Godsmacked - The Play
In the fall of 1973, a young Hollywood actor leaves behind his career and celebrity, embarking on a spiritual quest to the exotic, beautiful and seductive land of India, journal in hand. The trip is a culmination of three years of intense self-examination and spiritual exploration that has taken him through a maze of religions and new age sects. His goal is simple. He seeks what the Hindus call “Anubhava” or “truth, directly experienced.”
He travels the sub-continent from one end to the other with his mentor and another dozen or so fellow seekers, encountering along the way many famous and not-so-famous mystics, swamis, and gurus. And, oddly enough, he frequently runs into Christians who witness to him about Jesus. Although unappreciative of their intrusions, he is nevertheless reminded of his childhood faith and begins reading a Gideon Bible to find out more about Jesus.
His original quest, a direct experience of God’s truth, becomes fulfilled in an unexpected and beautifully simple way that is sure to inspire any seeker that experiences his story.
Linda Burton-Director and Producer
Linda Burton was born and raised in Del Rio, Texas where she began her interest in dance and community theatre performing in Brigadoon and Anything Goes.
She earned her degree in dance from Texas Woman’s University with honors and performed in various college dance and theatre productions such as Peter Pan. She furthered her damce studies in NYC with the Martha Graham and Paul Taylor dance companies.
She was a part of the Lakewood Church Drama team from 2002-2019 under the direction of Wendell Burton and led the Dance team ministry from 2004-2009. She performed, taught, directed and choreographed for various dance productions, musicals and plays. She performed in Center Stage Theatre’s productions of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and Annie Get Your Gun in Kingwood, Texas. Her last play was as the lead actor in a dinner theatre production of A Nice Family Christmas in south Houston in 2019.
Wendell Burton-Writer
Wendell Burton (1947-2017) was an actor, director, singer-songwriter, acting coach, author, television executive, worship leader, and ordained minister.
Originally from Texas, Wendell’s family moved to California as a teenager. While attending college in San Francisco he performed in the musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. And shortly thereafter, won the part of Jerry Payne, opposite Liza Minnelli’s Oscar-nominated role of Pookie, in the romantic classic, The Sterile Cuckoo. He made the move to Hollywood where he starred and guest-starred in MGM’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes, the television version of The Red Badge of Courage, Go Ask Alice, East of Eden, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. His last feature role was in Heat, with Burt Reynolds.
He later co-founded the Hollywood Free Theater, a Christian organization dedicated to providing professional entertainment and theatre training for free to the public, and also embarked on a musical career. His debut album, titled Wendell, was released on Lamb & Lion Records in 1978 followed by three more albums (Shinin’ Thru the Rain, Closer, and Heart of Eternity). He toured the country ministering in churches, universities and various other venues.
After a decade of traveling ministry, Wendell was blessed to join the Christian Broadcasting Network, which later became The Family Channel - starting as an account executive, and later becoming the director of the west coast sales team.
In 1997, Wendell moved to Houston, Texas to help Joel Osteen in his effort to build a full-power television station. He served as Director of Programming and National Sales. After Joel’s father, Pastor John Osteen, passed away in 1999, Wendell served at the station for another two years before transitioning to the pastoral staff at Lakewood Church, where he served in various roles such as Singles Pastor, Creative Arts Director and Champions Network Senior Director.
Wendell passed from this earth to a greater life on May 30, 2017 after a 4 year battle with brain cancer.
Sandy C. Maranto: Script Writer
Originally from Virginia, Sandy Maranto resides in Salado, Texas, with her husband, Tim, and three dogs in their empty nest. In 2018, her short play Sufficient was selected as one of eight plays produced in Austin Scriptworks’ Out of Ink Ten-Minute Play Festival. Other notable works include: Gods of Disdainful Judgment, a Best of Fest selection for Austin’s 2019 FronteraFest Short Fringe; Unconditional Therapy, a semi-finalist in the 2019 Gaslight Baker Theatre’s One-Act Playwriting competition; and “Never Clip Your Toenails While Under the Influence of Drugs,” a Best of Week selection for Austin’s 2019 FronteraFest Short Fringe. In 2020, Sandy wrote and produced the dramedy, They Serve Brisket in Paradise, for Austin’s FronteraFest Long Fringe. Sandy’s prose, poetry, and short plays have been published by The Interp Store and performed by high school students throughout the country, competing in speech/ interpretation competitions. When not writing or hiking in a national park, Sandy teaches English to 7th and 8th graders. Sandy appreciates Linda tremendously for allowing her to be involved with this amazing project about an amazing man.
April Jamerson: Dance Director
April Fry Jamerson is originally from northeast Ohio. She began dancing at the age of 5 eventually winning numerous Showstopper and regional competitions throughout her high school career.
April went on to study dance at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, under the direction of Gladys Bailin. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with her BFA in 1989. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she studied and performed with the Rudy Perez Dance Company and was a company member of the Long Beach City Dance Theater.
April also taught at the The Art of Dance in Carson during her time in California. The summer of 1992 she married Dave Jamerson, a professional basketball player with the Houston Rockets and moved to Houston, Texas.
She immediately began teaching and performing at The Christian Dance Center and was a founding member of His Company International—an international Christian dance company. Her work with His Company became a launch pad for teaching and performing throughout the country and around the world. April has been blessed to perform in places like St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia; Auckland, New Zealand; Izmir, Turkey; Nairobi, Kenya; Lima, Peru; Highgate, Jamaica; and Oaxaca, Mexico, as well as in numerous events and conventions like the Hurricane Katrina Relief Benefit with T.D. Jakes and Lakewood Church.
She is also a gifted choreographer and has set pieces on numerous dance teams nationally and internationally, most notably, Janie Parker, prima ballerina with the Houston Ballet. April was also the founder and director of Arts Alive—a youth performing arts camp in Austin, Texas, and the founder and director of Renovate Dance Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.
April currently pastors at Renovate Church in Leander, Texas, with her husband Dave and serves as the director of women’s and children’s ministry.
Viviana Mora
Born in Brownsville, Tx. In the valley of South Texas, Viviana began playing piano at 5 years old, and was singing in church along with her mother who was the music director. Attending Hardin-Simmons University, graduating in 2002 with a bachelor’s in English and minored in music, she realized she needed to work on a teaching degree. Now a 14 yr. veteran in elementary music, she has found her calling and volunteers at Renovate Church in Cedar Park as a back-up vocalist/keyboardist for the praise and worship team.
Denny Paschall: Choreographer
NY credits: Shrek the Musical, Beauty and the Beast, Anyone Can Whistle (Encores!), Camelot “Live at Lincoln Center,” “Sondheim 80th Birthday Concert”. Sending love out to my wife, Haven, and our littles, Hudson, Caspian and Nova.