Krystel Lucas in The Christians. Photo by Adams VisCom.

MEET KRYSTEL LUCAS
Elizabeth, the wife of Pastor Paul, in The Christians


At the Theatre Company: Debut. New York credits include Couriers and Contrabands (The Barrow Group) and Love’s Labor’s Lost (Shakespeare in the Parking Lot). Regional: Disgraced (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Good People (Alley Theatre and Dorset Theatre Festival), The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Old Globe), In the Next Room, Or The Vibrator Play (Syracuse Stage and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Postcards from Earth (The Guthrie), Death and the King’s Horseman, Macbeth (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). TV/Film: “Jessica Jones” and “The Blacklist.”

• Hometown: Spring Lake, N.C.
• Training: BA from UNC-Asheville; MFA from New York University
• What was the role that changed your life? Playing Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost profoundly changed my life. It was my first full production and significant role in a Shakespeare play. I learned so much about the craft of acting, the power of language and the beauty of storytelling. It was a revelation for me because it taught me the value of ensemble work and also emboldened me to pick up more classical texts.
• Why are you an actor? Who are we? Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is our responsibility to the rest of humanity? What stories do we want to tell and need to tell? There are so many questions we ask of ourselves and each other in our daily lives. I love that as artists we have an opportunity to examine a life, a story, an experience that may be very different from our own … yet, so richly connects us to each other. For me, acting is about seeking truth – in building your character, dissecting the choices we make and shining a light on another person’s journey in this world. At its best, the work can be exciting, humorous, fascinating, scary, fun, playful, tragic and, hopefully, deeply human. Oh, I love it.
• What would you be doing if you weren’t an actor: My background is journalism, so I would probably work in that field. I think it is a profession that has played an important role in our nation’s social, economic and political landscape. Ideally, investigative journalists also seek truth with integrity, ingenuity and care for the greater good of society.
• Ideal scene partner: I grew up watching “The Carol Burnett Show“. She was just fearless, smart, spontaneous, bold and full of joy. It was so much fun to see her living in the moment, evoking genuine laughter and daring audiences to come along for the ride. I can only imagine how wonderful it would be to work on a scene with such a comedic genius.
• Why does The Christians matter? This is a beautiful play that challenges us to look inward and examine our own beliefs, biases and world views. In a time when listening to each other and working to understand different perspectives seems so difficult in our country, this play takes an intimate look at one of our most precious, private and potent sources of conflict … our faith.
• What do you hope the audience gets out of this play? I hope they leave asking questions of themselves and their fellow theatergoers. I hope they leave feeling like they’ve been to church and experienced a sermon like no other. I hope they leave and feel they’ve experienced a moving story that reminds them that we are, all of us, human beings.
• Finish this sentence: “All I want is …”
  “… a world where we can all keep our heads up, our hearts open and our feet firmly planted on the ground.”

Kevin Kilner and Krystel Lucas play a married couple in ‘The Christians.’ Photo by Adams VisCom.

The Christians: Ticket information
A new play about the mystery of faith and what happens when a doctrinal controversy shakes the foundation of a large community church.
Plays through Feb. 26
Stage Theatre
ASL and Audio-Described matinee at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12
303-893-4100 or BUY ONLINE

Selected previous NewsCenter coverage of The Christians:
Behind the scenes video: Making stained glass for The Christians
Video, photos: Your first look at The Christians
Composer Gary Grundei on music to move the masses
Five things we learned at first rehearsal 
The Christians is ‘a pathway to empathy

2016-17 season: Nine shows, two world premieres, return to classics

More 2016-17 ‘Meet the Cast’ profiles:

Steven J. Burge, An Act of God
Liam Craig, The Book of Will
Aubrey Deeker, The Glass Menagerie
Thaddeus Fitzpatrick, Frankenstein
Meridith C. Grundei, Frankenstein
Steven Cole Hughes, An Act of God
Sullivan Jones, Frankenstein
Mark Junek, Frankenstein
Charlie Korman, Frankenstein
Jennifer Le Blanc, The Book of Will
Rodney Lizcano, The Book of Will
Wesley Mann, The Book of Will
Robert Manning Jr., The Christians
Amelia Pedlow, The Glass Menagerie
Jessica Robblee, Frankenstein
Erik Sandvold, An Act of God
John Skelley, The Glass Menagerie
Kim Staunton, Two Degrees
Caitlin Wise, The Christians