Musical Debut

"Built on the Rock: A Book of Mormon Musical" debuted two weekends ago and it was fabulous! The costumes looked great, the music sounded wonderful, and the production was just fun to watch. Even more important the youth had a great time. I hope Dana and her sister are able to publish this musical and share it with the whole world. A few of the song are posted here under "Music files": www.rsyc2010.org.

What It Was

Every four years, the youth in our stake perform a musical for youth conference. The stake had performed “From Cumorah’s Hill” for the last three musicals and wanted something new. So Dana Cardon and her sister created something completely from scratch. They wrote the majority of the musical in six weeks.

I love the music and the script. They aren’t cheesy, which can be a rare thing to find in LDS religious music. I cringe to write that because in my opinion there is a lot of good LDS music out there, but there's also a lot of LDS music that I just can't bear. The songs and script are inspired by the Book of Mormon. Much of the lyrics and dialogue are taken directly from the Book of Mormon. They show how to build faith, become converted, build on  Christ, have a mighty change of heart, repent, and be true at all times.

We had 130 youth participate in this year’s youth conference. We had fabulous attendance at each practice. There were three performances.  The theater was able to fit more than 500 people and we had overflow in the chapel where the show was broadcast.  We had to use the overflow for all of the shows except for the matinee.

Here are some pictures of some of the practices:

Ben rocking out on the piano:

  

Me.

Boys practicing their fighting sequences:

 

The youth at a practice:

      

Fabulous costumes:

    

Youth in costume at Practice:

 Props:

  

The stage crew:  

Some of the tech set up.

More pictures Ben took here: http://flickr.com/gp/pepethecow/9T8L3U

The stage:

Pictures from the Show: I didn’t manage to get a single picture on the show nights. But Margie Mueller has kindly let me use her pictures. http://www.margiemuellerphotography.com/

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The People Who Made this Happen

There were so many people who did so much work for this show, in addition to the youth and their parents. The sound, light, and stage crew spent an entire week before the show getting everything ready.

There were many volunteers who helped make costumes. We had a fabulous Dance choreographer who directed the “Waters of Mormon” and “Stripling Warrior” dance sequences. We had a graphic artist who made our program and handouts look good.

There were six people in the musical ensemble playing guitar, bass guitar, synthesizers, piano, and drums. Ben also was the rehearsal accompanist.

Here are a few of the women who played a huge part in the production:

Back, left to right:

Brenda Hodson. She and her husband managed the house. Her son Bryant designed the set.

Karen Bryce wrote the script and lyrics. She was the main force behind getting the musical completed.

Dana Cardon. She wrote the music. She directed most of small-group scenes and was the driver behind the entire production.

Rachel Richins, stage manager. She's was an answer to prayer. I write about that in the blog post below.

Front, left to right:

Kristen Trussel, our cheerleader. She was originally the stage manager but had so many events come up in her life at once, and had to be out of town during our final tech rehearsals.

Angela Wood played one of the synthesizers in the orchestra.

Me. I feel like my role was more intangible, but I did a lot. I spent hundreds of hours on this. I was in charge of registration, organizing auditions, creating actor packets, scheduling the building for rehearsals, creating handouts, communicating with the youth and their parents and the wards, copying everything, putting together music folders, helping put together content for the program, helping with the scene synopsis and notes, editing the program and notes, keeping attendance of the youth and who would be in the show, and organizing costume distribution and changing.

Sharla Dance, music director. She led all of the music rehearsals and created a great spirit for this show. She is truly a gem to our stake.

Diane Wright. Costume designer and manager. She spent countless hours on costume. She had a costume made for every single person in this production.

Esther Hansen spent hours making the props.

Was It Worth It?

So the big question is was it worth it? I think so. Yes. It built testimonies. The youth learned what it was like to be in a musical production. They felt loved and special. The audience was entertained and spiritually uplifted. I had a few friends come who are of a different faith and they enjoyed it both for its entertainment and spiritual value. It wasn’t pushy, but rather simply shows what we believe in. I love how it was focused entirely on Christ.