No matter what you think of Easter, it is a holiday that is celebrated everywhere you look. From Easter parties in classrooms at school, to pictures made with the Easter bunny, to area churches all across the world holding special Easter events! This year, for Easter, my congregation is joined by members of multiple other congregations in the community to present a contemporary Easter musical titled "Tell Me the Story."
With permission from the director of the show, I have decided to do a series of blogs leading up to the weekend of the show. For this is not just a Southwest event. Nor should the experience solely belong to those who are involved in the musical itself. There is room for all in our family, the body of Christ, to see and enjoy what is going on behind the scenes. Some of you reading this have never seen the show at all, so WARNING-this blog will tell a little bit about the characters, or specific scenes, and some of the songs within the musical will be revealed. But there will be no spoiler to what happens in the end of the show. So if you want to be a part of this story, I encourage you to keep reading. And know that whether you are BEHIND the curtain, or IN FRONT of it...you are every bit as a part of the telling of this Story, as we are.
Today's post is going to come from an experience I literally just had while sitting on my couch, preparing for something. See, I am a drama and musical theater teacher at the local theater here and the first week of May we will be holding our Spring Showcase-where all classes (from drama to art to dance) get to showcase what they have been learning all semester. I have 5 classes this semester, 4 of which will be performing. I have 3 levels of musical theater, and today I was presented the task of trying to figure out what number my Musical Theater 2 class is going to perform for the showcase. Weeks of research and evaluation of what the kids can do, has lead me to the number "What is this Feeling? (Loathing)" from the hit Broadway musical, WICKED.
I was on YouTube, watching videos for Loathing, when of course, I got side tracked. I began watching anything WICKED I could find on YouTube, most of the clips being absolutely hysterical. I couldn't stop watching. Then, I came to one titled "Kristen's last performance of For Good." For those of you unfamiliar with the show, there is a song at the end where the two friends must part ways and they sing this song to each other in which the lyrics sing "because I knew you I have been changed for good." Well, this particular video was Kristin Chenewith's very last performance. She was the originator of the part, Glinda.
Needless to say, while singing this song with her friend Elphaba (played by Idina Menzel), she gets extremely emotional, for this is the very last time she will sing with her this song. They workshopped the musical and originated their parts for many years before the show ever came out on Broadway, so this performance shows the emotion of years of dancing and laughing and crying, and costumes and makeup, and travel, and talk shows, and loss and gain and so much more-wrapped up into a performance of a song where two best friends must say goodbye to each other once and for all.
Listening to the two amazing actor's get choked up and barely make it through the performance brought tears to my eyes. It's beyond difficult I'm certain, having to say goodbye to someone you love that much. Someone who has taught you so much about yourself. Someone who loved you not because of what you do but because of who you are. Someone who unconditionally loved you and was always there for you. Someone, who potentially, saved your life.
So what does this have to do with our Easter musical, you might be wondering? The song "For Good" from Wicked, is in this show, Tell Me the Story. Like Wicked, it is sung by two women, but not to each other. Instead, they are singing it to their Savior-Jesus. The two women are found in the Gospels Mark and John. One, the woman who's faith is so strong she knows that touching even just the hem of Christ's robe will heal her. The second woman, from John, who has been caught in adultery-could have been stoned to death had it not been for Jesus and his grace. Both of these women encounter Christ in a holy and powerful way, and it forever changes them.
I don't believe that you can truly encounter Christ, and walk away unchanged. The women in WICKED sing about a friendship that has impacted their lives, and are grieving the loss of that friend's presence in their life. The women in Tell Me the Story, sing about a LOVE that has impacted their lives forever as well. But instead of grieving loss, they are rejoicing at their GAIN.
The song, "For Good", is powerful on so many levels. After hearing the song and performing the number and loving the show for so many years, it still has not lost any of it's meaning or power. However, being in the Tell Me the Story musical, has in fact changed the meaning of the song for me. When I sing it in my car now or playing around in my room, I picture Jesus, and what His presence has done in my life. And how His love and grace has changed me, FOR GOOD.
If you have never heard the song, I encourage you to YouTube it-and take part in this special moment with me during the show. I hope all who read this find themselves in downtown Jonesboro at the Forum Theater Easter weekend, prepared to see the story that changes EVERYTHING. You will NOT leave that place, unchanged.
April 6th at 7pm. April 7th at 2pm and 7pm. ADMISSION IS FREE.
