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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Young performers prepare for annual show
Published June 18, 2009
Children at Emanuel’s Lutheran Church are giving a new twist to an old story.
Tom Engler, director of music and worship, is guiding the church’s 12th Annual Summer Musical for Young People to be preformed Sunday, June 21 at 9:15 a.m. The performance gives kids an opportunity to learn about God through a different medium.
“It’s a Fathers’ Day gift we give every year,” Engler said. “It has been very successful in the past years.”
This year’s story, “It’s Cool In The Furnace,” is based on the tale of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the Old Testament book of Daniel.
The story takes place about a thousand years before the birth of Jesus, when three Hebrew boys — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — were being held as captives by King Nebuchadnezzar, the king who ruled over Babylon. Because the three refused to worship the large idol that the king built, he had them thrown into a furnace. With the protection of God, all three left the furnace untouched, teaching the king that God protects those who believe in him.
“It’s the 35th anniversary of the play,” Engler said. “It has been around a long time, but this is a new addition.”
Gaining collaborated efforts, Engler said the participants of the show come from several different churches and age groups.
“There are children here from five different church congregations from Seguin and New Braunfels,” he said. “The children performing finishing first grade to finishing seventh grade.”
Although there are only five main characters, Engler found spots for all nine actors.
He divided the kids into three groups of three to depict the three boys who call themselves “the rappers.”
Three of them have taken on two speaking roles.
Portraying the king on the stage, Dylan Hammons said his character has rage issues that keep him in an constant state of anger, but the play carries a good message.
“It’s trying to tell you if you believe in God you can do anything,” Dylan said.
The role of Daniel was split into two characters, part of the role went to Ben Stevens.
“Daniel is kind of the narrator,” Ben said of the role he shares with Madison Clark.
Madison said that while Ben’s part of the role is of Daniel, her’s is Daniella.
Third-year camper, Mia Ramirez, said the play is full of energy and gives a person something to ponder when the leave.
“One of the songs, ‘It pays to remember’, makes you stop and think before you are about to do something bad and to think it through,” she said.
Engler said the summer youth program was created to help spread the word of God and expand the ministry to children through the creative means of song and the ability to replicate the story on stage.
In addition to learning the lyrics and the moves each year, the children are taught some sign language for one of the songs, Engler said.
Helping Engler direct the young troupe are two retired music teachers, Evelyn Dittmar and Karen Vogel.
“They gave me a lot of ideas; they have helped with the costumes and things like that,” Engler said. “They are going to build a fiery furnace behind (the students).”
The Sunday performance is at 9:15 a.m. during the Sunday School hour, free and open to the public.
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