“No storm can disturb my deepest peace, while I am holding onto that rock. Because Love is the ruler of heaven and earth, how can I refrain from singing?”
When Hollywood actor Martin Sheen started singing his favorite hymn on Tuesday afternoon, about twenty-four King’s College students and faculty members also joined in.
Moments like that don’t occur during a usual press conference, but spontaneous songs do arise when theatrical friends gather.
Sheen and the students have been emphasizing their friendship, as the famous actor visited the campus for three days in preparation for and participation in a staged reading of the play “8” by Dustin Lance Black — which will be livestreamed today. on the college theater’s Facebook page.
“These are my new friends,” Sheen said of the students who surrounded him on stage before Tuesday’s rehearsal, calling them “a great source of energy … I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t know how beautiful they are.”
“He thanked us for letting him be here,” theatre department chair Dave Reynolds said, shaking his head. “I sat here and cried.”
“We’re honored and blessed to come up here and create art,” cast member and student Jennifer Kraengel said, noting she felt even more grateful “to do that with a living legend.”
Among Sheen’s earlier work, he is well-known for his role in the 1979 action film “Apocalypse Now,” which a student actor said he has been watching for one of his classes.
Sheen’s more recent work includes his role as President Jed Bartlet on “The West Wing.”
“Speaking for all the ‘over 40s’ in the room,” said cast member Wendy Hinton, who also is King’s vice president for institutional advancement, “We are fan droolling like crazy … I used to ask ‘oh, why can’t he be the real president?’”
While he’s not interested in running for office in real life, Sheen said, “I have a great interest in social justice, peace activism and human rights.”
The play “8,” in which he will have the role of Judge Vaughn Walker, tells a story of social justice, Sheen said. “Absolutely.”
The play revolves around a real-life court hearing, and Judge Walker’s decision to overturn Proposition 8 in California. The judge’s decision made gay marriage legal, which Sheen described as “affirming the fundamental right to be who we are.”
At the urging of Retired Luzerne County Judge Joe Cosgrove, who is on the faculty at King’s and has long been a friend of Martin Sheen, several students in the cast talked about advice Sheen has given them over the past few days. Some of it was about acting; some was about making films. For student John Toussaint, who described himself as “deeply Catholic,” it was about navigating a theatrical world where not everyone shares the same values.
Sheen’s response was to demonstrate a gesture familiar to people who attend Catholic Masses. He touched his forehead, his mouth and his chest to make a little sign of the cross at each spot. He said he does that before every undertaking, and prays, “May the truth be in my mind, on my lips and in my heart.”
Theater can be “a sacred thing,” he said. “It it is honest, if it is nurturing.”
When you're going through difficult times, he told the students to think of his favorite song and remind yourself, "That's just the first wave, and I'm in a sturdy boat."
The staged reading of "8" will happen at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on April 10 at the George P. Maffei II Theatre at King's College. Tickets were not available at the door. They were sold through brownpapertickets.com and both shows sold out quickly. However, the play will be livestreamed on the King's College PA Theatre Facebook Page.
