Hello Dolly Chorus, April 20

Hello Dolly Chorus.jpg
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

Can you find Tyler in olive green and tweed? I was one proud stage mom to see that my kid can sing and dance if he puts his mind to it. The show didn't turn out half bad as you can see! A few more photos posted on flickr (see badge on sidebar).

The Mirror Exercise

TO all my students who've had to do the mirror exercise, here's a way you can use your skills!

The Pageant of Our LORD

A concert with life-sized re-creations of great works of Art depicting the life of Jesus Christ.

I think it was 17 years ago, in 1991, that this Pageant became a big part of my life. It had already become an institution at the church where Jim and I started our married life in ministry in 1985, but 1991 was the year I got involved helping put the show together. That year it became a huge part of what shaped me as a leader, writer, director, artist. It's something that offered growth like nothing before our since in this calling of mine to use theatre as ministry.

Jump forward to Easter, 2008, and it's been 10 years since I've seen the production, let alone be a vital part of the production that engages more than 300 volunteers every year. I almost missed it again on this year that we're back in USA. Caught up in our "home assignment" lives in Pasadena, an hour north of Rolling Hills Estates, CA, it wasn't until the Holy Week that I got the family jets revved enough to get us all fed and out of the house and down the 110 freeway to stay out late on a school night. Without tickets, not knowing if we'd make it in time.

We arrived just in time to see Joan Benkoil walking away from the box office and tell her about our spontenaneous outing. She lead us, like VIP's, to an usher and had him seat us in empty seats in the back left of the house. When we were seated we realized we were surrounded by a group of Junior High kids. "DC Groups" were attending that night, in place of their regular Wednesday night activity.

We were glad to have done such an impulsive thing. Glad to have worshipped and commemorated the life, death and resurrection of Christ with this classy and classical tradition. Glad for our young boys' sakes, to let them see this important part of the church where their dad had been a pastor for 12 years, in the church where both of them were dedicated as babies, in the church that sent us and partially supports our work in Asia. We needed to see the Pageant. All of us were glad we did. Admittedly, the boys did a small amount of eye rolling at the music choices or soloists...at least they were better behaved than the preteens surrounding us.

Now, what got me writing about the Pageant tonight is that I'm supposed to write reports on music concerts for MUSIC 10 at Pasadena City College. This is one of the small (ahem!) hoops I have to jump through in order to take private voice lessons this term. I felt it was perhaps my last shot at getting some great specialized coaching while here in USA and the fee of $27 for the 1 unit lesson drew me in at first. Then I realized after passing the audition, that in order to take that 1 unit, which requires 5 hours of practice time a week, students must also take MUSIC 9 - a class to practice performing in front of your Music Major peers, another 1 unit. Then you must join one of the performance gruops, I'm in Vocal Jazz Ensemble now - and scrambling to memorize 4 song before next Monday when we'll be tested in quartets; another unit. PLUS attend all the campus concerts at noon on Thursdays. This is MUSIC 10. It also requires attending and writing about outside performances as well.

So, you see, what I thought was going to be a little moonlighting as a wannabe jazz singer has become my full time occupation this Spring. I had also signed up for the 1/2 credit music theory course, thinking that this might be my last chance to see if at 46 I am truly a hopeless case about becoming a REAL musician. Maybe not! I'm determined, and I've got 9 more weeks on the music lab computers to find out.

But tonight, as I sit looking over the program again, it's still early in the semester to be writing erudite comments about live classical pieces I heard in a concert. Nope. As I listen to the comments of other students in my MUSIC 9 class, or the chatter outside practice rooms in the music lab, I feel that in this music world I'm peddaling my little tricycle on the autobahn.

I've seen and heard all of the pieces from this Easter Pageant concert/show dozens of times in the past, and all I can come up with for a musical commentary is to say something about how they make me feel, or whether the lyrics or the mood of the piece fit the transition between art pieces or fit well with the art they underscored. The most striking aspect of the entire evening, musically or otherwise, was that after all these years NOTHING seemed new.

Granted, they are still asking every night who is seeing the program for the first time and around 300 people will raise their hands, so, for them it is new. There is also something comforting in having the old standards of A Mighty Fortress for the sculpture of Michael Casting Satan into Hell; or the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah for the resurrection piece at the end. I will never ever get tired of Bach's Air for Michaelangelo's Pieta. These pieces are so perfect and well loved, to change them would be like not having pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

The evening was a "warm fuzzy" night for Jim and I. We always are so encouraged by the love poured out to us when we visit. I nearly cried seeing so many familiar faces (and bodies --covered in all colours of makeup!) greeting us backstage during intermission. We love the people. We love this aging church where this hallmark Pageant of Our Lord continues to have mass appeal as an outing for Retirement Centers. however, as I sat amongst a gaggle of unengaged youth watching the massive choir of mostly grey hairs, I started feeling discouraged about the relevance and vibrancy of the church for feeding the next generation's spiritual lives.

But I am not hopeless about this. Being in the music department of Pasadena City College, listening to 18 year olds sing classical art songs they are obviously passionate about gives me hope. This reminds me that I'm merely an appreciator, not a lover, of classical music, and there are others - even YOUNG others - who are passionate about classical music. Despite my children's lack of excitement about the music, and the rowdy Junior Highers who sat around us for this program, I don't have to become cynical or sad about the traditions my church has become ensconced in. Why? Because some of my young classmates at PCC would have wept instead of wiggled through the Pageant of Our LORD.