Passover

 The full moon is out tonight, and Mom has literally anointed our doorposts, the frame of the doorway to the house.  We had our Last Supper meal tonight again, although it was the one we're doing onstage as a part of our ongoing rehearsals.  Out of all the seasons that we've ever done these productions, this one so far has gone the smoothest.  Which is not to say it lacks the headaches and last-minute alterations or challenges that others have.  But on the whole, this Easter production is going very well.  We're missing a few spears, and there are a few actors that have challenges, but Zena is sewing, sewing, sewing.  She's altering, altering, altering.  She's creating, creating, creating.  She's the unsung hero of these productions, the one creating the costuming and the looks for certain dancers or setting up props for the stage.  She's perpetually having to deal with things, and she's handling it like a pro.  She's the real dynamo of this production, going home exhausted because of so much intense work.  

We were over there to the right in this picture, a group shot of all the folks involved in this production.  Unfortunately, Maddie isn't in this particular photo because she's over at the North Campus with FCY for "Fun Night."  It was basically just a chill night for Free Chapel Youth, with some games and some time to hangout afterwards.  We were doing two full run-throughs in the meantime, and it's looking good.

Here's a shot of Jonathan playing a song he wrote that just sticks with you long afterwards, a beautiful song about there being room at the cross.  In the background you can see Ivan actually up there, and he's fully made-up tonight so there's a lot of blood.  I'm amongst the mourners this year, and we were talking with each other afterwards how there's really not as much acting involved, as the emotions are of genuine grief.  It's very moving.

We're expecting a lot of people again, thousands from all over.  I remember at Christmas time running into some people that drove down from out of state just to see our production.  They line up outside, and it's a free production and we hope people are affected and changed in a powerful way.

This scene is unique - we weren't doing it with costumes yet, but as the song plays, disciples actually take the body down off the cross very slowly and very deliberately.  It's something not seen in too many productions, and in fact I've never seen that before.  Usually, the lights go off and the actors quickly get off the stage to get ready for the resurrection scene.  But here, we take time to just let folks fully absorb the reality of it all, the moments afterwards that surely happened, and the overwhelming sadness that this had to happen.  For us.

It's going to be a great production.  We've been praying and everyone has been pouring themselves into this.  Like I said, especially Mom.  Mom has been at this for months, dealing with quite a bit.  But we're very close to the first performance, and there will be lives changed, and Mom has a very heavy hand in that.

We got home, quite exhausted as you might expect.  We read, and then soon after - very soon after - we were fast asleep.