the spotlight: lauren kost

For as long as she can remember, any given day of the week was yet another opportunity for her imagination to run wild. Playing dress up wasn’t so much a pastime in her young mind, as much as it was an opportunity to transform and escape into the vast expanse of otherworldliness.

With her first memories of the arts being through story books and seeing “Mary Poppins” live on stage, she came from a family unit who appreciated and supported the arts. At the age of five, she was encouraged to pick up a musical instrument. Her instrument of choice: the violin. 

She would continue to perfect this musical craft throughout her public high school experience, accompanied by her wide array of athletic endeavors including swimming, cross country, volleyball and soccer. 

Unbeknownst to her at the time, she would later come to trade her work as a violinist to utilizing a different kind of musical instrument: her voice. The idea of pursuing theatrical performance as a profession really came about from her innate love of music and singing. It wouldn’t be long before Kost knew in her spirit that this was a calling that the Lord had placed on her life.

“(My family) has been so supportive…but I do think that (performance is) just a different thing to explain and to have respect for even though it is something so necessary as a Christian to understand that creation is a gift from God, as he is the Creator,” Kost said.

This sure conviction was not without some opposition, though. During her first semester in college, she was the only Bachelor of Fine Arts student to not get cast in a show. For any performer who tends to put their whole heart on the line for a role, she learned to not let her soul get tangled up in the tension of her identity being attached to her work. 

As a member of the crew that semester, her conviction was tested and refined. Her focus behind-the-scenes reminded her of the purpose of the craft as a spiritual practice. Seeing her purpose in the arts as an act of worship turned her focus to viewing each show as a unified community effort.

“There’s something so much bigger than me,” Kost said. “There’s something so beautiful about the story; there’s something so beautiful about these people coming together and creating something.”

This initial experience in the program taught Kost about how her contribution to the arts is so much more than the output of the creation. Instead, she adopted the perspective that there is great value in the process as the Lord leads. Having full reliance on him taught Kost about diligence and humility—and the fruit that comes from it.

Entering a Christian-made artistic space at Liberty, Kost at first didn’t know what to expect. But over time, she saw the great value in how live performance and acting is a version of empathy. By having care for other life experiences through the characters she has the opportunity to play, the parallel between spirituality and her creative process were brought into focus in a faith-based artistic environment.

“I think there are so many parallels,” she said. “When I first came here, I didn’t necessarily know what to expect from an acting major…I realized that we’re really just majoring in empathy. It’s so similar to psychology except instead we’re stepping into the people. We are observing, but it’s beyond that, it’s understanding and justification. And it’s also not condemning the characters that we’re playing.”

In a similar way in which Jesus felt compassion for the hurting or sat with sinners in their moments of great need, Kost is able to adopt this approach to human connection through the characters that she inhabits and interacts with on stage.

To Kost, having true care for the character means to embrace honesty and vulnerability as a human first and foremost in order to create meaningful art. At times, this can take a mental toll. Whatever limitations that one has off-stage will inevitably hinder the character in some way.

“Acting at its core is just about truth,” Kost said. “And it’s about storytelling. And there’s a lot that is being said about what’s true right now. And I think that it’s a really beautiful thing that we can be here and understand what goodness is in a story—what Christ is in a story. At the same time, sometimes you need stories with grit, and you need stories that are not beautiful so you can see the light better.”

The first time that she was able to exercise this on Liberty Mountain was when she went on stage as an understudy for the role of Gwendolen in “The Importance of Being Earnest” during her freshman year. 

More prepared than ever, Kost was as confident as she could be going into showtime that night. She had one shot to excel – a moment she had been waiting for all year long. When she messed up one of her monologues, she felt the weight of it crashing down on her.

After the show, one of her castmates encouraged her with a truth that has remained on her heart ever since: you cannot have gratitude and fear coexist at the same time.

“I get to decide the balance here,” Kost said. “And I think it’s having control over that balance and acknowledging that balance, but you also have to let it fluctuate sometimes.”

Similar to a relationship with Christ, these truths are not linear. Glimpses of the Holy Spirit can be seen shining through these human experiences — further making Kost’s craft a spiritual practice. It requires full dependence on God to remain grounded and focused when full surrender takes place on stage.

These types of “trust fall” moments as she refers to them have been what have formed not only her artistic choices, but also her personal walk with God. Learning and growing is not only the way of progression, but also the symbol of a beautiful reliance on the One who has brought her to the place where she is today.

This obedient faith has allowed for new opportunities to arise. The following year, Kost got her debut leading role at Liberty playing Rosalind in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, opening the door for yet another opportunity to fully rely on the Lord for guidance and direction throughout the process.

“Now I have to trust that this opportunity wouldn’t have been given to me if I wasn’t ready for it,” Kost said. “That the Lord wouldn’t have placed this in my path if it wasn’t something that I could get through with His help and in reliance on Him.”

For Kost, art goes beyond the delineation of innately “Christian” or “secular”. Instead, she sees art holistically: a creative way to tell stories. Because of the Lord’s creative nature, she believes it’s incredibly beneficial and crucial to look for God in all forms of art, even if it is not obvious in its creation.

Even if the original intention was not an explicitly Christian one, truth has a way of coming to the surface when it is sought out. Truth and beauty simply cannot be ignored when they point back to something greater than any one creator or artist.

“As Christians, if we’re not able to find the value in secular art, then that’s our judgment creating precedence and that is not biblical,” Kost said.

In all creative products, there is an intrinsic longing living within. Whether or not the creator is aware of it, all humans have a yearning for the ultimate source of good and beauty reminiscent of Romans 2:15.

“There is so much to be said for being in the arena for God,” Kost said. “And what that means sometimes is being a warrior, it’s strength. It is the fight. There is so much necessity that actors and artists and Christians have to fight the good fight…as Christians, if we believe that God is in everything, then why don’t we follow through in that belief in the arts?”

While edifying the Church and being a light amongst other believers is honorable and good, Christians must not deny our calling to go into dark places to make disciples as stated in Matthew 28:19, all the while guarding our hearts and seeking wisdom and discernment as reflected in Proverbs 4:23 and Philippians 4:17. 

When this is the approach, the performing arts can be redeemed to a sacred act of worship on stage. As opposed to the spotlight highlighting the talents of the performers in telling their story, the experience can be an opportunity to reflect Christ: the One who gifted us our talents to begin with.

 “Acting is reminiscent of faith,” Kost said. “Your faith isn’t a stagnant thing; art isn’t a stagnant thing. There’s so much life in it. And I think that’s part of why it’s so beautiful and how you can tell it’s from the Lord — because it’s something with movement and something with its own strength and its own beauty.”