Last couple of days haven't been so productive for me. Holed up fighting off sinus infections and bronchitus. Yay steroid shots and antibiotics!
Yesterday and today I almost wrapped up our radio and television publicity. Signed contracts for commerical time on cable television and sent our video to them. Two Christian radio stations will air spots for us. Got their information to them also.
Our two weekend matinees have completely "sold out". One other weekend performance is close to being sold out.
Blocking rehearsals have gone well for all scenes. The new scenes work well individually...now the big question will be how well do they work combined with the other scenes!
Costume Team has continued fitting and adjusting costumes. Programs Team is having a hard time getting corporate sponsors. Seems the economy is biting us there. That could cause us to go in the red when all is said and done. Set Decorations team continues to work each evening, and Set Construction team steps in here and there to fix things or sturdy things up. Reservations Team is at the church non-stop on weekdays from 9 - 4. Extras Team is pulling their hair out trying to get people to attend rehearsals...Everyone has such busy lives! Drama Choir has done a bang up job on the music. I'm actually giving them next week off..except for Saturday. Technical Teams are continuing to work on microphone assignments and lighting. Our hired sound/light guy has been getting lights and mics set up this week. Our T-Shirt Team received the t-shirts and started giving them out tonight. Everyone was excited!
These are just the teams I've seen at work. The others are all working hard to be prepared for the performances.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Blocking Madness Begins
Blocking Easter drama scenes, particularly brand new ones, can seem like chaos. Some scenes have over 100 people in them, and each person needs to know their entrances, their exits, their action, etc. Fortunately, most of our folks understand that there are many details to figure out during blocking, so they adopt a wonderfully patient attitude and use their time standing around to develop new friendships and enjoy the fellowship with one another.
As we block, scenes can sometimes evolve. We'll see the written script in a different light when there are real people standing before you with the music and the stage. There's always an air of excitement each night at the beginning of blocking. This week is full of our first half blockings.
Today I finished our television ad that will be airing in the coming weeks. Nothing fancy, just enough to get the word out.
As we block, scenes can sometimes evolve. We'll see the written script in a different light when there are real people standing before you with the music and the stage. There's always an air of excitement each night at the beginning of blocking. This week is full of our first half blockings.
Today I finished our television ad that will be airing in the coming weeks. Nothing fancy, just enough to get the word out.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Hitting the Wall
My wife and I use the phrase "I've hit my wall" whenever we feel exhausted or burned out or just plan old tired. I've learn from past Easter dramas that at some point each year I will "hit my wall" and need a break sometime during the preparation process. I don't like it, but I've learned to expect it. For the leadership of these type of ministries, we live and breath it for months. It's like a second job that you can never completely get on top of until it's over. Trying to reconcile three months of normal family life with work/ministry with a big production WILL catch up with you!
Generally I hit my wall after a couple of days of frustrating ministry work or family situations combined with several days worth of non-stop Easter drama attention while falling behind in regular day-to-day ministry responsibilities. Here's what I've learned to do:
*Spend extra time in the Word. That can be biblically-based music, scriptural-based books, etc. but do something that keeps God's Word in your mind.
*Don't be afraid to pass things along to support staff. My secretary has been a wonderful help and willing to shoulder loads of extra responsibilities during this time.
*Surround yourself with a GREAT Lead Team, and don't feel silly to say "Help!" to them. I sent my team a "Help!" email this week, and they have been wonderful in their willingness to help me through my "wall hitting" period.
*Don't feel responsible for being present at every aspect of each team's work. That's why you have team leaders; trust them to lead their teams and make their own decisions and do their tasks.
*Don't be worried about taking a break or breather here or there. No one can really understand the work load you've taken home with you each day of the last few months, or the late hours...and that's OK. God knows and you know. So take breaks when you can.
*Don't wait on a superior or supervisor to come to you and offer a break or a breather. They won't really be aware of your extra work load, and if you're a dependable person they'll trust you and want you to take care of yourself.
*Spend at least one day or afternoon doing something out of the ordinary from the last few months. Today, in between my daughter's early morning basketball game, a church member's 50th anniversary celebration, and getting things set up in the sanctuary for worship, I was able to get out in our yard for a couple of hours and begin de-winterizing it. Scooping dog poop and weeding flowerbeds works wonders for my disposition!
Tomorrow afternoon we begin the schedule for blocking individual scenes. Each scene has someone that will call all the extras and remind them of their schedule, and in these rehearsals I begin to adjust scripts and underscores to match exact timing and flow. For our church members who are extras or choir members, this begins an almost nightly attendance until the Easter drama is over. Many of our people will be at the church about 75% or more of the next 30 evenings, beginning tomorrow.
Generally I hit my wall after a couple of days of frustrating ministry work or family situations combined with several days worth of non-stop Easter drama attention while falling behind in regular day-to-day ministry responsibilities. Here's what I've learned to do:
*Spend extra time in the Word. That can be biblically-based music, scriptural-based books, etc. but do something that keeps God's Word in your mind.
*Don't be afraid to pass things along to support staff. My secretary has been a wonderful help and willing to shoulder loads of extra responsibilities during this time.
*Surround yourself with a GREAT Lead Team, and don't feel silly to say "Help!" to them. I sent my team a "Help!" email this week, and they have been wonderful in their willingness to help me through my "wall hitting" period.
*Don't feel responsible for being present at every aspect of each team's work. That's why you have team leaders; trust them to lead their teams and make their own decisions and do their tasks.
*Don't be worried about taking a break or breather here or there. No one can really understand the work load you've taken home with you each day of the last few months, or the late hours...and that's OK. God knows and you know. So take breaks when you can.
*Don't wait on a superior or supervisor to come to you and offer a break or a breather. They won't really be aware of your extra work load, and if you're a dependable person they'll trust you and want you to take care of yourself.
*Spend at least one day or afternoon doing something out of the ordinary from the last few months. Today, in between my daughter's early morning basketball game, a church member's 50th anniversary celebration, and getting things set up in the sanctuary for worship, I was able to get out in our yard for a couple of hours and begin de-winterizing it. Scooping dog poop and weeding flowerbeds works wonders for my disposition!
Tomorrow afternoon we begin the schedule for blocking individual scenes. Each scene has someone that will call all the extras and remind them of their schedule, and in these rehearsals I begin to adjust scripts and underscores to match exact timing and flow. For our church members who are extras or choir members, this begins an almost nightly attendance until the Easter drama is over. Many of our people will be at the church about 75% or more of the next 30 evenings, beginning tomorrow.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Choir Recording and Phone Calls
The church phones have begun ringing with requests for Easter drama tickets. We don't begin reservations for the general public until Monday morning; once that day hits, our secretaries are deluged with phone calls. We set up our reservations team in our church library, and they have two different phone lines that stay busy for the next two or three weeks.
Speaking of tickets, we never charge for our Easter drama tickets. This ministry is self-sustaining only through love offerings and corporate sponsors.
Tonight was our drama choir recording. About three or four years ago we began recording our choir vocals for each years' performance. As with any dramatic production, there are times where we have to supplement our live voices. It may be because in a particular scene the choir has to sit, and that puts them further away from the microphones; it may be because the choir is walking down the aisles away from the mics; etc., etc. I always hated having studio voices from the sound tracks supplementing our voices, so we now record our own voices, and if we need vocal support during a performance, it's our own recorded voices singing. This recording is not production perfect; we would never sell a CD of this in-house recording. But it is just right for a gentle "umph" when our voices need it during performances.
This next week will be full of editing this recording into finished tracks. Very time consuming, but well worth it.
Tomorrow would normally be a hospital visitation day for me, but our deacons are graciously doing my hospital visits for the next several weeks. Once Easter drama season hits my schedule gets so full. Tomorrow I have the task of getting all of our sound and instruments back on stage and ready for Sunday worship. It will be a full day, and without the deacons help, it would be a very long and late day. I'm thankful for their ministry of serving not only our church, but the staff!
Speaking of tickets, we never charge for our Easter drama tickets. This ministry is self-sustaining only through love offerings and corporate sponsors.
Tonight was our drama choir recording. About three or four years ago we began recording our choir vocals for each years' performance. As with any dramatic production, there are times where we have to supplement our live voices. It may be because in a particular scene the choir has to sit, and that puts them further away from the microphones; it may be because the choir is walking down the aisles away from the mics; etc., etc. I always hated having studio voices from the sound tracks supplementing our voices, so we now record our own voices, and if we need vocal support during a performance, it's our own recorded voices singing. This recording is not production perfect; we would never sell a CD of this in-house recording. But it is just right for a gentle "umph" when our voices need it during performances.
This next week will be full of editing this recording into finished tracks. Very time consuming, but well worth it.
Tomorrow would normally be a hospital visitation day for me, but our deacons are graciously doing my hospital visits for the next several weeks. Once Easter drama season hits my schedule gets so full. Tomorrow I have the task of getting all of our sound and instruments back on stage and ready for Sunday worship. It will be a full day, and without the deacons help, it would be a very long and late day. I'm thankful for their ministry of serving not only our church, but the staff!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Two Days Worth
Yesterday and today have continued to be busy days for the Easter drama. Set construction was completed except for a few items, and set decoration is ongoing. We had a great lunch of jambalaya provided for us. Our manger angel girls met last night and started learning choreography. (These are all junior high girls.) Our promotional fliers and posters got printed, and our t-shirt designer sent me a mock up to proof. Our reservations team leader has been emailing and organizing tickets for church members' reservations. Our extras team has been handing out scripts. Our sound technician has been evaluating and checking out all of our microphones. Our costume team has been fitting people. Our technical team has begun working on microphone assignments. I've completed the first edit of tracks for our choir recording (which is tomorrow night). Choir rehearsal tonight went great.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Set Construction, Great Meal, Tickets, Extras, Greeters
It's been great day for the Easter drama. So many teams have worked hard. Of course, the most visible has been the Set Construction Team. Attached is a video of the set-in-progress.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
A City and a Chart
Even though today is a day of worship, it's a busy day for Easter drama preparation. I started the Track Chart today. This is a chart I make to keep up with the various versions of each song track we need. There can be up to six different edits of each song. 1) the track that we use to record our choir vocals; 2) the track for our blocking rehearsals 3) the track with a reprise added - if needed 4) the track with added special affects - like crickets chirping or thunder; 5) the track with our voices recorded as the vocals; 6) the performance track with everything needed mixed into one song.
This chart helps me remember what work I've done on the tracks. Since our choir recording is this Thursday, the recording tracks will be the priority to edit and get ready. This is pretty fun work for me. I enjoy piecing together and editing the music, trying to figure out how to cut parts of a song and glue it back together to make it sound seamless, looking for sound effects, listening to tons of movie soundtracks to get inspiration for underscores (I actually snuck in the theme from Star Trek one year, and no one ever knew!). It's fun, but can be very time consuming.
This evening after church we began turning our sanctuary into a biblical city. We have an old 18-wheeler trailer that we store off-campus that keeps most of our Easter drama set out of the elements. We also have a prop room full of scenery and props. Then we have an attic full of set braces, backdrops, and carpet. After church we unloaded all of this, and began piecing everything together. If you walked into our sanctuary right now, you'd think a bomb had gone off. Almost every pew has boards, pottery, greenery, tools, plywood, sound equipment on it. But there's sense to this chaos!
We usually have about 50 - 100 people of all ages help on Sunday nights. This number gets whittled down on Monday and Tuesday as the work gets more "specialized" and as people have to go to their "real" jobs. But here in Louisiana this Monday and Tuesday are holidays --- Mardi Gras. That's why we choose these specific days each year to put up the set. We get a few students and teachers and state workers that can help during the day because of this holiday.
Our Construction Team and Decoration Team get down to work tomorrow and Tuesday (and the rest of the week), and put in early / long hours. Our Set Construction Meal Team provides the most awesome lunches during this time...believe me when I say that no one goes away hungry!
As a worship leader, I can sometimes become overwhelmed as I take in the scene in the sanctuary. Every single piece of sound equipment on our stage, every instrument, every wire, every microphone, is displaced and temporarily stored all over the building. By the end of the week all of the sound equipment and every instrument will have to be returned and hooked up and in working condition for Sunday morning. Our choir room is a wreck, and will have to be cleaned up and things put away before Wednesday night. But, that's all a part of the Easter drama ministry. I've learned I can't look at how much there is to be done, but rather how much has been done. That's a good thing.
This chart helps me remember what work I've done on the tracks. Since our choir recording is this Thursday, the recording tracks will be the priority to edit and get ready. This is pretty fun work for me. I enjoy piecing together and editing the music, trying to figure out how to cut parts of a song and glue it back together to make it sound seamless, looking for sound effects, listening to tons of movie soundtracks to get inspiration for underscores (I actually snuck in the theme from Star Trek one year, and no one ever knew!). It's fun, but can be very time consuming.
This evening after church we began turning our sanctuary into a biblical city. We have an old 18-wheeler trailer that we store off-campus that keeps most of our Easter drama set out of the elements. We also have a prop room full of scenery and props. Then we have an attic full of set braces, backdrops, and carpet. After church we unloaded all of this, and began piecing everything together. If you walked into our sanctuary right now, you'd think a bomb had gone off. Almost every pew has boards, pottery, greenery, tools, plywood, sound equipment on it. But there's sense to this chaos!
We usually have about 50 - 100 people of all ages help on Sunday nights. This number gets whittled down on Monday and Tuesday as the work gets more "specialized" and as people have to go to their "real" jobs. But here in Louisiana this Monday and Tuesday are holidays --- Mardi Gras. That's why we choose these specific days each year to put up the set. We get a few students and teachers and state workers that can help during the day because of this holiday.
Our Construction Team and Decoration Team get down to work tomorrow and Tuesday (and the rest of the week), and put in early / long hours. Our Set Construction Meal Team provides the most awesome lunches during this time...believe me when I say that no one goes away hungry!
As a worship leader, I can sometimes become overwhelmed as I take in the scene in the sanctuary. Every single piece of sound equipment on our stage, every instrument, every wire, every microphone, is displaced and temporarily stored all over the building. By the end of the week all of the sound equipment and every instrument will have to be returned and hooked up and in working condition for Sunday morning. Our choir room is a wreck, and will have to be cleaned up and things put away before Wednesday night. But, that's all a part of the Easter drama ministry. I've learned I can't look at how much there is to be done, but rather how much has been done. That's a good thing.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Choir Retreat
Yesterday was a great day of FINALLY finishing up the Easter drama script, making copies for all who need it. The only thing I have to do to the script is decide my underscores and insert those cues for the Sound Team. But this is a good working version for everyone else. We've learned to color-code the script. This run was on yellow paper. That way if there are any any changes to the script and we make new copies, we can remind people to "make sure you're using the whatever (yellow, pink, blue, etc.) color script." I learned this trick from our Student Ministry's big ministry The Choice.
Today was our drama choir retreat. Had a great group there today, and they sound great. I generally have about a 60 - 70% attendance year after year. Our "retreat" isn't one like you would imagine, where we go somewhere and spend the night. We meet at 9:30 and generally go until about 1:30ish. Sometimes we meet somewhere on the church campus, and sometimes we'll find a place off-campus to meet. Everyone brings snacks; some bring breakfast-type snacks, some bring mid-day type snacks or desserts. It's a very casual rehearsal time...I encourage people to get up any time they want to and get food or something to drink. I buy a lot of fun "door prize" gifts, some gag gifts and some real, and we do drawings throughout the day. We'll have a couple of devotions. Generally I provide a lunch (today we didn't do that, though). And we REHEARSE. Usually by the end of this retreat, we are all so much more familiar with the music. In fact, from this time on we'll mainly be working on memorizing.
This morning we had our big 10 foot grand piano moved out of the sanctuary in preparation for set construction. We used to disassemble it and move it ourselves, but I was always a nervous wreck. We didn't really have the proper equipment or knowlege to move it safely (for us AND for the piano). We would have up to twelve men at a time trying to get this done. I found a piano moving "company"...a man and his helpers...that move pianos for a piano store in Baton Rouge, and hired them. There are three or four of them, they come in and that piano is moved in 15 minutes! It is SO worth the money we spend on it. I've used them for the last six years.
While our grand is stored away and the set is up, our pianists use digital pianos / keyboards.
Tomorrow after church we begin set construction!
Today was our drama choir retreat. Had a great group there today, and they sound great. I generally have about a 60 - 70% attendance year after year. Our "retreat" isn't one like you would imagine, where we go somewhere and spend the night. We meet at 9:30 and generally go until about 1:30ish. Sometimes we meet somewhere on the church campus, and sometimes we'll find a place off-campus to meet. Everyone brings snacks; some bring breakfast-type snacks, some bring mid-day type snacks or desserts. It's a very casual rehearsal time...I encourage people to get up any time they want to and get food or something to drink. I buy a lot of fun "door prize" gifts, some gag gifts and some real, and we do drawings throughout the day. We'll have a couple of devotions. Generally I provide a lunch (today we didn't do that, though). And we REHEARSE. Usually by the end of this retreat, we are all so much more familiar with the music. In fact, from this time on we'll mainly be working on memorizing.
This morning we had our big 10 foot grand piano moved out of the sanctuary in preparation for set construction. We used to disassemble it and move it ourselves, but I was always a nervous wreck. We didn't really have the proper equipment or knowlege to move it safely (for us AND for the piano). We would have up to twelve men at a time trying to get this done. I found a piano moving "company"...a man and his helpers...that move pianos for a piano store in Baton Rouge, and hired them. There are three or four of them, they come in and that piano is moved in 15 minutes! It is SO worth the money we spend on it. I've used them for the last six years.
While our grand is stored away and the set is up, our pianists use digital pianos / keyboards.
Tomorrow after church we begin set construction!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Lambs and Letters
Today we had about 18 church members assembled at the church attaching labels and sorting zip codes for almost 9,000 Easter drama promotional letters that we mail out to people that have attended the drama through the years. They laugh and drink coffee and fellowship and GET 'ER DONE!
Script is basically done. Need to proof for technical cues and add the last scene's narration.
Each year it's hit and miss for if we can find live lambs to use. We used to be able to borrow from LSU, but they are not allowed to loan them anymore. So, it all depends on the time of the Easter drama (lambing season stays the same though Eastertime varies) and if we can find someone that has them. One of my Lead Team members has been on top of it this year, and I think we'll have lambs! Hooray!
Script is basically done. Need to proof for technical cues and add the last scene's narration.
Each year it's hit and miss for if we can find live lambs to use. We used to be able to borrow from LSU, but they are not allowed to loan them anymore. So, it all depends on the time of the Easter drama (lambing season stays the same though Eastertime varies) and if we can find someone that has them. One of my Lead Team members has been on top of it this year, and I think we'll have lambs! Hooray!
The Day That Was Wednesday
Holed up yesterday until about Noon. Didn't quite get the Easter drama script finished...just some of the ending scenes left. Went to the church and burned tracks for all the soloists and narrators to rehearse with. That took most of the rest of the day.
Also submitted bids to multiple printers to print our fliers and posters. Generally we do this in-house, but this year's logo has so much black in it that it'll suck the ink right out of our printers. Comparing costs and quality, going with the printer to print may cost a little more, but the final product will be a lot better and it won't tie up our color laser printer so much in the office.
Had another great drama choir rehearsal last night. This group can sing!
Today I'll work on worship services, and then try to finish the first draft of the script and begin reading it through and making corrections as needed. We have our drama choir retreat Saturday, so today and tomorrow I'll be preparing for that.
Fighting a bad cold, so that hinders the desire to do anything productive, but no choice at this time of the year.
Also submitted bids to multiple printers to print our fliers and posters. Generally we do this in-house, but this year's logo has so much black in it that it'll suck the ink right out of our printers. Comparing costs and quality, going with the printer to print may cost a little more, but the final product will be a lot better and it won't tie up our color laser printer so much in the office.
Had another great drama choir rehearsal last night. This group can sing!
Today I'll work on worship services, and then try to finish the first draft of the script and begin reading it through and making corrections as needed. We have our drama choir retreat Saturday, so today and tomorrow I'll be preparing for that.
Fighting a bad cold, so that hinders the desire to do anything productive, but no choice at this time of the year.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Long Day With the Script!
I feel like I've been sitting in front of my computer forever. I took a break for supper, but that's it. But praise God I've gotten through the majority of the Easter drama script. The most difficult new scene has just been written and the tracks edited. I still have a chunk to finish, but that should be done tomorrow. I'll stay home holed up in my study at least until lunch, and if it's not done by then....you may hear a yell.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Mailings, Braces, and T-Shirts
Today I prepared the t-shirt logo (as much as I can) before turning it over to the printers. I usually come up with a basic design, and then let the T-Shirt Team work with the printers on a final product. Folks love buying these shirts and wearing them to promote the Easter drama.
Because we use the Easter drama logo in a variety of ways, we have to make several variations of the original logo. Today I created the black and white smaller logo for our newsletter, letterhead, mailouts, announcements, etc. and forwarded it to our secretaries.
This week is prep week for our big mailings. Each year people that attend our Easter drama give us their addresses in order to be informed of the next year's performance. We mail thousands of these informational letters out. Today I created this letter / flier so that it can be copied and folded by my secretary and ready for volunteers to label and mail out next week.
We also mail an informational letter and fliers to hundreds of local churches and pastors. That letter was also written today.
Each year we have a printed program to hand out to everyone in attendence of the Easter drama. It serves many purposes (I'll explain those at a later date), but one is that local businesses advertise in it. We call them our Corporate Sponsors. The money we raise from Corporate Sponsorship is so important to our ministry. Since we don't charge admission (we use a free ticket system), everything we need from the upkeep for our animals to building the set to publicty is paid for by love offerings and Corporate Sponsorship. Today I prepared the letter we mail out to every business that has been a Corporate Sponsor in the past, asking for their support again this year. Then I also prepared a letter for people who requested information last year about being a Corporate Sponsor for the first time this year.
Saturday our Properties Committee held a church-wide work day to help prepare the campus for the visitors we'll receive because of the Easter drama. At the same time, our two Set Construction Team leaders rebuilt some floor braces in preparation for our set construction next week. They've developed a great method of replacing and rebuilding portions of the set each year, instead of waiting until things fall apart to be replaced.
Last week my secretary printed out the thousands of free tickets that we'll give away through our reservations system, and today the Reservations Team Leader and one of the Lead Team members cut all these. Even though the dates and times of the performance are on the tickets, we also color-code them.
Tomorrow is another hole-up-at-home day. My goal is to FINISH the first draft of the script!
Because we use the Easter drama logo in a variety of ways, we have to make several variations of the original logo. Today I created the black and white smaller logo for our newsletter, letterhead, mailouts, announcements, etc. and forwarded it to our secretaries.
This week is prep week for our big mailings. Each year people that attend our Easter drama give us their addresses in order to be informed of the next year's performance. We mail thousands of these informational letters out. Today I created this letter / flier so that it can be copied and folded by my secretary and ready for volunteers to label and mail out next week.
We also mail an informational letter and fliers to hundreds of local churches and pastors. That letter was also written today.
Each year we have a printed program to hand out to everyone in attendence of the Easter drama. It serves many purposes (I'll explain those at a later date), but one is that local businesses advertise in it. We call them our Corporate Sponsors. The money we raise from Corporate Sponsorship is so important to our ministry. Since we don't charge admission (we use a free ticket system), everything we need from the upkeep for our animals to building the set to publicty is paid for by love offerings and Corporate Sponsorship. Today I prepared the letter we mail out to every business that has been a Corporate Sponsor in the past, asking for their support again this year. Then I also prepared a letter for people who requested information last year about being a Corporate Sponsor for the first time this year.
Saturday our Properties Committee held a church-wide work day to help prepare the campus for the visitors we'll receive because of the Easter drama. At the same time, our two Set Construction Team leaders rebuilt some floor braces in preparation for our set construction next week. They've developed a great method of replacing and rebuilding portions of the set each year, instead of waiting until things fall apart to be replaced.
Last week my secretary printed out the thousands of free tickets that we'll give away through our reservations system, and today the Reservations Team Leader and one of the Lead Team members cut all these. Even though the dates and times of the performance are on the tickets, we also color-code them.
Tomorrow is another hole-up-at-home day. My goal is to FINISH the first draft of the script!
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Information Table
Today we set up the Drama Information Table. This is a table set up at our Welcome Center with information for our church members. On this table they can find the packet of information we handed out at the Kick Off Meeting, a drama calendar, sign up lists for t-shirts, childcare, ticket request forms, corporate sponsor forms, and a childcare registration form.
Also sent out the final lists of folks that signed up for the different teams to all the team leaders. If there are not enough people that signed up for a team, the hard part begins for the team leaders: recruiting.
Found out today that one of our long-time team leaders who is also a much need extra can't be involved in the drama this year because of unexpected work conflicts. Back to the drawing board in those areas!
Here is an email I received from one of our team leaders whose team is already hard at work:
*Crowns repaired. (I don't think we need to replace the blue one after all.... I just spent some time repairing the one we have.) *Angel wings repaired (They are in BAD shape. Honestly just praying they make it through this year. The padding inside the wings is dry rotted, crumbles when it's touched. It's tied in the #1 spot with the heaven floor to be replaced for next year.) *Magi gifts repaired. *Queen's umbrella repaired.
Also sent out the final lists of folks that signed up for the different teams to all the team leaders. If there are not enough people that signed up for a team, the hard part begins for the team leaders: recruiting.
Found out today that one of our long-time team leaders who is also a much need extra can't be involved in the drama this year because of unexpected work conflicts. Back to the drawing board in those areas!
Here is an email I received from one of our team leaders whose team is already hard at work:
*Crowns repaired. (I don't think we need to replace the blue one after all.... I just spent some time repairing the one we have.) *Angel wings repaired (They are in BAD shape. Honestly just praying they make it through this year. The padding inside the wings is dry rotted, crumbles when it's touched. It's tied in the #1 spot with the heaven floor to be replaced for next year.) *Magi gifts repaired. *Queen's umbrella repaired.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sound Tracks and Teams
As I work on the Easter drama script, I edit the sound tracks. Most folks don't realize that sound tracks for the each choral song we use are usually divided up into 6 to 10 shorter tracks. After I download those short tracks to my computer, I load them into my music editing program where I "glue" them together into one full track. Then I go through and shorten the song or lengthen it, add instrumental sections for dialogue, and add sound effects (such as animal noises for a marketplace scene, or crickets for a night scene).
One of the songs we're using this year had two different arrangements, and I like both of them, so I combined pieces of each arrangement and edited it down to one track. It was time consuming, but the final outcome is beautiful and allows me to have a very moving scene fit the music.
Our Greeters Team and Reservations Team are working hard at figuring out how to communicate our policy for seating. We have such large crowds that we have to have some very organized guidelines to make sure there's room for everyone. Our Extras Team has met twice this week and continues to assign people to acting parts. I'll have a meeting this Saturday with our Construction, Set Decoration, and Props Teams to discuss some new scenes that will affect our set. Our Costume Team continues to go through props and costumes and repair and make arrangements for new things to be made.
Choir rehearsal last night was great. The drama Choir this year has a very beautiful sound...full and secure. I'm enjoying teaching them the music.
One of the songs we're using this year had two different arrangements, and I like both of them, so I combined pieces of each arrangement and edited it down to one track. It was time consuming, but the final outcome is beautiful and allows me to have a very moving scene fit the music.
Our Greeters Team and Reservations Team are working hard at figuring out how to communicate our policy for seating. We have such large crowds that we have to have some very organized guidelines to make sure there's room for everyone. Our Extras Team has met twice this week and continues to assign people to acting parts. I'll have a meeting this Saturday with our Construction, Set Decoration, and Props Teams to discuss some new scenes that will affect our set. Our Costume Team continues to go through props and costumes and repair and make arrangements for new things to be made.
Choir rehearsal last night was great. The drama Choir this year has a very beautiful sound...full and secure. I'm enjoying teaching them the music.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A Lot Accomplished
Holing up at home was a great idea today. Got about half of the script done. Hopefully another good day this week will allow me to get the first draft of the script completed. Tomorrow is worship planning day.
Scene One - IN THE BAG!
It's only 10:17 am and Scene One is completed! Choral track edited (with extended introduction and ending) - CHECK. Sound effects added - CHECK. Prophet Narrations written - CHECK. Light cues written - CHECK. Staging written - CHECK. Copy printed for Extras Team - CHECK.
Now on to our first ever Shepherd narration.
It's a good start to the day!
Now on to our first ever Shepherd narration.
It's a good start to the day!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Catching the Waves
Through the years I've found that the work load for Easter drama preparation comes in waves. The first wave is getting the music picked out and getting Choir folders and rehearsal CDs ready. The next wave is the Kick Off Meeting and all the prep that involves. This year both of those happened the same week, so once the Kick Off Meeting was over last night, I felt pretty relieved. I approached today committed to working only on the script.
HA.
By noon when I got a phone call that I had to pick my daughter up sick from school, I had yet to touch the script. I'd edited the first song's tracks so I could see the exact timing for narrations, but that's it. The rest of the morning was spent updating our Church Member Ticket Request Forms for our newsletter and bulletin, and creating an online version of the same. (We allow our church members to reserve tickets for the Easter drama performances several weeks before we offer them to the general public.)
Then I was able to get to the script, and got a whole TWO PAGES completed! Woo hoo! That was in between answering about six emails from Easter drama team leaders, restructuring the script outline to accomidate some solo changes, and taking my daughters to piano lessons.
Our extra Choir rehearsal went well tonight. By this time I'm able to determine what songs will need a lot of work, and which ones will be easy. It looks like I'll have to work really hard on about three or four of the songs. The rest will come easy for this Choir.
Tomorrow I've decided I have to work from home. I need to shut myself up in the study to work uninterupted on the script. My goal is to have at least a third of the script completed by the end of the day. We'll see!
HA.
By noon when I got a phone call that I had to pick my daughter up sick from school, I had yet to touch the script. I'd edited the first song's tracks so I could see the exact timing for narrations, but that's it. The rest of the morning was spent updating our Church Member Ticket Request Forms for our newsletter and bulletin, and creating an online version of the same. (We allow our church members to reserve tickets for the Easter drama performances several weeks before we offer them to the general public.)
Then I was able to get to the script, and got a whole TWO PAGES completed! Woo hoo! That was in between answering about six emails from Easter drama team leaders, restructuring the script outline to accomidate some solo changes, and taking my daughters to piano lessons.
Our extra Choir rehearsal went well tonight. By this time I'm able to determine what songs will need a lot of work, and which ones will be easy. It looks like I'll have to work really hard on about three or four of the songs. The rest will come easy for this Choir.
Tomorrow I've decided I have to work from home. I need to shut myself up in the study to work uninterupted on the script. My goal is to have at least a third of the script completed by the end of the day. We'll see!
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