best seat in the house | joy rudder on testament
Image provided by Joy Rudder.
Every so often, we receive an audience response that is a story unto itself. With her permission, today we’re sharing Joy Rudder’s thoughts on Testament, which aired in April. Thank you Joy, for sharing your beautiful words with us.
Every evening I let go my stranglehold of the day as I admit my mortality and sink into the dark where I may be restored, my true life germinate, away from the glaring rush of the day.
On this evening, rest and restoration came uniquely, as my soul was renewed witnessing Testament. Instead of being the shy, solitary stranger amidst the buzzing, chattering crowd of old friends in PT’s lobby, I felt accompanied by unseen others as in thrilling anticipation we counted down the seconds to the start.
The soothing sounds of Jon Ochsendorf still run through my mind – a passionate artist making his music in a pool of light; giving us lyrics and sounds, feeding our souls: “I can be found at the river of life, sipping mercy….”
As always at PT, I was introduced to new people: Cheryl Bear who I’d heard of before but now saw: tender, strong and kind evoking memories of a myriad ancestors with her chanting and her drum, traveling that road with Jon.
I heard such exquisite words! – every one a poem in a way, though some were prose. Each reader stirred my heart but this one in particular, made me look again at an old story with new eyes. The woman at the well at Sychar, spoke like we’ve never heard her speak before, of the longing for living water that scorched within her. Samantha Forbes’ reading of Sheila Rosen’s Samaritan Woman roused a deep empathy within me. Katherine Venour’s reading of Kim Balke’s By A Slim Thread still hovers within me like the hummingbird it describes, so exquisitely caught, just out of the corner of the eye, in this shimmering poem.
To celebrate each gifted reader, singer or musician is impossible. But the rhythm of their spoken words and contrasts of soothing or rousing music (I’m still chanting, mesmerized – I went down to the river to pray….) gave me a way to breathe in and exhale so much sweetness, so much passion – fantastic fiddle work, crooning spirituals and jazz.
Wondrously, this new digital format gave me the gift of being able to to replay the entire Testament as soon as the first one ended… and I wept a little more before I rested that night and still wake up singing, remembering, savouring all I was given.
I know that each production is a work of many souls mingling in the creative give- and-take but I want to specially celebrate PT’s new artistic director Kaitlin Williams. She has so deftly slipped into her new role. In Testament, she delivered an offering of magnificence that helped me breathe in deeply again with glad gratitude and wonder.
– Joy Rudder
Writer, chaplain, chef