Exhausted.  Frustrated.  Hopeful.

We just got back from our practice tonight.  NO JOKE.  We logged in about five hours since our 6:30pm meeting time.  The 13 of us were scattered among the tables and floors in these last minutes, listening and straining to make note of Marvin's last comments on the "Frog Prince" performances.  It all can seem a blur when its late and you want to go get rest, but we pushed forward together - confident that things would come together sooner or later.

I wished I felt so confident.

We did our first official run-through of "Lions" and while the first four scenes held up decently, the fifth act collapsed like a deck of cards.  The dialogue between Edwin and my characters' was quite extensive and dense in storytelling.  So when one line was skipped, it was hard to recover and continue.  I ended up needing more line checks than I expected and it was painful to hear what you're supposed to say all along.  Needless to say, both of us were frustrated.  Marvin was gracious enough to add his comments and work with us to capture the emotions of the scene.  But there was still work to be done and I'm feeling the pressure.

Please keep us in prayers to nail down these lines and make for a good finale in "Lions".

I am scared.

I am not giving up.

God, empower me to press on and get it done right.

So we had nothing really scheduled for today, leaving it open for another practice.  But Marvin preferred that we make the most of the this rest day by doing something else to get us as ease.


So some of us went bowling...

...and I owned everyone.

Nonetheless, we had fun together on our day off.

That's what counts. =)

We just finished our second weekday of rehearsals and things are moving along steadily.

We just wrapped blocking today for "Lions" and are getting through "Frog Prince" one scene at a time.

Last Friday, three of our team members scouted out the places we are serving in the South Bay, and were able to confirm logistics as well as check out our performing areas.

The rest of the non-traveling AOW cast is busy planning out our special night on August 21st, where we will perform our pieces exclusively for our prayer supporters and have a community night of worship/prayer/sharing/sendoff on this missions He is calling us to go.

So if you don't know what "blocking" means, it's basically determining actors' positions and movements on-stage.  During rehearsal, the director would guide the actors to where they need to move in each scene and in relation to their dialogue. This is important not just for the audience to see the actor speaking, but also for dramatic effect too. A character who is scheming a plan, for example, might need to slowly pace back and forth on stage to really show he is thinking.  On the other hand, a character who just got asked on a date might enter the scene in a wavy, dancing way meant to show her joy.

Acting is not just with the voice, but with the whole self.  After all, it would be a pretty boring play if the actors just said their lines but there's no physical acting with it! =)

Quick Prayer Request:  We found that "The Frog Prince" is our hardest piece to perform on this trip.  Not only does it have several characters on stage at once, but also our performing areas will be quite small (i.e. children's hospital play room is the size of a small classroom).  In a nutshell, it's a blocking nightmare.  In addition, we will be performing in front of children - our hardest audience to minister and reach.
Please pray for this one-act play - that Marvin may efficiently direct us and our cast members would work hard to make this experience come alive for the kids.


On a high note, in the midst of heavy rehearsal, Marvin's wife Lisa came with a special treat for us:

Bread pudding.  Yum.

May the craziness continue...=)

All four scripts for the Sunday sketches at Palos Verdes Baptist Church (PVBC) are completed and casted.  (the titles are in the post title, in case you haven't guessed it yet...or are confused as heck).

As said before, each of the traveling team members has a acting part (even Marvin's daughter!).  HOORAH!

Now is just a matter of running lines with our scene partners, working on blocking (will explain that in a later post), and constantly refining our performances until they are solid as gold.

Starting this Sunday...let the craziness begin. =)

It's the first day of August, and that means it's "AOW month".  The clock is ticking - exactly 3 weeks before heading out.  If we are not busy with work/school/church/vacation, we are memorizing lines (I have the most lines in "Lions").  If we are not memorizing lines, we are rehearsing them.  If none of those, we are just doing something to add to our preparation.

We still need to plan for the interactive workshops we will host for Bread of Life youth as well as the children's hospital and Palos Verdes Baptist Church.  A service project is still in the works and we still looking for an opportunity to help serve the community.

Points of Prayer:

• Last few supporters - A handful of new partners have just responded.  A dear friend from Africa has even committed to pray for us!  So amazing in how God blesses us with senders everywhere.  I'm simply overwhelmed and joyful by the response.  Please continue to pray for Him to send his last few as the time gets closer.
  
• Rehearsals - Starting in over a week, we meet 4-5 days, most around 6:30pm for 3 hours/night (check calendar above).  Some will be coming straight from work (e.g. myself, Marvin) while others will be coming from summer school or home.  Please pray for energy, cooperation and overall good team spirit to worship together with this art.
• Final writing session - A group of us will meet for the last time Tuesday night @ Marvin's office to polish the Sunday sketch scripts.  Please pray for guidance in finishing the writing process so we may begin the acting/directing process -  a whole different ballgame.
  
  

Thanks and my hopes you are each doing well going into this last month of summer. (I still can't believe it!)

The creative process for the Sunday skit is underway and kicking.

The last leg of our missions trip will be in Palos Verdes Baptist Church on Sunday, August 24th.  We are scheduled to perform a skit that morning to assist the pastor in his sermon.  We were only told that the church's Mexico missions team will be sharing their trip with the congregation and the pastor was still meditating over the message he would speak that morning.  No worries, since we have been able to create with much less information in the past.

After a quick dinner over the usual Italian and veggies, our usual suspects + Chao got to work.  It always starts with a brainstorm of ideas from everyone.  This can be either really fun or frustrating (go read about our Easter skit) to see what would work.  Myths of missions seemed to strike a chord in all our heads and we went with it.   We started listing out such myths and grouping them into separate issues we can address. 

Then came the really fun part of creating the storyline through improvisation.  We don't do it very often, but the scenes in this skit were short and interesting enough to warrant it.  We paired off, with each acting couple creating two completely different scenes on the spot.  Absolutely nothing prepared - only a situation and maybe a setting.  You and your acting partner just start bouncing dialogue off each other.  It doesn't matter what you guys talk about - the key is to keep moving the scene forward with each others' dialogue.  Think of your partner as your prop - the more you invite them to shine, the stronger you get (and vice versa).


If both actors listen and respond well to each other, the result can be ideas you never thought of before, possible story lines, and sometimes, even whole scripts - just from having that freedom to create your own world together.  Remember, there is nothing to improvise unless you have someone to improvise with.  It's a team effort.


Sure enough, storylines were drawn for two-and-a-half situations, but not without some laughs.  Chao came up with the most ridiculous lines in his scene with Latt that left all of us cracking up.  Even Marvin caused me to break character when we were acting out our very first scene.  The beauty of improv - never knowing what would happen next. =)

After sitting down to write out our script and add more elements to it (dialogue, character depth), it was 9:30 and two draft scripts were on the table.  Two more to go for this coming week....


One fun tidbit:  our entire cast of nine will be in it!  Such a rarity for an AOW sketch, but hey...it's usually two to three actors per scene and the math works among us nine, so why not?  More the merrier, as one would say. =)

One thing that really annoys the ______ (feel free to fill in your choice words) out of me about Costco is how you can phone in your order but have to wait 728 years in the long lines only to turn in your money and go to the pick-up window to grab your food that's chilling in the corner.  Why can't people pay at the pick-up window??  FAILURE.

I was about 15 minutes late for our meeting (no thanks to a certain store).  Not a good way to make an entrance, but when you have food in your hands to dispense, most people tend to treat you with a little more respect, especially when its being served.  Soon, they even forget you were late and it's all good from there.

Guess Shawn disagrees....

For our Friday night performance @ Bread of Life church, we decided to go back to performing "I'm Going to Order a Lion", an insightful, humorous piece by Earl Reimer that examines the clashing of marriage and religious values in a contemporary college setting (whew, that was long).  It was AOW's first full, stand-alone performance back in August of 2005 and I believe the major change that footprinted this ministry into CEFC.

We did some preliminary casting before discussing another one-act piece to perform for the Boys-and-Girls' Club and the children's hospital.  The tricky thing was it cannot be a Christian-theme performance, mainly because we were in the open public and need to respect the beliefs of others.  Marvin brought two script possibilities: The Frog Prince and Choosing Sides for Basketball.  Roles were quickly (almost randomly) assigned and we did a cold-reading through the entire 30+ page script.  A cute, wonderful piece that would reach the kids for sure.

Lastly, there came the tightrope issue of City to City.  Latt, Adam, Rebecca, and I couldn't find time to meet in the past few weeks to come up with a concept, let alone a script.  We were already committed to CtC to have a skit, but AOW needed to see what we have to work with before going any further.

We had nothing.  Panic time. 

By God's blessing (and the wonders of Google), I stumbled upon a copyright-free script off another church site that dealt with the idea of unity and how certain differences between churches can erode that.  At this point, it was something than nothing for us.  We did another cold-reading, and thankfully everyone liked the idea and the project is a go-ahead.  The script will need to be re-written to fit our youth audience.  Not a big deal, since the main storyline was there and it was just examples and dialogue that needed to be changed.  Just takes a couple hours, but that's for another day.

Like tomorrow. =)