Never been in a drama.. did watch quite a few rehearsals at the assembly hall. Those of us "regular" volunteers were allowed to watch, but we were reminded of confidentiality.... We were also the ones that had to move all of the dining room tables.... they were the kind found in many schools.. individual stools..8 to a table, all attached...fold up and roll around pretty easily. We also used that occasion to clean the carpets after 6 months of use for CA's, SAD's.
I was involved in theater in high school, always as a techie, never on stage. The JW dramas were a joke in comparison. But, to give credit to the dub "actors", most of them put their heart and souls into doing their best.
Of course, one of the "instructions" in the drama scripts were that if the characters were husband and wife in the drama, they had to be husband and wife in real life..... yeah.... one year, there were two couples in the drama...they were putting a lot more than their "heart and souls" into the rehearsals.... can you say wife swap? They carried on like this and performed in the drama.... it was found out not long after the drama.....
The DC I attended in 2006 ....one at home and one in Hamburg, Germany.... they had a full costume drama....that was the year they build the altar with the golden calf.... at Hamburg they just had smoke coming out of it and I dont know what was coming out when it cracked open...I was too far away to see that.
But in St. Louis, at the first convention, damned if they didnt have real flame shoot out of the thing.... and it broke open and all this stuff that looked like ash (really gray spray painted packing peanuts) come out when it opened up...best special effect ever at a DC.... (the second convention someone in stage department had tripped over the extension cord that controlled the set up...they just got smoke at theirs).
...maybe the best "special effect" at a DC was the year of the Noah drama... back in the 70s probably... It was held at the state fairgrounds in Springfield, IL.... it was hot and humid as midwest summers always are... the 90/90 rule.... 90 degrees plus F/90%+ humidity.... the flies were thick from nearby horse stables... umbrellas were out in force shielding us from the baking sun....
... "Noah" was standing in the middle of the (cant remember if it was the stage or the racetrack..I was young)....arms outstretched to the heavens, and forcefully the audio said "Jehovah, I have never seen rain before." The brother playing Noah, however, was not lip syncing to the tape...... he was laughing hysterically because he was being inundated with rain..... I think that was my best drama memory. Anyone else remember that one?
Most of the dramas in later years have gotten horribly lame....dumbed down...not the spectacles we used to have (or was that a childhood viewpoint of them affecting how I remember?)... and in 07 (my last DC) when they made up Bible characters ...how bad is that....
Snakes ()
