B-A-Light Productions

Man I need to be a better Twitter-er!! Is that a word?

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

Savior of the World

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Luke 2:1-20

From all of us here at B-A-Lighting Productions Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you this Christmas season and in the New Year.

I remember as a kid, and even after I married Eric, my family had a great Christmas Eve tradition.  We would always go over to my Grandparents house and spend time visiting with one another and laughing about this or that.  We would eat the goodies that my mom and her sisters had baked that week, and Italian sausage with pepper and onions.  Occasionally, my Grandfather would try to sing Christmas Carols in his strained voice, and of course we would humor him and join in.  Those where some good times.  So much has changed since then.  Eric and I moved away, and it got to where we did not come home for Christmas anymore and I miss that Tradition.  I have tried many times to recreate it but with little or no success.

Now, after the loss of my Daughter, my Grandfather, my Dad, and now Eric’s Dad, it has become even harder to bring back the joy and festivity of the Christmas season and our traditions.  My mom called me yesterday.  She explained that this year we would not be having the Italian Sausages like we normally do…just appetizers…a piece of me wanted to say “What?  But it’s Tradition!!”

God spoke to me about that this morning…”When life changes, you have to change with it.”  The fact of the matter is, if we had the same old tradition this year, it would’ve reminded us of old times and probably would have brought on more sadness than we already feel this time of year.  I feel if you move on and do something different it helps.  And with that thought, I have decided to make new traditions this year.  We will go to my Mom’s on Christmas Eve, but that will not be the center of our evening.  Eric and I will be going to a candle light service at our church that night.  We are also going to carry on a tradition we began last year.  We are going to put the Birth of Christ first on Christmas Day and attend a midnight mass.  Even though we are not Catholic…we both enjoyed that last year. 

So the thought of the day, is when circumstances change and things just aren’t the same, try something new.  Break old traditions and start new ones.  Yeah it may be difficult, but sometimes the difficult thing brings about the joy, hope and healing that we are sometimes missing.

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Performance skills – 101 Sharpening your skills to use in every aspect of your program.

One of my greatest frustrations is that only in the church world do people think that performing, preaching and mc’ing are a natural gift. This belief means that (1) those who believe that they don’t have this gift are excused from any of the aforementioned tasks and (2) those with the gifts just have to keep performing and they will get better and better.
This concept is absolutely ludicrous. It is the same as a man saying “I have always naturally been good with my hands, I am going to start practicing operating on people and I am sure I will get better”. Even in the world of fictional TV shows this would be too far of a stretch. Doogie Howser MD was a wizz kid and a doctor by 16 but he still did all of the study and training…

A football team doesn’t just play games to get better but they run
specific drills to improve specific skills that will help them with the game. This is what I believe we need to start doing.
In this episode we are going to look at one skill that is crucial in on-stage speaking. In fact if I could only tell you one thing that most help you it would be this:

Truth by Vibration!

The year was 2002 and I was in a theatre class. I was performing a piece from the “Dead Poets Society” with a girl in my class, and I had to confess my love for her. We got to the most crucial part where I said with all my acting skill – “I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher stopped me and told me he didn’t believe me and to try again.
“I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher tried to help. He told me to just say the line. I said with no effort “I love you” and he said “PERFECT – that is it” and told me to do it in the scene. I got to the part again, I said my perfect line and he said “CUT”

Over the next 30 mins it was really painful. He got me to stop and start 20 times speaking the line and getting it perfect, then performing it and failing. After the 30 mins I still didn’t get it. I had no idea what he was saying because to me they sounded exactly the same. It wasn’t until a few months later I found out a secret that has changed the way I have performed ever since.

I went to a voice training class and the speech specialist said during a routine exercise “Truth is communicated on Vibration”.

Every time you speak, sing or make a noise a vibration is made in your body. We generally talk with a bit of chest vibration and a bit of throat vibration but when we get on stage for some strange reason most people’s voice gets a little bit higher and it goes straight to the throat. This is the easiest way to tell the difference from a preacher that has been preaching for years and a rookie. The rookie’s voice is always a little bit higher than they normally speak.

When I perform my voice goes high, goes low, goes all over the place for the enjoyment of the crowd, but whenever I want to communicate a message I make sure my chest vibrates.

Professional performers are trained to speak on vibration (that meaning in the chest) because it sounds more confident, it is more relaxing, and you can speak for as long as you want and your throat will not tire. The other main reason is that if you don’t speak on vibration people will not believe you.
So give it some practice. It is a learnt skill that takes time. It is not speaking in a deep voice but it has certain feel that has to be learnt. The best way is to practice your message with your hand on your chest and focus on getting the vibrations lower.

If you look at all the great preachers, performers and mc’s, you will notice that they speak very similarly to when they are off-stage. They may not realise they are speaking on vibration but have just developed that over the years. If you adopt this specific training you will find that you advance a lot quicker than those who have gone before you.

Have Fun

Dan.