Rock Tour 2 - Chorleywood

The next performance of the tour found us among very familiar faces - Joyful Noise Choir. The choir have performed with us for a long time, along with their conductor, Sarah Moreton, who has often been a soloist for CMM.

After Sarah initially struggled to find a suitable venue, we ended up at the St Clement Danes School on the edge of Chorleywood, and in the excellent Barbirolli Hall. Sarah and her helpers had done some stirling work, reversing the hall round. The technicians got to sit on the permanent stage, the choir on the tiered seating normally found at the back of the hall, and the cast performed in front of the choir on a stage specially hired in for the occasion. It sounds complicated, but it did work remarkably well.

As it was a Saturday, we once again had two performances, and the hall seemed to be full for both of them. Well done to the choir for selling so many tickets - it felt very full and the audiences were very responsive.

Unfortunately during the day at Chorleywood we had a couple of casualties. Firstly, Amy, our clarinettist had been suffering from a chest infection for the past few months, and all of the playing irritated the condition. This meant that Carole, Annie and Marilyn suddenly found themselves mid performance having to fill in the parts usually played on clarinet. They did an excellent job, but Amy understandably was very upset at not being able to be involved. Unfortunately Amy struggled to play for much of the remainder of the tour.

Secondly, Sally, one of the dancers, aggravated a neck and shoulder injury, so she had to take it easy. The other girls managed to cover her part, but with a lot of practice, particularly for the song Just as I am, which Anna had to learn almost from scratch. Thankfully Sally recovered well and was dancing again at Banbury the following day.

An interesting development occurred in Chorleywood for the prophetic section at the end of song 15. This is the point in the musical where the backing track keeps playing, and all of the touring party try to be open to God to hear what he is saying in the situation. This usually leads to one of the soloists singing out what they think God is saying, or a dancer or instrumentalists using their gifts under God's direction. Usually when this has happened, Roger weighs up the situation. He may say a few words, pray, or simply allow the musical to continue with the next bit of drama. At the evening performance and after some prayer and a great amount of prodding from God, Helen did the summing up rather than Roger. It created a very different dynamic on stage, with the words coming from the character Susannah, rather than the conductor. More prayer is needed as to whether this becomes a regular feature, but it really is exciting to see how God is allowing the performances to grow, develop, and be used by him.

Finally, one of the most exciting things about the performances at Chorleywood were the conversations that took place afterwards. There seemed to be a lot of chatting and praying going on. Most notably, Margaret our prayer coordinator, had some excellent conversations with the St. John's Ambulance people. One of them particularly had had some experience of Church in the past through the boys brigade, and he seemed to be really affected by Rock. We pray that he may come to know Jesus as a result of what he has seen and heard.

Our huge thanks go to Sarah and all her helpers, including Marion, Christine and Susan (who has since won the weakest link!). We also want to thank the lovely gentleman who helped by praying round the building with Margaret, the St. John's people and the stewards. It was an excellent day.