Did you participate in a Drama?

by Hecce 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Hecce

  The only time I was allowd a beard and to cross dress was in front of 2000 JWs, How ironic.

  Good one
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  MarkofCane

  Helped out in the Potiphar and Joseph Drama, I believe it was 2013, I was waking up at the time and it was a very difficult thing to be a part of, It was like living in a fantasy, nobody was real to me anymore, people were fake, elders were pea cocking there brilliant colors so everyone could see there worth, the prominent elder family's were in the drama, some living double lives. I was just a spectator with skills, it really felt like The Twilight Zone.

  Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.

  Because of my building skills I was asked to help with the props and stage. We drove all the props and costumes to the Convention, my friends truck and trailer broke down on the way to the convention and the CO was pissed, his true self came out, it was quit the sight to see. I think he was worried about answering to the DO about the whole fiasco. We recovered and the show went on. One thing I remember is how I felt through the whole thing, I was seeing the lies and manipulation of the whole organisation and the drama was part of there arsenal, I was troubled contributing to there propaganda and lies. After this my fade became apparent and now i'm involved in a different drama called "unplugged"
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  Hecce

  CO was pissed, his true self came out, it was quit the sight to see.

  Bad for his holiness
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  SadElder

  If I recall correctly the first drama was about 1966. In Baltimore, actress Joyce Holden played Potiphar's wife. The details are fuzzy after all these years. Maybe someone else can shed light.
  

  Did get to mouth some parts over the years and you would recognize my voice in several of the first dramas released on tape for the masses. Prior to that they didn't want anyone having copies of the tapes sent to the conventions for use during the 'performances'. The convention office was always certain to get the tapes back and return them to Crooklyn. I never understood their fear of tape recorded copies of the programs in those days, other than control.
  
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  TMS

  Yes, a couple. . . . both, I think in the mid-seventies.

  1. Something relating to the rebellion led by Korah. At the district convention we "rebels" had to jump off the stage onto a huge mattress to illustrate the "earth opening up." Stage lights kept the mattress in the dark. My wife and I were still regular pioneers and, thnking back on it, I should not have accepted the assignment. The prominent elder wanted me in the cast, but not my wife. I bought her a small black and white to cope with her lonely nights while I was at the arduous rehearsals. It still gnaws at me that the elder in charge, on a night he couldn't make it, bypassed me and another elder to lead the practice session in favor of his 18 year old son. Yes, face and leg paint, face beards and weird costumes.

  2. After my first negative experience with a drama, I was approached by Bill Perkins, presiding overseer of the huge "black" congregation, Little Rock East. Bill, easily more articulate than the Watchtower's J.R. Brown, had been sent as a Special Pioneer to Little Rock in the early 60's. He persuaded me, against my instincts, to help him direct the drama, cleverlyagreeing to include my wife and 3 year old son(now 44) in non-speaking roles. I also played "Brother Kindly" in the drama as the only white "actor." Back then Little Rock East was such a large congregation(blacks from all over the city bypassed territory boundaries to attend with a wink-wink from the white congregations) that we had split meetings, two TMS/Service Meetings and two Public Meeting/Watchtower Studies. Bill used the split public meetings to have 4 full dress rehearsals to practice the drama in front of a live audience before the Memphis assembly. So, the congregation saw the drama at least twice before the assembly.

  When we got to Memphis, Bill wanted another rehearsal on stage before the program started. Circuit Overseer Leroy Langan, in charge of news releases was bothering the performers for "action shots." Bill, motioning to me and, pointing to Langan, said: "Jim, could you handle that guy!." So, I walked over to Langan, who had served as my C.O. a few years previously and basically told him he was interfering with our rehearsal. LOL.
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  Hecce

  SadElder

  I do remember that drama about Joseph from around 1966 as the first one that I saw, maybe because of that some of the actors and scenes stayed with me. I do remember that Pothifar's wife was named Aknettha, and her exchanges with Joseph were X rated; for those two roles they required a husband and wife combination . To give you an idea as to the why, when Aknettha is seducing Joseph she tries to get him in bed by saying "come to my interior chamber and lets enjoy the fruits of our consummated love".

  The sister that acted this part was very well endowed, fit the role perfectly but sadly a little bit after the drama suffered an stroke and was half paralyzed.
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  punkofnice

  I never quite got how some of the drama's were anything other than people dressed in bedsheets waving their arms about in exaggerated motions.

  I remember one started off with some bloke saying 'Jehooooooooooooooooovah', in such a weird, cultish and ikky way that I couldn't concentrate on the rest of it. I think it was the usual clique dressed in bed linen and pretending to be windmills....probably a skit against masturbation.
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  Hecce

  SadElder

  I was curious about Joyce Holden and found this information regarding her:

  5 August 58	marries David P. Mannhalter. He will become an industrial real estate broker.
  April 64	she and Mannhalter are still members of Jehovah’s Witnesses and knock on front doors to deliver their sermon. "Christ went from city to city," she says, "from door to door, preaching his way."
  08	she and her husband of fifty years reside in California

  http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/422/Joyce+Holden/index.html
  
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  SadElder

  Hecce

  Thanks for refreshing the memory. I was working in the sound (then Public Address) department. All the Crooklyn heavies were there, as they believed this 'new" convention feature was the feather in their caps. I don't remember who the director of the Baltimore version was, maybe Norman Swift. I do know Ulyss Glass and Ed Dunlap were there.

  I recall at one point during a time Freddie Franz was on the platform, the sound went dead. The poor sound guy on the stage had every microphone out there on the stage trying to find one that might work. Turns out the fellow working the mixer had turned and accidentally kicked the mixer's power plug loose. What a hoot.
  

  Brought back many fond memories of friendships now long gone or dead.
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  Hecce

  SadElder

  
  

  I do remember a similar mishap with the sound at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, it took about 15 minutes to restore the system; the speaker sat very quiet at the stage and I think that the last name of the brother in charge of sound was Tabbert. I was not present but the experience was related to me.