Stephen Brunner, left, and
Derik Peterman practice
proper word articulation
by reciting dialogue from
a play script.
Helping Homilies
to Come Alive
Theater instructors
coach seminarians at
preaching “boot camp.”
Perrin Atisha
A
fter graduation, most
people go on a little
vacation or take some time
off to celebrate. But here
at Sacred Heart, when a
seminarian graduates from
philosophy—he jumps right
into preaching practice!
Immediately after graduation, seminarians
who are entering graduate theology in the
fall are involved in a three-week preaching
“boot camp” that is conducted by Fr. Daniel
Jones, director of graduate seminarians, and
18
Mr. Paco Gravilides, instructor in homiletics.
They are assisted by two professional actors,
the husband-wife team of Dr. Arthur Beer,
theater professor at the University of Detroit
Mercy, and Mrs. Mary Bremer-Beer, instructor of acting at UDM and long-time director
of its Theatre Company.
This year, nine of us seminarians went
through the boot camp from April 27
until May 15. Every morning, we started
with an hour-long session learning about
the biblical aspect of preaching, and then
we spent the rest of the day learning about
speech and voice. Dr. Beer and Mrs.
Bremer-Beer taught us breathing exercises,
articulation, and tongue twisters, as well
as acting out several scenes from different
monologues and plays. We worked on the
play Mass Appeal, which includes scenes
between Father Farley and a seminarian
named Mark. Some of the monologues
that we did were Pastor Manders from
Ghost and C.C. Showers from The Diviners.
The last three days of the camp invol