Stage Lights
In the earliest days of the Homeschool Dramatic Society, performances were held in a church gym that had no special theater lighting. We used work lights on stands. You’ve probably seen these lights for sale at places like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Often they are painted orange.
The work lights stood to the sides of the rows of chairs. A homeschool mom sat in a chair and operated the lights by switching power cord buttons on and off. Another homeschool mom continues to operate the lights during our plays, but they are not work lights sitting beside chairs. Now Mary Evelyn meets with a drama center staff person to make decisions about how the staff will set up the lighting especially for our sets and scenes and the homeschool mom operates them from a light booth.
Stage lighting is important in a play. Lighting helps the audience see what is happening on stage, it directs the eyes of the audience to where the action is, and it sets moods.
Every play performed by the Homeschool Dramatic Society is a “Play That Matters.” Each story illustrates how God works in lives. As the young actors and actresses memorize their lines and use these words and appropriate facial expressions and body movements to tell the story, they become the most important lighting on stage. They are the real stage lights.
God takes what these young people do and uses it to tug at the hearts of people: the actors and actresses themselves, the mamas and daddies who help them practice, the staff of the drama center, and the audience who comes to experience the performance.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,”
is the One who has shone in our hearts
to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness of the power
will be of God and not from ourselves.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NASB
Let your light shine before men in such a way
that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16, NASB