As you can see from the picture above, we had an enormous cast and crew. There were all the various members of Jacob of Israel's family, three narrators, Pharoah, Potiphar and Mrs Potiphar, a butler, a baker, Pharoah's guard, mainstage dancers, Caananite dancers, Egyptianette dancers, ensemble singers, a children's chorus, puppeteers, and a full orchestra.
It was so fun to perform with an orchestra. Every church musical I've ever seen or been in used accompaniment recordings or at most a pianist. This took our show to a whole new level.
Many of our youth rocked it in the orchestra and as puppeteers. Our camel was particularly popular with the crowd, and the evolving skeleton in the prison was a big hit among the cast.
We also had a fabulous children's chorus. They look so angelic here.
They could be pretty restless and wiggly during rehearsals, but in performance they were quite impressive. They were very attentive and had clearly been well directed.
Mindy directed the ensemble, which consisted of the folks on the right as well as the Canaanite dancers in act II and the Egyptianettes in act I. We only had two men, so in some songs when the brothers weren't onstage, they sang offstage with their mics turned on.
The visible ensemble members were given fun accessories and gestures to act with throughout the show. Several of them were moms of the main stage actors or the children's chorus. They could often be seen at intermission touching up their kids' hair and make-up.
Our stage crew helped design, paint, and move around the sets. It was fun to watch it all being created during rehearsals. Some of these guys have some real artistic talent!
Our Canaanite dancers acted as wives and sisters in the first scenes then doubled as Ishmaelites (or as we called them, Ishmaelettes) when Joseph gets sold into slavery.
Our teenage Egyptianettes looked fabulous! I remember being absolutely stunned when I saw their costumes.
Our mainstage dancers were very busy ladies! They were onstage for nearly every scene and had several costume changes. They acted with the Canaanite dancers, Egyptianettes, and had their own dance numbers too.
Heidi was the busiest of them all, though. She was both a mainstage dancer and Mrs Potiphar, so she was often backstage scrambling to get into her next costume.
We had a fantastic Potiphar, in spite of his very recent hip replacement, and his real life wife played the Baker. One of our mainstage dancers volunteered her husband to play Pharoah's guard, and our Zebulon doubled as the Butler.
Our brothers really stole the show though. Here we have Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.
Issachar, Naphtali, and Asher
Gad, Dan, and Benjamin
Zebulon, our fabulous Joseph, and Judah, played by my own Oscar. It was super fun to do a show with my husband, even if our characters didn't interact much.
The Bennet family was super involved with the show. Chari was our musical director, her husband played Jacob, their son played Benjamin, one of their daughters was a narrator with me, another was in the children's chorus and played the brother's last sheep, and another helped out backstage with hair and makeup.
Our director also doubled as Pharoah - the King!
And last but I hope not least, here's me as one of the narrators. Our costumes were the last to be designed and weren't fully completed until opening night. Most of the pictures taken were done before we were all pieced together. At first we were all in purple formals, then we were in jumpsuits with peacock jackets, and eventually it evolved into bright colors, curly hair, fake eyelashes, and lots of bling.
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| Go, Go, Jo! |
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| Full cast and crew |
Mindy directed the ensemble, which consisted of the folks on the right as well as the Canaanite dancers in act II and the Egyptianettes in act I. We only had two men, so in some songs when the brothers weren't onstage, they sang offstage with their mics turned on.
And last but I hope not least, here's me as one of the narrators. Our costumes were the last to be designed and weren't fully completed until opening night. Most of the pictures taken were done before we were all pieced together. At first we were all in purple formals, then we were in jumpsuits with peacock jackets, and eventually it evolved into bright colors, curly hair, fake eyelashes, and lots of bling.
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