About six weeks ago, our family attended our denomination’s church conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home to one of two Sight & Sound Theatres. As part of our agenda for the week, participants could opt into golfing, watching the live production of Daniel at Sight & Sound, or taking the afternoon off to do whatever else you might want to do in the Lancaster area.
Being the introvert that I am, I chose to spend the afternoon writing in the lobby.
We returned from Lancaster, and ten days later, I found out that Daniel, the same show I could have seen in-person just one week earlier, was airing live across the country in theaters the last weekend of August. I bought my tickets and headed out to the theater with my two teen boys, ages 13 and 17, on a Friday night.
Despite enthusiastic endorsements by several friends who had seen the show in-person, I prepared my boys for what I expected to be cheesy Christian on-stage Bible reenactment.
“If I’m right, there will be much to laugh about later. If I’m wrong, we’ll be pleasantly surprised,” I said. “Either way, we’ll have made a memory together.”
When the show ended, my oldest son and I locked eyes and grinned at each other. “That was awesome,” he said.
“Daniel is showing all the way through December,” my youngest son said. “We should go back to Lancaster and watch it in-person.” (We live 6 hours away.)
Let’s just say we were more than pleasantly surprised.
Sight & Sound Live on Stage: Daniel
Image Courtesy of Sight & Sound Theaters
If you happen to be near Lancaster, PA or Branson, MO and are as unfamiliar with Sight & Sound as I was, do not make the same mistake I made and skip the opportunity to attend a live production of one of these shows.
Even though we watched on the big screen at our local cinema, the three of us were blown away by the theatrical experience created by Sight & Sound, which employs more than 800 individuals to put on the show in Lancaster. The actors and crew perform on a huge, wrap-around stage with sophisticated backdrops and stage props, a ceiling that changes with the scenes, video production that propels the audience into the setting, talented actors and actresses with incredible singing voices and stage presence, and even live animals who come up and down the aisles.
Daniel portrays the events, dreams, and prophecies that took place in Babylon and Jerusalem during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius. It begins with a vivid imagination of Nebuchadnezzar’s first vision and then invites the audience into how Daniel and his friends may have experienced the Babylonian exile as royal advisors in Nebuchadnezzar’s court, from the fiery pit to the lion’s den and everywhere in between.
Along the way, the audience meets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, two prophets who were alive and prophesying during the days of Daniel, as the playwright weaves together various books of the Bible to give the viewer a more full and human experience of this ancient text. Even the songs were moving.
Like my son said, Daniel is playing all the way through the end of 2024. They have performed the show over 250 times this year. And it was incredible.
Finding the Love: Faithifying Your Viewing
The book of Daniel and the story of the Babylonian exile are about many things—disobedience, arrogance, wisdom, the conquered and the conquerors, worship, visions, and faithfulness—but the message that resonated most with me during this show was King Nebuchadnezzar’s pride. He just couldn’t get over himself!
One vision wasn’t enough; it took at least two miraculous signs by God to get his attention.
Oh, Neb, I feel you, brother.
“Guys, I’m sorry I was so arrogant and judgey about this show on the way here,” I told the boys when we got into the car. “That was incredible. I’m speechless.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve rolled my eyes and snubbed Christian-produced entertainment, assuming the worst instead of expecting the best. I left the theater deeply humbled. Not only is the biblical story of Daniel about proclaiming your faith and living out your beliefs, even in the face of potential death, there were all these actors and actresses, stagehands and crew members, proclaiming their faith and living out their beliefs, even in the face of animosity from one of their own, a fellow believer in Christ.
The story, songs, and performance humbled and moved me to tears on more than one occasion. I long to live out my faith in such a bold and confident way, like Daniel, like Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, and like the actors who played these characters, embodying the confidence of my faith in every thought, word, and deed as I go about my life in modern Babylon.
Instead, I often feel shy and uncertain. The world must think I’m crazy and foolish. I don’t want to be mocked for my faith, what many think is a silly, ancient, irrelevant thing.
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong,” wrote Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:27.
And there was the actor portraying Daniel, belting out “He Is Good,” a stunning and beautiful contrast to the Babylonian song of creation, “Babylon Creation.” And there was the actor portraying Ezekiel, crying out triumphantly in “New Wind” about God’s restoration.
And there are those ancient characters we know so well, facing the furnace, living through the lion’s den, standing up and serving in the face of power and oppression.
I left the theater humbled but also inspired and excited to find the next opportunity to get to a live production from Sight & Sound. In 2025, the Lancaster location will feature Noah, and the Branson location will be acting out the life of David.
Unfortunately, Daniel only aired in theaters across the country for one weekend, but you can catch recordings of this and other Sight & Sound productions streaming through their website. Sight & Sound has also produced its first feature film, I Heard the Bells, and a second, A Great Awakening, is coming soon.
I’m not going to miss it.
Copyright
2024
Root and Vine