Easter Dress Rehearsal

Tonight we had our final dress rehearsals for the Easter production we'll be doing tomorrow, and as you can see here, things are beginning to look much better.  We've did two run-throughs tonight, and I have to say this again and again:  Mom is the real hero of this production.  She's the one who is racing around, sewing, gluing, repairing, washing, cutting, dealing with actors, finding props, making props, and so much more.  She's invaluable to this, and was doing so much until the last minute, all day long working a lot to get things prepared.  I was helping her a little beforehand, but she's the one who is feeling the burden of all this and she's getting it all done so well. 

Here's that Garden of Gethsemane scene from our production, the same one from last year, only this time Tony is singing the Lord's Prayer.  He's another KidPak guy from years past.  All the children's ministry folks run the show now.  I'm at the bottom of this picture, the sleepy disciple James.  To my left is John, played by Will, who also has been in a lot of KidPak stuff, most notably our character Rocket from the Summer Xtreme movies, and the voice of the hero in our "Path of the Warrior" series.  And of course there's Jesus, praying.  He's portrayed by Ivan, who plays guitar and puts together the worship mornings at KidPak each Sunday.  Like I said, KidPak rules!

The animals did their first run-throughs tonight too.  You can see Ivan on that donkey riding in for our Palm Sunday scene.  That's the one that Maddie is in too, along with a lot of other people carrying palms and waving them about.  Maddie is on the video again this year, a massive image of her on the scrim that everyone sees - Maddie is turning her head amongst a crowded scene, trying to get a better view, and of course smiling.  It's a beautiful imagery, and it fills the auditorium for a brief moment.  Maddie's got a big part on the screen, and then there she is at the stage to greet Jesus on Palm Sunday, right after he gets off that donkey.

It was a late night.  Lots of sore feet and tired eyes.  Everyone has been working so hard for this, and it's going to be a special production.  It all starts tomorrow on Good Friday.  

We had time to read tonight, but just barely.  We said our prayers, and we were off to sleep just about at midnight.  Late night!