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Chip's Blog

Ten Years….

By March 15, 2017March 19th, 20182 Comments

Isn’t it amazing how fast time flies?  We’re about to celebrate 10 years of Ragtown Gospel Theater productions.  Ten years since the curtain first opened with Peter the Rock.  I thought it might be fun to take a little visual trip down memory lane with some of my favorite sets from our 34 Ragtown productions.

The set for Judas, The Lost Apostle, one of my favorites of all the sets and plays. Glenn was amazing as Judas. I’m trying to coax him into a repeat performance. If you were there, you’ll remember the earthquake, with rock tumbling down the steep face of the hill on the right side of the stage. We had more than a few audience members almost hook up to a runaway.

The village of Bethany for LazarusThis was the set for our second production of Lazarus, and it was interesting just to walk around that place. It’s fun to try to figure out what is paint, and what is real in a lot of our sets.

Here’s the set for The Carpenter’s Son. I’m noticing that most of my favorite sets are the more recent ones. I would love for you to have seen the day we have eight or ten volunteers painting all those styrofoam fish. Somewhere I have a hilarious video of Robin “swimming” across the Sea of Galilee when she was working on the background mural.

I don’t know if we’ll ever top the Gates of Paradise set. That chasm between Hades and Paradise was fun to create. The huge golden stairway…not so much fun, but what a stunner it was.

But we’ve had a lot of people tell us that our set for our current production of Barnabas is the best one ever. I’ll have to admit that it is pretty wonderful. Another one that will trick your eyes a bit. In the background you’ll see the statue we call “Styro.” She was created for The Antioch Challenge, and has been living in the corner of my office for several years, which gave me the distinction of being the only guy I know of with a seven foot pagan goddess in his office.

Ten years have flown by. And this production of Barnabas is flying by as well. It is going to be over before you know it, and the set, as beautiful as it is, isn’t the best part. This is a wonderful story, beautifully presented by Glenn Polk, Jay Young, Michael Williams, David Burk, and a terrific supporting cast.

Come and see for yourself…this Saturday at 3:00!

Join the discussion 2 Comments

  • David Brantley says:

    Looking forward to seeing BARNABAS for the last weekend. Your Hong Kong director and their Moses is looking forward to meeting you in person. Blessings.

  • SYLVIA PICKENS says:

    JUST GOT HOME FROM SEEING THE WONDERUL PRODUCTION OF BARBNABAS; IT WAS MY VERY FIRST TIME TO ATTEND RAGTOWN ,HAVE NO IDEA WHY I HAVE NOT BEEN BEFORE, BUT ONE CAN BE SURE IT WILL NOT BE MY LAST TIME. THE PLAY WAS OUTSTANDING AS WELL AS THE SONGS AND PIANO PLAYING BY CHIP, THE CAST PERFECT, THE SETTING IN ROME OUTSTANDING, AND THE ENTIRE BUILDING AND SETTING OUTDOORS A HIDDEN JEWEL. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO CHIP, ROBIN, GLENN AND THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION FAMILY FOR AN AFTERNOON WELL SPENT