Christmas Presence
That's a Wrap!
The night was warm. The stars were sparkling, set in a clear sky, the crescent moon hanging low, smiling down on us like the Cheshire cat. Present, all-knowing, and A-OK. The crunching music of our soles along the rocky path scored our departure from the Wizard Academy that soft December night.
“Merry Christmas, Felisia!”
“Merry Christmas!”
The holiday wishes soared from our lips, wrapping themselves around each other as ribbons would with holly upon a Hallmark card, tying up our shared gratitude for the season in a heartfelt, lingering bow. It glinted and glimmered. Translucent joy. The mystique we generated together over these past few weeks now coming to a close with a shimmering dissolve. The holy dust of Christmas magic tracing the shape of dreams into the crisp Texas air as our hearts shone bright.
The path gave way to the gravel parking lot, and we bubbled off, floating away from this magical, theatrical time together, full of holiday joy.
Our play was wrapped! The Journey of the Wisemen.
Written, produced, and directed by Austin’s own Monica Ballard, the 25-minute experience took the audience through a portal into Renaissance realms along a cedar wood trail for a nativity tale.
My heart felt so held in God’s grace that I knew I was just where I was supposed to be.
I am honored to carry the words of my Angel character with me for the rest of my life.
The path starts in darkness and grows brighter along the way.
May God’s wisdom guide you as moonlight follows day…
The orbicular rhythms of darkness and light, winding perpetual expansion into the infinite experience we are all a part of, the reflections of our own Christ light in conversation with God like the sun bouncing off of the moon, its ever-present guidance reassuring us of these natural cycles. Intuition. Telling us the truth if we let it, guiding us through the advent of our darkness, much like the shepherd who trusts their wobbling footsteps at the end of the play, finally bringing us face-to-face with our opportunity to present our gifts within his sight…
This advent of your darkness ends in light
when you present your gifts within his sight.
Your gift is who you are, whom you shall be
when you reflect in all humility
the gifts he’s given you in all his love
Which are magnified tenfold in realms above!
Each talent and each frailty, don’t you see,
are what he became; it’s called humanity.
The incarnation of divine to man tells us to do the very best we can
And looking at your fellow man within, may you see another, may you see him.
I’ve done a lot of film, improv, and immersive theatre. You perform your scenes in film out of order, a few lines at a time. It is just entirely a different art form than theatrical storytelling. Improv has no lines, and immersive theatre is closer to improv and character work than it is a play. It is new for me to have really lived with and performed with a specific text for an extended period, such as my experience with The Journey of the Wisemen. To have an entire 25-minute play memorized and get to do it again and again from start to finish. The magic of such storytelling is unique in how it gifts its creators. We start as vessels and then become so familiar with the text and show that the layers of it unfold for us more and more, and by the end, we are not just vessels but an absorption and then a shining of the totality of the play itself.
It’s something’, I gotta tell ya. There ain’t no magic like theatre magic.
A hui ho,
So cool. thanks
Your poem was beautiful!