Kingdom Chronicles (VBS 2013)

As some of you may know or remember, every year I direct the vacation Bible school drama for my church. The format is that every day, we do a 15-20 minute "episode" based on the theme that year (this year we're doing Kingdom Chronicles, which has a medieval theme, but last year we did Incrediworld, which was set in a theme park, and the year before we did a wild-west themed drama (which was probably my favorite!)), and then a few weeks after VBS we retool slightly, put all five days together, and do the drama for the church as a whole.

The cast generally has six core members, and we swap out the seventh member (whom we jokingly refer to as our "guest star" lol). This past year, is was my little sister, Elizabeth, who enjoyed it so much that we might have found a permanent seventh member. :)

I did a horrible job at documenting last year's hard work, so this time I was determined to do a better job! The entire drama would take too long to explain, but here are the Clif Notes: our youth pastor plays King Christopher, the father of two immature princes, who goes on vacation hoping they'll mature in his absence; I play Ida, the Puddleglum-esque matron of the castle; my friend Sam plays Sir Gavin, the wise old knight who's left in charge of the castle and two princes; teens George and Chase play childish princes Richard and Robert; my sister Maggie plays the evil queen Morinda, who attempts to befriend the princes and take over the kingdom in the king's absence; and my sister Liz plays Gwendolyn, Morinda's lady in waiting, who's slightly too stupid to realize her lady is, in fact, evil. :)

Thanks to our youth pastor's wife and codirector, who had a million things to do during VBS but still took time to take pictures! :)



Sam and I confer about the health of the dragon, Flame.

"Hey buddy! If I come in there, do you promise you won't eat me?
Was that a yes or a no?"

Part of the cast, walking around and greeting kids during the day's activities.

King Christopher explaining why he went away on "vacation"

Queen Morinda faints after discovering that her evil plan to take over the kingdom has been foiled.



Sam, as Sir Gavin, with one of the kids.



The kids absolutely adored him and he couldn't move through the building without a crowd forming.

So proud of him! He really did a great job making sure every kid felt special!

The princes practice their swordfighting.

Being led astray by the evil queen.

"Wait - you actually SAID YOU WERE SORRY?"

Sir Gavin trying to knock some sense into the princes.

One day at VBS we had a costume contest (I got to pick the winners! :)). Sam knighted the best dressed boy...

... and I got to crown the best-dressed girl!

All in all, it was an awesome, crazy, busy, exhausting, exhilarating week! Not to mention the four months of rehearsal and preparation that we put into it. But I think it's safe to say this might have been our most "successful" drama ever - I had tons of parents who told me that they were planning on returning to the church after VBS was over to see the full drama. Hopefully lots of seeds were planted.

Now on to next year... ;)