Judgment House behind the scenes

For the past several years, one of the local events of the fall for many of us is Judgment House. Every fall, the First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Goldsboro put on the production, and it has become a staple of fall events for the folks all over Wayne County and the surrounding area.
This year, it got a newcomer to the staff. I dusted off my creaky old acting credentials and took part in the production, which actually began in the late summer.
The play, for those of you who have never been to Judgment House, is a play in nine brief acts. Instead of the traditional version of plays where an audience sits and the play is brought to them, this play requires the audience to move from scene to scene. The crowd, usually in groups of 50 to 70, moves through the scenes and learns the plot of the play, which changes from year to year. It usually follows the story of a person or persons living a challenged life, and how their decisions affect their lives after their earthly existence is over.
The preparations began with the actors getting their lines for each scene. We got our lines and our roles early on, but in some cases did not get scripts for the last few scenes until very late in the process — in one case, mere days before the play opened. The most massive undertaking was the sets and construction. The crew, all volunteer church members, built a five-scene complex inside the church’s Ministerial Training Center, complete with air conditioning, lighting, doors and all the special effects necessary.
What was involved? These folks had to build an airplane that would crash on command and break apart — literally — over and over again; they had to create three different hospital scenes, one of which portrayed a scene of Rapture; a “party” scene with smoke, lights, music and sound effects; a hospital scene that actually gave the crowd the sensation of ‘feeling” a train wreck and its effects; and a dramatic ledge scene in which the actors were 15 feet off the floor.
That was not all. The two biggest construction challenges were building an elaborate “Heaven” scene in the church balcony, and the play’s most legendary scene — the “Hell” scene. That scene features flames, smoke, rumbling thunder, loud explosions, a pit of fire, and of course, the Devil himself.
It is a nightmare of engineering — just taking it down took nearly a week.
The acting crew was massive. Because groups go through the scenes quickly — sometimes a group would have to wait to go into a scene to allow another group to leave — each character had three to six actors trained to play the role. Four others, as well as myself, portrayed my character. Many times we performed scenes with many different actors in the other parts.
I got to laugh a lot. Each actor brings to the role they do a little different flavor and spice, and with the rapid-fire approach we got to scripts, we tended to lean on ad-libs. As the play went on from days to weeks, the ad-libbing became the norm, as long as we got the gist of the line out. Eventually we would throw in a line to try and get a smile from a fellow actor, and if we could get a grin that didn’t disrupt the scene, we considered it mission accomplished. Then we would go back to the actor’s waiting room and swap stories of who tried to trip up whom.
The support crew’s undertaking was equally daunting. From the “door openers” who shepherded groups into and out of the scenes in the dark, to the organizers who arranged booking times and set groups up to go through, to the folks who prepared food for the cast and crew members, to the folks who built the sets and took them down again, to the people who arranged for the loan of props and equipment we needed, to the folks in the prayer rooms who counseled those affected by the play, the effort was monumental.
I found myself becoming closer to the others involved in the play, and gaining a greater degree of friendship and camaraderie with them. At times, we would stay well into the evening as the crowds got bigger and the groups more numerous. On Saturday nights we had to stay long after the last group had gone through to clean up the church for services on Sunday — sometimes well past 1 a.m.
I was struck by the singleness of purpose for all those involved in the production. Much effort was put into this from many different angles — time, money, effort, and sweat equity. Many people put their own lives on hold to put their focus on the efforts they were putting into Judgment House. And their reward for this effort was a production that would honor God and create a tool for His service. Judgment House was a mission, and everyone involved in it gave all the credit and glory back to God.
The results? Well, over 15,000 people went through Judgment House. And a surprising percentage of those people — some of them completely unchurched — either discovered Jesus Christ or rededicated themselves to Christ after going through the play.
Personally, the experience affected me, as well. I saw some powerful reactions to the scenes — tears, sobs, gasps of surprise, and applause when a character accepted Christ. You could tell what you were doing was having an impact on the audience. A person seldom gets a personal glimpse into how powerfully he is being used in God’s plan.
It was a blessing — tiring, time-consuming, and a little nerve-wracking, to be sure, but a blessing in my life. When I had first heard of Judgment House many years ago, I looked down my nose at it. I had misjudged its purpose badly back then, and I was very glad to get the chance to support this mission, and to help make a positive impact on the Christian lives of others.