Mission Statement
Hayden Theater is committed to the education of the whole person, an education that fosters emotional, social, and spiritual growth within the context of a Catholic culture through the theatrical expression of wisdom and truth, shaped by a communal spirit and directed toward the transcendent destiny of each student.
Theatre in the Catholic SchoolTheatre is a legitimate expression of human experience that has roots in each human person. The very word “person” comes from the Latin word for “mask”, derived from the Greek πρόσωπον (prosōpon). As individuals we have a basic need to express ourselves and that expression has manifested itself throughout human history in the form of ritual and theatre.
Historically, theatre has emerged from religious ritual and it reemerges again and again, every time theatre has been suppressed. It was Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) and the Polish underground theatre during World War II that helped to keep Polish culture and the Catholic faith alive during the Nazi occupation. Theatre is a fundamental cultural necessity which is enriched by and enriches the community in which it is located. Educationally speaking, the creative, collaborative nature of the work and familiarity with the dynamic interface between theatre and the real world form a first rate foundation for a future in almost any field. The arts enhance our lives and connect our students to history, cultures, and creative thinking. Music, dance, theatre and the visual arts nurture the imagination, intellect, and cognitive development. As an institution committed to the education and development of the whole person, the arts are integral to the kind of education and human experience that we want our students to have. |
Karol Wojtyla - Pope John Paul II
Speaking to the intellectuals and artists of his old metropolitan See of Krakow during his historic journey to Poland in June 1979, Pope John Paul II recalled that one of the closest friends of his youth "considered the spoken word and the theatre to be my calling, but Our Lord Jesus thought it was priesthood." The future pope's connections with theater, in one way or another, spanned well over three decades, and for some of that time it was an open question in which of the two directions young Karol Wojtyla would go. The theatre had been his great passion since childhood in the town of Wadowice, where he was the star actor in numerous school productions, some of which he also helped direct. And it remained a passion in his student days at Krakow, both before and during World War II, when he was a member of three theatre groups in succession.
It was in 1941 that Karol Wojtyla's theatrical aspirations were realized most fully. In that year he co-founded, with Dr. Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk (the friend he recalled four decades later), the Rhapsodic Theatre, in which he was one of the acting company of five. One of the best groups in the Polish resistance at the time of the German occupation, the Rhapsodic Theatre staged mainly poems and dramas of the great Polish romantics, inspired by their poetic imagery and by their intensely patriotic as well as metaphysical qualities. Wojtyla remained with the Rhapsodists until he turned from philological to theological studies and began to prepare himself for priesthood in the closing years of the war. In his first years as a priest, Karol Wojtyla organized theatrical activities in the parishes where he worked and very occasionally still acted himself. He maintained ties with his friends of the Rhapsodic Theatre right up to the time of his elevation to the papacy, and - under a nom de plume - reviewed their performances even as an archbishop. Boleslaw Taborski, Introduction to "The Jeweler's Shop", Ignatius Press, 1992 |
