Using the Musical

You can make THE RACE: A Musical into something important and memorable in your congregational life. Click on any of the following links to find ways by which THE RACE will expand into congregational life like whipped cream fills a strawberry shortcake.

Involving others

THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical might be one of those places where you invite others into a unique experience, beginning or strengthening relationships that develop into lasting friendships and mission. Use any of these suggestions in order to increase the number of individuals involved in the production of this musical.

• Make a list of the “out of the box” people in your congregation and community who might be attracted to this musical as an outlet for their sense of calling. HINT: Don’t forget to consider the “inactives” who may be intrigued by this new effort.
   
• Invite people personally, in moments of conversation. Follow the first invitation with written or printed reminders.
   
• Make the musical into a community or ecumenical effort. 
   
• Invite families – or married couples – to take roles or tasks in the musical.
   
• Try to put together two or more completely separate casts, choirs or instrumental groups. (See pages 10-11 in the musical.)
   
• When you extend invitations, make each role, task or activity discrete and manageable.
   
• Invent new tasks or roles – The Director’s Assistant or Cast Refreshments Coordinator.
   
• Think carefully about the people who can help with technical details – costumes, lighting, props, sound – as well as those skilled in marketing or inviting.
   
• Add a component to the musical’s performance – e.g., a “dinner theater” venue – that will take advantage of talents other than acting or playing instruments.
   
• Don’t overlook children as active workers. HINT: Children usually assure that their parents will participate, too, if only as adoring audience members!
   
• For further thoughts, see “Starting Out or Running Ahead”. (See page 6 in the musical.)

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Single performance options

If you choose to make the musical a one-time-only performance, consider these possibilities:

• The musical can grace the start or end of a congregational program year, significant anniversary celebration, community event or some other important occasion.
   
• Begin reading, casting and rehearsal processes many months in advance of the single performance.
   
• If you choose to use “readers’ theater” as the method of performance, focus on the follow-up times for discussion and sharing. Include refreshments.
   
• Think carefully about which single occasion will least conflict with other priorities.
   
• The musical will probably NOT work well as a substitute for worship, nor does its 75-minute length compress well to fit inside a liturgical worship service.
   
• Make arrangements for the videotaping of the dress rehearsal as well as the performance itself. This assures that the experience can be shared at other times.
   
• Pick a special venue – e.g., community band shell – that will complement the one-time-only nature of your performance.

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Mini-drama series

The musical works well as a sequenced set of scenes, spaced out over a period of time. Think of these options:

• Use the musical in a dedicated small group experience within your congregation; two scenes per evening, with added times for discussion/sharing and fellowship.
   
• If your adult forum or other adult education programs allow it, offer the musical over eight weeks, one scene per week. Add in refreshment and extended conversation. You might even consider including personal testimony or skill-building – e.g., how to talk with your children about credit cards.
   
• If your sermons are based on themes, use scenes from the musical as the experiential anchor for an eight-week long sermon series on simple living.
   
• If your sermons are based on the lectionary, see Hunger Sermon Starters for possible connections to the themes of the musical.
   
• Videotape each of the scenes separately, posting them at your congregation’s Web site, or on a public sharing Web site such as YouTube or Google Video.
   
• Add “commercials” – e.g., invitations to participate in a Hunger Program funding appeal.
   
• Think of activities – tasks, projects, check-lists, interview times – in which audience members might participate; add these to the performance of each scene to fill out the experience they will have.

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The drama company tour

One compelling use of this musical might be a “drama tour”, a way to put your congregation’s capabilities to good use in other venues. Consider these possibilities:

• Offer to perform the drama in several local congregations – or perhaps in cooperation with them. Target ecumenical partners.
   
• Consider performing the drama at already-scheduled events, such as youth convos, synod assemblies, regional conferences.
   
• Set up an actual tour, gathering financial and material support for a schedule that includes significant geography and numbers of performances.
   
• Plan the logistics for a tour before you begin casting calls and other preparations. Cast and crew members will need to match their schedules to the tour. Consider how to make lighting, sets, costumes (etc.) portable.
   
• Confer with leaders in the places you will perform, so that you add value to their congregations, their programs or their emphases.
   
• Be prepared for post-performance matters, such as times of sharing, conversation, and program follow-up in these places.
   
• Consider the “tour” as a time to train people in other places to offer their own performances of THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical.

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Hunger or stewardship program kickoff/wrap-up

This musical is especially suited for congregational emphases in stewardship or hunger/justice. You might try some of these possibilities in those two areas of congregational life:

• Begin or end the program emphasis with one or more performances of the musical, taking special note of activities, readings, publicity items and other program helps on this Website as preparatory or accompanying material.
   
• Use the biblical connections suggested in this Web site to help you match the program theme to the themes of the musical.
   

• Think carefully how you will use rehearsal and recruitment processes as opportunities for learning and sharing among cast and crew members.
   

• Adapt publicity materials to serve as preparatory or follow-up activities – devotions, conversation starters, checklists, readings, etc. – for at-home use.
   

• Connect the performance of the musical to a longer/deeper learning experience in your congregation. For example, see the resource Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal for use in small group or individual devotions.
   
• Add to the musical a time of celebration – e.g., a break between scenes – allowing the distribution or in-gathering of commitment forms, contributions, stories, successes, vision-setting documents.
   
• Be sure to connect the musical’s themes to matters such as hope, courage, and a sense of mission in the world.
   
• Where possible, use the songs of the musical – e.g., “What Do They Want From Me?” – as anthem or background music.

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Fellowship event

In many congregations, times of fellowship function as more than bonding and bridging processes, also providing moments of learning and witness that are delightfully embedded in “ordinary conversation.” Should you decide to use THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical in this kind of setting, consider these ideas:

• Think how you will use the atmospherics of the event – setting, refreshments, people invited, time of day – to help enhance conversation before and after the musical.
   
• Use publicity materials as prompts for conversation starters, especially conversations that help participants share their values and yearnings about life.
   
• Ask some of the actors and crew to visit participant tables or groups post-performance, talking about how the musical raised questions, offered assurance, made them think. In this way, the performers and crew get to share their witness.
   
• Think carefully how to involve children and youth in the conversations, so that they participate fully in the experience of the musical. Thanks to the musical’s broadly painted characters and story line, children as young as eight years old will recognize the characters and the situations and dilemmas. Frame questions especially for them, perhaps those they can use in conversations with their own parents or friends.

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Community event

In many communities, church-related events can gather attention and appreciation for the rest of the congregation’s ministries. THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical could be a helpful, thoughtful and useful means by which an entire community comes together. You might try some of these possibilities:

• From start to finish, make the entire experience ecumenical in its planning and execution.
   
• Designate one or more recipients of the community’s generosity, such as Lutheran World Relief, Church World Service or a local hunger-related enterprise – e.g., community food bank.
   
• Assay the capacities of all participating organizations and congregations in order to expand the total experience. For example, one congregation may have exquisite experiences in quilt-making for overseas use, so you might add in a quilt-dedication component to the event.
   
• Involve civic leaders, not just religious leaders. Their interests could be as well served by the themes of this musical as would congregations’. HINT: Recognize up-front that the depiction of “Biggins and Rude” is not meant to characterize all businesses or their leaders.
   
• Piggyback the musical production onto related activities, such as a:

• bake sale
• parade
• flea market or auction
• special guest
• benefit for a cause recognized by the entire community
• welcome for Sister City partners
• a significant anniversary of a notable event in the community’s history.

• If your community is centrally located invite as many communities as possible from around the area.
   
• Adapt the follow-up activities to match your setting, and the people in your locale. One universal option: The sale or display of other resources (from the library or a local bookstore). Another: At-home activities or sharing items for families.

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Small group ministry

Should your congregation offer formal or informal small group ministry, you might consider these ideas:

• Use each scene of the musical to start personal sharing among group participants. Keep away from “talking about” the subjects at hand; relate more to individual hopes and yearnings.
   
• Use any of the three discussion guides for small groups as follow-up sessions.
   
• Assign individual scenes to small groups in your congregation, with the responsibility to perform the scenes at a larger congregational or community event. (Think of the experience as a dramatic puzzle!)
   
• Supplement any use of the musical with some of the activities on this Web site. Be certain that there will be enough time for both the musical scene(s) and the activity you have chosen.
   
• Because “simplicity” continues into almost every facet of daily living, keep track of the themes and emotions of participants as they engage in times of sharing. This will help you decide about next steps or other resources to explore.
   
• Because the musical evokes emotions and subjects that are close to the heart of many people in contemporary society, you might want to remind the group about safeguarding privacy and confidences.

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Cast and crew learning

One important feature of THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical is its implicit invitation to conversation about what’s important. Use any of these ideas to extend that benefit to the people who comprise the cast and crew:

• Begin each rehearsal with a time of prayer, meditation or personal sharing. Whether about the themes of the musical or about the ministry of drama, these times will help draw the cast and crew toward God and each other. The biblical connections in the musical might be helpful here. (See the section, “Bible Conversations,” on page 8 of the script and score book.)
   
• Each time you approach new material – a scene or a song – spend time together talking about the meaning of what will be presented or sung. Ask actors and singers to think about the persons they are portraying, their viewpoints and their motivations. Musicians can find the places where the words of the songs suggest interpretations or dynamics. All participants can work together to see this musical as a proclamation, and hence a ministry of the congregation.
   
• Use any of the discussion/sharing questions to help cast and crew understand the deeper significance of individual scenes and songs.
   
• As you work with members of the cast and crew, be sensitive to the possibilities that by their participation in this musical they are coming to question their own lifestyle decisions. Be ready to listen to concerns deeper than at first might meet the eye.

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Adult learning opportunities

THE RACE: A Simplicity Musical might be a good learning tool for adult education in your congregation. Think of these possibilities as you plan:

• Each session of an adult forum series on the subject of lifestyle could easily begin with one or two scenes from the musical, offered as readers’ theater.
   
• Use the resources available from other, linked organizations to construct learning opportunities or deeper explorations.
   
• Keep the learning experiential, avoiding a purely intellectual approach to this subject. “Simplicity” is about more than macro-economic theory or philosophies of “the good life.”
   
• Consider peer-learning, small group activities, checklists, exploration of current events or contemporary culture, debates, simulations and role plays. Each involves the participants as active learners, which is more certain to motivate them toward lifestyle change than more cognitively oriented approaches.
   
• On the other hand, if adult learners in your setting are ready for more deeply cognitive matters, consider moving the discussions into subjects such as:

• connections to world or domestic hunger (e.g., refugees, homelessness)
• environmental or societal collapse
• the neurobiology of acquisitiveness
• the functions of “marketing” in a civil society
• the relative values or dangers of various economic systems
• a biblical view of economic justice
• processes by which to raise children to value simplicity

• If adult learning opportunities are more informal, you might copy, distribute and talk about any of the readings (link to that page) on this Web site.