Easter Pageant

Louisville is host to one of the nation’s top 20 megachurches, sprawling Southeast Christian Church, with its membership of 20,000 plus and its arena-size sanctuary that fits close to 10,000. (Driving into the Southeast campus pictured above.) I’ve been there for worship twice and Stephanie, Vicnent, and I went several years ago to their famous Easter pageant, which traversed the whole Bible. The next year they shut the show down and re-worked it. One of Stephanie’s colleagues who goes to Southeast Christian (a few other people we know attend there in some way or another) got us ticket to see the re-vamped show tonight. The new version was more multimedia, including the traditional Southeast bevy of live animals, human cast of several hundred, and Broadway-style songs, plus added a whole multimedia element, with heavy reliance on video projected on the sanctuary’s Imax-size screens (plus the actors sometimes projected live up there). This story was more focused, starting with John the Baptist and moving through the crucifixion and the ascension (with some flashbacks to childhood). Lots of video footage of the crucifixion early on, in a “Passion of the Christ” sort of way. The actor who played Jesus also directed and shot the video footage. And his wife apparently played a spooky Devil – when Jesus was in the Wilderness and in Gethsemane. It was interesting to see how they modernized the language of the story. I’m still a traditionalist fan of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” (and have not in fact seen “Passion of the Christ”), but this version was worth seeing. I know from survey research others have done that church is one of the few places where many Americans watch – or sometimes participate in – live theater, and plenty of Louisville-ians get their dose of live theater at Southeast. (The show was in its second night, and the sanctuary wasn’t quite full.) (Pictured below is one of the hundreds of cast members, after the show.)

-- Perry