Article October 8, 1966 Issue

An Interview: on the Theater

with contributions from George Hamlin

The world of the theater. Can Christian Science help one measure up to its disciplines, enjoy its rewards? George Hamlin, Associate Director of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University, has worked as actor, director, producer, teacher. Mr. Hamlin studied at The Principia College and Western Reserve University and gained fifteen years' experience in community and professional theater in Charleston, S. C., and New York City, before coming to Harvard. He is a third generation Christian Scientist. "I never made a choice of being a Christian Scientist," he says, "but I have made a lot of choices about staying one."

How can Christian Science help an artist?

If an artist deals with his own artistic experience in terms of Christian Science, he becomes freer—more creative, less afraid, more inspired, and more skillful. Art is a matter of expression. In spiritual terms what is being expressed is God and the different aspects of God reflected by man. Take the matter of talent: from a spiritual point of view, talent is a constant in man's true nature. He reflects it from God. It isn't a question of having talent or not having talent; it's a question of using what one already has. Take inspiration: artists discover that craft becomes true art to the degree that their work is inspired. As he comes to understand and appreciate good things, to love them, the artist finds inspiration, for Love is, after all, not only a synonym for God but that particular facet of God's being which both expresses His goodness and elicits a response to it. This responding to good, which is what love is, is the basis of all inspiration. Jesus said that "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). This can be a great comfort to an artist, because he can know that universal Truth, or infinite Mind, intelligence, is already present in his experience; and when he responds lovingly, he finds that inspiration is already present too.

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