Joyce Parry Moore completed an undergraduate degree in theater & voice and then recieved a graduate degree in opera performance from the Boston Conservatory of Music. She sings, acts and directs and has been involved in the mounting of various productions over the years in Boston, New York, Alaska and California.
But as much as she enjoys the theater arts, she maintains that her true calling is the Church. In 2009 she received a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley CA. After serving in a number of ministry positions in California, the Revd Parry Moore is now the rector of St James Episcopal Church in Kent WA.
Drawn to the idea that music & theater are great teaching tools in ministry, Mother Joyce brings various skills in the theater arts into her position as rector. She is currently directing a cast of 15 parishioners in a production based on CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The cast draws on members of all age groups in the parish and includes her husband Patrick in the role of Aslan the lion. Her last child at home, high school aged Ariana, is also in the cast, as well as working behind the scenes with the costuming.
The Revd Parry Moore thinks this play, based on the idea of children coping with the trauma of WW2 by escaping into an imaginary land, has an appropriate message for today’s children who also live with trauma & termoil on the broader world stage. There will be three performances of the play this weekend in the sanctuary of the church. Two on Saturday, 20 AUG, at 2 pm and at 7 pm and again on Sunday, 21 AUG, at 2 pm. Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door. You may also order the tickets in advance online.
The original report & the photos are by Mark Klass of the Kent Reporter where information for this story was gathered.
The cast in the main photo includes: (back row) Val Brustad, Michael Soran, Ari Moore, Patrick Moore, Gideon Jennings, Karen Gusse; (middle row) Annalise Jennings; (front sitting row) Sean Bean, Matthew Bean, Morgan Shannon, Jean Helmer and Dallas Shannon.