Drama:
Having acted in enough plays in grade school to realize he had a lousy memory, Bob Whitely promptly forgot, taking the lead role as Doc Savage in a skit he wrote for his 6th grade class. The 10 minute production left a lasting impression on Bob, who decided that perhaps writing was a better outlet, and left acting behind.

In early 2001, after overhearing several coworkers discussing the Survivor TV show over the course of several days, Bob found himself wondering what the auditions must have been like, and what stupid things people seemed willing to do for money. A few days later, while driving home from work, God gave Bob the full script for Survivor: Wasteland, his first play.

Realizing quickly that he didn’t have enough people to fill all the roles, he asked Erik Singman to play 2 difficult parts. Erik agreed, and did a phenomenal job! Bob directed the play and also took the lead role, afraid to ask anyone else to memorize so many lines, and trusted in God to somehow enable him to “get it right this time!”

Encouraged by the play's success, Bob set aside the 2nd draft of his fantasy novel, Beyond Xanadu, to form the Drama Guild, and has been writing plays and skits ever since. After Heather Beckey, one of his key actors moved out of town after performing in Twice Born, and with membership starting to drop, Bob started holding acting workshops, but attendance didn’t improve.

Discouraged, he approached his pastor and asked for advice. “Why don’t you do a monologue?” was the response, and while Bob was very skeptical, never having written one or even considered monologues, Bob prayed about it, and God gave him the idea for a complicated monologue he performed in December 2004.

Boxes is a powerful monologue of pain, temptation, forgiveness and redemption. The forty-five minute monologue was complicated and the script lengthy, and Bob reminded God a number of times that it would only work if HE annointed Bob for the task. Bob recalls how he trusted in God and was blown away by God’s miracle and those that came forward afterwards to accept Christ. Bob finished the monologue excitedly looking forward to continuing the ministry into 2005.

Membership remained low, however, until early 2006. Bob began researching appropriate scripts to supplement his own and began praying for God to lift up additional actors, a Stage Manager and an Assistant Director. Reorganizing the ministry and brainstorming ways to effectively move forward, Bob began hosting monthly Drama Fellowships in March, 2006. Attendance was very good, and Bob launched plans to fulfill his vision of performing skits and plays around the valley, encouraging actors from the community to join in the fun.

Bob has written, directed, and acted in a number of plays, including Survivor: Wasteland, Let Me See a Smile, Twice Born, What Do You Want, Blood?, and others. He has also written numerous skits, edited non-Drama Guild scripts, served as creative advisor and prop maker on non-Drama Guild plays at Meadows, and prepared outlines for both his long musical, DragonBane, and a screenplay entitled "Nexus: Road to Haven".

The gallery displays a number of Bob’s prop and graphic designs. Between April and May, Bob performed his latest monologue, Who was that Man?, twice at Meadows Fellowship and again at Growing in Grace Church in Las Vegas. Bob prays other area churches in need of drama ministries will join the Drama Guild as Host churches to spread the good news. Bob, and long time friend and videographer, Robert Duran, plan to bring the Drama Guild productions to the internet via podcasting!

Having the time of his life and getting to know some really terrific people, Bob is very thankful that God opened the doors to serve Him in this way. Each time Bob manages to get through a play or skit, he thanks God for enabling him to remember his lines!

Other ministry and charitable work:
A member of Meadows Fellowship since 1989, Bob started as an usher, then spent a few years as a nursery worker. Assisting on ocassion with local pro-life events, homeless outreaches, landscape and building projects, Bob makes the rounds where needed.

For the past 10 years or so, Bob has served at Meadows as a Sunday school teacher of both 1st & 2nd graders and more recently 3rd -5th graders, finding his quirky personality works well with those age groups, who are quick to note, Mr. Bob’s wierd but a lot of fun!”

Profession:
Bob has worked professionally as a Graphic Artist for over 9 years, first at Kinko’s and currently at The Pin Center, where he spends his days designing logos, fliers, assisting his company with web design, but most of all, drawing little pictures to be made into lapel pins for a variety of clients, including municipalities, companies and restaurants, like Outback Steakhouse and McDonald’s.

Bob is also in the middle of writing and painting his first children’s book while continuing to dabble in boardgame design in hopes of one day seeing a lifelong dream hit the shelves.

A recent graduate of CCSN, Bob has spent the past 20 years on and off again as a freelance conceptual designer for computer games, writer and painter for a cartoon proposal, logo designer, cartoonist, and illustrator. Around 2000, he added animation and web design to the mix. You can visit Bob's other website at: www.BeyondXanadu.com.

Hobbies:
Bob loves science fiction and fantasy, getting his fix by watching movies, reading books, playing Halo (when he can get the X-Box away from his boys!), playing D&D, commercial board games and testing his own games out on his family and friends.