I was looking over my old "Bards of Now" stuff today. The Bards of Now were a drama team that I was lucky enough as a youth pastor to lead several years ago. I was looking up info on them because one of it's members (Renee) passed away tragically less then a year ago and someone is writing a book about her. I was surprised how just going back through it all made me feel grief for her loss all over again. At the same time though I experienced a lot of good feelings as I remembered all the cool stuff this little drama team did. Our last big production was called "Morbidman Meets His Maker." After the last showing we did a team feedback/evaluation session and I had written down notes from it. Here is what I said I learned from the experience of producing a multi-act play:
What I’ve learned: -If you don’t think you’ll have enough time to pray; MAKE TIME! Pray about everything! -Even the narrator must go over his lines! -Use tapes for sound effects, not CD’s. -Promotion is HUGE. Do lots of it, and way in advance. With different mediums and medias types. Also, teach the churches about invitational evangelism before doing it. -Find creative people for backdrops/costumes/makeup months before the drama is scheduled. -Practice every scene thoroughly and double practice fight scenes/dance scenes. -Do at least 1 sound/lights practice before the dress rehearsal. -Get a backstage manager again; it’s awesome! (but get him in early) -Making memorization tapes should be done immediately after starting to work on the drama. -Confirm dates/places/details WAY ahead of time. -Have a backstage crew, lights crew, sound crew that is apart from the actors, so the actors aren’t as stressed when we have limited time for set up/take down. -Longer practices are better! -Ask around for sponsors early. -Get sound system reserved early. -At performances, don’t swap the batteries before your sound check! -Have extra mics. -Have a decent “team time” before every performance. Unless absolutely necessary, all actors should arrive/leave together to keep up the “team feeling.” -Have a prompter and get them in early! (maybe one of the stage people)
Ah, memories! I really felt blessed by my time with the Bards. Have you ever been a part of something that you felt was just . . . special? That's how this ministry team felt to me, like I was lucky enough to be a part of something extraordinary. If you too have had such an experience, take some time to reflect on it. And if you haven't had that experience . . . I encourage you to ask God for it and then search for it. Life is too short not to be part of something special.
May Light increase!
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4 comments:
I loved being a part of the Bards, and still speak fondly of my days as Dr. Insidious. I have a tape (that I really need to return to Sheri!) of I think our dress rehearsal of Morbidman; I think it would be fun to do a Bards reunion to watch it sometime (the colour is really washed out though).
I read through some of the other Morbidman scripts and I don't think they were anywhere near as good as the original.
renee's death also brought back a flood of bard memories for me. specifically morbidman memories. she was jack. i was lenny. we bonded! haha! being on the bards of now was really lifechanging for me. thanks for all you put into it, mark.
I discovered if you Google Morbidman Meets His Maker you can find some clips of other Morbidman productions. It's weird watching them; the dialogue is so familiar (especially when I hear lines I used to have memorized), but the voices and visuals are all "wrong"!
Hey Jay, yes I thought the same thing when I watched them (in fact I couldn't finish watching them because of the "weirdness" part). I guess every team puts their own feel and look to their production. Ours of course is much better then all the rest!
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