The Story Remains

Our Easter drama is finally over! I’m not sure what we will do with ourselves now that every spare moment is not taken up in preparation and/or performance.

I don’t know if I mentioned in previous posts, but we chose this year to have the drama benefit our local school teachers. We took up an offering each night and raised a total of $2400; this money will be used to buy grocery gift cards for each teacher. We also asked everyone who attended to bring tissues or hand sanitizer to be given to the teachers.  Here’s a picture of one of the two tables that got filled up with supplies.

As I look back over the photos I took, I’m still amazed that a relatively small church like ours was able to put together a production on this scale.  (Our average attendance is about 110; over 600 people attended the drama.) It was just really cool to join together with people from a wide variety of churches and denominations and work together on such an exciting project.

Here are a few of my favorite photos:

You can’t have a good performance without a good tech crew.  This is our tech team in a rehearsal; Sarah is on the left and was in charge of all the video/music cues.

We had five women who worked very hard in our makeup department; although they had a lot of people to get done in a limited amount of time, they were the epitome of grace under pressure.

I especially loved this one where the actor’s daughter decided to lend a hand with some foundation.

Here is the youngest member of the cast.  You may remember the story I wrote about Maleigha in this post.  She was in every performance, strapped in snug and safe next to her (adoptive) mommy.

Here’s the whole cast ranging in age from the aforementioned baby to people in their 70’s.  It was a wonderful thing to be a part of a multi-generational, multi-denominational event.

The play started with Steve (as James, half-brother of Jesus) in his older years. In this photo, he is in the process of writing the book of James.

I had a little teeny role in a crowd scene (I do NOT like to act) and then sang the song, “Adonai.”

One of the highlights of the play was a spirited Jewish style dance which was choreographed by a woman who attends our church.

We had some very talented guys playing the roles of the Pharisees who were scheming to have Jesus put to death.

The crowd scenes were cool; the costumes were so colorful and bright—a feast for the eyes.

The crucifixion scene featured a solo dancer, a solo singer, the soldiers, the mourners, the Pharisees and Jesus. It was incredibly moving.

And then we came to the high point of the whole experience, the whole meaning behind Easter—the empty tomb. (This is Mary Ann Sherwood, who wrote and directed the play.)

When the news of the resurrection was announced, the actors danced and whirled and rejoiced so enthusiastically that the audience broke into applause each night of the performance.

But it wasn’t over yet. At the end, James (Steve’s character) was martyred.

The guards came to find him and told him to deny Jesus. When he refused . . .

he was taken up the steps . . .

to the top of the baptistery area.

And then with one big shove by one big guard . . . he was gone.  (The baptistery was well padded although I must say that it was alarming the first time I saw him get shoved face first downward!)

Finally, it was all over. The crowds were gone and the stage was empty.

But the story remains.

The story will always remain.