THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607190174
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Chesapeake Close-Up
SOURCE: Janelle La Bouve
LENGTH: 70 lines
Codie Ferguson's characteristic shyness slips away when she's in front of an audience and dressed in the black garb and heavy white makeup of a mime.
``For mime, you're in a character and ministering to people,'' said Ferguson, a mime team member at Glad Tidings Church in Norfolk, who also teaches mime to young people at Providence Friends Church in Virginia Beach.
``In real life, you actually have to open up and talk to people,'' she said.
She's more comfortable playing some characters than others.
Each character has its own purpose and on her team, the purpose is ministry, she said.
``Mime gives me a chance to stretch in different ways and for different characters,'' she said.
The mime team develops much of its own material.
One skit that receives a strong audience reaction is called ``Annie.''
In it a young girl is overcome by emotional distress. When she finds that her family and friends are too busy to help, the girl takes her own life.
The story moves along to a positive climax as the characters prove that they have learned a lesson from the bitter experience.
When they are comforted by another young person in distress, they promptly provide assistance.
``Mime is another way to present the Gospel,'' she said, adding that mime may reach someone who was not touched by a sermon because a dramatization may seem more real.
``It's another way to show that God loves us,'' she said.
``Usually we do mime to complement a particular service,'' she said.
Full name: Codie Lyn Ferguson
Hometown: ``I grew up in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.''
Fond childhood memory: ``Going to my grandmother's pool in the summer.''
Education: ``I just graduated from Indian River High School. In the fall, I will go to TCC and hope to transfer to the Air Force Academy.''
Hobbies: ``I co-teach a drama-mime team at one church and participate in a mime team at another church.''
Last book read: ``My Bible. But the last book I completed was `Passion and Purity' by Elisabeth Elliot. I read three or four books at a time.''
What's your favorite game? ``I like to play softball. I was on the varsity team at Indian River High School but didn't get to play this year because I went to Russia.''
Describe yourself as a color: ``A rainbow of colors. I'm never exactly the same person I was yesterday because I'm constantly growing. I change from situation to situation.''
If you could be tree, what would it be? ``I would be an oak because they are really tall and strong. They give shade and serve people that way.''
What irritates you the most? ``People who ask over and over again, `What's wrong?' I do it and that bugs me when I do it.''
Favorite type of music: ``Contemporary Christian because it has a modern sound, but the lyrics are clean and actually worth listening to.''
Favorite movie: ``Beauty and the Beast''
Can't resist: ``Something that makes me curious. If someone starts to tell me something, then stops, I want to hear the rest of it.''
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? ``The way I treat people sometimes. I can change, and I'm working on that.''
Favorite Chesapeake restaurant: Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar
Favorite way to spend a day: ``Anything I do with either or both of my best friends, Benjamin Shaw and Kristen Kerwin.''
What would you choose for a last meal?
``A non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri, a chicken fajita pizza and the company of friends.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY by CNB