Saturday, November 29, 1997

15th annual presentation will be a "best of the best"

By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer

Wylie Baptist Church's Living Christmas Tree performances this year will be kind of like a greatest hits album.

"It's the best of the best," said new director Gerre Joiner, in honor of the 15th annual presentation.

Joiner, the church's music director, said the presentation will include the best music and the best drama from previous years.

Public performances are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 5 through Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the church, 6097 Buffalo Gap Rd. Admission is free but tickets are required so that the church won't be overbooked.

"It's bumper to bumper every year," Joiner said.

Call 692-3206 for tickets. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. A Sunday matinee also will be held at 3:30 p.m. Ticketed seating begins at 6:30 each evening and open seating begins at 7.

A "special evening for special people" will be held Thursday, Dec. 4, for residents of nursing homes, state schools and children's homes in the area.

The Living Christmas Tree has been a hit for area residents since its premiere in 1983. It has had three directors and any number of new faces in the tree, but the commitment and quality remains the same every year.

"It's an outreach," Joiner said. "It says who we are and why our church is here. It's the gospel message."

The tree originated with former music minister Dalton Stewart, who was followed by Chuck Sims and now Joiner, who moved here from Stephenville after serving as music minister at First Baptist Church there for 18 years.

Joiner had experience from his previous position in staging large pageants, but still the enormity of this project is almost overwhelming.

"It makes me feel like I'm trying to catch a fast-moving train," Joiner said.

Fortunately for Joiner, many people have participated in the production over the years and four are from the original cast: Betty Hines, Dorothy Harper and J.E. and Imogene Moore.

The tree itself holds about 60 singers, but more than 300 people are involved in the project each year.

"It's a phenomenon in this church family," Joiner said.

Few changes have been made in the performances over the years, but it has been trimmed somewhat from its original length. This year, the performance will include 12 songs sung to taped accompaniment. The songs will be interspersed between dramatic scenes.

"The music is the glue that keeps the drama together," Joiner said.

The drama unfolds around a family seated in a living room

"Everybody but the father is in the Christmas spirit," Joiner said.

Dad, played by retired Cooper High School ag teacher Leland Robinson, is more interested in football than Christmas and he resents the merrymaking going on around him. Eventually, the Christmas story is played out in front of Dad alone - no one else sees it, and he is transformed.

The drama originated in the 1991 performance and was judged by Joiner as the "best of the best" for presentation this year.

Mindy Horne will direct the drama while Joiner directs the music and serves as overall director.

The presentation concludes with the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's <I>Messiah.<I>

Although the tree itself is just the medium and not the message, it is itself "a work of art," Joiner said.

The tree was designed and built by Hollis Buchanan, a longtime member.

"It came into being from some chalkmarks on the floor of his barn," Joiner said.

The collapsible tree is stored in a barn and is transported each year to the church for assembly.

Before assembly, the tree is "two trailers full of things that start off looking very unrelated," Joiner said.

But when it is assembled and filled with joyous voices, the living tree tells the story of Christmas in a special way.

"It pulls the 2,000-year-old story into a contemporary setting," Joiner said, and "puts the message into a package that includes all the senses."