Jay B. Landis and his checkerboard-wrinkled forehead: That鈥檚 basically what started Elizabeth Beachy Hansen ’99聽on her career path. As a first-year student, she had biotech and science research leanings, some theater experience, a passion for playing marimba, and no declared major.
Landis was the faculty advisor for such people.
鈥淗e called me and said, 鈥榃ell, What are the classes that you really want to take?鈥欌�� she remembered recently. 鈥淭hen he started telling me about all the things he was teaching, and so I ended up as an English major.鈥�
Hansen loved not only Landis鈥檚 teaching but also the intense, collaborative process of theater, and the campus where she still feels at home.
So much has followed: a first playwriting gig (Jordan鈥檚 Stormy Banks for the Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center in Harrisonburg); an MFA from Regent University; her husband Dave, whom she met at a month-long Act One workshop in Chicago, various writing gigs that led to new writing gigs; and now, for about eight years, a reThink Group position in suburban Atlanta 鈥� oh, and two children, now nearly two and four years old.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely been a different world, the last few years,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 lot of what we鈥檙e doing right now is figuring out how do we continue to do this stuff we鈥檙e passionate about, around kids. It鈥檚 been a good challenge.鈥�
Hansen is a script writer and story developer for , which produces curricula and companion resources in a wide variety of formats for churches and parents. It calls its philosophy and strategy 鈥淥range,鈥� to represent how the joining of two forces 鈥� parents and church leaders 鈥� 鈥渨ill have exponentially more influence than either entity alone,鈥� its website says. She鈥檚 seen her own kids connect with the resources at their church.
She also works with her husband Dave, a 鈥渨hole-package鈥� filmmaker, in their Arclight Studios, a career field she says is ironic for her: she grew up without television. Instead, 鈥渨e had books. We had so many books.鈥� She remembers a summer her mom took limiting measures because her little sister 鈥� now language and literature Professor Kirsten Beachy ’02 鈥� was reading so much.
Collaborating with a spouse can be kind of like marriage therapy, she said. 鈥淎nytime you work together on a creative project like that, it brings out the best and the worst. We鈥檝e learned how we work together as a team鈥� 鈥� critiquing each other鈥檚 work included. That鈥檚 ultimately good for the art, since what emerges as a first draft is 鈥渞eally like a third or fourth draft,鈥� she said.
Even though the Hansens work as Christians, theirs is not 鈥淐hristian art鈥� 鈥� it鈥檚 art.
鈥淪tories are beautiful and wonderful and dangerous in that they carry a message,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a powerful thing.鈥澛� While some might use art to spoonfeed a message to audiences, Hansen鈥檚 definition of a Christian story is more rooted in, well, story:
鈥淎 Christian story would be a story that鈥檚 really well told, where somebody changes for better or for worse,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd because of something that we see in their story, we then start asking questions.鈥�
Questions that, perhaps along with forehead wrinkles, can even start a professional journey.