Creating Coram Deo: Vocation and Excellence in the Arts

Abbey SitterleyFaith & Theology, Featured Leave a Comment

No matter how long you’ve traversed Christian culture, it’s doubtless that you’ve heard plenty of jokes and sighs about Christian art. From the cheesiness of faith-based movies to cookie-cutter lyricism and the barren wasteland of non-blasphemous religious visual art, our collective eye-roll is stuck in a loop. Many sense there is a fracture within our religious music especially and feel …

That Beauty May Endure: The Call of Artists in a Pandemic

Sean O’HareFaith & Theology, Featured, General Thoughts, Literature & Poetry Leave a Comment

A great fear has gripped our world in recent weeks. With frightening swiftness we have been swept into a historical moment that is both unprecedented and familiar, and will require the heroic resolve of medical professionals and policy makers to see us through this crisis. As this disease continues to reveal the fragility of our life together and confront us …

Costly Obedience in A Hidden Life

Nate ManciniFeatured, Film & Video, Reviews Leave a Comment

“It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.”Terrence Malick’s new film, A Hidden Life, is based on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer. The film begins in 1939 when Jägerstätter lives a seemingly idyllic life in the Austrian countryside. He farms the land, lives in a tight-knit community, and has a happy family. Scenes depict Jägerstätter …

Timeless Stories and Good Theater: Revisiting The Crucible

Richard ChristmanActing & Stunts, Featured, Literature & Poetry Leave a Comment

I just saw the new Little Women film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet and others.  It is fantastic. Unlike so many remakes and adaptations of classic and beloved stories (in my experience) this film held all the magic and emotional power as the original Louisa May Alcott novel, first published in 1868.  As …

Empires of the Heart

Nate ManciniFeatured Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note: Forefront Festival Founder and Director Nate Mancini delivered the following remarks to open our recent Meetup event in Rochester. His articulation of the changing role of the arts in the coming years and Forefront’s part to play within that shift offer a compelling vision of our work. The following is an edited transcript of his talk.   An empire …

On Reading Medieval Art

Greg AhlquistFaith & Theology, Featured, Visual Art & Photography Leave a Comment

Medieval art often gets a bad rap.  Placed between the recognizable Classical art of the Greeks and Romans and the infamous Renaissance art of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Donatello, the artworks of the “Middle” Ages are often simply glossed over as two-dimensional and religious.The art of the Middle Ages is hard to appreciate because it lacks the monumental, realistic, and …

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Andrew SalmonActing & Stunts, Faith & Theology, Featured Leave a Comment

Certain moments are etched indelibly on my memory. I’ll never forget my first paid performance. I was a professional now, at least according to the printed program and the expectations of the attendees, but I felt like a fraud.I was a fresh recruit to physical theatre, brimming with idealism and raw technique. My strength and stubborn dedication had won a …

Keeping Open: The Spiritual Philosophy of Madeleine L’Engle

Abbey SitterleyFaith & Theology, Featured, Literature & Poetry Leave a Comment

Spirit guides, time travel, and theology: seemingly polar concepts and yet they are the pillars of Madeleine L’Engle’s most notable work, A Wrinkle in Time.The story of young Meg Murray, a social misfit who, along with her younger brother Charles Wallace and friend Calvin, embarks on an adventure across time and space in search of her captured father. Though this …