Just when I thought that I would not get involved with the spring musical, Oklahoma, I got asked to run sound for opening weekend. Of course I said yes. When I think about it, boy was that a close call, I almost had to pay to see the show, gasp!
Anyway I have enjoyed (more or less) the rehearsals. Oklahoma is like many other musicals in that it has a rather forgettable story, but fun music. There are some dance sequences that are fun and I imagine with a bigger cast and a bigger stage (Little Theatre is very small for a musical) they would be much better.
My role as a sound guy isn’t very demanding, it is fun, however to be around my theatre friends. I haven’t been able to hang out with them like usual this semester. Hmmm, I guess not being in the cast does that.
The only downside of agreeing to do this is that it has really screwed up this week as far as homework goes. It was supposed to be a relaxing week with lots of extra time to relax and work ahead. Spending 3 ½ to 4 hours in rehearsal sort of puts a crimp on everything else. Oh, well I’ll get it all done somehow.
So, I guess I’ll do some homework now.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
This past weekend I went home to see Hello, Dolly! at my alma mater (That’s the HS I graduated from if you didn’t know that). The couple that runs the drama department at the school has been doing it for 27 years. The have built the program on excellence and hard work. However, the school is moving and they are moving on as well. So, this is the last production they are overseeing.
Quietly an alumni reception was put together, a surprise party if you will. After curtain call and receiving line there were deserts and pictures from various productions over the years. There was over 100 alums there… I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was close to 200. Hey, when you impact lives in such a huge way for so long you manage to bless lots of people.
These two people were instrumental in forming who I am today. The lessons I learned from them still inform my decisions and the way I live. They believe that the job of the Christian “is not to do the extraordinary, but to do the ordinary in an extraordinary way.” As I reflect on that statement I agree with it. Yes, God may do extraordinary things through us, but he desires that we live out every day in an eternal way. Living eternally goes against a lot of our logic, it takes faith and is an extraordinary thing to see.
Anyway, Mr. & Mrs. C will be greatly missed. The glory years of my high school’s drama department have passed and they must rebuild now. It saddens me to see it happen. But more than sad I am so incredibly grateful for God bringing them into my life to teach me valuable lessons and to encourage me to be excellent.
Quietly an alumni reception was put together, a surprise party if you will. After curtain call and receiving line there were deserts and pictures from various productions over the years. There was over 100 alums there… I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was close to 200. Hey, when you impact lives in such a huge way for so long you manage to bless lots of people.
These two people were instrumental in forming who I am today. The lessons I learned from them still inform my decisions and the way I live. They believe that the job of the Christian “is not to do the extraordinary, but to do the ordinary in an extraordinary way.” As I reflect on that statement I agree with it. Yes, God may do extraordinary things through us, but he desires that we live out every day in an eternal way. Living eternally goes against a lot of our logic, it takes faith and is an extraordinary thing to see.
Anyway, Mr. & Mrs. C will be greatly missed. The glory years of my high school’s drama department have passed and they must rebuild now. It saddens me to see it happen. But more than sad I am so incredibly grateful for God bringing them into my life to teach me valuable lessons and to encourage me to be excellent.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
I know this isn’t very deep… but when I got in my car yesterday to drive it for the first time since before Spring Break I said “Boy is this weird!”
A week of driving a twelve passenger van will get you used to sitting up a bit higher than a coupe.
Since I’m on my car… my tailpipe rusted through where it comes out of the muffler. So, there’s been this rattling sound as the pipe bounces around, very annoying. I crawled under my car and used a coat hanger to put it up so it wouldn’t make that noise anymore. While the car is still noisy because it’s missing part of the exhaust system, I’m glad that rattling is gone.
A week of driving a twelve passenger van will get you used to sitting up a bit higher than a coupe.
Since I’m on my car… my tailpipe rusted through where it comes out of the muffler. So, there’s been this rattling sound as the pipe bounces around, very annoying. I crawled under my car and used a coat hanger to put it up so it wouldn’t make that noise anymore. While the car is still noisy because it’s missing part of the exhaust system, I’m glad that rattling is gone.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Here are some of my thoughts that I typed while in Florida. It was a very positive time. Remnant got along splendidly and we had lots of fellowship, fun, and ministry. I'm certain I'll ponder that a bit more later.
Monday March 1, 2004
Florida, finally. After two days of travel we are finally in the sunshine state. The weather, after the Midwest is quite something. Outside the door is a lightly clouded sky and the temperature is very, very nice.
The trip down was without incident. I enjoyed the opportunity to drive about half of it. It gave me something to focus on some of those stretches where everyone is trying to sleep. I find the opportunity to relax and just think to be a very fulfilling time (It seems like a value sheer pondering time these days).
One of our activities was “van question” basically we just took turns asking each other probing questions. Unfortunately I couldn’t participate as fully as I would have liked because I was driving. It is difficult to hear what is going on in the back row when I’m all the way in the front. This took place after dark and I found that the conversation was very stimulating to keep me alert, much more so than any song could have.
The music selection left some things to be desired at times. I do not have a great affinity for rap or country music. It’s not that I hate it, but there are other forms of music that I find much more enjoyable to listen to. However, that only made up a very small segment of the trip so I don’t have anything to complain about.
I was talking with a guy in the group before we left and he mentioned that it might be nice to be able to watch movies on the trip. So, I agreed to bring my laptop to play DVDs on during the drive. The funny thing was that no ones CD players quite worked right so we ended up using my laptop to play music on the way down. It was definitely overkill, but it did the job and did it well. Of course, having it on the road with me make me a bit nervous about it getting damaged, but I think that it will be all right. Hey, without it I wouldn’t have gotten to see Seabiscuit for the first time on Saturday (yes, I know that I’m behind the times).
On Sunday we had our first “show” on the trip. However, it would be a stretch to call it a show. We only did two skits (of course I wasn’t in either of them). It made for an easy Sunday, but it was a bit frustrating to be regaled to the equivalent of special music.
Friday March 5, 2004
I find it hard to believe how fast this week has gone, and how fast it continues to progress. So much stuff has happened that I’m not exactly certain where to begin. I suppose I should go chronologically. Monday we did a chapel service for the Sonshine Christian school. It was a small school and we had a very wide range of grades. Personally I would prefer to only do high school and up. Why? I love kids but some of our stuff is written more for an bit older audience, especially “How Deep the Father’s love” since it deals with the topic of abortion. However, having a younger section of audience produced laughter in places that I would not have expected. I suppose that each time we do our skits the audience doesn’t have to “get” what we are trying to say. It may be enough just to be those “cool college kids” that did some entertaining stuff. Later that day we went out on a river to do some boating. I would have liked to try the tubing but I didn’t have a swimming suit, so I abstained. It was fun to watch.
Tuesday was our day of fun. We went to Universal Studios. When you stop and think about the type of amusement park it is; it really is kinda stupid. Sure, they have some very sophisticated experiences, but its all make believe and doesn’t really have any long term benefit, at least when compared to how stinkin’ much it costs to get in. However, I did have a blast and it was worth it. I think the main reason why it was so fun is because Remnant stuck together and did it all as a team. When you combine that with how relaxed and uninhibited we can get with each other it makes for a very fun experience. For example, we went of the Back to the Future ride. The “delorian” that we ended up riding held 8 people, so it was just our team on this ride. In the waiting room we psyched ourselves up and the yelled and screamed at the appropriate places. It was a very fun day. After we finished at the park we went over to Spring Hill.
Spring Hill Bible Church (Baptist) (yes the sign in front of the church read just like that. We thought that it was funny that they put the Baptist in parenthesis right under the name of the church. Anyway one of our team member’s grandparents attend that church. I got to stay with them. They are a lovely old couple. They were fun to listen to talk. The husband would say something and his wife would quickly correct him if she thought that he was wrong. He also was very well read and knew theology. He made some comments that I didn’t necessarily agree with, however I thought it was intriguing that he was seeking to balance what he knew in his head with stuff written to the heart. I’m not certain that I’m comfortable with a dichotomy like the one he established, but he definitely is right in wanting to have more than just simple knowledge. I hope that I can achieve a balance in how and what I learn.
So, we did a Wednesday evening service for Spring Hill. Actually I think that it is the best service that we’ve done to this point. We had the most time and rolled out a new skit. The way we ended up arranging it was that of the first four skits, three of them we Old Testament focused and then we transitioned to New Testament/ Jesus focus. It worked really well, then our final piece looked at present day forgiveness because of what Jesus did on the cross. Afterward I think the best piece of encouragement I received was from P’s grandfather, I told him that I was glad he liked it. He said, “Liked it, it was more than liked it, I was blessed by it.” I think this is an example of why this show was so positive. The congregation really reacted well and appeared to be quite challenged by some of the stuff we had to say. Since we’ve written all but one of the skits that we do and we’ve all contributed in some way or another to every one of them, we own them and it’s very gratifying to seem them being effective.
Thursday morning we had breakfast with a couple in the Spring Hill church, both had lost their first spouse and then remarried. The guy was a retired preacher, a very wise man. When he got into advice/preaching mode I got nuggets of wisdom to chew on. I think the thing that I thought most about was his statement that “when God says ‘no,’ he’s got something much better for you.” It was challenging to ask myself if God says no to the things that I want most right now, am I willing to say, “ok” and move on? Yes, that’s a question of faith which I hope I can trust when God does say no.
We came back to Fort Myers after breakfast. The team then went to the Fort Myers beach. I decided to stay back and avoid the beach. I watched some TV, but that got boring rather quickly. So, I did some work on a paper that is due the Thursday after we get back. I got 2 or 3 pages written. It wasn’t the most enjoyable afternoon that I’ve every spent, but I needed to get that work done.
That evening we had a small service, It was interesting that we pulled out all of our monologue type skits, we only had one skit that truly had dialogue. Because of that factor I think that it is my least favorite show to this point. I like monologues, but I think that character interaction can be much more interesting to do. Afterwards we played a bit of basketball, I’m reminded that I am extremely competitive. By the time we were done I was completely drenched.
Then we went to see the Passion of the Christ. Oh, wow, it was the most intense movie no, the most intense film that I have ever seen. The way the Jesus underwent this incredible amount of suffering willingly was very powerful. I will admit I did cry during several points during the story. It is an experience that I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to be calloused to the fact that Jesus did die a horrific death. I found myself tempted to retreat into a simple artistic evaluation of it for it was very well done. There we multiple times that I marveled a the way a shot was done. Visually a remarkable achievement.
Right now I’m debating whether or not to see it again. I’m afraid that if I do I will start to become desensitized to the message of the film about the power of Christ’s suffering. The gore in it is not something easy to endure. However, I think that the movie is such an achievement that it probably should be viewed again. I don’t know I’ll have to think about it some more.
__________________________________
So, that a lot of reading... I salut those who read it all.
Monday March 1, 2004
Florida, finally. After two days of travel we are finally in the sunshine state. The weather, after the Midwest is quite something. Outside the door is a lightly clouded sky and the temperature is very, very nice.
The trip down was without incident. I enjoyed the opportunity to drive about half of it. It gave me something to focus on some of those stretches where everyone is trying to sleep. I find the opportunity to relax and just think to be a very fulfilling time (It seems like a value sheer pondering time these days).
One of our activities was “van question” basically we just took turns asking each other probing questions. Unfortunately I couldn’t participate as fully as I would have liked because I was driving. It is difficult to hear what is going on in the back row when I’m all the way in the front. This took place after dark and I found that the conversation was very stimulating to keep me alert, much more so than any song could have.
The music selection left some things to be desired at times. I do not have a great affinity for rap or country music. It’s not that I hate it, but there are other forms of music that I find much more enjoyable to listen to. However, that only made up a very small segment of the trip so I don’t have anything to complain about.
I was talking with a guy in the group before we left and he mentioned that it might be nice to be able to watch movies on the trip. So, I agreed to bring my laptop to play DVDs on during the drive. The funny thing was that no ones CD players quite worked right so we ended up using my laptop to play music on the way down. It was definitely overkill, but it did the job and did it well. Of course, having it on the road with me make me a bit nervous about it getting damaged, but I think that it will be all right. Hey, without it I wouldn’t have gotten to see Seabiscuit for the first time on Saturday (yes, I know that I’m behind the times).
On Sunday we had our first “show” on the trip. However, it would be a stretch to call it a show. We only did two skits (of course I wasn’t in either of them). It made for an easy Sunday, but it was a bit frustrating to be regaled to the equivalent of special music.
Friday March 5, 2004
I find it hard to believe how fast this week has gone, and how fast it continues to progress. So much stuff has happened that I’m not exactly certain where to begin. I suppose I should go chronologically. Monday we did a chapel service for the Sonshine Christian school. It was a small school and we had a very wide range of grades. Personally I would prefer to only do high school and up. Why? I love kids but some of our stuff is written more for an bit older audience, especially “How Deep the Father’s love” since it deals with the topic of abortion. However, having a younger section of audience produced laughter in places that I would not have expected. I suppose that each time we do our skits the audience doesn’t have to “get” what we are trying to say. It may be enough just to be those “cool college kids” that did some entertaining stuff. Later that day we went out on a river to do some boating. I would have liked to try the tubing but I didn’t have a swimming suit, so I abstained. It was fun to watch.
Tuesday was our day of fun. We went to Universal Studios. When you stop and think about the type of amusement park it is; it really is kinda stupid. Sure, they have some very sophisticated experiences, but its all make believe and doesn’t really have any long term benefit, at least when compared to how stinkin’ much it costs to get in. However, I did have a blast and it was worth it. I think the main reason why it was so fun is because Remnant stuck together and did it all as a team. When you combine that with how relaxed and uninhibited we can get with each other it makes for a very fun experience. For example, we went of the Back to the Future ride. The “delorian” that we ended up riding held 8 people, so it was just our team on this ride. In the waiting room we psyched ourselves up and the yelled and screamed at the appropriate places. It was a very fun day. After we finished at the park we went over to Spring Hill.
Spring Hill Bible Church (Baptist) (yes the sign in front of the church read just like that. We thought that it was funny that they put the Baptist in parenthesis right under the name of the church. Anyway one of our team member’s grandparents attend that church. I got to stay with them. They are a lovely old couple. They were fun to listen to talk. The husband would say something and his wife would quickly correct him if she thought that he was wrong. He also was very well read and knew theology. He made some comments that I didn’t necessarily agree with, however I thought it was intriguing that he was seeking to balance what he knew in his head with stuff written to the heart. I’m not certain that I’m comfortable with a dichotomy like the one he established, but he definitely is right in wanting to have more than just simple knowledge. I hope that I can achieve a balance in how and what I learn.
So, we did a Wednesday evening service for Spring Hill. Actually I think that it is the best service that we’ve done to this point. We had the most time and rolled out a new skit. The way we ended up arranging it was that of the first four skits, three of them we Old Testament focused and then we transitioned to New Testament/ Jesus focus. It worked really well, then our final piece looked at present day forgiveness because of what Jesus did on the cross. Afterward I think the best piece of encouragement I received was from P’s grandfather, I told him that I was glad he liked it. He said, “Liked it, it was more than liked it, I was blessed by it.” I think this is an example of why this show was so positive. The congregation really reacted well and appeared to be quite challenged by some of the stuff we had to say. Since we’ve written all but one of the skits that we do and we’ve all contributed in some way or another to every one of them, we own them and it’s very gratifying to seem them being effective.
Thursday morning we had breakfast with a couple in the Spring Hill church, both had lost their first spouse and then remarried. The guy was a retired preacher, a very wise man. When he got into advice/preaching mode I got nuggets of wisdom to chew on. I think the thing that I thought most about was his statement that “when God says ‘no,’ he’s got something much better for you.” It was challenging to ask myself if God says no to the things that I want most right now, am I willing to say, “ok” and move on? Yes, that’s a question of faith which I hope I can trust when God does say no.
We came back to Fort Myers after breakfast. The team then went to the Fort Myers beach. I decided to stay back and avoid the beach. I watched some TV, but that got boring rather quickly. So, I did some work on a paper that is due the Thursday after we get back. I got 2 or 3 pages written. It wasn’t the most enjoyable afternoon that I’ve every spent, but I needed to get that work done.
That evening we had a small service, It was interesting that we pulled out all of our monologue type skits, we only had one skit that truly had dialogue. Because of that factor I think that it is my least favorite show to this point. I like monologues, but I think that character interaction can be much more interesting to do. Afterwards we played a bit of basketball, I’m reminded that I am extremely competitive. By the time we were done I was completely drenched.
Then we went to see the Passion of the Christ. Oh, wow, it was the most intense movie no, the most intense film that I have ever seen. The way the Jesus underwent this incredible amount of suffering willingly was very powerful. I will admit I did cry during several points during the story. It is an experience that I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to be calloused to the fact that Jesus did die a horrific death. I found myself tempted to retreat into a simple artistic evaluation of it for it was very well done. There we multiple times that I marveled a the way a shot was done. Visually a remarkable achievement.
Right now I’m debating whether or not to see it again. I’m afraid that if I do I will start to become desensitized to the message of the film about the power of Christ’s suffering. The gore in it is not something easy to endure. However, I think that the movie is such an achievement that it probably should be viewed again. I don’t know I’ll have to think about it some more.
__________________________________
So, that a lot of reading... I salut those who read it all.
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