I See Drama People

Heir Force Room Drama: Jackie, Kasie, Johnny J, and John Mc. directed by Phil
Penguin Room Drama: Sherry, Janet, and Judy directed by Sherry
with Dalene multi-tasking at check-in and Paul greeting us at the door!
Congrats to Judy, Kasie, and Johnny for great performances on their first serve oppportunities with the OPA drama team!

What a great weekend! Awesome job, everyone!

Turning Point Dramas For Kids

The turning point dramas for kids have ended their run. Special thanks to the following volunteers for their great performances: Hannah Brooks, Brad Miller, Josh Hoeft, Janell Martin, Tom Templin, Larry Richey, and John Kabzinski. Great job, everyone! We heard some amazing stories about how this is really changing the lives of kids. Thanks for playing a part in bringing some up there down here to a great group of kids!

"Observation" part one

The slide show above is what I "observe" when my daughter has too much sugar . . . : )

p.97-106

So, we're moving forward and starting Ch. 5 on "observation". This is a fun skill to talk about. Basically, you are surrounded by real "characters" everywhere you go! This chapter talks about exercising your mind to be a little more observant of yourself and your surroundings so we can create more convincing characters on the stage. We are constantly trying to find new ways to express the same things. We are continually striving to create original moments on the stage that are unexpected but make sense. Observation is a great tool for this.

In the book, the student and Boleslavsky meet the student's aunt for tea. The aunt has some pretty strong feelings about drama and her neice's talent. To prove his point, Richie leads her in a game of observation, and she feels a little befuddled and tricked. Her neice models the excellence of observation as she re-enacts her aunts movements and mannerisms to a "tea" (pun intended).

What struck you about this scene?

What actions have you observed in others this week that surprised you but made sense?

Sad News from Heather and John Novak

Please keep Heather and John in your prayers. Here's an e-mail I received from Heather.

"I am just forwarding John's email to his colleagues & friends...he covered everything well. May I add that we are grateful for such great friends & family...and God's love throughout this time. I am ridiculously blessed with this amazing husband....everything is better with him.Hello Everyone,
I never did make a formal announcement of Heather and I expecting, although I did post some things on Facebook to indicate the pregnancy. Unfortunately, Heather and I had some very sad news when we went in for the second prenatal last week. We didn’t hear a heartbeat, and it was confirmed by a couple of ultrasounds. The pregnancy measured only 7 weeks along, but Heather’s body continued to grow to 11 weeks. The doctor preformed a procedure yesterday to make certain she was OK after the miscarriage passed.

I’ll spare you further details, but needless to say we are quite sad about it. We’ve had a number of days to mourn the loss, so we are doing pretty good now considering. Heather is staying home one more day, and she’ll try resuming work tomorrow. I’d been with her almost constantly over the past 5 days. We’ve found some peace, and we are talking about trying again. In another week, we will have been married a year, and we have so much to be thankful for.

Please know we feel very blessed to have such good friends and family to share both happiness and sadness with, and our refrigerator has been holding the manifestation of that love over the last several days along with several flower vases. We appreciate any thoughts and/or prayers. If you feel you want to do something more, I’d encourage you to look into the March of Dimes (http://www.marchofdimes.com/). Thanks.

John"

Wow . . . what a meeting!

We had an incredible meeting last night. We started off by brainstorming some possible series topics and drama elements and we came up with some amazing ideas that will definitely go in the "hopper" (whatever that means) to be used. Mark Meyer also had a great suggestion to produce our own art for youtube (or sermon spice as Steph suggested) so we can keep producing great art for the kingdom beyond the bounds of the big ideas given for weekend services. What a great way to continually stretch ourselves as artists! We'll talk more about that later!

We moved on to another amazing part of the evening, the characterization monologues! Janet performed as "me" retelling my story of the night my father-in-law passed away. She completely captured the story and "me" as a character as well as working really hard not to nod as much as she does in her natural character. Steph performed a hilarious conversation that Janet once had with her daughter about "appropriate clothing"and added a few nods and Janetisms to add to the authenticity. Sherry's monologue from Diana's viewpoint was compelling and thoughtful. Sherry altered her posture and motions and it was like watch Sherry paint a clear portrait of Diana right before our eyes. Phil slowed his tempo a bit as he delivered Dave's soothing storytelling style when he talked about a turning point in his faith journey. And Dave in turn sped up his delivery and captured Phil's no nonsense sincerity in a great story about his grandmother and learning to trust God. Lisa didn't tell us who was her partner at first but it didn't take us long to see Becky appear before our eyes as she retold an incident with "officer handsome" and a near speeding ticket. I increased my energy level a bit to capture Steph's hystericl true story about how someone actually tried to steal her prize cake. John M. captured a memory from Jon C.'s school days adding layers of Jon's spirit and delivery style that drew us all in. In turn, Jon C. captivated us as he presented the beginning of John <.c faith journey as he visited various churches with his beloved Aunt. I still can clearly picture her in my mind and see John sitting on the Cleveland buses! Paul's monologue from Kyle's point of view offered a huge range of emotions from the hilarious humor at the beginning to the transparent honesty of his worries about being a father. Paul revealed many of Kyle's quirky mannerisms that truly make him whole as a human being, which is what this particular exercise in characterization was all about!

Great job, everyone! Our next step is to read the chapter on "Observation". Be on the look out for the dialog throughout the chapter that we will hold here and for someone different from you that you can observe for the exercise. See you March 24th!

Idea Brainstorm Tonight

At GCC, we usually cover some of the same general topics from year to year. Some of which are:
parenting
marriage
work
purpose
salvation
focus on five (read your bible, serve, friends, invest/invite, the next step)
temptation/desires
money
summer series
Easter
Christmas

Tonight we will brainstorm some possible series ideas as well as specific drama elements or characters you think would be great in a weekend service. Anything from this past year that you thought worked or didn't work? Why? Any impressions or roles you've been itching to use? Anything off the wall from our normal programming that might catch that seeker who's been on the fence? Bring all your great ideas to the meeting tonight. See you then!

Angie Henry Needs a Babysitter

Angie Henry (vocalist and counseor extroadinaire) is in need of a part-time baby-sitter, and I told her I would post here to see if any of you might know of someone. Here's the basic info. from Angie"

T/Th's 2-4:30p.m. and periodically, and half of any other morning that works for them (babysitter), but preferablly W.
At the end of May, when schools let out, it turns to T/Th 9-4:30p.m.
It's always $10.00/hr of tax free money.
They have to be able to drive and love little boys!!! (7,5,and 4).