Yesterday I took a bus trip up to Lexington, SC, with a group from my sister’s church, to see the Christmas drama “This Man Called Jesus”. I do believe it is the best drama that I have ever seen produced by a local congregation. The staging, costumes, lighting, and sound effects were amazing. The actors/actresses were obviously not professionals but they did an excellent job. They had a cast and crew of over 400 people of all ages–from the very young (the infant Jesus) to the very old (not sure how old the oldest person was). If you have a Friday night, Saturday afternoon & evening, or a Sunday afternoon and evening free between now and Dec. 21, I would recommend you make the trip. It truly is a wonderful way to remind you of the true meaning of Christmas. Even if you don’t need reminding, it is worth it! The drive took us between 1 1/2 to 2 hours on a big bus. We arrived 2 hours before the 2:30 performance and there were already other tour buses there! You definitely want to arrive early if you decide to go. If you enjoy dramas….you’d love this one. Words cannot even describe the staging they have….and they wouldn’t allow us to take pictures during the performance. They even use live animals in the drama. There was a camel (see picture below), a horse, a donkey (of course), sheep, goats, and doves. There was a scene of the last supper and when the lights were brought up on that scene, the actors were “frozen” and it actually looked like the painting. I’m telling you—they do an awesome job presenting the life of Jesus in this drama.
Now, if you are reading this and you have young children and are thinking, “This would be something great to do with the kids!”, you might want to wait until they are a little older. The scene depicting the crucifixion is quite graphic and includes loud rumbling sounds and lightening flashes. (Not to mention the screaming that accompanies the whipping.) The lights go out between scenes, so if you have a child afraid in the dark, they might not like this.
The church has a website set up specifically for the drama: www.ThisManCalledJesus.org You can go to the website and see pictures and get dates, times, and location information. For those of you that don’t live in the CSRA, you can find out how to get there from where you live. There were folks there from all over the country.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful season as we focus of the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The camel drinking from a Mountain Dew bottle after his performance.
The camel with his head higher...I guess to get that last drop!
