"It will fill people's souls every time."

As I got to bed somewhere in the silly hours of the morning, this is last night's blog :)

 

Waiting. Standing. Waiting. Sitting. Waiting some more. That about summarised today for the members of the choir. It’s surprisingly tiring to wait around for so many hours – I even resorted to lying down on the bridge in an attempt to nap at one point! But this waiting afforded me the chance to reflect on the effort that has gone and is still going into pageant. And I realised just how much effort is going into this behind the scenes. The lighting, the stage crew, the directors and their assistants (including Beth, our wonderful choir director).

This evening we had our dress rehearsal, which was performed to an audience comprised of those living locally and some from Liverpool. It was a great experience to see it all come together – considering we had only done one full run through previously, it was incredible! The audience were fantastic, speaking to them before and after I know that they had a wonderful experience. As we were greeting them afterwards, I overheard a comment that really sums up pageant; “It will fill people’s souls every time.” That is our goal for pageant, to fill people’s souls, to help them to feel what we feel, and what the early saints must have felt, hearing the gospel for the first time, recognising its truthfulness, and leaving their homes – and in some cases their families.

There is a lot of standing involved for members of the choir, and after awhile you start to ache. But what was great was when we put an arm around each other, without even leaning on each other, somehow the weight lifts. We are all united in this and (without being too cheesy!) we truly are in it together and helping to lift each other.

Tonight the technical guys are staying hours after the cast and choir have gone to bed, to block scenes ready for the first performance tomorrow. Those of us lacking in sense are staying to help out by standing on the stage. Of course it’s late and we’re tired, so the silliness has begun. What is great is the attitude of those here; talking, laughing, joking, and just generally in good spirits. We’ve even been brought sustenance in the form of crisps, apples and chocolates by a lovely lady. The amazing thing is the youth - knowing that they have to get up at 8:30am to continue rehearsing, they willingly volunteered to stay and are in high spirits. What an example to us all!

Having fun with 'Santa' - can you name that tune?!

Oh, and as we were leaving the accommodation centre to head over here, we discovered that someone had left their things behind in the lift. Look familiar anyone?

Red Choir Day 2: Greater than the sum of its parts.

Yesterday Elder Kerr made a comment that only crazy Brits would attempt something like this – today I think we understood more of what he meant! The core cast have been assembled for just over a week, the family cast for 5 days, and the choir for just 2 days. And we open on Wednesday! (Technically our dress rehearsal tomorrow is a performance, but to a limited audience of around 500 – including the youth from the local area). But Elder Kerr also reminded us of the need to have faith, and I know that it will somehow all come together and be amazing.

We began today as a choir by being put into districts – each district has a leader who is asked to look after us throughout the pageant and lead things like Family Home Evening. The rest of the day was taken up with safety guidance, singing, lunch, hairstyle instruction, singing, dinner, FHE, walking to and from the pageant theatre, singing, and finished with a full run through.

Well, we have just finished the run through, and WOW. This pageant is made up of hundreds of people; cast (both family and core), choir, crew…but seeing it all start to come together this evening was a reminder to all that it truly is far greater than the sum of all its parts.

During our district’s family home evening earlier this evening, we discussed the importance of Christ’s atonement, and the knowledge that we are all – every one of us here on this earth – children of our Heavenly Father, who loves each and every one of us as His individual children. I know that as we truly come to know and understand this, the way we treat others changes. None of us are perfect, and we will all make mistakes. But when we remind ourselves that we are each His children, we start to see others the way He would have us see them, and treat them how He would have us treat them. In doing this, we are truly blessed, not only in the way we feel about ourselves and others, but in gaining new friends, and in the way that our testimony grows.

When we finished our run through tonight, we were invited to share some of the things we learned from it. It was great to hear so many different things that were learned during the course of the evening: that you don’t need blood, violence, swearing etc to have an amazing show; that even though there are rough edges in need of smoothing, we could still feel the Spirit; that God is with us – otherwise how on earth would this be possible?! I love the feeling here at pageant, the smiles and laughter and the camaraderie between us. One of my favourite comments was from a child in the cast: “That was EPIC!”

I know that as people come to see this pageant, they will be changed. Perhaps they will see the world a little differently. Perhaps they will have their eyes opened to greater truths. Maybe they will have a greater desire to come to know their Lord and Saviour. However it will happen, it will happen. Because we truly are greater than the sum of our parts, and when we – crazy Brits that we are! - all pull together like this, you cannot help but feel His love.

Red Choir, Day 1

I will hopefully get to post some pictures at a later date, but for now I'm still figuring out how to blog (I'm a first-timer, does it show?!), so please bear with me!

For those of you who haven't yet heard, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is putting on a Pageant this summer, in Chorley, Preston. And I get to be a part of it! If you want to know more about the Pageant itself, have a look at www.britishpageant.org. I'm going to assume that most of you know about it though, and just launch in with my thoughts and musings.
 
Last week I was fortunate enough to be a part of the recording choir (music to be available to download later this week!) and when I got back afterwards I was using words like 'amazing!' 'incredible!' 'brilliant!' to describe it, but in all honesty those words are completely inadequate. In the choir rehearsals so far we have had glimpses into the pageant, brief insights as to what part comes before a song, or what has just happened in the script, but that was all. Last week we were privileged to have the core cast join us for awhile, and run through some parts before we sang. I have to say, I missed several cues as I was so overwhelmed and completely captivated by their parts. We all became a little emotional at seeing this pageant begin to come together in those moments. Recording went on quite a bit later than planned, but I didn't hear one person complain; we were all just happy to be here and grateful to be a part of it.
 
Today is my first day back here in Preston, this time preparing to be part of the live choir, and tonight we prepared (briefly!) to sing at the fireside this evening. At the fireside we heard from Brother Trebilock, Elder Kerr and others. It was wonderful to listen to their inspired words and know that this Pageant is something that will touch hearts and lives for years to come.  

Tomorrow will be a full day for all of us, and we have been told already that the spirit of pageant is change - things can change here on a daily, or even hourly basis! But that is because we are following inspired leaders who listen to the promptings of the Spirit.

As I sat there and listened to the speakers, I was struck with the effort made by so many to take part in this experience. As a teacher, I have the opportunity to be flexible with my summer; I can sort out my classroom and plan lessons in the latter end of the summer and that's not a problem. But many people have taken time off work for this - using their allotted holiday time so that they can be here to take part. Families with young children are here, other singles like myself, and older people too. We're a really mixed bunch! One of the comments I've heard from other cast and choir members is that everyone here seems to be happy. We're all smiling. And I've noticed it too - the moment I arrived, I couldn't seem to stop smiling! The atmosphere, the whole feel to this Pageant is so great that you just can't help but smile. I'm hoping that by sharing a small part of that with you, that you will get a glimpse of the spirit of the pageant before you arrive. And if you are reading this and don't yet have tickets for the Pageant, please get them!