Photo by Anthony Esquivel
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TCC’s production of Scrooge relied on cast and crew from many churches in the greater Raleigh, North Carolina, area. (Photo by Anthony Esquivel)
Triangle Community Church (TCC) in Apex, North Carolina, exemplifies the typical readership of Church Production Magazine (CPM). With an average weekly attendance of about 840, and the ability to seat a maximum of 600 people per service, TCC is by no means the megachurch whose productions CPM typically covers each November/December. Additionally, the paid staff does not include a person with experience in music or drama—the worship leader position at TCC is a volunteer position, held by Ron Luchene, a vice president at a security systems company.
So, when TCC explored the idea of a Christmas production in 2007 as a method of outreach to the community, an immediate question was how can this church produce an event of a high enough quality level that its congregation would be excited to extend invitations to their unchurched friends, co-workers, and neighbors?
The answer was found through relationships. Over the course of two and a half years, TCC has developed a relationship with Spiritual Twist Productions, a local Christian business whose ministry is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through music and drama. Natalie Snapp, Spiritual Twist’s founder, offers classes in theater to Christian youth. Each class, at the end of the school year, puts on a theatrical production, most of which are written by Snapp. She takes classic stories that are in the public domain such as Oliver Twist, Phantom of the Opera, Cinderella, etc., and adds a Christian theme to them, writing the dialog, music, and lyrics. While the company has a small theater in development in Angier, North Carolina, it’s not able to host large audiences. So, Snapp seeks out churches, typically those that her students attend, to allow her use of their church facility to host her students’ plays. With many families at TCC enrolling their children in her classes, TCC began hosting one play per year in 2005.
Since this relationship was already established, approaching Snapp about a partnership in producing a Christmas production was a natural extension of the relationship. The proposal was that Spiritual Twist would hold open auditions (for both youth and adults) and produce the play. TCC would provide the facility, technical production support, and promote the play to the community. And through other relationships formed with members of other churches through this writer’s involvement in Spiritual Twist plays, equipment that was needed for the production that the church did not possess was made available from other organizations as well.
After the initial meeting in July 2007, the play “Scrooge,” written by Wayne Robert Scott and published by LifeHouse Productions, was chosen. Snapp sent out an email to her entire student list (not merely members of TCC) to determine if enough of her strongest actors were available to pull off a show of the quality level needed for the production to be a successful outreach event. The response from both TCC families as well as families from other churches quickly showed that there was enough “critical mass” to be able to pull off a quality production, and rehearsals at Spiritual Twist’s Angier, North Carolina, facility commenced. Roles were filled from both TCC’s own body as well as at least eight other local churches ranging from Holly Springs, North Carolina, to Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Jim Kumorek is the owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video/media production and writing services to the A/V/L, technology, architectural and hospitality industries. He has led audio, video and lighting teams in churches as both staff and a volunteer for over 10 years. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com.
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ADD NEW COMMENTInteresting read. I’m sure this Christmas, TCC will have a big crowd of audience. Btw, check this out: white christmas trees.
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