Mime4Jesus - A Catch-up Attempt

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. I Timothy 4:12

Apr. 24, 2009

A Catch-up Attempt

Well, to say I’ve fallen behind in blogging would be a gross understatement. However, I haven’t just been drowning in time and so it hasn’t been high on my priority list. We are starting Leadership Camp today (!!!), so I will need to blog about that – probably not in the detail that I did about Family Camp, but probably pretty close – so I’ve really got to catch up on the past couple of weeks. Sigh. Here goes.

Finishing the Hamlet, Part III

The transition from Faithful into America Again was shaky in practice, decidedly BAD in the first presentation, and much better in the second. Tess and I had decided (in whispered conversations as people started coming in before the first presentation) that the way we would do that transition is that everyone would go off the stage (except the founding fathers), change into their vests there and then come out on chains of tyranny. I communicated that to the people on my side and Tess rushed to do the same to the people in the back (set up for Go) and the people on stage right. Therefore, when we got to this place in the presentation, that’s what I expected to happen.

I was wrong.

Emily B and I rushed around to get the Bibles set while mad (and relatively silent) chaos ensued on stage right while Melissa handed out the vests and everybody who thought they weren’t going to get one went nuts. Unfortunately, once the guy nearest to the stage had his vest on, he just went right back on stage, which of course required the rest of us to follow him, which of course wasn’t really planned. And it was really sloppy. With some practice and a lot of critiquing we fixed this in the second presentation and it went a lot better. In the second presentation while in double zero I was having a silent conversation with Melissa about where I needed the props for Love Story and I almost missed my cues to turn out.

Other than the gross transition, I think America Again went really well both times. Couple of little things, like the teacher couldn’t find her Bible once, but nothing major. I cannot say how much I love that song. It’s so awesome. To my relief, everyone had enough Bibles at the end. Well, except me. But that didn’t bother me, I just stepped offstage to prepare for Love Story. Then, of course, once the song ended and we all went through our let’s-all-walk-across-the-stage-in-complete-and-total-blackness-and-try-to-run-into-everything-and-everyone routine, I realized that I had to be on the OTHER side of the stage for Love Story, so I merely joined in the fun, on the way whispering fiercely to Josiah that his Jesus sash was in the center of the stage.

Now, Love Story is a different story than all the other songs. For one thing, it’s two songs – a la Be Still – and the second one is completely instrumental, the first only partially so. For another, it requires a zillion props.

9 crosses; 6 angel capes; Satan cape; 1 demon cape; Jesus sash; God cape; 2 sheer ribbons; 2 rainbow ribbons; 2 sets twirly flags; 4 chains; 1 Bible; 1 mallet; 1 white sash

See those ribbons? The rainbow and the sheer? They are a PAIN in the neck. The two rainbow ones didn’t have sticks and therefore were quite the pain to use, literally and figuratively. Thankfully my trusty handyman Josiah, after a quick trip to Home Depot, was able to attach dowel rods to both. We attached these to the ribbons using safety pins. Don’t be fooled by the name: They’re anything but safe. They actually stayed on during the first presentation and that was good. In the second presentation Hannah’s ribbon wrenched completely out of its dowel rod (at the end, thankfully) so she was just holding the ribbon at the end. Then we presented Love Story at Church Army a couple of days ago and Madison’s ribbon fell off. Not off the stick, but off the metal holder. In the middle of the song. She salvaged it pretty well but I felt awful. So got to figure out what to do about these ribbons.

OK, enough about the ribbons. First presentation: Satan and the demon were late, WAY late putting the chains on Jarek, so when we came out as angels to flap them away they hadn’t even started their demon march toward her yet. Oh well. Byebye demons. The trumpeters didn’t come out far enough in that presentation but rectified this in the second presentation. We had lots of fun dancing and tried not to hit the people six inches from the ribbons as they flew. It was funfunfun.

At the end of the first song God drops the chains and someone is supposed to get them offstage, because we need them in the second song. Well, this didn’t really work: I guess nobody had been assigned to do it on stage left, therefore it didn’t get done. This was a problem, because John and Rachel, the two people on stage left that need the chains, were freaking out going, “Where are the chains? AH! What are we going to do? AH!” and of course I was trying to figure out how to get the chains back offstage. Somehow, somebody onstage whispered the problem to Alex, who is kneeling in the back holding the cross. He grabbed the chains and sort of slid them to stage left, where John and Rachel threw them on and rushed out, about twenty seconds late but at least they were out. This problem, as most, was rectified in the second presentation.

The part where everyone goes out into the audience and freezes worked beautifully. Courtney said that Lilly was kicking her cross as she stood frozen, but I didn’t hear of any problems. A couple people told us thanks but mostly just left us alone, which was nice. I gotta tell you I was trembling by the time Jory told us we could unfreeze. We went back onstage; Emily B, Madison, Courtney and I reset the props, we went through all our mistakes, and did it all again.

At the end we took off makeup in the little powder room – picture fifteen mimes crammed into a room about as big as a master bathroom, all trying to see the mirror – and then went outside, where it was cold and drizzling. We were informed that practically all the rides were closed and so after standing about for a rather long and seemingly pointless fifteen minutes, we packed up and headed back to the vans.

Once we got back to the church Melissa, Emily and I put away props while the guys dueled with mime swords or something in the big room. Then Jo, Jarek, Madison, John and I presented our mock version of Champion, which was fun. Madison was God. John was an angel and the narrator. I fluctuated between angel and narrator. The audience – Browns and Melissa – really liked it. Then we started playing Freeze but then Jo and I had to leave ‘cause Dad was waiting dinner on us at home.

And that was the end of the great YCW! Oh, I’m so relieved I finished it. I realized yesterday that I hadn’t finished it and I knew that later I would want to have this chronicle, so I’m very glad that’s done. I shall now post this and hopefully after our conversation with Ruth and Sarah write some more.

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