It's the Final Countdown

We have been performing for 6 weeks, and now we have one left.
We began with 50 shows (actually 51), and we have successfully completed 40.
We have just 11 shows to do ... in 6 days.
It's the final countdown.

Today we are running a marathon, 3 shows in Hertford, Hitchin and Potters Bar. The team is psyched up and ready to take on this challenge (yet again), but this time we know what to expect, and the weather might be cooler. After today we seemingly race towards the end with two shows each of the next three days. Then we coast to the finish line.

We are family

We've been out of Potters Bar and living on the road for a week now. Well, not really living on the road as much as living with families. From Thursday to Sunday we were based in Shrewsbury for a show and a wedding. The Bacon's home was a bit crowded with family in-town for the wedding, so Annika and Disa got the pleasure of sleeping in a tent in the garden. It was great! We even laid out in the grass one night looking up at the stars, shining so bright. The wedding was beautiful, the Ceilidh dancing was a blast, and the family was generous and welcoming.

Bright and early Sunday morning we drove down to Westgate-on-Sea. Before an afternoon show, we got the chance to relax, swim in the sea, get cleaned up and meet a mass of Sam's family. A whopping 18 of them (5 children included!) filled out our audience that day. After the show we headed down to Brighton, our base for this week. Show load this week seems light (at least when we compare it to what next week will be), so we're getting a lot of time to relax. The girls have spent a good amount of time reading, and Sam has even managed to watch some movies. Sam's family, like Moira's, are generous and welcoming, making everyone feel comfortably at home while we're here.

In other breaking news, we had our biggest audience to date - 265!

We'll do it all

Of the crazy weeks that we've had thus far in the tour, this week is it's own kind of crazy. It all started last week when the schedule started getting juggled around after we had to cancel some shows. We cancelled two of the original five shows this week because we couldn't get an audience for a couple theatres, putting both us and them in tight spots. But do not fret, because we did manage to get two last minute venues, so we still have 51 shows on the schedule. A huge round of applause to Moira, Luisa and Trisha for handling this schedule change and coming out on top!

To the ordinary onlooker, this may look like we now had two free days ahead of us, but things are not always what they seemed. Yes we did not have any shows on Tuesday, but we all did some time in the office, and Thursday may look like a whole day off, but a chunk of it will be spent driving to Shrewsbury. We did make a point to get some rest on Tuesday and have some time to ourselves, but that was also to recover from Monday and get ready for today. You see, on these days we had 10 o'clock shows in places over an hour drive away. So in order to beat traffic and get to the venues in plenty of time, we left Potters Bar at 5.20am. We did manage to avoid traffic and get to the venues hours before we were expected, so it's a good thing we all had things to read. When showtime finally rolled around, we performed to audiences of 7 and 11 people, but we still gave it our all. These audiences may have been small in number, but they were big in participation. After performing, packing up and eating some lunch, we'd hit the road to come back home. Unfortunately we did hit traffic on the motorway and didn't get back to Potters Bar until roughly 11 hours after we left. A few long days to make up for our "days off."

Turn Around

Today we knocked out two more shows, putting us only 23 performances away from the world record! I believe that today's shows were little answers to prayer. Not only did we have audiences at both of our shows, but they were also great audiences. The first was only one, small class. They were so enthusiastic and interactive that they filled out the whole church. The next show was at Cuffley School, a school where Act 4 has regularly performed assemblies and run 'R' Rights sessions. At this performance we had over 80 people! And that is the largest audience we have yet to get in a school. The kids at Cuffley are always excited to see Act 4, and we did our best not to disappoint. Let me tell you, it is so much easier when there's an audience. ;)

Bittersweet Symphony

Today we performed our 25th show, 25 out of 50. That means that we are halfway to claiming our world record. Exciting, right?

Right, but excitement was not the primary emotion felt by the team today. You see, we are all a bit frustrated, everyone from the world record team to our small but mighty administrative team. We are struggling to get audiences for too many of our remaining shows. I've mentioned before that Guinness World Records does not require that we have an audience, but it is difficult to perform an interactive show when there is no one to interact with. I will amend that statement now to say that it is difficult to perform an interactive show for children when there are no children in the audience. It takes a lot of energy to perform a show (in addition to the energy spent moving and setting up all the kit), and usually a performer can keep his/her energy up by feeding off the energy of the audience. Without an audience (or children), a show can become really draining. When we're performing 50 shows in 50 days, we can't afford to lose our energy; too much has gone into this project already.

We are still excited about what we're doing and giving every show our very best, but we ask for your support. Pray for the whole team, especially Moira, as we continue to work to find audiences. Pray that schools will work with us to get their kids to see a show. Pray that we can stay focused on what really matters and not get too stressed about any particular thing. If you can think of anything else, by all means, pray for it too.

Another one bites the dust

Another week down with a total of 22 shows complete. Sorry that it has been so long since the last post, but this week has been a bit crazy. Let me explain.

We came away from a nice weekend off with a show at a school where we do assemblies. Our first show of the week brought us our first serious (at the time) technical problem. It forced us to switch to some back-up kit , which we fortunately had ready to go. We all felt a bit off during the performance and had some slip ups, but we managed. Only one show on Monday, but we were all a bit nervous for the next day.

Tuesday the 16th had been looming over the team for weeks, ever since the third performance was confirmed, giving us three shows in one, short day. At least the anticipation put us in top form. We made it to the first venue in plenty of time and actually set up quickly, leaving 45 minutes to spare before the show! It helped that we could drive Clancy right onto the stage. ;)
We packed up after a great show, and then made it from Dunstable to Potters Bar in half an hour! We encountered some sound problems at the next venue in the form of a radio station interfering with sound system. We couldn't stop the radio before the show began, but it eventually went away. We made it to the third venue, still standing, and performed Star Citizen like it was the first of the day. Not only did we survive three shows in one day, but we also faced different situations that owe were able to adapt to and still deliver our show.

Our flexibility came in handy the very next day, where we encountered our most interesting performance space yet. It was a very old and beautiful church, with a shape not ideally suited for performing a show to a hundred children. We saw what we had to work with, moved some bits around and made the best of the space we had, all part of the world record challenge.

Wednesday evening we had a show in a primary school we have never been to before. It was a lovely school with a nice space to work in, and we got the opportunity to perform the show for a predominantly non-Christian group. Afterwards we got some encouraging feedback about how we deliver our message effectively, using Christian values without being exclusive or offensive.

Thursday was free of performances, but the team got together with some of our trustees for lunch and prayer. Our trustees have been overwhelmingly supportive, from finding venues and organizing prayer, to coming to shows to help with front of house and packing up our kit. This time of prayer and spiritual support is just one more way that they are keeping the team and this record attempt on course.

Friday the team drove to Cambridge to perform in the church of another TFG volunteer. The audience was small, but we still gave them our best. As difficult as it was to get 50 venues (now 51, actually), it has proven more difficult to get a substantial audience at each show. Moira has been incredible, phoning and re-phoning schools, but it's difficult work. Now that the team is feeling more confident in our abilities to overcome space issues and technical difficulties, we ask you to keep praying for Moira's task and for our audiences. This record attempt has never been just about getting a world record, it has been about spreading the work of Act 4 to other parts of the country and sharing the messages of hope and of the potential that children DO have to make a difference. We can do our part in performing Star Citizen, but we do need people to see it and be open to what it offers.

We shall overcome

We understood that going for a world record was not going to be easy, 50 shows in 50 days and all. This week we realized how tricky it really is to do those 50 shows in 50 different places. We have come across some interesting venues that have forced us to put on our thinking caps. For example, churches come in all shapes and sizes (we've gone into 3 churches this week), so it always takes a bit of quick thinking to figure out the best space for our stage. Often times we have to move different bits of furniture out of the way and work around various steps and platforms. These venues can bring added stress to our setup time, but we have always managed to get everything in order and still put on a great show for whoever comes to see it.

With the added obstacles that churches (and sometimes schools) can bring, we have really come to appreciate our theatre venues. The spaces are always ample, there is technical staff on hand that are willing to help out, the lights look great, and WE GET REAL DRESSING ROOMS! Needless to say, we were excited to get back to a theatre this morning, until we found out that the theatre was on the third floor, and there was only a tiny lift to move all our equipment up there. It's a good thing we got there over two hours before the show. We had our doubts at first, but the theatre people were really nice and helpful. Packing up went much quicker with extra help and a big, lift-sized trolley.

Tomorrow Star Citizen goes international! All the way across the border to Wales. Yes! See you back in Potters Bar next week.