Update on Easter Drama

We all had a good Drama practice yesterday night. I’m happy with the attendance we’ve gotten so far. We’ve learned two songs already, “I need you to survive” and “We speak to Nations”, and the Drama Team has been able to learn them well, which is great.

Still, we had to do some changes to the list of the songs.

As wonderful as the “Anthem of Praise” song is, we’re going to have to cut it from the list, because it look a little too complicated. I showed a video clip of it to sis. Cathy, and she agreed.

So, we’re going to go ahead and re-do the song “The presence of the Lord is here” which we have only done once before, about 2 years ago.

Ok, now going back to the “We speak to Nations” song, We have enough drama members, that we split the group up in half, and half of them will do the sign language, and the other half will dress up in their “country” costumes.
(I’m sure there’s a better way to describe this, but I just can’t think of it right now.)

So… Let the fun begin.

Second Thoughts on Easter Drama…

Ok, I’m happy to report that I’ve figured out how to do the sign language for “We speak to Nations”. I really like the tempo of the song, and I think we’ll be able to pull it off.
(I’m still debating what to do with the part when the song says “…fall on your knees…” and we’re supposed to actually do that… It was painful the first couple of times I did it.)

Anyways, since I thought I was on a roll, I decided to look at the “Anthem Of Praise, and see if I could start memorizing the sign language for that.

No luck.

The first words are “Praise him” and I really cant figure out what the ladies are signing.
I’ve looked at it slowly, fast, full screen, small screen, and I still cant figure out the movement they make. Its too fast. And then, I thought of looking the word “Praise” up in the ASL dictionary, but the actual sign for praise doesn’t even look like the sign they are doing in the video. So then I tried Exalt, Glorify, and Worship, and they all don’t look nothing like what the ladies are doing.

So I’m stuck. And besides, looking at the whole thing, I think it just might be a little TOO complicated and fast for our ladies. (I’m not saying they cant do it, but they might need a little more practice.)

So… I found this other skit by the same drama team. Its a skit of a song called “Everything” by a music group called Lifehouse.

The skit was about a young girl, who meets God, but then gets pulled away from God by different people: a handsome young man who offers her a rose, some drunk friend of hers, and two stuck up snobs who make fun of her. After that you can see that she’s left all alone, and two hooded figures come out, and one of them gives her a gun.

Weeeeeelll….. she obviously has low self esteem, because she points it at her head, but at the last moment, she drops it, and tries to run to God (or Jesus) who is at the other end of the stage….
But all her friends, and the hooded figures get in her way, and try to stop her from getting to Jesus. They did a great job in this part, because you can actually see the poor girl struggling against the people. Its great.

Finally, the crowd just surrounds her, and starts beating her up. (at least, that’s what it looks like) Then, Jesus steps in, and for a few moments, they beat him up instead of her, (which i guess we can use for the whole “Easter” theme we’re trying to do…)

Then, Jesus stands up, and they (the baaaaaad crowd) fall, and Jesus takes the hand of the young girl, and leads her away.

Nice, huh?

I thought so too. So I went on my Itunes, and downloaded it.
Turns out that the group is not even categorized under “Christian” or “Gospel”
It was under the “Rock” Genre.

And after i paid for it, and listened to it….yeah, it has great lyrics, and soft music, but it completely goes a bit too crazy in the end.
I can just see the look i’m going to get from the Elders of the church, and even pastor if I play that song in church.

No matter how nice it is, or how right the song is for the skit, rock music is STILL
rock music. No way Jose!

So…. now i’m hunting for another, non-rock, hopefully spanish song I can do this skit with…. Any ideas anyone???

Here’s the link to the Skit with the original song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkH8Er5Sa9A&NR=1

Drama Practice Recap

I was pleasantly surprised at our first drama practice of the year this past friday, when the usual 9 or 10 people turned out to be a crowd of about 20. And i even got calls from people who said they wanted to be a part of the drama, but couldn’t make it to that practice.

That’s a change. Usually, the hardest thing in the drama department is to be able to get the people to show up for practice.

Anyhow, the practice went well. I felt i wasn’t as prepared as I could’ve been, since I only knew one of the 6 songs I want us to do for Easter, but we still had a good time learning that song. Its called “I Need You To Survive”, by… I forget. Its some choir with some famous soloist.

The practice went well, and i felt we did pretty good in learning the sign language. I made copies of my notes for them to take home, and hopefully, we will all still remember how to do it all on Sunday night.

We’re off to a good start!

Thursday night, almost friday morning

Well, tonight’s youth service went well.
At least, i think it did. And I’m old enough to know that there will always be people that will criticize your work, but as long as i feel that i did a good job, I’m fine.

Of course, I’m not a professional, and yes, it could have been better. Still, practice makes perfect.

Right now, I’m just here, feeling kind of sleepy. Its been a long day, and I’m happy to report that I don’t have to work tomorrow. Hooray for me!!

I’m looking forward to tomorrows Drama Practice. I hope we get a good turn out of people.

Well… I better call it a night then

Good night.

Easter Service… “An Evening Of New Creations”

Its amazing how fast this year is going…
I mean, we where just having our End-Of-The-Year Service, and suddenly, Valentines Day is gone, and you’re looking at your calendar and realizing that Easter is just around the Corner.

I was asked by Sis. Norma, who is the Director of Special Services, if the drama department would be willing to take charge of Easter, and come up with something good.

Well, I said sure.

Then came The Bilingual Service… The Wedding at Church… The Mandatory Meetings at Work…  Preaching on Thursday…. and between all that, I actually had the time to go out and get myself a new pet. 

Seriously! Time flies by!
So, the other day i sat down at my desk, and i just started surfing the web for some ideas for the Service.
I know that the Internet usually has a bad reputation of having awful things in it, but it can also be useful.

It all depends on how you use it.

Anyhow, I visited some Drama Websites that i’ve looked in in the past, trying to find something suitable for our Easter Service. A full lenght drama would’ve been nice, but with less than a month to go, I can’t expect the Drama Team to memorize an entire 2 hour play. Then, i found some videos on different song interpretations that looked intersting.

We’ve done this before, so this is not all that new to our department. The hard thing is being able to find new songs. I mean, “Still Her Little Child” by Ray Boltz is awesome, but after doing it over, and over, and over again year after year, well, the song can lose its charm.

Thankfully, I was able to find about 5 NEW song interpretations we have never done before, which is great.
Now, when i say song interpretations, I’m talking about either doing a song with Dowel Rods, by sign language, or acting the song out.

Believe me, its a lot harder to find material we can use, especially since we’re a Spanish speaking church. Most of the time, I come across a great song, but by the time i try to translate it, the song doesn’t sound as great anymore.
So its double the work. Still, i don’t mind. We’re doing it all for the Lord, right?

Anyways, i found the following songs:

• Anthem of Praise (which i’ve heard before, but i’d never seen done by sign language before. Its awesome!)
• I Need You To Survive ( A beautiful song that says we all need each other)
• We Speak To Nations (I’ve wanted to do this song for our Spanish Choir for a while now, but i haven’t been able to. I wish the song was in spanish. Will be done in sign language)
• This Blood (A great song by Carman. It gives me goosebumps everytime i hear it. This song will be acted out)
• Si hubiera Estado Ahi (This is a new song from Jesus Adrian Romero, whom i personally think is one incredible song writer. His new CD called “Ayer te vi; fue mas claro que la luna” has an amazing collection of beautiful songs. This is the one song where i’m going to have to choreograph myself, and i’m praying to God for inspiration.

As for the name, well…. here at work, when a Resident Company will be presenting new productions, they call it “An evening of New Creations” I’m not sure if i’ll actually call the Easter Service that, but i thought it might fit in with the theme. After all, we will be presenting something new, that our congregation hasn’t seen before.

Our first Drama practice is this friday. I hope i get a good crowd there, because some of the songs, like “I need you to survive” need at least 8 people. I also hope our youth get involved.

we will just have to wait and see…