Logistics.

The Waldweihnacht preparation is picking up speed, and the team is working hard to pull things together. We are printing posters twith sentences such as “Explorer Missing!” and “Who is the King?” Next week, after the whole village is (hopefully) abuzz with interest and rumour we will add the times and place that people can come for the presentation. We’re also planning to take some cast pictures next week, which will go on a set of mini-flyers for the kindergartens and schools.

Meanwhile, the team is getting to know the wood we’re working in, and exactly where and when they will appear on the road. This is going to be very interesting as some of them have to make a dramatic entrance running through the woods and arrive in the correct places at the correct time, without tripping, falling into holes or crashing against trees. On top of that we’ll have issues of “Crowd control”: Making sure that children don’t run on ahead and discover a character “off duty”. Because the whole thing takes place on open land, we need to have the first scene packed up long before the last one starts, without the audience noticing.

On the other hand we are beginning to see the potential of what we are creating. Just doing the first stage “Blocking” –not easy in a forest- we got a taster of how the forest will be part of the story. Characters will appear from nowhere, interact with the audience much more than was possible before, with the aim of making them participants this blatantly evangelistic story about who God is and why he came to earth.

We’re hoping that this will give people a great evening with some great memories, and that it will be a step closer to God for many people of different ages. We are trying to deliberately provoke people who have managed to tell themselves that Christmas is just a tradition or a fairy story.

It will also be a bonus if we come back with all the audience members, and don’t set fire to anything accidentally on the way.