Props

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Jaron, Wesley & Christian are currently rehearsing for Christian Youth Theater of Kansas City's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Amy and I are on the "props" committee. So today we met Charles and Tracy Phillips at the CYT warehouse to "pull props" for the show. This is CYT's 4th time putting on this show, so a majority of the props are in the warehouse.  You just have to find them.

The last time "Joe" was performed it was the fall of 2008.  Many CYT shows have be produced since then, so looking for props is like an archeological dig, the older stuff is near the bottom with the newer stuff piled on top.

The Phillips and Amy & I have worked on many CYT shows, so we would come across lots of stuff we'd had experience with or (in Charles' case) actually made.  Charles and Tracy had made some "hooplahs" for the last time Joe was done.  I saw a sign Amy and I had made for "High School Musical."  Charles lamented that a prop piece we needed had been painted over for another show.  We talked about the new things we would have to make for this production.

On one side of the warehouse is a 50 foot high wall filled with racks of costumes.  To look at them on the hangers, they look quite ordinary...even shabby (if they hadn't been worn in a while.)  The rack kind of looked like a vertical thrift store.  Then I saw "the dress."

On a rack on the floor was Fantine's dress from Les Miz and I remembered Kelsy Milbourn singing "I Dreamed a Dream" at Rockhurst and how she looked so broken at the end of that song...and she was just a kid singing it.  I saw the Witch's Soldiers' uniforms from The Wizard of Oz and I remember the crazy dance Taylor Qualls would do before the show in the green room at Youthfront.  I saw the giant megaphone with "Monumental Pictures"  printed on the side from Singing In The Rain and I chuckled to myself at how Alec Brown fiddled with his fingers with increasing ferocity the more nervous his character became.  I looked at old hats and chairs and poorly painted flats and I felt a lot of love because of who wore the hats or sat in the chairs or stood in front of those poorly painted flats.

Our Father is like that too.  Our exterior can be rather shabby and from time to time we need some hot-glue and tape to prop us up.  But he sees our insides...and He feels love.

chris

To learn more about CYT Kansas City and "The Joe Show":
CYT-KC