Local impresario Dean Seal has long been known for his role in creating the local Fringe Festival and for his illustrious theater resume in general. The last couple of years, though, has taken Seal into a very different sphere—divinity school and work as a hospital chaplain. He hasn’t lost his connection to the stage—as evidenced by this weekend’s show, Spirit in the House, at Patrick’s Cabaret—but we were curious about his new vocation and about the links he’s been exploring between spirituality and theater. Observer editor Craig Cox contacted Seal earlier this week via e-mail and recorded this exchange.

You're a longtime fixture in the local arts community. What led you to pursue a divinity degree?
I've been going to church for 15 years, and I got religion through Dr. King, and theater comes out of the church, so it's all of a piece. Good theater, even good comedy, comes from finding meaning in our lives. I'm a Jew-loving, queer-friendly Jesus guy, and you don't hear much about us these days, so I figured it was time for me to dig in and work out some balance.

Your upcoming show, A Spirit in the House, emphasizes the connection between art and spirituality. Indeed, you note that art and the church belong together. Why is that? Have you found that to be the case in your work as a chaplain?
Western theater came out of church ceremony that told Bible stories, and Greek theater came out of storytelling that arose from funeral orations. Our search for meaning comes from trying to understand our lives and our stories. That's how we tell someone else what matters to us, or why we will miss someone, or what we think will happen to us after we die.

Chaplain work at the hospital is largely about listening to someone's story and helping them towards their own meaning-making. I don't try to sell anything, I respect the Hmong who needs a shaman, or the Jew who needs a rabbi, or the Ethiopian Orthodox that has a huge family praying, or the people who don't have a spiritual life, but suddenly they have some time to think about the big questions, and I can help them with the questions. The answers are up to them, and as I may only get them for 20 minutes, once, all I try to do is equip them to find thier own answers. All I can guarantee is that I care.

Do you find that a spiritual practice can fuel your creative process?
For me, the creative process is spiritual practice. If we are made in God's image, and God is our creator,there is nothing more holy, more sacred, more spiritual than creating, whether it is a funeral service or a blues lick. That's the voice of God coming out of the guitar of Jimi Hendrix—to me, anyway.

The other thing is that spiritual practice is so counter-cultural. Silence is not American, slowing down and not spending money are not American, pain avoidance is not spiritual but it is so American. If you are going to say something different, that doesn't sound like a Coke commercial, you have to get outside the system. Look at Dr. King. He was dead at 38, but we are still unraveling what he said and wrote, because it was so outside the system. Love the Racist? Can you imagine that?

You've also written a book about bringing theater into the church. What kind of response have you received to that idea?
The people who have read it (Church & Stage, Cowley Publications) find it to be very interesting and very useful. Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School gave it a glowing endorsement. It hasn't gotten much exposure because I haven't been able to push it because of some health setbacks. So I have to accomodate myself to the fact that books are a much longer process than shows, and I am only making it slower.

What else are you working on these days? Are we going to see a regular dose of Dean Seal—spiritual showman—in local theaters in the months ahead?
No. Hell no. I am a writer. The Spiritual Fringe may come up again in this year's festival; it had 1,400 people in attendance—but I am not producing it or performing in it. I achieved emeritus status on that. I got into theater to work on my writing. But it's a young person's game, and I've put in all the pro bono hours I can. My producing years at the BLB, the Acadia, and the Fringe took me away from writing, and my performing suffered. It's time for me to focus on writing. But if I get ordained, you might get a chance to hear me give sermons. My shows were called "preachy" in the theater, but that's a good thing in a church.

Spirit in the House
A spiritual cabaret curated and hosted by Dean J Seal
@ Patrick’s Cabaret
3010 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis 55406
Reservations 612/721 3595
January 13 & 14, 8 pm
$8 at the door $6 in advance from the performers (see The Observer's arts calendar for a list of performers, www.mplsobserver.com/arts_calendar)