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Miraculous Collision of Sacred Language with Adolescent Chaos

Richard Beck Richard Beck
7 Mar 2026

Luke Stiles talks to us about growing up in California, studying at LAMDA and his debut play Miraculous.

I was really interested in that moment when when sacred language collides with adolescent chaos

Let’s do this chronologically, Luke, and start with where you grew up and your background.

Luke: I was born in Pasadena, California, and grew up in southern California, very much in the church. I was announced in the same church my parents were married in, and we went every week. During middle and high school, I went to youth group every week and spent every summer at a week-long Christian camp in the mountains.

What kind of church environment was that?

Luke: It was an evangelical Presbyterian congregational church – very Protestant, slightly new wave. The church itself was big and a bit old-fashioned in its ways, so I grew up with a conservative foundation, but my youth pastors were always these twenty-something aspiring theologians – mentors who gave a more progressive lens, and that combination really shaped me.

Camp was especially formative. You’re away from your parents, up in the mountains, spending a week with these people and the friends in your cabin. Those shared experiences were defining.

Where did you go to school after that?

Luke: I went to high school in La Cañada, and throughout I did theatre and was writing as well. I went to UC Berkeley for undergrad and studied journalism, politics and economics. I stayed active in theatre, took classes and wrote for the paper, The Daily Californian, which became a central part of my identity and development, as did my theatre professor, Christopher Herold, who really shaped my path. He encouraged me to pursue an MFA and coached me through the audition process for LAMDA.

I was accepted and moved to London in 2023, completed the Classical MFA programme in April 2025, and have since been putting up work with collaborators, mostly in the fringe circuit. Last year, some of my best friends and I took FRAT to the Prague, Brighton, Camden and Edinburgh fringes, and that kind of scrappy, grassroots theatre was an incredibly formative experience. That run started at the Old Red Lion.

And that’s where you are staging your play, Miraculous, so let’s move on to that.

Luke: I started writing this piece at LAMDA. I put an early version up at the April Fools’ Fringe scratch night in 2025, which Diego and Brock also produced, and the response was really lovely – very encouraging. Miraculous really came together at the end of last year when I was thinking about what projects I wanted to do in 2026. The draft we’re working with now came out of that.

And who are your collaborators on the piece?

Luke: Our main team is Diego Zozaya, the other actor; Brock Looser, our producer; and Toby Clarke, our director.

I trained at LAMDA with Diego Zozaya and I’ve collaborated with him a few times before. Diego wrote a project, A Mechanical’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, that took him, Brock and me to a theatre festival in Beijing. I wrote the role in Miraculous with him in mind from the outset.

Miraculous is produced by Brock Looser, another member of our LAMDA cohort and long-time collaborator. We started an improv group, Wiggle Room, together, and she brought invaluable producing experience from her own work at the Old Red Lion last year.

Our director, Toby Clarke, has been a vital mentor. He directed our actor showcase and the web series The L’s during our training. He’s done a lot of dramaturgical work with us and really helped shape the script. His expertise in both stage and screen has been invaluable, especially given the intimacy of the Old Red Lion Theatre, which allows for a cinematic, high-detail performance style.

So what’s the play about?

Luke: It’s about a youth pastor and a troubled teenager who meet over a series of mentorship sessions at a Christian sleepaway camp. As their views on faith, sexuality and divine intervention become increasingly incompatible, the tension rises and culminates in a fatal attempt to test whether miracles still happen.

Given what you said earlier, how personal is the material for you?

Luke: Completely personal. I grew up inside evangelical church culture, so I know its rhythms, its language, how it can make you feel chosen and confined at the same time. I was really interested in that moment when sacred language collides with adolescent chaos, when you know the doctrine but start having real adult questions. I lived that experience, and I wanted to see it on stage.

I think the most personal stories often become the most universal. There’s a lot of conversation right now about young men feeling isolated or adrift. When you’re searching for structure and meaning, the church can offer that in a powerful, sometimes intoxicating way. My play examines why that structure is attractive, but also how it can become destructive.

Does it connect to contemporary Christian politics in the USA?

Luke: Not overtly. It’s more about generational belief systems clashing than about politics. We see versions of conservative Christianity through two lenses. Josh is a teenager seeking answers, stability and a father figure, and Paul is a millennial pastor who appears progressive but holds fundamentalist core beliefs about sex and religion. The play lives inside that tension.

What do you hope audiences will take away?

Luke: I don’t know exactly what the outcome will be, and that’s exciting. I think there’s a temptation to “solve” the play – to assign blame or decide who’s right. I’m less interested in that. I care more about the moral dilemma and the emotional cost for the two people at the centre of it, and about watching them collide and change over the course of a week.

We’ve put a great deal of care into the rehearsal draft, and I’m eager to see how audiences – both those from religious backgrounds and those from none – react to the relationship at the heart of the story. For some, it’ll feel deeply familiar. For others, it’s a window into a world they’ve never experienced. I’m just excited for the conversations it sparks.

Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the production?

Luke: We’ve had a wonderful response so far, with interest from a few theatres. My hope is to secure a further run this summer or autumn and continue developing the piece from there.

Thinking back to some earlier comments, and as this play arises out of your Christian camp days, I’m curious to know if you are still part of the church back home and whether you attend here.

Luke: I go once in a while when I’m home with my parents, and I’ve been once here with my aunt, but I don’t attend regularly any more.

Photo: Luke (right) with a friend at one of the camps.

Richard Beck

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

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