KERNERSVILLE
In the opening scene of Triad Baptist Church's Living Christmas Tree performance, a phone rings incessantly as a family struggles to get ready for a Christmas-pageant dress rehearsal.
Family members yell, bicker and sigh, hustling to leave the house on time while trying to pack too much into a December afternoon.
Triad Baptist's music director, Scott Compton, said he chose the musical because people can forget why Christmas is celebrated. The entire production, The Splendor of Christmas, creates a drama about the dress rehearsal of a church musical and the realization by family members that they need to slow down and appreciate the significance of the holiday season.
Although the drama portion of the show is humorous, the musical element is dramatic. An 82-member choir performs adaptations of Christmas hymns and favorites from perches on a 25-foot-tall, nine-level, lighted tree platform.
This is the third year that the church has performed a "living Christmas tree" musical.
"It started when the Faithful Friends, our senior group, had gone to see a production using a living Christmas tree set-up,'' Compton said. "Our pastor, Rob Decker, and I called five different churches in the Southeast to find out how they worked and visited. There aren't many other churches that do this in the area, so we thought it would be a great way to provide something different for the community."
The tree takes 20 men five hours to assemble, and has to be placed in the sanctuary six weeks before the performances so that technical-support people can program the lights and ensure that each detail is in place. The platform had to be reinforced, Compton said, because the tree weighs more than 16,000 lbs.
Crowning the tree is a 300-light star that is 48-by-30 inches. "There is only one manufacturer of these trees in the United States," he said. More than 30,000 lights decorate the large tree.
The church performs The Splendor of Christmas Thursday through Sunday nights. About 800 free tickets are distributed for each night's performance. Saturday night is full, but tickets remain for Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Ticket holders get priority seating, starting at 6:15 p.m., and those without tickets can enter at 6:45.
Sandy Rogers oversees the drama portion of the production. "What's neat is when you see someone do something in this that they didn't think they could do. And someone is always won to Christ so that is an awesome thing," Rogers said.
Choir member Karen Welborn said that the members began working on the music in August and practice every Sunday.
"It's an extraordinary amount of work," fellow choir member Judy Dudley said.
Triad Baptist is not the only church with a holiday performance. Kernersville Seventh-day Adventist Church has been spending the past several weeks getting ready for Christmas.
Once again, it is holding "Walk through Bethlehem," which it calls "a live-action journey back in time where you'll rediscover the meaning of Christmas." The church holds tours on Dec. 5-6 and Dec. 12-13.
Members began constructing the village set before Thanksgiving in the church's Hopkins Road parking lot. The 25-minute tours will include choirs from local schools.
■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.
■ For more information about Triad Baptist Church's Living Christmas Tree performance, call 996-7573 or visit www.triadbaptist.com. Triad Baptist is across South Main Street from Wal-Mart. To attend Walk through Bethlehem at Kernersville Seventh-day Adventist Church, 896 Old Winston Road, call 996-3777 or visit www.KernersvilleAdventist.org.
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