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Re: [Worship] Dinner Theater
john m martinez wrote:
> Our choir and drama team will work on this together. I also want
> to have one night where we do a performance for local businesses where we
> will invite them to have our church host their Christmas Parties by
> providing our church as a setting for their employees to be together and
> then share the Christmas message in a fun, exciting, and yet a piercing
> way.
Hi Mark,
It's so refreshing to hear someone planning for Christmas outreach in
June! Would that I could get a full event ahead of schedule!
What a terrific idea to offer this to local businesses!! Truly an
inspired thought.
All the normal stuff fits into place. Excellence visually, excellence
dramatically, excellence musically.
I have two suggestions, maybe three.
First, make sure that the emphasis is not on the "piercing-ness" of the
message. We certainly want to make sure that the message is clear, but I
personally do not like to bludgeon people during one of the few church
visits per year or EVER in some cases. In past years, the most
successful Christmas dinner theaters I have witnessed have been where
the message was well-portrayed but not overly preached.
Second, don't tell everything that you know all in one presentation. We
have a tendency to want to get every theological truth that we know into
the big presentation. Bogs things down and muddies the waters. Simple,
clear presentation of the central message with one or two supporting
messages. Creche without the cross is meaningless, just as is the cross
without the resurrection. Personalized stories that are easily
identified with make great fodder for the dinner theater mill.
Third, if you are not using a packaged presentation (music, drama and
general blocking), pattern what you are doing after such a thing. Mostly
music and visual with minimal dialog that bridges or sets up scenes. A
good mix of activity on the stage so that there is plenty of visual
interest in addition to and in total support of the aural activity.
Keeps attention and reinforces the message being shared.
Narrations need to be polished and as short as feasible. Especially in a
home-grown environment, these can get too long and too teachy (see the
guilt oozing from my fingers on this point?). The people are coming to
see a show, not a sermon. If it is a Christmas show, then Christmas
stuff needs to be at least 95% of the show.
You might even consider doing one of the many versions of Scrooge or the
Christmas Carol. These frequently take the community by surprise, that a
church would do something that is not going to beat them up spiritually
(their view, not mine!). Just a fun thing with laughs and a serious side
and God gets a mention at the end even without rewriting the script!
One we did recently (I can get the name for you if you want it) involved
a character by the name of Bartholomew. It was a take-off on Scrooge,
but with a much more decidedly Christian bent. Nice songs, good blocking
plan, trax available on CD with choir on one side so you can supplement
your voices if need be. We played with CD and added 8 traditional
instruments (saxes, horns), soloists and choir. Would work well in small
or large facility. Good blend of action, dialog, music, fun and serious.
I pray it goes well and that there is a wonderful response from your
community and that you have to expand your business party nights!
--
Blessings!
Dean Thomas
David's House & ZionFire
Come.n.Worship@DavidsHouse.org
-- or --
deanthom@mindspring.com
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