Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Passion Play draws close to 2,000
By a conservative number the 2007 Georgia Mountain Passion Play was seen by over 1,900 viewers, and that number may have even gone above 2,000. The play, which is put on by First Baptist Church of Blairsville, was made even more accessible this year thanks to the addition of a third, matinee presentation.
"The great thing about it is that we pull from the community so much," Pastor Fred Lodge said, explaining that the earlier time allows those from other churches to come to the presentation without being pulled away from their own church services. "This gave us a good opportunity for that, it really paid off. Every year has been a blessing, but we have sensed a real anointing this year."
This time the story was told through the eyes of Simon of Cyrene and his sons Rufus and Alexander. Simon was present as Christ was being led to his crucifixion and Rufus and Alexander were later important figures in the spread of the Gospel.
"We get a general idea of where we want to see it from, and [Minister of Music Terry Hooper] gets all the kinds of music that will fit just where we want to go," Pastor Lodge said, "and I get the task of writing a storyline that will tie it all together."
Some of the scenes featured included Jesus healing others, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension.
More than 140 people were involved in the play this year, with duties ranging from acting in the presentation to handling production aspects, or even ironing costumes.
The cast is not limited to the two-legged variety, as a donkey, lamb, and group of alpacas were once again part of the story this year.
All of the hard work and coordination goes into three main objectives, as the primary goal is to introduce the Gospel so that viewers might receive Christ, but the presentation also provides important elements of teaching and inspiration.
"We just try to provide a high quality Easter presentation to the community," Pastor Lodge said. "To us, doing the Passion Play is a picture of the body of Christ. We feel like we have a great responsibility to the community and they respond phenomenally in all kinds of ways."
The pastor explained that the church tries to start its planning earlier and earlier each year, so everyone can spend more time on all aspects of it.
"We haven't decided absolutely for sure yet, but we are leaning towards next year seeing through the eyes of Paul as he is imprisoned," Pastor Lodge said. "That way we could even bring in things from the Roman Epistles."
"The great thing about it is that we pull from the community so much," Pastor Fred Lodge said, explaining that the earlier time allows those from other churches to come to the presentation without being pulled away from their own church services. "This gave us a good opportunity for that, it really paid off. Every year has been a blessing, but we have sensed a real anointing this year."
This time the story was told through the eyes of Simon of Cyrene and his sons Rufus and Alexander. Simon was present as Christ was being led to his crucifixion and Rufus and Alexander were later important figures in the spread of the Gospel.
"We get a general idea of where we want to see it from, and [Minister of Music Terry Hooper] gets all the kinds of music that will fit just where we want to go," Pastor Lodge said, "and I get the task of writing a storyline that will tie it all together."
Some of the scenes featured included Jesus healing others, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension.
More than 140 people were involved in the play this year, with duties ranging from acting in the presentation to handling production aspects, or even ironing costumes.
The cast is not limited to the two-legged variety, as a donkey, lamb, and group of alpacas were once again part of the story this year.
All of the hard work and coordination goes into three main objectives, as the primary goal is to introduce the Gospel so that viewers might receive Christ, but the presentation also provides important elements of teaching and inspiration.
"We just try to provide a high quality Easter presentation to the community," Pastor Lodge said. "To us, doing the Passion Play is a picture of the body of Christ. We feel like we have a great responsibility to the community and they respond phenomenally in all kinds of ways."
The pastor explained that the church tries to start its planning earlier and earlier each year, so everyone can spend more time on all aspects of it.
"We haven't decided absolutely for sure yet, but we are leaning towards next year seeing through the eyes of Paul as he is imprisoned," Pastor Lodge said. "That way we could even bring in things from the Roman Epistles."
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Twin Cities Bronze to perform in THIEF RIVER FALLS
On Saturday, April 21, at 7 p.m, Twin Cities Bronze will showcase its unique diversity in challenging secular, sacred and classical music repertoire by playing a fundraising concert at Lincoln High School in Thief River Falls. Tickets will be available for a freewill offering at the door.
Twin Cities Bronze is a performing ensemble specializing in the music and art of English handbells. Selected by annual audition, this 11-member ensemble of advanced ringers hails from the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. As a teaching ensemble at the forefront of the medium of handbells, members travel across the country sharing their knowledge and experience with directors and ringers in churches, schools and community groups. Twin Cities Bronze is recognized for its innovative and comprehensive workshop, Insights Into Artistry, which it will present to Thief River Falls and surrounding communities this fall.
Lincoln High School alumnus Bill Carlson (class of 1986), son of Jim and Donna Carlson (former Corner Drug owners), is in his third year ringing with this internationally acclaimed handbell ensemble. Carlson began ringing handbells in a youth handbell choir at the Thief River Falls United Methodist Church at age 12. Since graduation, he’s been playing with the adult choir at Lake Harriet United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
“My director encouraged me to audition for the ensemble and since I was up for a new challenge, I decided to give it a try. It’s amazing to think this is my third year in the group. Recently, the artistic director for the ensemble asked each of us where we'd like to perform a concert,” said Carlson. “After attending my 20-year reunion last summer, my vote was to bring our musical art to my hometown, especially after the invitation Twin Cities Bronze received last fall.”
Twin Cities Bronze has received a personal invitation to represent the United States at the Passion for Music Festival in Oberammergau, Germany, this June. The festival will be held on the stage of the world-renowned Passion Play and will bring together a variety of musical groups from all across Europe to perform and celebrate in the universal language of music. From the festival brochure: “For the first time in history, the Passion Play Theatre and the city of Oberammergau have opened their doors for a historic music festival.”
This is the first time ensembles and choirs from the United States have been invited to participate in the Oberammergau Passion for Music Festival.
Monica McGowan, artistic director for the ensemble said, “Since we are a nonprofit volunteer group, we rely on donations to make sharing the unique artistry of handbells with musicians and non-musicians a reality. Our own efforts to raise about $30,000 for this trip include numerous concerts and participation in the Centerplate Fundraising Program at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.”
More details on making a donation are available at www.twincitiesbronze.org by clicking on “Oberammergau.”
Twin Cities Bronze is a performing ensemble specializing in the music and art of English handbells. Selected by annual audition, this 11-member ensemble of advanced ringers hails from the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. As a teaching ensemble at the forefront of the medium of handbells, members travel across the country sharing their knowledge and experience with directors and ringers in churches, schools and community groups. Twin Cities Bronze is recognized for its innovative and comprehensive workshop, Insights Into Artistry, which it will present to Thief River Falls and surrounding communities this fall.
Lincoln High School alumnus Bill Carlson (class of 1986), son of Jim and Donna Carlson (former Corner Drug owners), is in his third year ringing with this internationally acclaimed handbell ensemble. Carlson began ringing handbells in a youth handbell choir at the Thief River Falls United Methodist Church at age 12. Since graduation, he’s been playing with the adult choir at Lake Harriet United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
“My director encouraged me to audition for the ensemble and since I was up for a new challenge, I decided to give it a try. It’s amazing to think this is my third year in the group. Recently, the artistic director for the ensemble asked each of us where we'd like to perform a concert,” said Carlson. “After attending my 20-year reunion last summer, my vote was to bring our musical art to my hometown, especially after the invitation Twin Cities Bronze received last fall.”
Twin Cities Bronze has received a personal invitation to represent the United States at the Passion for Music Festival in Oberammergau, Germany, this June. The festival will be held on the stage of the world-renowned Passion Play and will bring together a variety of musical groups from all across Europe to perform and celebrate in the universal language of music. From the festival brochure: “For the first time in history, the Passion Play Theatre and the city of Oberammergau have opened their doors for a historic music festival.”
This is the first time ensembles and choirs from the United States have been invited to participate in the Oberammergau Passion for Music Festival.
Monica McGowan, artistic director for the ensemble said, “Since we are a nonprofit volunteer group, we rely on donations to make sharing the unique artistry of handbells with musicians and non-musicians a reality. Our own efforts to raise about $30,000 for this trip include numerous concerts and participation in the Centerplate Fundraising Program at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.”
More details on making a donation are available at www.twincitiesbronze.org by clicking on “Oberammergau.”
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Troupe finds passion in play
"Crucificalo! Crucificalo!" screamed a group of women.
Two strapping youths hoisted a wooden crucifix onto Garibay's shoulders. He edged off the platform and staggered along the perimeter of the sprawling parking lot, sometimes stumbling beneath the weight of the thick-beamed, 12-foot cross.
Whips cracked. A woman's agonized sobs filled the darkness.
This is the Passion Play, a re-enactment of Christ's brutal last hours. It has riveted believers since its first known production in 1150 continuing to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004. That film reignited the controversy over broadly anti-Semitic elements that have disappeared from most modern versions.
For Jovenes, a young-adult group at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Concord, it is a pure labor of love.
If tonight is like years past, about 600 people will gather in the emptied lot, where chalk lines demarcate the Via Dolorosa.
"The idea is not just the pain," director Monica Iniguez said. "It's the extent of God's love for us, each and every one."
Iniguez held a flashlight over her clipboard as the procession neared its end. Keeping things organized is her toughest challenge, she said.
During the Middle Ages, peasants and tradesmen put on the productions and played the music. Many of the people in Jovenes work long hours and six-day weeks. They can't always make it to rehearsals. But mentally, they suffer no distractions.
"Nobody has taken drama," Iniguez said, pulling a drawstring through a Roman soldier's slatted skirt. "They are all just normal people."
But on Friday, "everybody all of a sudden will be really focused."
Chatting and laughing with the others, Maria Sanchez, 20, in her second year as Mary, held up fabric remnants that make up costumes for the play's townsfolk.
"These are for the people who cry, 'Jesus Christ -- Die! Die!'" she said. Sanchez will wear all black.
How does she feel during the procession?
"Oh my God, I can't explain," she said. "I feel really sad."
Her tears ran during the rehearsal.
This is the first year the group will perform the play live outdoors using remote microphones linked to a sound system.
In the past, the performers mimed to a prerecorded tape. Last year, they performed in the church gym. Their natural voices carried better, but the room quickly filled to capacity, and many had to be turned away.
Garibay, 24, has dreamed of playing the role of Jesus his whole life.
"I love this person," he said with a gentle smile. "The person is me. I've prayed all the time for this."
The Passion Play has moved the faithful to tears for centuries.
The story also uplifts, said Father Brian Joyce of Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill.
"If you don't know the story, it's just the story of an execution," he said. "If you know the story, you know it has a happy ending. The message is, 'even out of this comes hope, comes life,' and that's not a bad lesson."
Two strapping youths hoisted a wooden crucifix onto Garibay's shoulders. He edged off the platform and staggered along the perimeter of the sprawling parking lot, sometimes stumbling beneath the weight of the thick-beamed, 12-foot cross.
Whips cracked. A woman's agonized sobs filled the darkness.
This is the Passion Play, a re-enactment of Christ's brutal last hours. It has riveted believers since its first known production in 1150 continuing to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004. That film reignited the controversy over broadly anti-Semitic elements that have disappeared from most modern versions.
For Jovenes, a young-adult group at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Concord, it is a pure labor of love.
If tonight is like years past, about 600 people will gather in the emptied lot, where chalk lines demarcate the Via Dolorosa.
"The idea is not just the pain," director Monica Iniguez said. "It's the extent of God's love for us, each and every one."
Iniguez held a flashlight over her clipboard as the procession neared its end. Keeping things organized is her toughest challenge, she said.
During the Middle Ages, peasants and tradesmen put on the productions and played the music. Many of the people in Jovenes work long hours and six-day weeks. They can't always make it to rehearsals. But mentally, they suffer no distractions.
"Nobody has taken drama," Iniguez said, pulling a drawstring through a Roman soldier's slatted skirt. "They are all just normal people."
But on Friday, "everybody all of a sudden will be really focused."
Chatting and laughing with the others, Maria Sanchez, 20, in her second year as Mary, held up fabric remnants that make up costumes for the play's townsfolk.
"These are for the people who cry, 'Jesus Christ -- Die! Die!'" she said. Sanchez will wear all black.
How does she feel during the procession?
"Oh my God, I can't explain," she said. "I feel really sad."
Her tears ran during the rehearsal.
This is the first year the group will perform the play live outdoors using remote microphones linked to a sound system.
In the past, the performers mimed to a prerecorded tape. Last year, they performed in the church gym. Their natural voices carried better, but the room quickly filled to capacity, and many had to be turned away.
Garibay, 24, has dreamed of playing the role of Jesus his whole life.
"I love this person," he said with a gentle smile. "The person is me. I've prayed all the time for this."
The Passion Play has moved the faithful to tears for centuries.
The story also uplifts, said Father Brian Joyce of Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill.
"If you don't know the story, it's just the story of an execution," he said. "If you know the story, you know it has a happy ending. The message is, 'even out of this comes hope, comes life,' and that's not a bad lesson."
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Passion Play a modern drama
In the Middle Ages, when the population of Europe was mostly illiterate, the Passion Play was one of the church's most effective tools to teach the story of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Easter.
Brian Schupp plays Jesus on the Cross while Amy Kraft, as his mother Mary, at his feet, comes to console him. The two were involved in the Passion Play, which was put on by 11 local churches all week at the River Church.While the literacy rate has soared in the centuries since the Middle Ages, the Passion Play still works as a way to bring alive the power of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, the centerpiece of the Christian faith.
This week, 11 Durango-area churches joined to present Passion Play (the musical), which was created for this day and time. Modern music and sound effects such as crickets in the Garden of Gethsemane and thunder and lightning at the time of Jesus' death all added a dramatic touch. The play was a labor of love and effort for the more than 60 people in the cast, the seven singers and a large backstage contingent. Organizers and cast hope to make it an annual tradition, as it is in Denver, where it has been performed each year for the last 20 years.
Mike Warnock, who played Judas Iscariot, said that the 12 weeks of rehearsals and the five-day performance schedule had been powerful and grueling emotionally. At Wednesday's performance at the River Church, he said, there wasn't a dry eye in the cast.
"Every night, selling out - my Lord," he said. "I learned that I'm not above the worst of the worst."
The earliest examples of the play date back to the 1200s, and it reached its heyday in Germany during the 15th century.
The most famous Passion Play has been held once a decade in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany since 1634. More than 2,000 residents participate, from performers and musicians to stage technicians. The Oberammergau version features tableaux vivants (actors standing still representing scenes from the Bible) as well as the drama and runs about seven hours.
Durango's Passion Play, while not as graphically specific as Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" film in 2003, did not stint on Christ's suffering. He bled from the scourging and crown of thorns, and was clearly in agony on the Cross. Many young children in the audience were crying or concerned about Jesus being hurt.
Durango's version of the Passion Play also included the quote from Matthew that the blood of Jesus would be on the hands of the Jews and their children.
That quote has been eliminated in Passion Plays put on by Catholics since the Vatican II Council in the 1960s as it was often used as an excuse for anti-Semitism. Biblical scholars say that while Pilate may have pretended reluctance at crucifying Jesus, only he had the power to do so.
In fact, Pilate ordered more than 150 crucifixions during his time as governor of Israel.
Brian Schupp plays Jesus on the Cross while Amy Kraft, as his mother Mary, at his feet, comes to console him. The two were involved in the Passion Play, which was put on by 11 local churches all week at the River Church.While the literacy rate has soared in the centuries since the Middle Ages, the Passion Play still works as a way to bring alive the power of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, the centerpiece of the Christian faith.
This week, 11 Durango-area churches joined to present Passion Play (the musical), which was created for this day and time. Modern music and sound effects such as crickets in the Garden of Gethsemane and thunder and lightning at the time of Jesus' death all added a dramatic touch. The play was a labor of love and effort for the more than 60 people in the cast, the seven singers and a large backstage contingent. Organizers and cast hope to make it an annual tradition, as it is in Denver, where it has been performed each year for the last 20 years.
Mike Warnock, who played Judas Iscariot, said that the 12 weeks of rehearsals and the five-day performance schedule had been powerful and grueling emotionally. At Wednesday's performance at the River Church, he said, there wasn't a dry eye in the cast.
"Every night, selling out - my Lord," he said. "I learned that I'm not above the worst of the worst."
The earliest examples of the play date back to the 1200s, and it reached its heyday in Germany during the 15th century.
The most famous Passion Play has been held once a decade in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany since 1634. More than 2,000 residents participate, from performers and musicians to stage technicians. The Oberammergau version features tableaux vivants (actors standing still representing scenes from the Bible) as well as the drama and runs about seven hours.
Durango's Passion Play, while not as graphically specific as Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" film in 2003, did not stint on Christ's suffering. He bled from the scourging and crown of thorns, and was clearly in agony on the Cross. Many young children in the audience were crying or concerned about Jesus being hurt.
Durango's version of the Passion Play also included the quote from Matthew that the blood of Jesus would be on the hands of the Jews and their children.
That quote has been eliminated in Passion Plays put on by Catholics since the Vatican II Council in the 1960s as it was often used as an excuse for anti-Semitism. Biblical scholars say that while Pilate may have pretended reluctance at crucifying Jesus, only he had the power to do so.
In fact, Pilate ordered more than 150 crucifixions during his time as governor of Israel.
