New musical about Ten Commandments is a hit

This weekend Holy Apostle's Church in Pimlico, central London, hosted two performances of Sing It! - a musical about the Ten Commandments performed and stage crewed by more than 70 parish children. The primary purpose of doing the play was to give the children an equal opportunity to learn performing arts and religious education. The secondary motive was to fundraise for their twin parish in Turkana and to start a fund for future similar dual purpose activities for the children.

The premise of Sing It! is simply this: the easiest way to remember the Ten Commandments is through song. They certainly proved their point! The performance was engaging in that unique way only children can commandeer. They danced, they sang and they acted with a purity of heart that was irresistible! The children were primary school students, and logistically divided into six teams and a stage team for easier management and rehearsing.

The director, designer, marionette maker etc was the talented Gigi Ybarra, Parish Pastoral Council chair. She was supported by a huge team of mothers, dads and parishioners. They even had a special arts and crafts day in preparation for the event. With sewing machines whirling, scissors cutting and paints brushes busy the group made costumes, scenery and props. Children were trained to do lighting, sound effects and music by Ian Millar and Eileen Sheedy was the technical adviser.

The clever usage of a projector screen, approximately 2.5m by 4m, gave each of the ten scenes a memorable visual backdrop. There were photos of neighbourhood locales, exotic places or sketched backgrounds. Perhaps the most dramatic backdrop dealt with the third commandment, Keep Holy the Lords Day. The stunning effect was achieved by "shadow boxing", a usage of light and shadow dancers (see picture).

The performances were deemed a huge success!! What will be the subject of their next endeavour? Their audience awaits!