{"id":41114,"date":"2019-01-25T14:49:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=41114"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:01:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T20:01:19","slug":"through-audio-film-and-theater-versatile-writer-liz-hansen-99-tells-stories-and-prompts-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/through-audio-film-and-theater-versatile-writer-liz-hansen-99-tells-stories-and-prompts-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Through audio, film and theater, versatile writer Liz Hansen ’99 tells stories and prompts questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jay B. Landis<\/strong> and his checkerboard-wrinkled forehead: That\u2019s basically what started Elizabeth Beachy Hansen ’99\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

Landis was the faculty advisor for such people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe called me and said, \u2018Well, What are the classes that you really want to take?\u2019\u201d she remembered recently. \u201cThen he started telling me about all the things he was teaching, and so I ended up as an English major.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hansen loved not only Landis\u2019s teaching but also the intense, collaborative process of theater, and the campus where she still feels at home.<\/p>\n

So much has followed: a first playwriting gig (Jordan\u2019s Stormy Banks<\/em> 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 \u2013 oh, and two children, now nearly two and four years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a different world, the last few years,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of what we\u2019re doing right now is figuring out how do we continue to do this stuff we\u2019re passionate about, around kids. It\u2019s been a good challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen is a script writer and story developer for reThink Group<\/a>, which produces curricula and companion resources in a wide variety of formats for churches and parents. It calls its philosophy and strategy \u201cOrange,\u201d to represent how the joining of two forces \u2013 parents and church leaders \u2013 \u201cwill have exponentially more influence than either entity alone,\u201d its website says. She\u2019s seen her own kids connect with the resources at their church.<\/p>\n