REAL Christian Theater Spring Tour to Guam

REAL Christian Theater tour to Guam, May 3-7, 2007.

"The Creation" on Friday night at Agana Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church, above, and "The Machine" a very high energy, spontaneous skit at Guam Adventist Academy below.



At the beginning of this month, REAL Christian Theater took our end-of-the-season tour to Guam. Words that come to mind when describing this tour: "smooth", "joyful", "powerful", and most of all, and perhaps, strangely, "quiet." This was a tour distinctive by the absence of stress, haste, and commotion. It may be one of the best tours we've ever had.



I was a little worried in the weeks leading up to the tour. The group seemed to be losing focus as the end of the season approached: actors were showing up late for rehearsal or skipping rehearsal all together, team members were failing to study lines, not listening to announcements and missing vital information. All of this had me worried, but of greatest concern to me was the spiritual tenor of the team. I just felt like we weren't where we needed to be as a team.



But God was faithful as always, and the tour came together into something sublime. The team gelled, came into sharp focus. Our performances were some of the best of the year, the audiences were enthusiastic and genuinely appreciative, and best of all the kids on the team seemed to embrace the spiritual aspect of what we were doing.



We arrived in Guam about 10:30 P.m. Thursday, May 3 after a 40 minute flight from Saipan. The Education Suprintendent for Guam Micronesia Mission (GMM), his wife, and some other mission personnel picked us up and took us back to the Mission housing where we would spend the weekend. The women had one apartment, and the men had another just down the hill. After a late night run to Taco Bell and to the grocery store for breakfast food, we hit the hay to rest up for our first day of performances.



Friday afternoon performance at Guam Adventist Academy (GAA), Friday, May 4, 2007. From left to right: "Little Sister", "The Man", Grant, "The Gentleman", "Holly", "Harry", and Keisha a.k.a "Bono Girl" during the anti-drug sketch "You Think You're Alone"

Friday, May 4 got off to a peaceful start. Our first performance wasn't until the afternoon so we were able to have a leisurely breakfast, an inspiring worship led by Grant, and begin rehearsing for our afternoon shows around 10:00 A.M. Rehearsals went well, and by 11:30 we were performance-ready. We went out for lunch and then drove out to GAA for our first two performances. We did two shows, back to back, one for the younger students and one for the high school. Both were very well received, and as if knowing this would be one of their last opportunities to perform these sketches the kids gave it 100% on each sketch. By about 3 we were finished, and we headed back across the island to rehearse for our next show scheduled for Friday evening.

I talk to the audience between sketches during our Friday evening vespers performance, Friday, May 4, 2007,

Here, we encountered the only real moment of stress that I can recall over the course of the weekend. Friday afternoon tends to be a tough time during REAL tours (see last May's tour to Palau). The team is usually wiped out from a late night and a morning of performing and there is always a Friday night show that we desperately need to rehearse for. This tour was no exception. We began rehearsing, but I soon had to leave to drop Keisha off at the airport--she was flying back to Saipan to take her SATs the next day and would return to Guam to finish out the tour, Sabbath afternoon. When I returned, the rehearsing had stopped--the kids were just too tired, Grant said. He also said that the performances were rusty. We hadn't done these sketches in at least a few months, and in some case not sense the Rota tour. It was now close to 5:00 P.M. Our performance was two hours away. We decided Grant and Britni would take the kids who didn't need extra practice with their lines down to Taco Bell for supper while I stayed back and worked with those who needed more rehearsal. They'd bring back food for us.

By the time the rest of the team returned, my actors were ready, but we were about 30 minutes from the opening curtain and we still hadn't rehearsed our keynote performance, the "Creation/Fall/Redemption" pantomime trio--and this performance would feature three guest actors filling in the gaps left by team members who couldn't travel with us to Guam. These actors had never even seen this material performed, and now it looked as if they wouldn't have a chance to rehearse it, even once. Sure enough, by the time we had everyone together, the sanctuary was already filling and it was too late to rehearse. We hastily talked our new actors through their parts and prayed hard. Our situation was reminiscent of our Friday evening show last year in Palau (click on May 2006 in the blog archives)--same material, same lack of time, same need for rehearsal, only this time the stakes were even higher. Last year, we could only rehearse once or twice--this time there would be no rehearsal at all. But once again, God came through in the clutch and the performance went off without a hitch!

"Harry" during the monologue "My Secret Pal" at the Friday night vespers performance.

Friday night vespers performance: "The Fall" From Right to Left: "Photobug" as Eve, "The Gentleman" as Adam, Me as Jesus, and a guest actor from Guam Adventist Academy subbing in for "CK Girl" in the role of an angel. All of us are looking in the direction of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

"Harry" poses with a fan after the Friday night vespers performance. The fan, by the way, used to live in Saipan and was one of Barbara's students in her Grade 1/2 classroom).

So after the Friday night performance at vespers one of the church members says to me: I really loved your movements during the Creation skit. You were so fluid and graceful. . ." Me? Fluid and graceful? No doubt, this was another of God's miracles, because those of you who have seen me move (especially anyone who knew me as a kid) know that the words "fluid and graceful" aren't normally used to describe me. I believe mom tended to use the word "flailing" a lot when I was growing up!

Anyhow, the church member asked us to come in and do "The Creation" for her primary Sabbath School class the next morning. It felt a little strange to do the pantomime in such a small space with no dramatic lighting and the music being played off of Britni's laptop, the fifth day of creation being interrupted by a latecomer to Sabbath School coming in, but God blessed and I think the kids enjoyed it

The world gets Created in Sabbath School: Just before the performance, "The Gentleman" and "PhotoBug" get ready to go into "uncreated" mode lying flat on the floor until the sixth day. Britni sits at her laptop in the background, ready to provide the soundtrack to Creation and as for me. . .

I can't wait to get started!

The team took the morning "off" for the main church service, though "Holly" and "The Vice President" sang special music, and "Harry" told the children's story. They did such a great job!


"Holly" and "The Vice President" sing "Seek Ye First" for special music at church on Sabbath, May 5, 2007.

"Harry" tells the story of David and Goliath for the children's story Sabbath morning.


After a delicious potluck lunch, we had some downtime to rest. The kids napped for awhile and then Grant and Britni took some of them on a walk to a nearby park while I went to pick up Keisha from the airport. At 5:00 P.M. I presented a drama seminar at the Agana Heights SDA Church entitled "Parables of the Kingdom: A Rationale for Drama Ministry." The kids did a couple of sketches as part of the presentation as well.

As soon as the seminar was over we shifted the focus to preparing for our final performance, the adaptation of Bridge To Terabithia which we'd just debuted the previous weekend in Saipan. Bridge to Terabithia, a novel originally written by Katherine Paterson, tells the story of the friendship that develops between two fifth graders, Jess Owens an avid runner and artist, and Leslie Burke, the new girl in the neighborhood. By swinging on a rope across a creek bed near their homes, Jess and Leslie enter their imaginary kingdom of Terabithia. It's a touching story, with a sad yet hopeful ending, that focuses on the themes of friendship, dealing with loss, and especially in Grant's adaptation, walking in the light God gives us. The main characters of Jess and Leslie were played by "Harry" and "Holly" respectively.

Our Terabithia.

A view of the Guam stage for Bridge to Terabithia during set up, looking from Terabithia to the Owen's kitchen.




From Behind the Scenes (Britni at her command center from which she ran the lighting for our production of Bridge to Terabithia. The large light in front is a strobe light). . .





. . .To Center Stage (Britni takes on the role of "Ellie" opposite the Vice-President's "Janice Avery.") Three of our actors are Chinese nationals and due to U.S. immigration rules, they cannot travel to Guam. So we all scrambled to cover their parts. Britni covered CK Girl's role of "Ellie" in Bridge to Terabithia and did a fantastic job.




"Harry" and "Little Sister" in the final scene of Bridge to Terabithia.

The REAL cast mugs for photos with their new friends after our final performance in Guam. We played to a nearly full house, and the show went very well. With that our work was done for the weekend. Our kids hung out with their new Guam friends--the church had a game night with volleyball and basketball in the church parking lot so the kids could socialize, and we ordered pizza.

Sunday was devoted to shopping at Guams big malls. We splurged on a big supper at T.G.I. Fridays and some of us even went to see Spiderman 3 before taking the red-eye (2:30 A.M.) flight back to Saipan. The only thing to mar the day was that Grant ended up getting sick and missed our celebratory dinner.

It was a great end to a great seaon!


The team plus new friend, Dan (in blue t-shirt on left) celebrate at T.G.I. Fridays, Sunday, May 6, 2007.

"Harry" walks on, toward his destiny. . .okay actually he's walking from the Agana Heights SDA Church back to the men's apartment, but doesn't it look like he's walking towards his destiny?