Kudos to both

Easter is a time that churches get to show their hand in music and drama as they produce Easter plays about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It is a time that I usually review as many as I think I can afford to see. I am not referring to money, but I can afford to tolerate-- Churches are not theaters or drama halls.

For the past years I have gone to and reviewed one that is extremely impressive. This year, however, I attended two that were impressive. I would classify them as wonderfully produced and excellently produced.

Last year, the San Francisco Christian Center's production was more than impressive, it was excellent. In a review of last year's play, I labeled it the best church play I had ever seen. So I was back in San Francisco again this year.

This year's play was different from last year's play, He's Coming Back. This year's play was Upon This Rock. It was still an Easter tale but a number of changes had occurred. I particularly liked the negritude of last year that was so evident in the scene where the High Priest was in a discussion about Jesus and one of the respondents answered in a very Black manner. That put the SFCC's stamp on it. This year, all negritude is gone. Also, there are scenes this year that were not there last year: the Hell's Fire scene where Jesus goes into hell, sets free the captives, and takes the keys from Satan. There was a scene that had youths from diverse nationalities signing and gesticulating the song, as the many nations' flags were brought down the isles and video-merged onto the on-stage performers. This was new and excellently done.

But aside from the new aspects, the presentation was again excellent. SFCC has been consistent in the quality of its production. Indeed, the quality is so outstanding that it can easily be taken out of the Church Play category and placed in the professional musical category.

The quality of the technical aspects--lighting, staging, audio, special effects, etc.--was as good and better than many professional productions. The audio was so seamless until it was almost impossible at times to determine when live performance stopped and pre-recorded audio took over. Of course, this is only possible when there is an excellent band.

And the band! I was impressed last year; I am equally impressed with them this year. Christian Center has the best band I have heard in the San Francisco Bay area in many years. This is not qualified to a church band. This Christian Center band is world class. They are a show unto themselves. As they did last year, they did this year--they had that play and that place jumping. And these were not just 600 Christian people attending.

Saxophone soloist, Jonno, and You Are Holy, was standing ovation good. And the audience did not fail to recognize that fact. And the music generally was professional quality in every way. The singers/soloists, were at the top of their craft. These were recording musicians. These were singers one would go anywhere to hear.

If you have read what I have said thus far, you get the idea that I was more than impressed. The cast was appropriate for the play; their dress was beautiful and simple; not overdone but eye catching still. The final song and closing skit was effusive with outfits that were a brilliant white, with a crimson topping.

This two-hour production, written, produced, and overall directed by Lavern Bolton--same as last year--directed by Kimberly Miller--same as last year--was a variation from last year's play in a number of ways, but the quality was the same and even better. Indeed, the superb quality of this musical production was the outstanding and recognizable aspect of this play.

We salute all of those who worked on this play and especially the technical and musical directors and coordinators--Bruce Green--technical genius; Steven Bailey, musical genius; Douglas Mackbee, stage managing genius; and all who had their hands in this production.

With all the nice things out of the way, here are the other things. This church has an excellent production crew with abilities many play houses would love to have. Because the production is so excellent, why not charge the actual cost of the play and exclude the need for Pastor Green having to beg for an offering? That act is distracting and could be unnecessary. There are three easy ways that this moneychanger aspect can be eliminated: Price the tickets correctly to cover a large percentage of the cost; Second, have business and individual sponsorships. Many businesses would jump at the opportunity to sponsor such a production and have their names and locations listed as sponsors in the brochures; Third, why not sell video copies of the play? In those copies, businesses sponsoring could be listed, and they would pay for that advertisement.

Christian Center may make enough money to produce several other plays: The Birth of Christ, The Drama of the Last Supper, The Adam and Eve Story, etc. There is enough material and enough talent in the San Francisco Christian Center to have an entire Production Department.

Leaving that play and San Francisco, I went to the Union City Apostolic Church's play, HisStory: An Easter Drama. This was a different play. A church play, but still different. Wonderfully produced, but different still.

This was the first time I had visited this assembly and seen this production. It was a far grander play. It took us from the birth of Christ to his death, burial, and resurrection--SFCC only dealt with the Easter message. Its cast was over 100 members. It had elaborate dress, props--live animals--and excellent singing.

This was a wonderful production. It tended to attempt too much for this two-hour and 20 minute play. With approximately 500-600 attendees, the production was great with some exceptions.

This production had a cast of actors that appeared more recognizable for their acting than did SFCC's play. The Jesus character--Adam Lopez, III--in this play was a real main character with a presence more than the Jesus of Christian Center. The Pilate character was a creditable character and enjoyable.

The actors of this production made you pay attention to them. They were on stage longer, they were bigger than SFCC's characters. And there was an especially excellent trait that they perfected as it was used several times. It was the freeze action stances that they employed beautifully as their signature. It was effective and memorable. SFCC had special effects; UCAC had freeze action as its special effects.

But I would be remiss if I failed to remark on the singing. Just as the characters forced your notice, the singing was not as excellent as SFCC, except for one: Ms. Vonnie Lopez. She has a trumpet that cannot be denied. She sang and she sang! That, however, is not to say that Mark Gutierrez and Eli Rios were not excellent singers; they were, but the day was Vonnie Lopez's. She kept coming back, and she requires attention, especially her last song, They Could Not--it was brilliant, beautiful, and moving, bringing tears to these eyes and many more!

The flaw in their musical was their weak sound system. It threw off the singing and the band. The system was weak for this production. There was too much blaring and blending of sounds that should not have been blared or blended. The Band drowned out too much of the choir. Their volume could have been much more reduced and they would have been much more effective.

This band did not compare with SFCC's band, but few do. Yet they were good, very good--just too loud for the singers.

The pastor spoke at the end; he asked for no offering, only for individuals who wanted prayer. That was good. That's what one expects at a church. The expense of the play was not talked about. I have no idea how much the tickets were--I got mine free.

There was a sleeper character whose presence stood out: John Reymundo was an excellent High Priest--one you love to hate. He was a type of Peoples Hernandez [Jeffrey Wright] in Shaft. He could easily and almost did take the show.

One final item that stood out as one reads the play's brochure: The pastor is Bishop Adam G. Lopez; the Music Director is Aaron Lopez; the Drama Director and main soloist in the play is Vonnie Lopez; the main character, Jesus, was played by Adam Lopez, III; Baby Jesus was played by Baby Lopez; and in other places there was a Lopez here and a Lopez there and a Lopez everywhere. I do not deny they are talented--Vonnie can sing one into heaven--but maybe there is talent elsewhere that should be used too.

Overall, these were two very fine and enjoyable productions. It was five hours on Saturday well spent.  Kudos to both The SF Christian Center and the Union City Apostolic Church. []