O’FALLON – Dinner theatre is not the typical method for a church to share the Christmas story and the Gospel, but that is what FBC O’Fallon did last month.
“Two from Galilee was an ambitious musical, “ Alan Fath, worship pastor said, “it was like a Broadway production with music start to finish. Also, it was an older production, and we didn’t have the resources that we usually have.”
“I contacted the writers,” Fath continued, “and they didn’t have the original materials, so we found a production on YouTube that we liked and we made our own notes.”
According to Fath, this was not an overnight success. “We introduced it to the choir in May,” he said, “then we began auditions for the cast parts during the summer. By August, we were ready to begin rehearsals with the choir and to begin blocking the scenes.”
Dinner theatre is not new for Fath or even to FBC O’Fallon, “During my twenty-eight years of ministry,” he said, “I’ve done this on a smaller scale. In previous churches, we would serve only dessert. The audience could enjoy dinner out and then come for dessert. Then, we started with catered dinners. My wife, Amanda, usually organizes the food and servers, but this year, she was able to be in the production because a church member, Vickie Kragenbing organized the meal.”
Kragenbing suggested instead of catering the meal that the church furnish the meal. “I fix breakfast on Sunday morning for the early church service,” she said, “so I thought it would save more money if we did the meal. They use the extra money from the production for future productions and for children’s camp.”
The musical was held for the first time in FBC O’Fallon’s new facility. Two performances sold out, with 320 tickets per night. Also, Kragenbing needed to provide an additional 60 meals for the cast, choir, servers, and tech crew.
“I don’t have professional cooking experience,” Kragenbing said. “I’ve been a wedding coordinator and a flight attendant, but I’m very organized. I do have a son who is a chef, so I have resources. He is the one who told me to go with the diced roasted potatoes instead of mashing them.”
Kragenbing explained that she had three ladies helping her prep the week before and about ten working with her each evening. “We had everything organized so that we could just pop it into the oven on the day of the event.”
Fath said the performance was emotional for some of the audience. “I had church members say they had tears in their eyes when Mary and Joseph sang a love song to each other. Joseph was played by Ricky Johnson who has a classically trained voice. His wife, Rachel, played Mary. … It was beautiful.”
“The other moment that impressed the audience was the choir singing the angels song of Gloria in Excelsis when Jesus is born,” he said. “Then, the chilling moment at the end, with the cross superimposed with lights to wrap everything up. The reason for everything.”