Scene Change as a Means of Spiritual Teleportation

The following is the text and transcript (text-script) from the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Religious Scholars Panel, whose conference theme for 2019 was Scene Changes.Drawing upon the arts-based approach of A/r/tography for qualitative inquiry, the author theorizes the metaphorical imagery of scene changes as it relates to spiritual teleportation. Spiritual teleportation uses material means to help an audience member see the immaterial through their imaginative Theo-logos (the conceptual imagery one uses to discuss the incommunicable attributes of God). The magic of a well-crafted scene change is not necessarily in the setting it creates, but the interlude between-the-scenes that illuminates the spectator’s ability to see a reality they have never realized.