UNKNOWN 0:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to another episode, the place where we talk about kids' ministry and take a peek behind the scenes. We try to share a little bit of what we've learned that works for us and some of our failures so you can avoid them. We release a new episode every Friday, and this is your Backstage Pass to see the magic or disaster that happens behind the scenes of our kids' ministry. I'm your host, Gabe Baker, and today I'm joined by Brother Aaron.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Hey, hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

How's it going? Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Good to be back.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Here we are in the studio. What are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Today we are talking about the anatomy of a scene.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Anatomy of a scene. So in our Sunday school, we try to make the best of every element. We try to make it awesome. And, you know, we don't always get it right, but that's what we strive for. That's our goal. So we do big sets. We have slides, custom playgrounds, cool themes, all that stuff. But one of the ways we get there is by size. So we've been doing this for, I don't know, a long time, 20 years or something. And we've added things along the way. You know, like the slide is, you know, I don't know. It was the first one was 2012 and we haven't had one every year, but that was like kind of, you know, so that was an addition, you know, to, to it. And so we've added things here and there and we try to try to create was basically we think it's pretty decent Sunday school. Yeah. And so we're always trying to improve. And the way we do that is by looking at individual elements and improving the individual elements instead of, you know, kind of like we've talked about it before on the podcast, but by size, you know, that you need it. elephant one bite at a time so so today that's kind of what we want to talk about is creating a scene in Sunday school so kind of the breakdown of what a scene on stage looks like

SPEAKER_02 2:05

yeah I think one of the things to start the discussion is depending on now we always especially me I tend to reference comedy a lot yeah yeah it's easy to slip into that it is for some of us well the kids love it too yeah it's a yeah they connect with it so much easier but I'm understanding the dynamic of what you're getting ready to do and where it's at in the Sunday program. So if you're doing a serious Bible story, like we did, the one about Deborah and the spike and all that. Oh yeah. That's, you know, that's something that even though it's horrible and terrible and kind of graphic, you still want, you don't want to just go skipping into it, you know, whistle while you're working. You want to have some sense of seriousness because that translates to the kids. It It kind of makes them, you know, we have a lot of our music, our theme music that totally sets the mood. It starts before we go out. So the kids are like, oh, something's getting ready to happen.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

That's not funny. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, that's good. And yeah, like knowing, I like what you said about basically like the context of the scene that we're getting ready to do, you know, knowing that. And that's one of the reasons we have practice.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Is, and I know not every Sunday school can. There's a lot of different ways. Mm-hmm. But we've also done it really serious and scary, you know, lions and everything. So, you know, we did, I think the last time we did it a few months ago, we did it and we had the lion stuff and then we had a cat meow, you know, so it was funny, right? But as long as we all kind of know, you know, the context.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

That's important too, is everybody knowing the context because we've done it before to where we either didn't have time to practice that particular morning or we didn't go over like, like we have offering every Sunday. We try to fit you know when the actors come out on stage two or three of us we we try to plug in offering to the theme sometimes yeah the topic sometimes it's really hard to do yeah yeah exactly but for the most part you can kind of tie it in but if you don't ever even talk about it we're trying to scramble back here and throw out ideas as we're getting changed or we just don't have time or out there like yeah on the floor trying to think where where's he going with this where's he going with this

SPEAKER_00 4:50

oh man yeah many times for sure all right well so in some of the notes here. So set the stage. Um, and so you already mentioned like the music. So we have music like a hundred percent of the time pretty much. And so we, uh, we use theme, you know, thematic tracks. And so, um, that sets the tone. That's like, that's huge. So we have that even when we're not in the middle of a theme, like right now, um, we're just starting to build, getting ready to build, but we have, we don't have any lights set up. We don't have any like fog machines. We don't have any of that. We don't even have scene setters. Nope. But we still have the music. So we always have that.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

I think what's cool about music too, and the one that always stands out to me, probably because it's more recent, but when we did the pirate and Navy scene.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Just you knew, did we have, I can't remember, did we have separate music whenever it switched to the pirates? Yeah. So you could tell right away that music would start and the kids are like, oh, the pirates are coming. The pirates are coming. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah. We had- It's in the mood. Yeah, we had, I think maybe the opening, the seating music might have been the same because we had a track with like the creaking ship and all that. Seagulls and waves. But yeah, basically, yeah, we had like when the bad guys are coming, you know, it was like, okay, yeah, this is the bad guys. So, yeah. And it's funny because even in our segments or elements that we do, it is often we'll keep like just say offering. We'll keep that the same throughout a theme. Yeah. And so that music hits and the kids know, oh, it's offering time, you know, because we try to mix up our script a little bit to keep them on their toes. Yeah. And so they'll know like, oh, it's offering time. You know, I hear that music. I know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah. Oh, dropped my paper. So another thing that we

SPEAKER_02 6:46

have was, that always stands out to me, it was Narnia. And I was up here for, we've done it twice, right? We've done

SPEAKER_00 6:52

it twice. Well, we've done it twice up here. Yeah. But do you remember the original one?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

That's the one that sticks out the most. The very first one. It was in the, both eligible. Yeah. When I wrote that down, that's actually what I was thinking of, is the very first one.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Because we had that fog machine that just,

SPEAKER_00 7:08

I know all fog machines are like that, but it stayed. We had a ground fogger. We had a ground fogger and it stayed. Basically, it was still a small fogger, but you put, we had to put ice in it.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah. And so when you, cause when you make fog cold, there's different methods, but when you make fog cold, it stays down. So we actually, I remember a few times when we were scrambling like, oh no, we forgot to bring ice. Run to the store and get some ice.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Cause you would keep it wet two or three feet off the ground.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah. And it would feel like you're in snow. Yeah. That's kind of the idea. Yeah. And that was, how big was that room? It was pretty small. It felt huge. It

SPEAKER_02 7:39

felt huge, but it wasn't terribly big.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yeah. So, so set the stage is our first bullet point. And so like, like the music we talk about in the lights and everything, but I remember back then, in fact, I don't know. I don't think we were using tracks, certainly not to the extent we do now. We might've been using them some.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Most of our stuff was live

SPEAKER_00 8:01

for sure. Yeah. But I remember, I remember we had built, you were Tumnus. Yeah. And I remember we had built a cave, Tumnus' cave. And this is where we had to set up every Saturday night and take down every Sunday. And we built that out of, it was PVC pipe. And it was round, like half round like a cave. And then we took PVC pipe and then we covered it in like this fabric or something. We had Velcro straps around it. And then it could, at the end of Sunday school, take the fabric off and disconnect all the pipes. And there was a cave, you know. That's

SPEAKER_02 8:36

crazy. And the kids, I just remember seeing on their faces, because it was around this, was it around the same time the focus on the family? I want to say it

SPEAKER_00 8:45

was before then, but I'm not

SPEAKER_02 8:47

sure. I

SPEAKER_00 8:47

mean,

SPEAKER_02 8:48

it was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Now this, I don't, our first time to go upstairs was at August services 2012. Yep. And it was an army theme. Yeah. But I don't think that we, I think we went after that conference, I think we went back to the fellowship hall for a little while. I

SPEAKER_02 9:16

think we did.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah. So I don't think we were, I don't remember exactly when we started doing it upstairs consistently. I know for sure 2016 and on. Yeah. Maybe even 2015, 2015. 2015 was the Gladiators. So I have to look back at my notes, but yeah. So I can't remember for sure where it was, but.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Well, even, so even if it was before they came out with that, which, you know, our kids grew up, we still listen to it sometimes, but like the looks on the kids' faces, like every Sunday morning, they were just like so enraptured by everything that was going on. They were just in Narnia.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Shaley, our pastor's daughter, she was on the podcast a while back. And she told, I didn't know this until she had mentioned this, but she was in Sunday school back then. And she said that she, the morning we were supposed to start, she ran, because we had a poster up and advertising it coming up, you know, coming soon or whatever. And she ran into her parents' bedroom and was like, today's the first day of Narnia. I was like, oh, that's awesome. Ran in there, like, just ready for Sunday school. But yeah, so we set the stage and that small room seems so big. We had the wardrobe with a false back on it. Yeah. I remember the first time we did it with the kids, with the, what are their name? Peter and all them. Yeah, Peter and Lucy. I can't remember their last name. But anyway, the Narnia kids, you know, went in the wardrobe and then Mrs. McCready comes in, opens it up and all the kids are looking in there and they're gone. They're gone. That was so cool. It was so cool. And eventually then the kids got to all go through the wardrobe into the Narnia side. But that was incredible. And then I remember the next time was several years later when we did – So several years later, we did the, which one? Prince Caspian Upstairs. We made it where it was over in that corner. Remember there was that heater hanging up in the corner. We had like this, it was unfinished building. And so we had this like old heater dangling from the ceiling. Huge box heater. Huge box heater, yeah. I actually got it from a contractor that used to dry out sheet rock. Oh, yeah. But anyway, so it was in that corner and we had like a light shining kind of on you. And it was supposed to be like sunlight streaming through the window or something. But we had all the kids and they were in there and we had like some carpet laid down and they were all sitting on the floor and you played a guitar or something and sang a little song.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

And I remember, I can't remember who it was, but I remember them commenting like, they were like, it's so like cozy, you know, which was the, which was the idea, you know, it was supposed to be cozy, Tumnus's cabin or whatever. And so it's amazing how, you know, we've talked about like our big sets and everything, how it, it kind of will set the tone for how kids view everything from that moment forward or whatever, but it's amazing how when you set the stage right you kind of you can almost get some forgiveness for a little bit of maybe mistakes or not as cool of maybe the song isn't as cool or whatever but you can you get a little bit of forgiveness because it's like the stage is so awesome you know and they're like oh yeah this is cool and then and that goes so I have a note on here music lighting fogs stage props. So, um, so we talked about the music and then the lighting and then fog is basically, I mean, special effects, but that's the easiest one to think of. I couldn't really think of, well, we've done storms where we use like spray bottles for big

SPEAKER_02 13:47

industrial fan

SPEAKER_00 13:49

fans. Yeah. So, um, but all of that. And then, um, stage props, meaning sometimes you have like the Narnia was, was, uh, theme and as a really good example, but sometimes we have like, okay, like you mentioned pirates, we have the pirate theme and that's, we're on a ship and everything, but then we're going to do the Bible story.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

And so we'll have like a big throne, you know, we'll set up a big throne. And so it's, that's a big stage prop. That's not related to the theme, but it gives the setting, you know, and sometimes we'll set it up early. So when the kids come in, they're like, Ooh, what's going to happen today? There's a throne. There's going to be a King today. It's going to be for the artist. Yeah. Yeah. So that's definitely, that's like the kind of the first step is setting the stage. And then I got another note. We've talked about this a little bit before, but costumes. So costumes can be big. Costumes are huge.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah. Like I always think of Brent when we did, was it the pirate theme where he bought like the whole, no, that was Brennan. Brennan bought the whole

SPEAKER_00 15:00

outfit. The whole thing for Brent. Brent did,

SPEAKER_02 15:03

what

SPEAKER_00 15:04

was the, oh, was it the- Before Pirates. It was Survival Quest. He bought that helmet. Is that what you're thinking of? Yeah. It was a helmet. Yeah, it was like medieval. It was like legit helmet. Medieval style. Yeah. And our costumes and theme was all medieval and he was all out. Yeah. Yeah. He had those swords and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

So, Brendan had the lace up boots. He had the-

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

The shirt with the laces on the sleeves. I mean, it took him a minute to get ready, but- Yeah. Yeah. him that much more believable when he came out because it

SPEAKER_00 15:33

wasn't just I remember joking like something about yeah I'm gonna go put my boots on see you guys in 15 minutes

SPEAKER_02 15:43

and I think I think I think his might have been on Amazon I know Brent's was and it wasn't like extremely expensive right especially considering we're going I mean how long are our themes usually usually 16 yeah 16 weeks so you're wearing it every Sunday for the most part right yeah

SPEAKER_00 15:59

yeah and I mean I think for the most part probably our actors will spend maybe a hundred bucks, a hundred bucks or less, you know? Um, and they, you know, we will buy stuff for Sunday school, but most of the time they buy their own and then we'll have like, well, so like space when we did space, we bought the silver suits on Amazon. Those were, those were cool. And the light up shoes. Yeah. And then we bought a light up shoes. Those are, if you buy the light up shoes, They were silver with light up soles. Yep. They're sized very small. Extremely small. So, yeah, we, yeah, we found that out. But anyway, so yeah, it's really cool. I remember, I have pictures of the locker room because they, you plug them in, you charge them. Yeah. And so we got like this power strip and we got all these shoes all sitting there charging. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. But yeah, so we had, what do we have? We had the silver, like full on jumpsuit And then for the ladies, I found the jackets that were exactly the same as the suits. And then we found silver skirts.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah. They're like pleated, not pleated, pleated,

SPEAKER_00 17:13

I think. Maybe. Yeah. Something. But they were silver skirts. And then, of course, everybody had the light up shoes. And we had the silver, and this is shiny silver. Yeah. because of their hair and everything. I do have a note. Don't worry about your hair getting messed up. But we got visors and they looked exactly the same, but they were visors. And then we had the glasses that are like, they're light up and they have like, I don't know, how would you say it? They're like sunglasses and they had

SPEAKER_02 17:49

display that rolled.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Well, those, yeah, we had those. Those were black sunglasses with a display that rolled across and you could hook it up to your phone. But then we also had the other ones that lit up and they have like computer graphics on them or whatever so they look like all futuristic you know blue and green and different yeah so that was cool and especially when we do a lot of things in threes you know three team members yeah cast members however you want to say it and so when you get but when you get a big group of people coming out all dressed the same like praise it's kind of like all hands on deck it looks so cool

SPEAKER_02 18:27

it does I tell you what really stands out on that part is when we we were I don't know if This was our first Sunday doing space, but we did it at our youth conference. It

SPEAKER_00 18:34

was space. Yes, we did. Yeah. And Brother Booker came. Brother Booker was here. So we

SPEAKER_02 18:37

had all of us up there. So it just.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yeah, that was really cool because we have more staff than normal on that. And so, yeah. And then Steve, Brother Arter had a, like, I think it was orange, his jumpsuit. Yes. Because he was the captain in our theme. He was a captain. So he had an orange jumpsuit and like a blue hat.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

And then he also, from his work or something, he got us this. hazmat suit but it's not like the Tyvek hazmat suit this was like full on

SPEAKER_02 19:08

it

SPEAKER_00 19:09

was huge it had

SPEAKER_02 19:10

a zipper in the face like it

SPEAKER_00 19:12

was head to toe yeah it had the whole thing and yeah you had to get it zipped up in the back for the body part and yeah and then it had like you were completely enclosed gloves everything it was all one suit and it was hot oh my lord poor really cute he wore it most of the time yes but it looked like a space suit yeah it was blue it was So cool. And then, of course, the doors and everything. But costumes, like that, I mean, man. Instant connection. Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. So when you can do that, and so this is kind of a big subject, I guess, but we're trying to talk about the anatomy of a scene. And so this is just kind of the foundation for it. But when you set the stage, right, with your props and everything, your music and all that, and then you have costumes. Yeah. you're transporting kids into another world and then completely props.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

So that's, that's my next note is props. Um, uh, and yeah, The thing is, is props, even if you, I talked about this, I think, a couple years ago at the Children's Ministry Conference. If you, like, even if you're speaking, like, just no costumes, nothing, you're just speaking. If you have something in your hand that you're, like, going to use, well, you can drag a few minutes out of just the anticipation of what is that going to be used for? Yes. You know, what is that? Yeah. And then, of course, you can't go too long and you got to give it away and do something with it. So, props can be an attention getter for kids too. Engage them like, oh, what's that? What's going to happen with that?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

What's cool about that too is Anisha is so good at it that there are times to where we'll forget, oh, I need a prop for that scene or, oh, I need this for that. And we'll be throwing her outfit on. She's like, here, take this. And she'll have like a banana and like an orange and a book. So, go out there and we're like trying to think, what can we do with this? banana and usually you know we'll try to use it as a sword or something you know to make it funny but even if it's not like the perfect prop it's kind of going back to that comedy theme you can take two or three things out there that has nothing to do with what you were needing yeah and make it funny and then throw it over shoulder and then you get right back and kids are laughing and you get use the real prop yeah yeah yeah

SPEAKER_00 21:32

reference the doctors yeah exactly the doctors it's like we purposely grab random the most random crazy props yeah it's like it's Yeah. I mean, we've done some pretty crazy stuff. Like, you know, oh, he's bleeding. Well, hand me your shoe. What's that going to do? You

SPEAKER_02 21:50

know what we should do? We should find all the videos of the doctor and just make a montage,

SPEAKER_00 21:54

like a minute long and upload it. That would be hilarious. That would be awesome. Yeah. Because I have them from way back when, I think I have one when, like it was the worst time ever with Brennan getting just, it was at. Brutal. Oh, it was at August Services too. And it was a spy theme. Yeah. And he, oh man, poor Brennan.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Yeah. He got initiated.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

We have since censored the doctors a bit. It's like they're limited on what they're allowed to do. You can no longer

SPEAKER_02 22:26

physically hurt other cast members or waterboard.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

All right. I forgot to mention this earlier on, but if you hear kids in the background, you probably won't with these mics, but there's a, we got a, a service happening on site here so there's a bunch of kids around around outside um Okay, so another note I have here is don't let it drag. Keep the action happening. And if it's dialogue, I say like, you know, sword fights, it's pretty easy. But dialogue, I've seen it and I've mentioned this before about if you have three actors on stage and the kids are not engaged, there's a problem. There's a problem. Because you're wasting too much talent, you know, and so they could be in the sanctuary listening to the preaching instead. So if they're not engaged, There's the kids right there. Probably heard that one. So if you have three actors on stage, but if they're just talking – and I've talked about this before like with microphones, like we use mics, like headset mics. Because – and one of the big reasons why we need mics or we feel like we should use mics is if the kids don't understand, then they're going to be disengaged. They're not going to be interested. And so if we have dialogue, we want the kids to understand. But then also – Like move around and do so. I was

SPEAKER_02 23:57

getting ready to say that. I've done that tour. If there's three of us doing offering and like two of them are like having a discussion and I'm not in the mix at the moment, I'll just walk around, like pick up something. Just like go pick up a board or like go try to dink

SPEAKER_00 24:11

the piano. Keep some attention.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

And it's like, oh, and it just kind of guides them back in.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

And then I think on that too is, depending on what you're doing, going back to context, but involve the kids in it. Right. Like obviously you are going to be involved. You know, it's

SPEAKER_00 24:47

funny. I was just listening to Brother Booker's podcast, Apostolic Sunday School. Excuse me. or Apostolic Kids Ministry, I think it's called. And he had one about the toddlers. And I can't remember if one of the ladies was talking about how they get their attention. I'm losing my voice. I don't have anything to drink here. Excuse me. But, and she was talking about how they'll be like, okay, everybody roar like a lion. Everybody, you know, do this, do that. Okay, now let's all sit down. And, you know, it kind of lets their energy out. We have to do the same thing, but it's a little bit different style with the older group, five through 11. So we do a little bit different style.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Oh,

SPEAKER_00 25:35

boy. at the end of the script or second to the last page is a casting sheet that is basically it's just basically a spreadsheet but it has the cast members across the top and then down the side it has the characters or the roles yeah And then it's like got a color coding. So if it's yellow, it's a staff role. And then if it's orange, it's a character role, meaning that you need a costume for that role. So Anisha, she can glance at that and know like anything orange needs a costume.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

And then there's a mic schedule after that. But on our casting sheet, we have the last column. I just started doing this actually just a few months ago, but the last column is kids. Mm-hmm. So we'll actually have, you know, pre-planned and sometimes we'll actually even know who, you know, but often it's just like, okay, we're going to have these soldiers is brother Aaron and brother, you know, Joey and three kids, you know, or whatever. And so we have that listed in the casting sheet. We know that we're going to have to pull some kids to do that. Okay. as I've said so often is kids on stage is a great way to engage. Oh yeah. Kids like to watch other kids.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Well, normally that they like, like when they come back here and we're in between scenes and a staff member will grab them to come back, put like a uniform on or something. Yeah. Oh, they're, they love it. Oh yeah. It's like next level. Yeah, exactly. They go huge helmet on and a sword that's bigger than them. And

SPEAKER_00 27:41

yeah, it's just, yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's kind of cool to see like when they come back, sometimes their eyes get big and they're peeking and This is behind the scenes. Yeah. And I've even had like afterward where one of our staff's kids are looking for their parents and they'll kind of tentatively step into the backstage.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

It's

SPEAKER_01 28:01

like the holy of holies. What are you doing back here? This is my dad back here.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

But yeah. So, so that is something we do on a macro level as, as we involve the kids. Yeah. But so, and another thing with don't let it drag is, is if you can keep the action happening and again, going back to the practice, we'll, we don't always like our practices. We don't always like, we don't dialogue everything. We use a lot of ad lib and we don't necessarily for some big, like, you know, August conference or whatever, we'll choreograph a sword fight sometimes or whatever. But for the most part, we don't do that, but we'll, we'll do what's called blocking. Yeah. So we'll walk through it so that we're all on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, to recap, so the anatomy of Satan, so setting the stage is, And this goes for even if you are, quote unquote, storytelling, like if you're in a smaller classroom and you're using a puppet maybe, or it's just a couple of you, or you're using kids, is you can do some of this. I mentioned on a podcast with Anisha and Shaylee, I was like, I would argue that a smaller classroom technically could be even more all out than a big room like what we have. Now, you can't do a playground maybe, but the expense is lower. Yeah. You know, you don't have to cover as much wall space, right? And so you should be able to just really go all out. So anyway, if you set the stage with, and the stage meaning the room, it could be a literal stage. We have a literal stage, but it could be the literal stage or it could just be the room. And we talk so much about sets, you know, and everything that we build, but that sets the tone, you know, for everything. Absolutely. And then, of course, the costumes, having costumes. And I didn't really address it, but I said, don't be afraid to mess up your hair. Oh, man. One of the reasons I say that is because I don't know. I guess this is something that's kind of intuitive to me, but... Most of the time, if you're a Bible character or something, you could have a robe and all of that, but you usually need something on your head.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

You

SPEAKER_00 30:53

need a hat. We have wigs. We have beards and stuff too. But I don't know why, especially I think maybe for guys, maybe because we have our hair all combed and everything. It just doesn't look biblical. They didn't have pomade back then. Brother R's hairdo, he can get away with it maybe. And maybe even Brother Keech, but some of us, you know, we have our frou-frou hair or whatever. And so we can't get away with it. So we need to have, you know, headgear and so like a hat or something.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Well, I tend to, I think I mentioned this before, but I tend to bring clothes with me. Yeah. Sometimes if I'm on the keyboard and I'm not able to get up here in time, I'll just go on my church clothes. But because I'm flopping around sometimes, I got drug last Sunday, drug out. Oh, yeah. That was a thorny ground that got choked out. Oh, right, right. The seed that fell on the thorny ground. Yeah, we did this. Yeah, yeah. So I'll bring in, you know, jeans or in a pullover shirt.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Yeah, and a lot of our staff do that.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Yeah, it's just so much

SPEAKER_00 31:55

work. Yeah, I mean, I have ruined suit pants. Me too. Scuffed the knees out. Shoes. So I have, you know, we have a luxury of having lockers and we do share them. I guess I have a self-imposed luxury of having a permanent one because I'm up here every Sunday. Yeah. So I have like, you know, a pair of shoes in there and my clothes in there, you know. And so, yeah, I changed.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah, don't be afraid to mess up your hair. I was up here Mother's Day and we went out to eat for Mother's Day. Everyone was in their church clothes still. And I was like, my hair's standing up on me and I had to pull over like hole in the elbow and sweats on going to Mother's Day dinner. So sweaty.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yeah, we commit. Commit all the way to the costume. And then props, use props. So we, you know, we use like, we have all kinds of swords. We use swords a lot. Yeah. And then just like we said, random props, but even like props that fit for what you're doing. We have like the, like a few weeks ago, you were the spy and it was kind of a silly spy.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

That was spying on Sisera and the army. Yes. you had like the, those weird glasses with a light and stuff, like the magnifying thing. Like

SPEAKER_02 33:19

over the head, like, I don't know what kind they were.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

They're like a jeweler's like inspection. Yeah. And then, then I had a magnifying glass. Then you had a magnifying glass. Yeah. So, you know, it fit with the character, but it was like funny, you know, and then even random, random props and make it up, you know, the banana can be something there, you know? So we have in our costume room, You know, we have all kinds of costumes. We have a row of costumes that Anisha keeps all organized. And then we have just all kinds of props, you know. And it's funny because some people would look at it like we've talked about praise tubes before on here. And praise tubes are their pool noodles cut in half. So they're about three foot long or maybe two and a half feet long. And they're weapons basically where you can beat the snot out of each other with pool noodles.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

They become swords

SPEAKER_00 34:13

very quickly. So, yeah, but they're praise tubes because we did a lesson a long time ago with those about praise as our weapon and they were weapons. So to this day, years later, we have a bucket full of praise tubes.

UNKNOWN 34:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

And then the other thing with a scene is don't let it drag. let's wrap this up and get done. Now we run on a timer. And so we have a timer on stage that the staff can see. And so now it's like, oh, we still got a minute left and we're losing the kids. So it means we got to change something up. We got to do something. Yes. And so just being cognizant of that and being observant, you know, okay, where are the kids? Are they engaged? Yeah. And so that's important in setting the scene. Absolutely. All All right, well, I think we beat that to death. So I think that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Yeah, better stop it. Don't let it drag.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Yeah.