Roadshow

Saturday night was our stake roadshow.  For those who have no idea what that word means (I didn't before this year) here's a short description.  To start with, a stake is a geographic group of congregations.  Our stake is composed on seven congregations covering Arlington, Stanwood, Lakewood, and North Marysville.  A roadshow is cultural event where each congregation develops a short musical play based on a theme given by the stake.  The members of each congregation work together to find/write a play, direct, act, design scenery, and practice their performance.   Each congregation gets together on a designated night to preform them.  More details can be found here. 

Our congregation has been practicing for a few months.  In the beginning, Anastaya was quite disgusted because she was only cast as an extra.  She didn't even want to go to the practices and had a pretty bad attitude.  We wouldn't let her back out.  A few weeks ago, one of the lead stars had to go out of town for an extended period and Anastaya took her place.  She was much happier with her role from that time on.  Elizabeth acted as an ompa loompa.  She and four other girls would perform a song/dance on the front of the stage while the curtain was closed between each of the scenes that Anastaya was acting in.  Isaac got roped into being an extra.  It was not what he wanted to do, but he was a good sport and agreed to help out.

getting ready to be an oompa loompa

ready to go

Anastaya on stage

Elizabeth performing the oompa loompa dance

the entire cast in their big finale

after the show with Grandma and Grandpa

The overall theme of the roadshow was "heroes".  The play my kids were in was called "For the Strength of Youth Super Twins".  The story was that Anastaya and a boy kept being put in situations where they needed to make decisions that could be guided by the Strength of Youth pamphlet published by the church.  When it was time to make a tough decision (like which movie to attend or whether to go on a single or group date), the Strength of Youth super twins, dressed in their superhero outfits, would appear on the scene and give them suggestions from the pamphlet.   

Another of the congregations that performed was the one that Dode's parents and sister attend.  Their director chose to tell the story of how the church has grown in Arlington going from a branch (the smallest congregation size in the church) to the stake it is today.  Here's a short summary of the history which was told in the play.   The congregation began by meeting in rented temporary spaces including: the bowling alley, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, an upstairs of a furniture shop and a VFW hall.  The VFW hall had a bar/card room on Saturday nights.  When the church members would show up on Sunday mornings, they would have to sweep up the beer bottles in the room before beginning their services.  

The members wanted a church of their own to meet in, but, back then, church headquarters would only pay for half of the cost of building a chapel and the local members had to contribute the rest.  Over time the membership grew and they were able to form a ward, (the traditional congregation size, usually around 200 active members)  Dode's family has been a part of the church in Arlington for a long time, when the three Dickson brothers moved to Arlington with their families they doubled the size of the branch.

The first bishop responsible for the Arlington Ward was Dode's grandpa, John Dickson.    The members saved up their money and were able to get approval to build a building in Arlington.  Dode's grandparents, uncles, aunts, dad and mom helped with the construction of the building.  His grandmother even helped put the roof on the building.  The first event to be held in the building was Dode's parent's wedding reception.  His grandmothers finished putting down the floor in the room the reception was held in just hours before the reception began!  The membership in the area has grown to the point that our Arlington stake has smaller boundaries than the original Arlington Ward.    This was all re-enacted in their roadshow.

Sheri and Joel played the part of Sharon and Lynn (Dode's parents). Sheri is able to still fit into her wedding dress.  I don't think any grown up lady could fit into Sharon's wedding dress.  I think she had an 18" waist when she got married!  After Sheri and Joel's four year old son Seth saw them up their dressed in their wedding clothes, he asked, "Did dad marry you again?"  I wish I would have thought to have Dode take photos of their skit too!

The kids' cheering squad. My dad and his wife Cheryl came to watch the performance.

My dad was thrilled to hear they were sitting by the Stake President!

The show hadn't even started in this photo and you can see how much fun Miriam was already having.  Miriam was ready to leave after about 15 minutes and spent the rest of the evening in my lap complaining and begging to go home.

It was the first time our stake has put on a roadshow and there were a few things that need ironed out before they do it again.  The biggest problem was the sound system.  It was extremely difficult to hear anything.  Only by intently listening could I pick up 50% of what was being said.  With my dad on one side and Dode on the other (both who are a bit hard of hearing), I'm sure they heard even less.  They had microphones but they were the kind where you have to be really close to get them to register sound and they were too far away.  As I sat there I thought, I'd have brought my cordless microphone from day camp if I knew they needed it.  Then we could have heard at least one actor from each play!  With 10 years of experience doing presentations in the outdoors at day camp, I've learned that it's hard to hold people's interest when they can't hear.

All in all, the girls really enjoyed their experience and would gladly do it again.