The Witness 2016 ~ An Ode to the Life-Giver !
Today is the 28th of March 2016. Monday. Just after the Easter weekend.
I caught myself planning the time to leave home for rehearsals of The Witness musical- which were held for the past many weeks, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6.30 pm onward. When I say onward I really meant "onward"- say, past midnight every time; sometimes until 2.00 in the morning! The past whole week we've been practicing every single day , dress rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday, and then final showdown was on Good Friday and Saturday. What a magnificent weekend it has been! What a magnificent journey- from the beginning of January when we learned our first song for the musical , "He came in Love" until now..until the post-production blues , the "Post-Witness-Blues"I'd call it, have hit all of us in the cast and crew. It has been a good good journey, lead by our Good Good Father.
Like I said, it was one magnificent season in the lives of everyone who took part; not only due to the enthusiasm of creating a grand production, but mainly because we were doing so solely as an act of worship to the One who conquered death, for all of us.
Like Pastor Palitha, the Worship Pastor of People's Church (PCAG) stated in his very brief message during the musical, 90 percent of us did not have "professional experience"of taking part in musical theatre. The performers comprised of the PCAG Worship Team. My family. The best bunch of diverse nutcases combined! :)
We are all hit by the post-production blues right now. And we are assured that this state of mind will go on for a while. However I thought of taking the task of penning down some of the most memorable experiences we've had during the few crazy weeks of the" Witness-practices" . Although the entire experience was undoubtedly the most unforgettable "high"point of these few years, here are a few of those memories that are worth recalling:
1. The exercises: As a choir we were used to the vocal warm ups and breathing exercises lead by our Choir -mamma, Anjie. (Aanjanee Fernando,choir director of PCAG). The real fun began when we started acting exercises with Auntie Tina (our loving Director, Tina Fernando). The best part was trying to keep up with the "many men and their dogs who went to mow a meadow."! Auntie Tina tried our breath-holding capacity up to 12 men one day and wow we ended up gasping for breath and proper breathless-expressions in the end.
My favorite was the Boom-A-Chick-A-Boom. Auntie Tina demanded us to put our ALL into expressing the line in different moods. We realized that the bulk of us were skilled at the "angry mood", than the others! :)
2. The freeze. : Ha! Our cast knows what I'm talking about. We were directed to be "frozen" on stage at Scene 3, til our favorite "Fishers of men"tune was begun by Uncle Ryan (Ryan Jayatunga) who played the role of the Witness, The Apostle Peter. We were asked to be creative and freeze in action after getting on stage during the very brief blackout. However, most of us had found it extremely difficult to stay in one place ,and therefore amidst the many moments of frustration , Auntie Tina and her assistants, gave repeated advice to a weary cast practicing til the wee hours of the morning, of how to "freeze"and un -freeze" ! :)
But praise God, on the days of the final show down, that scene came out really well ! I'm sure auntie Tina sighed with relief from the control booth!:)
3. The Pony: Yep! No one will ever forget the pony, Shoreless, a sweet tamed creature, terrified of all the sound we were making, who represented the "colt" on which Jesus entered Jerusalem. That scene was definitely one of the best moments. Specially when, in the midst all our dancing and singing, entering the auditorium through the audiences, Shoreless decided to do a little "action" from underneath his tail! During the final rehearsals he messed up the entire front of the lower-stage, that we had to have a cast member for disaster-control , who during the two days of the production held a bucket right behind Shoreless as he took his glorious little walk across the auditorium with Kathesh (Kathesh Handy) who played the role of Jesus.
Uncle Ryan nailed it when he hummed, "There is stench in the house of the Lord"; right after Anjie rehearsed her song "There is power in the name of the Lord"as disaster struck during rehearsals! :)
4. The children: Our PCAG kids are truly anointed. So are their teachers , specially Auntie Michelle, Sherry and others who were involved. Throughout the entire season of practices, rehearsals and even the days of the show, they were all just so NICE. Of course there were moments when they just had to be annoying- they were kids anyway- but those moments were very few. They all cooperated with us so well, and did their parts excellently. Most of them were even more enthusiastic than the adults! They gave us so many instances of enjoyment and entertainment, so many "aww"moments - yes even little Yeshalee, the youngest member of the cast, barely 20 months old, did her part flawlessly. It was amazing to see how genuine and humble children's hearts are. There was this one moment when just before Shali (our rock star Shali Fernando who played Judas) rehearsed his "suicidal fall"off stage onto a mattress camouflaged as a huge rock, that a few little ones (barely ten years old) who were seated watching, cried out- "Somebody please pray for Shali- that he won't fall and hurt his neck like yesterday! "
No wonder Jesus told us to come to him with child-like hearts. They are such precious gifts.
5. The Talent: Praise the Lord God for the amazingly talented people He has placed in our midst. From the director Auntie Tina - the star of the season- to the enthralling singers, dancers, actors , backstage crew, organizers and every single person who took part in the production, talent overflowed. Auntie Tina truly brought out the best of us. I don't remember her being rude to us at all. Her soft, motherly nature (which as typical children, we sometimes took for granted!) helped us to produce our skills more effectively than usual. She constantly reminded us that the play was not just any production, but that we are all doing this unto the Lord as an act of Worship. During those weary nights and tiring dawns of strenuous practices, her gentleness encouraged us immensely. We were blessed to work with Javin - who isn't from our Church yet did a wonderful job with the lighting, and Surani and Auntie Kirshanthy who transformed us into different people with those costumes, and "Melo J"who made sure all nitty gritty aspects were under control, simultaneously being cast in the play. Now how could we NOT mention the lady who stole the show by her tremendously skilled presentation of those beautiful sets! Anna Handy! There were times that even we, the cast, were awed by the splendor, and the minute detail she had engraved in each and every set design, while we were on stage. As soon as the opening night was over, we heard more comments on those sets than any other aspect of the show! What would PCAG do without our Auntie Anna :)
Each person who took part in the production did their job to the dot. For example, a big round of applause to Chali Guruswamy who made sure the entire cast and crew were fed and full during the strenuous rehearsals and production days.
6. The trials: It's an obvious fact that one faces many a trial and challenge when one works unto the Lord. God allows these in order for us to completely depend on Him, showing us of our lack of perfection sans His presence, and also to strengthen our character.
Many of us fell sick during the season, including our main man, Senior Pastor Dishan Wickramaratne. Fevers, Headaches, colds, sore throats, kidney issues, bladder problems, stomachaches, exhaustion, heat rashes, dehydration, you name it, we had it all! And the strongest heatwave that has hit Sri Lanka during these past few years was doing its dance across the island (which still continues) which didn't help us either! Not to mention the financial crisis, relationship issues, workplace and educational issues, etc that struck our team during the season. I would like to mention the "dramatic"moment backstage minutes before we took stage on Opening Night when my sister jammed her finger between the door and frame by accident, and due to our concerned helpers shoving me off the scene when I tried to help, ordering me not to look at the injury, causing me to think that my sisters fingers were broken and drove me into fresh tears of fear and sorrow. Only after the show ended I was assured that nothing was broken and it was just a terrible crush. Ah life! :)
However through thick and thin, we prayerfully attended our Odyssey, the team worked around the clock despite all the challenges we faced. We prayed, fasted, worshiped and fought the good fight of faith, individually and collectively. And wow..the result was just indescribably grand!:) - which leads to my next point.
7. The family: As I mentioned above, the greatest thing we treasured throughout this promenade was The Witness Team. Each person who were involved came together as one family to glorify our One Father. I personally have worked with teams for artistic productions before, but none can compare to the oneness God brought all of us The Witness Team into, during this journey. Of course we had our differences and there were so many discrepancies, but through it all we were bound together in a Love that we all knew was true. The Love that we celebrated during the course of the production. The Love that held our Jesus to the cross 2000 years ago. None of us were perfect. I can most assuredly say to you that I was not! I lost my temper a couple of times, I saw a few friends lose their cool with me, I saw some criticizing others, but whatever said and done, at the end of the day we all put our differences aside to stay on course, and that too, with understanding and love. THAT was what was important. That is what God needs from His children. THAT is what the world lacks today, and what we should continue to teach, and show by example.
I trust that I speak for the entire team when I say that we are truly blessed to have one another as family.
8. The presence: Like I mentioned before, The Witness troop had no other intention than Worshiping our Lord God through this production, telling others about the amazing Life Giver who gave us eternal hope. He was our constant Helper and Guide throughout the entire process. God's wisdom, leading and creativity lead the individuals of the team to go beyond "normalcy"and attain excellence in many ways. But what really really gave me a new reason to fall in Love with the Lord was His amazing tangible Presence that held all of us in awe specially during the two days of final presentation. From the time we took stage for the very first song, it was extremely easy to just "live in" the scene, and everyone on stage and off stage were fully focused on their parts. We experienced His presence so strongly, even better than we did at rehearsals, that during the scene of Crucifixion, almost everyone wept for real! During the scene of the Resurrection and the song that followed "The Victor", there was electrified energy on stage, and we all felt it. All the songs we had to sing, were sung with real gusto and we meant every word. The energy was so strong that I remember as we gathered backstage after Good Friday's presentation, everyone was amazed of the "realness"of the whole experience we just had! I even felt it while I drove back home those nights!
Many in the audience, who are not even Christian, have shared how marvelous the play was, as a production, and how fascinating and refreshing the atmosphere became while witnessing it. "We truly felt reverence towards God"they said! Praise Him!
Saturday was even better, for we just knew the Lord would make it so. ! "From glory to glory, from strength to strength"as it is written! :)
These are but only a few "unforgettables" from our adventure of The Witness. This doesn't even include half of all the fun we've had, and all the good/trying times through the unfolding of the production. I'm sure everyone in the team have had various different beautiful experiences;testimonies for God's grace and glory. Please do take some time and share a few of your experiences, Witness-folk, and let's encourage one another.
Overall, The Witness 2016, has been undoubtedly the best experience of my life, personally, so far! It is truly incredible what God can do when we hand the reigns of our lives to Him, collectively, and let Him create beauty through us, His children, His imperfect vessels , solely because He loves us unfailingly.
I await the next time. It might be the same production, it might be a different one. Whatever The Lord's plan would be, "truly I say unto you", it is going to be AWESOME! The best part is, we just KNOW it :)
(c)Anu Madhubhashinie.
Pic (C) PCAG Media. For more pics and information please visit : https://www.facebook.com/peopleschurchonline/?fref=ts
I caught myself planning the time to leave home for rehearsals of The Witness musical- which were held for the past many weeks, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6.30 pm onward. When I say onward I really meant "onward"- say, past midnight every time; sometimes until 2.00 in the morning! The past whole week we've been practicing every single day , dress rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday, and then final showdown was on Good Friday and Saturday. What a magnificent weekend it has been! What a magnificent journey- from the beginning of January when we learned our first song for the musical , "He came in Love" until now..until the post-production blues , the "Post-Witness-Blues"I'd call it, have hit all of us in the cast and crew. It has been a good good journey, lead by our Good Good Father.
Like I said, it was one magnificent season in the lives of everyone who took part; not only due to the enthusiasm of creating a grand production, but mainly because we were doing so solely as an act of worship to the One who conquered death, for all of us.
Like Pastor Palitha, the Worship Pastor of People's Church (PCAG) stated in his very brief message during the musical, 90 percent of us did not have "professional experience"of taking part in musical theatre. The performers comprised of the PCAG Worship Team. My family. The best bunch of diverse nutcases combined! :)
We are all hit by the post-production blues right now. And we are assured that this state of mind will go on for a while. However I thought of taking the task of penning down some of the most memorable experiences we've had during the few crazy weeks of the" Witness-practices" . Although the entire experience was undoubtedly the most unforgettable "high"point of these few years, here are a few of those memories that are worth recalling:
1. The exercises: As a choir we were used to the vocal warm ups and breathing exercises lead by our Choir -mamma, Anjie. (Aanjanee Fernando,choir director of PCAG). The real fun began when we started acting exercises with Auntie Tina (our loving Director, Tina Fernando). The best part was trying to keep up with the "many men and their dogs who went to mow a meadow."! Auntie Tina tried our breath-holding capacity up to 12 men one day and wow we ended up gasping for breath and proper breathless-expressions in the end.
My favorite was the Boom-A-Chick-A-Boom. Auntie Tina demanded us to put our ALL into expressing the line in different moods. We realized that the bulk of us were skilled at the "angry mood", than the others! :)
2. The freeze. : Ha! Our cast knows what I'm talking about. We were directed to be "frozen" on stage at Scene 3, til our favorite "Fishers of men"tune was begun by Uncle Ryan (Ryan Jayatunga) who played the role of the Witness, The Apostle Peter. We were asked to be creative and freeze in action after getting on stage during the very brief blackout. However, most of us had found it extremely difficult to stay in one place ,and therefore amidst the many moments of frustration , Auntie Tina and her assistants, gave repeated advice to a weary cast practicing til the wee hours of the morning, of how to "freeze"and un -freeze" ! :)
But praise God, on the days of the final show down, that scene came out really well ! I'm sure auntie Tina sighed with relief from the control booth!:)
3. The Pony: Yep! No one will ever forget the pony, Shoreless, a sweet tamed creature, terrified of all the sound we were making, who represented the "colt" on which Jesus entered Jerusalem. That scene was definitely one of the best moments. Specially when, in the midst all our dancing and singing, entering the auditorium through the audiences, Shoreless decided to do a little "action" from underneath his tail! During the final rehearsals he messed up the entire front of the lower-stage, that we had to have a cast member for disaster-control , who during the two days of the production held a bucket right behind Shoreless as he took his glorious little walk across the auditorium with Kathesh (Kathesh Handy) who played the role of Jesus.
Uncle Ryan nailed it when he hummed, "There is stench in the house of the Lord"; right after Anjie rehearsed her song "There is power in the name of the Lord"as disaster struck during rehearsals! :)
4. The children: Our PCAG kids are truly anointed. So are their teachers , specially Auntie Michelle, Sherry and others who were involved. Throughout the entire season of practices, rehearsals and even the days of the show, they were all just so NICE. Of course there were moments when they just had to be annoying- they were kids anyway- but those moments were very few. They all cooperated with us so well, and did their parts excellently. Most of them were even more enthusiastic than the adults! They gave us so many instances of enjoyment and entertainment, so many "aww"moments - yes even little Yeshalee, the youngest member of the cast, barely 20 months old, did her part flawlessly. It was amazing to see how genuine and humble children's hearts are. There was this one moment when just before Shali (our rock star Shali Fernando who played Judas) rehearsed his "suicidal fall"off stage onto a mattress camouflaged as a huge rock, that a few little ones (barely ten years old) who were seated watching, cried out- "Somebody please pray for Shali- that he won't fall and hurt his neck like yesterday! "
No wonder Jesus told us to come to him with child-like hearts. They are such precious gifts.
5. The Talent: Praise the Lord God for the amazingly talented people He has placed in our midst. From the director Auntie Tina - the star of the season- to the enthralling singers, dancers, actors , backstage crew, organizers and every single person who took part in the production, talent overflowed. Auntie Tina truly brought out the best of us. I don't remember her being rude to us at all. Her soft, motherly nature (which as typical children, we sometimes took for granted!) helped us to produce our skills more effectively than usual. She constantly reminded us that the play was not just any production, but that we are all doing this unto the Lord as an act of Worship. During those weary nights and tiring dawns of strenuous practices, her gentleness encouraged us immensely. We were blessed to work with Javin - who isn't from our Church yet did a wonderful job with the lighting, and Surani and Auntie Kirshanthy who transformed us into different people with those costumes, and "Melo J"who made sure all nitty gritty aspects were under control, simultaneously being cast in the play. Now how could we NOT mention the lady who stole the show by her tremendously skilled presentation of those beautiful sets! Anna Handy! There were times that even we, the cast, were awed by the splendor, and the minute detail she had engraved in each and every set design, while we were on stage. As soon as the opening night was over, we heard more comments on those sets than any other aspect of the show! What would PCAG do without our Auntie Anna :)
Each person who took part in the production did their job to the dot. For example, a big round of applause to Chali Guruswamy who made sure the entire cast and crew were fed and full during the strenuous rehearsals and production days.
6. The trials: It's an obvious fact that one faces many a trial and challenge when one works unto the Lord. God allows these in order for us to completely depend on Him, showing us of our lack of perfection sans His presence, and also to strengthen our character.
Many of us fell sick during the season, including our main man, Senior Pastor Dishan Wickramaratne. Fevers, Headaches, colds, sore throats, kidney issues, bladder problems, stomachaches, exhaustion, heat rashes, dehydration, you name it, we had it all! And the strongest heatwave that has hit Sri Lanka during these past few years was doing its dance across the island (which still continues) which didn't help us either! Not to mention the financial crisis, relationship issues, workplace and educational issues, etc that struck our team during the season. I would like to mention the "dramatic"moment backstage minutes before we took stage on Opening Night when my sister jammed her finger between the door and frame by accident, and due to our concerned helpers shoving me off the scene when I tried to help, ordering me not to look at the injury, causing me to think that my sisters fingers were broken and drove me into fresh tears of fear and sorrow. Only after the show ended I was assured that nothing was broken and it was just a terrible crush. Ah life! :)
However through thick and thin, we prayerfully attended our Odyssey, the team worked around the clock despite all the challenges we faced. We prayed, fasted, worshiped and fought the good fight of faith, individually and collectively. And wow..the result was just indescribably grand!:) - which leads to my next point.
7. The family: As I mentioned above, the greatest thing we treasured throughout this promenade was The Witness Team. Each person who were involved came together as one family to glorify our One Father. I personally have worked with teams for artistic productions before, but none can compare to the oneness God brought all of us The Witness Team into, during this journey. Of course we had our differences and there were so many discrepancies, but through it all we were bound together in a Love that we all knew was true. The Love that we celebrated during the course of the production. The Love that held our Jesus to the cross 2000 years ago. None of us were perfect. I can most assuredly say to you that I was not! I lost my temper a couple of times, I saw a few friends lose their cool with me, I saw some criticizing others, but whatever said and done, at the end of the day we all put our differences aside to stay on course, and that too, with understanding and love. THAT was what was important. That is what God needs from His children. THAT is what the world lacks today, and what we should continue to teach, and show by example.
I trust that I speak for the entire team when I say that we are truly blessed to have one another as family.
8. The presence: Like I mentioned before, The Witness troop had no other intention than Worshiping our Lord God through this production, telling others about the amazing Life Giver who gave us eternal hope. He was our constant Helper and Guide throughout the entire process. God's wisdom, leading and creativity lead the individuals of the team to go beyond "normalcy"and attain excellence in many ways. But what really really gave me a new reason to fall in Love with the Lord was His amazing tangible Presence that held all of us in awe specially during the two days of final presentation. From the time we took stage for the very first song, it was extremely easy to just "live in" the scene, and everyone on stage and off stage were fully focused on their parts. We experienced His presence so strongly, even better than we did at rehearsals, that during the scene of Crucifixion, almost everyone wept for real! During the scene of the Resurrection and the song that followed "The Victor", there was electrified energy on stage, and we all felt it. All the songs we had to sing, were sung with real gusto and we meant every word. The energy was so strong that I remember as we gathered backstage after Good Friday's presentation, everyone was amazed of the "realness"of the whole experience we just had! I even felt it while I drove back home those nights!
Many in the audience, who are not even Christian, have shared how marvelous the play was, as a production, and how fascinating and refreshing the atmosphere became while witnessing it. "We truly felt reverence towards God"they said! Praise Him!
Saturday was even better, for we just knew the Lord would make it so. ! "From glory to glory, from strength to strength"as it is written! :)
These are but only a few "unforgettables" from our adventure of The Witness. This doesn't even include half of all the fun we've had, and all the good/trying times through the unfolding of the production. I'm sure everyone in the team have had various different beautiful experiences;testimonies for God's grace and glory. Please do take some time and share a few of your experiences, Witness-folk, and let's encourage one another.
Overall, The Witness 2016, has been undoubtedly the best experience of my life, personally, so far! It is truly incredible what God can do when we hand the reigns of our lives to Him, collectively, and let Him create beauty through us, His children, His imperfect vessels , solely because He loves us unfailingly.
I await the next time. It might be the same production, it might be a different one. Whatever The Lord's plan would be, "truly I say unto you", it is going to be AWESOME! The best part is, we just KNOW it :)
(c)Anu Madhubhashinie.
Pic (C) PCAG Media. For more pics and information please visit : https://www.facebook.com/peopleschurchonline/?fref=ts
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