Thursday 25 July 2013

British Pageant Red Cast Day 1

Well that was an amazing day!
photo.JPG
My day to day life is generally full of spreadsheets, mathematical models and studying. I have also spent the last ten years being surrounded by fellow maths geeks. The combination of these things have meant that I don't really have much of an appreciation for the performing arts or indeed possess any actual skills in doing this kind of stuff.  As part of our application to the Pageant I admitted that our family didn't have any obvious skills to being part of such a production but at a minimum I promised that we would be enthusiastic, thankfully this seemed to be enough.
Today I have been absolutely blown away by the skills and talents of so many people who are part of the pageant. From the core cast who ran through the whole pageant performance tonight and were excellent, to the choreographers who, in a few hours, managed to get around 120 people to complete a dance routine. The artists who created the Preston Skyline on the stage, and the music directors in just a short hour even seemed to get us singing in tune, which was particularly tricky given one of the songs is in Welsh! I was also impressed with the Director of the pageant, who not only seemed comfortable organising 100+ people, but was able to do so while feeding her baby!
In looking around at so many talented individuals, it is very easy for me to feel out of my depth. I consider myself retired from "show business" after three performance as Naphtali (or brother number four) in Dundee Stake's production of Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat, when I was 16. However at this morning's induction, we were reminded that this wasn't really show business, but that we had been set apart as missionaries to share an important message with everyone who was going to come.
Now this is something that I can handle, spending two years in France as a missionary I understood the idea of being an instrument in helping people become closer to Jesus Christ and that there were many ways to do this. As a family cast member, I feel my main role is to help set the scenes that will assist the core cast deliver the message of the early British saints, this will add to the feeling and the spirit of the show giving visitors a powerful experience. It is a privilege to be able to serve in this way, and if all that is required from me is to walk across the stage a few times looking like I live in the 1840's then I will do it with all the enthusiasm I have!

No comments:

Post a Comment