down and just started typing.  It has brought back memories, put some things into perspective, and reminded me of who I am.  

A lot of people in my present life don’t even know I was involved in Covenant Players.  Others knew vaguely, but it was so hazy that it just got a faint smile when I mentioned something about it.  I am amazed, still, that even my family has never really asked about what my experiences were on the road.  And maybe that is as it should be; I don’t know.  I just know that when someone else has done something so unique, I could sit and listen to stories all day long. 

However, there have been peole that have asked and I have tried to give some idea of the diverse opportunities and crazy situations and the miracles that made up these five years.  With this questionnaire, I think I was given the right questions to make a more robust response.

And so, with all that set-up, context, and introduction . . . my responses to the questionnaire “All I Ever Needed to Know in Life I Learned in Covenant Players!”

NAME: Kirsten (Chaplin Rucquoi) Christianson

Year(s) served? 83-88

Favorite Area: I had favorites for different reasons, but here goes:

1 Black Gold (Nigeria Cameroon), 1987

2 Catalyst Europe (Military on the Continent, Great Britain & Ireland, with special love for N. Ireland/Ireland!!), 1985

3 Catalyst 5 (let’s see . . . IN, OH, MI, VA, WV, MD, PA, DC and I think one more?), but this is a favorite more for my unit rather than the geographical area: Christina, Brad, Allen Bartley and Annika Linander (Oh Annnika!  Where are you!!?)

Top 5 Favorite Plays:

1 Not By Me

2 The Night is for Hiding & Glorious Day

3 The Couch & Unto the Least of These

4 The Western in which communion is served . . . indescribable

5 Proxy . . . Proxy, Proxy, Proxy! 

Five I loved to perform:  Name of the Game (although as far as I am concerned, Kapp and Linda Brown did it the very, very best!); Legacy (any role); Turnabout (am I remembering that title correctly?); 4′ 8.5″; and honestly, Search.  What an amazing play.  Really.

And for the record, LOVED these plays but HATED to perform them:  Anybody Know the Way (my Waterloo!); Concentration (a spur AND a burr for me!); et Fantastique (I can’t even remember the English title!)! Bah!

Most Memorable Miracle Story: I think my whole time in CP was a miracle . . . Sometimes when I am in a grocery store doing the mundane shopping I will stop and think, “I used to travel around the world and perform these amazingly Spirit-filled plays and live on people’s offerings and see God change people’s (inluding my) lives . . . And now here I am in MN upset that I can’t find my favorite kind of microwave popcorn!” 

Also, I think it is a miracle that Gary Barcus didn’t drive up to Far West and kill me when I called him from the road to tell him that I had backed into a brand new Ferrari (without the required backer) and that the Ferrari hood was now melded to the engine.  Although I heard a few choice words while he intook some breath, he was nothing but sweetness to me. 

Story: Marc Rucquoi, Emma Dowman and I were in Nigeria in our #$%&! VW van that we had to hammer on the alternator to get started each! and! every! time!  We were in the midst of this village when all of a sudden this group of about 30 villagers came out with masks and swords and machetes and in tribal paint and clothing.  (Now, remember I was VERY YOUNG–and forget that Anita Mix had SPECIFICALLY WARNED AGAINST DOING THIS in her most-helpful letter she left us.)  I felt a Kodak  moment come on and took out  my camera to capture this amazing spectacle on camera.  ALL. HELL. BROKE. LOOSE!!  They surrounded our van, beating on it, trying to reach into the open windows, and trying to open the doors, screaming, gesturing, etc., etc., etc.  Emma was in the back seat yelling, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”  Marc shouted, “Lock the door!  Emma!!!  Lock your door!”  “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”  Hands reached in and tore off my watch and tried to get the camera. 

We were mobbed and I knew we were going to die right there and we hadn’t telexed the office where we were in the last few days.  Doomed.

Somehow, Marc gunned the engine and we broke away!  Freedom!

But no.  Out of nowhere one of the men with a two-foot two-sided mask on his head dashed in front of the van!  Marc slammed on the brakes.  The man slowly turned so the scary side of the mask faced us and he pointed his sabers at us while he started chanting something.  The others started screaming and surrounding the van (and thus us) again.

“Jesus!  Jesus!  Jesus!”  I joined Emma.

Suddenly another one of the men who had been beating on our van began screaming AT THE OTHERS, including Scary Two-Face and swinging his saber at them, chasing them away from our van.  Then he turned to Marc and yelled, “Go now!  Go now!  Go now!”

We went NOW at Warp Speed and utterly silent.

Five minutes later, without looking at me Marc barked: “I hope like HELL that picture turns out!”

I feel that God intervened.  All kidding aside, we were in serious danger.

Did you get married in CP? Yes.  Yes I did. And very sadly, I got divorced after CP.

Favorite CMT quote: (from a play)  This is one off the top of my head.  I would have to dig through showcase notes to remember lines that really IMPACTED me.  “I’ve looked at the signs!  They all say, ‘This is the way’ and point in completely different directions.” (Hope I haven’t paraphrased it!)

Favorite CMT quote: (general speech)  Was made to me on a phone call when he was letting me know that while he would love to send me to Ireland (my request), he needed Marc in France and if we were married, then he needed me in France, too.  My favorite quote is at the end, which is when I knew I had been finessed:

CMT:  So you  see, Dear, Pam (the other French unit leader) and Marc are needed in France.  If you are really going to marry Marc, then I need you in France, too.  After you go to France, THEN  you can go to Ireland.

ME:  But Chuck, I don’t speak French. 

CMT:  When I was over there a couple years ago, I was amazed at how much of my French came back to me!

ME:  But Chuck, I don’t have any French to come back!  I’ve never even HAD French!  I’ve had three years of German and two years of Spanish.  But no French!

CMT:  You’re a smart girl; I know you will pick it right up!

Note:  I toured in French-speaking Europe for 18 months, living and performing in French.  I wouldn’t say I  picked it “right up”, but I did learn French and for the opportunity and the faith in me, I am so grateful to Chuck and the people who toured with me!  C’etait formidable!

Favorite Life Series: RAF, hands down.  Chase’s singlet kept me from ever looking at Scott Hamilton in the same way again!!

Most embarrassing stage moment: I was doing a footballer (think Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football) with Kerry Brooks at a very upscale Congregational church in Connecticut.  It was a dinner theater booking.  We were performing on a full stage and it was the requisite 4′ off the ground.  I pulled away the “football” and stood up to deliver my Cleo line.  However, as I stood up my heel came down on my skirt AND my slip and thus keeping them down around my ankles.  So I was standing in front of 300 upper-class Congregationalists in my blouse, panty hose and underwear, with an invisible football. 

Kerry rolled over and covered his face, guffawing.  The audience gasped.  I threw the football over my shoulder and ran off stage.  Kerry followed, poked his head back out and said, “That was for free!”

Brought down the house.

Most unusual experience: Every! Single! Day! in Nigeria.  I woke up each day thinking, “I wonder what will happen today!”  I ate goat with the skin and fur on; I watched a “doctor” throw a baby chicken into a pit of alligators to see what God had to say (while people who were “possessed” walked around us with manacles and chains on their ankles and wrists); I continued on with plays while bats flew overhead and rats skittered across the dirt floor . . . And also, performing in this church in Virginia that had spent an unGodly amount of money on a stained glass window that they would unveil to a timpani roll at the beginning of their Sunday telecast . . .

Ten Things I learned in CP:

1 That I had an accent.(Hey, I’m from Iowa!  Who knew bathroom was just a two-syllable word?)

2 How to grease the nipples of a Ford transit van (thanks to Marc; it’s how he courted me!)

3 Pentecostals and Catholics are Christians too!

4 How to work HARD and play HARD (Thank you, Ruth-Angela Norman!)

5 To learn lines, own lines and perform in other languages (and to project, pivot, own lines, eye-to-eye contact, etc.)

6 I could do far more than I believed, thanks first to God and second to CMT’s trust and the opportunities he gave me!

7 The difference between what God requires and what are just my preferences (learned whilst living with other people and them sharing what it is like to live with me!)

8 How weak and selfish and prideful I can be (especially learned while I was unit leading)

9 How to affirm people

10 The reality of Jesus Christ

And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg! 

So there is a thumbnail sketch of five years of my life . . . and that doesn’t even cover the time that the Salinas Police Department held guns on our unit and made us raise our hands in the air when someone called in that we had a gun–which was a TOY GUN we were using in a play we were rehearsing! . . . or the time Vaughn Drumm and I hitchhiked with two Turkish men when we broke down in Belgium in the middle of winter in the middle of the night, and we, along with the rest of our unit, ended up at a Greek restaurant owned by two Greek Communists . . . or the time we performed Proxy, a play in which a guy has climbed up on a ledge and is going to jump when a woman walks by and finds she can’t just ignore him, and an audience member came up and told us that he had been planning to kill himself later that night but the play reminded him that he was not alone and he was going to go talk to the pastor . . . and several journals-full more. 

Yes, these last 45 years have been exquisite!