Drama Team on my Mind

Once again, I need to write out some things on my mind . . . if you're not that interested in my brain farts, skim and move on. :)

So, I guess I'm in on this Sunnybrook drama business. I'm officially a member of the "Creative Team" now, that meets every other Thursday to plan the creative aspects of the worship service. And I was now asked to be in a group planning an "open audition" for the drama team in January.

There is, unfortunately, some tension amidst all the powers-that-be concerning the drama ministry. Apparently, the purpose of this open audition is to beef up the team, get more good people. But I fear there are those who suspect that the real purpose is to eliminate some people from the team. Personally, I hope that what it ultimately is used for is to organize the team.

This is all bringing to my mind conversations I had with Marilyn, the music minister at Hope (our church in NJ). Hope and Sunnybrook have very similar music programs -- a handful of worship bands that rotate and play contemporary music. But Marilyn was always adamant that we still needed to have a choir. They didn't sit in a loft or sing every Sunday. But she insisted that it was important to have an "entry-level" place for people to participate in the music ministry who had a passion for doing so but didn't have the skill level to be in a worship band.

I pondered that concept many times. I kept wondering how we could make a similar "entry-level" place for people to participate in the drama ministry. The Sunday morning sketches are akin to a worship band -- high exposure, requiring a high level of skill. You need good actors doing those. But there are many people who love drama and want to participate who aren't up to that skill level. I wanted a place for them.

I'm wondering if Sunnybrook doesn't have such a place ready-made in its Sunday morning kids' program. Every class in "KidZone", as they call it, has a drama each week. That's three or four different "skits" happening every Sunday morning in there. The expectations are much lower, the presentations are much simpler -- actually, in a way, it's a different skill set required to work in there. You need excellent storytelling skills and ad-libbing skills (you never know what's going to happen in a class of 6-year-olds).

I would love to see our whole drama team organized into subgroups: say, the Worship Players, whose focus is the Sunday morning sketches . . the KidZone Players, whose focus is the KidZone dramas . . a Tech Crew, who deals with sets, props, lighting, etc (cuz Sunnybrook does more of that) . . and then maybe a Corps Team, who can't make the time commitment to be on any of the other teams but want to be able to participate when they're available and a role comes up that fits them. There can be overlap -- Kidzone folks can be in Worship sketches sometimes, and vice versa -- but there will be more focus, and everyone will have a better idea of what their expectations are.

Now, how to do this without making people feel that they're being demoted somehow (like in school reading groups -- the bluebirds always feel inferior to the cardinals). Because it really isn't a demotion. And how to present this idea to the powers-that-be without giving the impression I'm trying to take over here . . .

If it's even a good idea at all . . . my brain just runs amok sometimes, you know . . .