The Living Last Supper: The Performance

Performance night finally arrived.

So much had been done in preparation for this moment.

As I set the table with the earthware dishes carefully handcrafted out of clay

by an immensely talented man in our choir, I was reminded of the scripture verse,

"But now, O Lord, thou art our father;

we are the clay,

and thou our potter;

and we are all the work of thy hand."

Isaiah 64:8

We were about to watch the story of the Master Creator of the universe, of us,

sharing a last meal with His 12 friends, His inner circle, His core group of disciples.

After which He would ultimately lay down those same hands

 that fashioned us 

to be nailed to a cross in a fashion most brutal because He loves us.

They were all there.  Business men, married men, young men, middle-aged men.

Fishermen, brothers, former terrorist, and the one would be used of Satan to betray Him.

He would share refreshment, conversation, laughter with each man.....equally.

No man was better than another in His eyes.

He would tell them that the bread they were eating were symbolic of His body.

The cup.....a reminder of His blood.

What was He talking about?

Who would betray Him?

Jesus didn't exclude anyone even though He already knew the answer to that question.

In one of the most moving scenes, we were taken back to that moment when Jesus

invited these men to allow Him to do something they had never witnessed Him do before.

He washed their feet.

Some resisted, not understanding what He was showing them.

"Let this mind be in you, 

which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, 

and took upon him the form of a servant,

and was made in the likeness of men:"

Philippians 2: 5-7

Even Judas.

Even me.

 How great his love,

How great His mercy,

to choose the path that leads to Calvary;

To drink the cup.....of pain and sorrow;

How great His love, how great His love for me.

How great His love,

How great the love of God the Father,

to choose a plan that sends His only Son

to live with us, to walk among us;

How great His love, 

how great His love for us.

How great His love,

how great His love,

that He should call us His children,

that He should give Jesus;

How great His love for us.

~Ruth Elaine Schram

The Living Last Supper: Rehearsals

Rehearsals began at the beginning of February.

I met with groups of three men at a time on Sunday afternoons,

until the middle of March.

We did ensemble rehearsals from that point on.

Our tech rehearsal in the middle of the week before Easter presented the most challenges.

Not every cast member could be there,

 and our audio guys were trying to integrate several

new wireless omnidirectional wireless lavalier microphones.

Integrating 12 cast member microphones together along with sound 

for our muscicians and choir and pastors was a daunting task.

  

 {On this particular evening,  our cast member playing the part of Jesus was not 

there right at the start of rehearsal.  Garrett saw a need there and jumped right in as the understudy!}

 

{This was Garrett's rendition of what he was observing at our dress rehearsal.  Notice how he started

out putting all the choir members neatly in their rows at the upper left, but quickly decided there were too many choir members to fill in so neatly.}

Our lighting designer wasn't able to join any rehearsals 

until dress rehearsal morning,

and he still had lots of work to do before final performance the following evening.

Dress rehearsals went almost flawlessly {with the exception of a few bugs to work out with the sound and lighting} which isn't always the best thing.

Experienced directors understand that often when dress rehearsals are a disaster,

the real performance often turns out beautifully.

We had terrific dress rehearsals, and left the final performance in God's hands

to bring all glory to Him!!

The Living Last Supper: Preparation

Sometime during Christmas break, late in December 2015, 

I had a planning meeting with our church's Music Minister.

We discussed the upcoming year and special events we would be hosting

that could be enriched with drama.

During the Easter season of 2015, I had attended a presentation of  "The Living Last Supper"

at a local church in our little town.

It had absolutely moved me and I just knew we needed to adapt this for our own

faith community.

When I presented this to our Music Minister, he was on board and we started preparing

for Easter 2016 almost immediately.

I have a great passion for sharing the story of Jesus Christ through the mediums of drama and music,

 so I was just thrilled to be involved with this project!

The very first thing that has to happen is a cast needs to be chosen and willing to commit

to the time needed for rehearsals and performance dates.

Assembling a cast of 13 men of the right age, who are available, and who are open to growing their hair and beard can sometimes be tricky,

but in this case it was fairly simple as the men I asked were eager to participate!

{Most of them, anyway.}

I made up a rehearsal schedule for the next 2 months and we were off!!

We were using inspiration from Leonardo DaVinci's painting of the Last Supper and needed

a table long enough for this presentation.

I spoke with a gentleman in our church who is a master builder

and in no time he had built 6 saw horses to replicate the primitive look of the table in the painting.

Just as we were beginning our weekly group rehearsals, 

the Lord brought to my mind

(I know without doubt it was a Divine reminder)

 an amazing quilt we have seen in years past

depicting Leonardo DaVinci's "The Last Supper" painting.

The creators and owners of the quilt just happen to live right in our area,

and after several phone calls, I was able to track them down and speak directly to them!

They just happened to travel all over the world with this quilt,

and they just happened to be available to set up their quilt for display

at our church on Easter Sunday!!! 

It was such a God thing to add another amazing dynamic to this presentation!!

You can read more about this quilt here.

I wrestled over the tableware in the painting as it is from the perspective of a 15th century Italian Renaissance painter instead of a realstic portrayal of the 1st century upper room meal depicted in the Gospels.  After consulting with an educated theologian in our church who is a master of Bible translation, the practical side of me settled on commissioning a potter (also in our church) to make us earthenware pottery for the tableware.  Now we have lots of sets of dinnerware for future dramatic productions!!

Another big project that needed to happen was the assembling of our stage extensions.

In 2014, we asked some incredibly talented men in our church if they could construct extensions

to our existing platform space to give us more room for the grand presentation we did of

The Centurion that year.  It offered us lots more floor space, and because they

are reusable we have them for other church events as well.  

Everything was coming together so beautifully for this amazing dramatic presentation!!!

{To be continued}

Spring break fun: Celebrating another birthday

Our sweet Abby turned 12 years old the same week that my husband and I

left for 3 days for our couples retreat!

On her actual birthday we celebrated her quietly as a family.

But this year, this tweeny-girl asked if she could have a sleepover party

with some of her friends.

She rarely asks for anything for herself, so I knew that this was something she

had been thinking about for awhile and really desired to happen.

The earliest time we could schedule it was the week after her birthday

during spring break.

She is always cost conscious and didn't want us to have to spend a lot

of money, so she planned a fun evening of dinner at Cici's Pizza......

shopping......

........pigging out on fun movie theater type snacks....

......and watching movies crashed out on the living room floor!

We watched "Max" which we gave 5 stars!!!!

These girls were so sweet and quiet and aware that Abby's Daddy had 

to go to sleep early and leave very early for his shift at the police department!

They all got along beautifully and we had a blast!!

Spring break fun: Carlo's Bake Shop Dallas

We had spring break the week before Easter

and it's always a great time to explore and try something new!!

Our family has always enjoyed watching TLC's "Cake Boss,"

so when we heard that they were opening a shop not 30 minutes from our house,

we thought it would be fun to go visit.

We made a mistake though.

We went only 3 days after their massive grand opening.

I thought that by that day the lines wouldn't be crazy and their good customer

service would be back on track.

Well, it wasn't exactly like that!  

The lines didn't seem too long when we first arrived and I prepped

my children that we would plan on waiting no longer than two hours.

One hour in and we were all still excited and in good spirits.

All of the other folks in line were jovial and having a blast.

But we quickly realized the line was going no where and the

store was shorthanded and line management was extraordinarily poor.

After waiting an hour and a half, not moving one inch, and realizing there

would be a minimum wait of another hour before even getting in the store

to the next line, we bailed.

Right around the corner is another famous cupcake shop that I've always wanted to try.

We walked over a block and had the best cupcakes I've ever tasted!!!

They aren't famous for nothin'!!

Each of my kids had a delicious cupcake and we decided we would come back

to Carlo's Bake Shop in a couple months when all the hype had died down

and they had a better handle on customer service!

A stop at McDonald's on the way home for lunch capped off a fun morning

and everyone was happy!!!