Today was all about the Exodus—“the movement of Jah people.” Our team was on the move all day long and so was God.
Friday morning the view outside the Norton windows was still idyllic but the beginning of day was far more rushed. Our first performance was at 8:30 A.M. Fortunately, it was at PMA and it got moved to 9. Actually it ended up being closer to 9:30. Apparently we had been double-booked and when we arrived resplendent in our sand colored team t-shirts and toting our suitcase full of props, a judge was addressing the high school. They’d been having career day and for their final day, a prominent judge had been invited. Well, one does not tell a judge to stop talking. So we waited. She seemed to be an impressive woman, quite accomplished, and she had some good things to say. But she continued, at length. . . and so we waited.
Here we are seated on the floor at the back of the chapel at PMA waiting to perform.
The team performing the sketch on the topic of temptation entitled "Iron Will"
When our turn finally came we had to cut parts of our show because we had to drive the half hour to Koror to perform at the SDA Elementary School there before their school let out for the day at 11:30. So basically, all we could was offer a brief teaser and invite everyone to come out to Koror in the evening for our Friday night performances. I believe that was enough. The wave of fame for REAL was already building by that time. Most of the high-schoolers had already seen us rehearsing on Thursday. They’d seen those “hot” actors from Saipan, and while their motives may have been less than holy, many were definitely planning to come to anything REAL was doing.
After our PMA show there wasn’t much time for mingling with the crowd. We crowded into the brutally hot "magic school bus" as we'd nicknamed our van, and raced over the rutted roads to Koror. I’ll never forget the welcome that greeted us as we walked in slow motion (okay, in my head anyway) into the main sanctuary. A couple hundred kids burst into loud and enthusiastic applause. What struck me was not the response of the “fans” but that the response was allowed. The last two times we’d been in Palau we were faced with a host of restrictions and repressions, chief among them that the children MUST NOT clap in the sanctuary. Last time we were there, we were also instructed that the children must not laugh too overly much or enjoy themselves excessively. But different guardians of the orthodoxy were on watch this year, and I found Palau to actually looser and more “liberal” than Saipan has been lately. Personally, I haven’t reached a conclusion on the clapping in the sanctuary issue—granted it’s not a sports arena and shouldn’t be treated as such. But truth be told I never really liked performing in the sanctuary at all, especially in a church as ornate and “churchy” as this one with it’s marble floors, stained glass windows, and stuffed leather platform chairs. I guess it’s where they always have chapel, and I think it’s the only place where all the kids in the school can fit. Certainly the social hall—the suggestion I had this year—would never have fit them all. Still I don’t want to trample on anything holy, so I’ve always had some trepidation. Nonetheless, if we are going to perform there the children should be able to clap and they should be able to laugh and be happy.
Sometimes I think we’re not sure whether we worship the God that knocked Uzzah dead for steadying the Ark or the One who allowed David to take bread from the holy place. Is the curtain that separates us from God torn down and if so what does that mean?
After an energetic performance at Koror SDA Elementary School we finally took a breather and decamped to the Rock Island Café for lunch. Rock Island Café is THE restaurant on Palau. You have to go the Rock Island Café at least once. It’s small inside, the décor is blue paint and dark heavy wood, but the menu is huge and so are the portion sizes. After the dainty servings found in most Saipan restaurants, the massive chargers they brought out for us at Rock Island made me feel like we were in SuperSize America again. Serving 16 people lunch took awhile and by the team we’d all eaten, we were late for our afternoon rehearsal with the barriers.
We returned to the church around 1:30 P.M. and I was getting genuinely worried. For one thing, the group was beginning to wear down. We’d gotten to bed later than we should have Thursday night and risen early Friday morning. We’d performing and traveling all morning and the grueling pace was beginning to take its toll. Furthermore we had a lot of material that was virtually unrehearsed for Friday night and Girl Friday had requested a second Per Chance to Dream Rehearsal for the afternoon as well. We were in a position that was unacceptable for a good theatre group, and perfect for God to show us His ability to accomplish the impossible on our behalf. So we gathered for a brief but plaintive request to God: HELP!!! was the essence of our prayer. And right away He started answering.
Our “barriers” were even later to rehearsal than we were, so we decided that while waiting for them we would go ahead and start working on the first of three pantomimes set to music that were to be the centerpiece of our Friday evening show. We’d used the three pantomimes entitled “The Creation”, “The Fall”, and “The Redemption” four years earlier but most of the team hadn’t been with us then, so essentially most of them were learning the moves from scratch. We plunged into the Creation first. We’d talked through the sketch during rehearsal the Monday before we left and they heard the song but this was the first time we’d ever actually blocked it out on stage. I did one more “talk through” and then we decided to play the music and just feel our way through it and see how it went. Miraculously, the very first run-through we had of the sketch was almost flawless. The second take through and we had it. We’d finished the first pantomime in about 15 minutes! Particularly impressive was the Rock, who gave an electrifying interpretation of the Creation. We hadn’t had a chance to see much of the Rock on stage this season, and we were amazed at his command of the stage.
from the actual performance Friday night, The Rock depicts the Creation
"And God saw that it was good." The end of "The Creation". CK Girl plays the Angel of the Lord, the Gentleman plays Adam, Cowgirl plays Eve, and of course the Rock plays Jesus. This sketch was originally created four years ago by our first REAL Christian Theater student director, Jimmy Arriola.
With “The Creation” created, and our barriers finally “on the set” Friday took the lead, and brought the team downstairs to the social hall to continue working on the final scenes of Saturday nights’ full length play. While she worked with them, I took some quiet time to hash out my sermon for Sabbath morning (another worry I had was that I wouldn’t have time to flesh out my sermon during the day and would fall asleep trying to write it in the evening when we got back to the Norton House). As it was, drowsiness quickly overtook me and much of the sermon I wrote on my feet, pacing to stay awake. Even then I could barely stay awake. When I’d scribbled the last of a very rough draft, I collapsed on one of the pews and took a 20 minute power nap.
When I awoke I headed downstairs to check on Friday’s rehearsal. They were wrapping up and the team was spent—many of those not onstage were already dozing.
At that point I knew that we had to take a nap break or these guys weren’t going to have the energy to rehearse properly much less provide a quality performance. So we all went up to the sanctuary and found a pew to stretch out on. A couple of girls—Marine, Bono Girl and the Palauan Princess suddenly woke up and found they had the energy to run over to Ben Franklin. I offered them a deal—you lie down for a little bit and if any of you are still awake in 30 minutes, you’re free to shop. Within 20 minutes all were out cold.
By four o clock we were ready to get back into rehearsal. We had three hours until show time, and several sketches—“In the Dark”, “Daughter”, and “Chopsticks” had not been officially rehearsed at all (though we did use them last season, and with the exception of Marine replacing Cowgirl in Chopsticks opposite Bono Girl, all the actors had filled the roles before). “Guardian Angel” which featured the Rock, the Diva, and CK Girl had never been done with the Rock. (Our sound tech/stage manager had always filled in for him during the regular season) Of course, the remaining two pantomimes weren’t finished either.
We started with the pantomimes. “The Fall” went as quickly as “The Creation” did, a one minute and twenty second depiction of the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve and Satan’s usurpation as Prince of this World set to a mournful Michael W. Smith instrumental piece. It was ready after two “takes.” “The Redemption” took much longer. This is probably my favorite pantomime and perhaps my favorite sketch period that REAL has ever done. The merging of a highly dramatic song (the instrumental opening by Michael W. Smith to the praise and worship album Exodus seems tailor made for this pantomime), a powerful Truth, and a symbolism-packed pantomime creates a performance that moves me every time I see it. And I’m in it! When we did it four years ago, audiences responded strongly—the message of what Jesus did for us came home for them in a real and powerful way.
The sketch is complicated. It features the whole team and includes Jesus, an angel, tormented humanity, demons, and Satan. Having created the sketch, I’m especially proud of some the neat little symbolic moments. How the actors that represent Humanity come out from behind Adam and Eve who are full back to the audience (to represent death) to show how we all bear their legacy of sin. How the demons and their tormented charges together crucify Jesus. How the music wanes to almost complete silence as Jesus dies, and then with one awesome, deep beat that causes Satan and his celebrating imps to turn in shock to see Jesus’ head rising with the music as He returns to life. How as Jesus restores humanity, he first comforts the grieving mother (played by Friday) whose child (played by Holly), is first sick then eventually dies under the influence of the demons, then brings her back to life using the very same “creative” motions he used to breathe life into Adam and Eve in “The Creation.” (That part and the following reunion between mother and daughter is the part that never fails to choke me up). And how in the triumphant end Adam and Eve are turned around to join the Human Family, showing the God’s ultimate triumph to which we’re all looking forward.
From the actual performance, the Crucifixion scene during "The Redemption"
"He is near to those who are broken hearted." Jesus played by the Rock comforts the grieving mother (Friday). Holly is "dead" in foreground.
Putting this one together took some time. At points the rehearsals became a bit strained as Bono Girl, Friday, and the Man, who had been in the sketch when we did originally (as well as the Diva who had never been the sketch but “remembered seeing it”) tried to remember exactly how the sketch had been before and tweak it accordingly.
I learned something important about acting then. When you are acting, you have to trust the director. They kept talking about how this and that didn’t feel right or seemed “uncomfortable” but I kept telling that it LOOKED great. And when I finally took my role in the sketch (as The Abusive Husband opposite the Vice President as my Abused Wife), I found too that things didn’t “feel” right, and that I had to trust Maria who was making the final judgments on the sketch after I’d done the initial directing. At the end of the day, the actor has to trust the judgment of the person who can see the “big picture”—the director.
We finally nailed down “The Redemption” at close to six. We had an hour to go and the whole rest of the program was still unrehearsed. We had enough time to divide into groups and go through each remaining sketch ONCE and only once under the supervision of a director. God continued to enhance us with supernatural efficiency and by 6:30 we were ready. We realized that we’d need some props for the old sketches, but again God had us covered. Pastor Isaac James, the youth pastor just happened to have everything we needed in his apartment right next to the church.
We ate a hurried supper prepared by the Invisible Chefs (or the team did—I was too wired to eat) and then tromped upstairs where the church was awaiting our program. The show was excellent from start to finish, and “The Redemption” was especially well received. Afterwards, the team members were mobbed by “fans” and they spent a good 30-45 minutes taking pictures and chatting with their adoring peers. A brief period of celebrity for our kids on the team was developing.
A scene from "The Bus", a short sketch performed Friday night.
CK Girl and the Diva in their signature roles, Jessica and Tammy in "Guardian Angel"
Maria took most of the group back to the Norton House around nine, and the Rock, CK Girl, the Vice President, and Holly stayed by to rehearse the praise and worship service for church the next day (praise and worship in PALAU? Things HAVE changed. We don’t even have that in Saipan!) as well as their special music.
We arrived back at the Norton House by 10:30 P.M. and to our horror instead of finding the rest of the team deep in much-needed sleep, we found everyone wide awake. The PMA drama team was having a sleepover at their teacher’s house and had come over to hang out with us. They were all watching Videographer Larry’s HD digital taping of the Friday evening performance.
By 11:30 all were in bedded down. Another exhausting but miraculous day lay ahead for us.
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