A Crowd to Practice On
How do you get choir members to take dress rehearsals seriously? As every conductor knows, some aspects of excellence are mastered only under the pressure of facing a live audience. But if the first live audience is the one at the actual performance—it's too late. That's why the adult choir at Berwick Church of Christ outside Melbourne, Australia, decided to import an audience for its dress rehearsals—from nearby nursing homes. "Each time we were ready to present a cantata we contacted administrators of the various homes to see who would like to attend," explains Pastor Norval Bunch, who now serves a church in Bellingham, Washington. "Then spouses of choir members and others from the church would go pick them up for the occasion." The advantages were many: • The choir instinctively worked harder in the dress rehearsal. • The elderly got to enjoy a musical presentation without worrying about either transportation or crowds. • Families of choir members had a way to support the ministry. • Since refreshments were served to everyone afterward, good fellowship resulted. • Others in the community got involved. The owner of a bus company heard about the plan and offered to pick up residents in the future. "The idea benefited the choir and was an outreach at the same time," says the pastor.
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