My first performance took place the weekend immediately prior to WYD week at the close of "Days in the Diocese" - a program that places participating pilgrims into various cities throughout the host country in preparation for World Youth Day as well as to experience more fully the culture and people of the host country.  I performed at the Cathedral in Newcastle, Australia for upwards of 150-200 pilgrims & religious, mostly from France.  Translators were scattered throughout the audience, providing live translations during the show.  It's amazing how powerfully art - and particularly theater - can speak to people in spite of language barriers.  My performance of LOLEK was very well received, with pilgrims & translators alike sharing with me afterward that they were moved to tears during the performance - inspired by the amazing life of our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul the Great.

 

My second performance took place on the Wednesday night of WYD week and was held at St. Peter Julian Church in downtown Sydney, hosted by the Community of St. John, who also hosted my performance for Days in the Diocese.  We were blessed with a very good performance as numerous pilgrims passed in and out of the church, witnessing a period during Pope John Paul II's life that they could relate to the most.  The local pastor at that Sydney parish was particularly moved by the show and shared with me afterward his deep gratitude for my performance.

 

 

The many blessings and little miracles that surrounded our set up and performance on Friday night are too numerous to mention them all here, but in spite of my performance location being mis-labeled in the WYD program and the fact that I was competing that night against a huge Youth Festival concert event at a different venue, hundreds of pilgrims (possibly even a thousand or more) sought out my performance and filled my large conference room theater space to overflowing, postponing the start of the show.

 

Unfortunately, the space I was assigned was not large enough to accommodate the standing room only crowd that came to see the show, so many people had to turn away at the door.  I performed an updated version of the play, making use of newly created projected images as the backdrop for the performance, rather than my normal backdrop banners.  The projected images added a new level of impact and variety to the performance, which received a spontaneous standing ovation immediately afterward.

 

I had brought with me on the trip a first class relic of St. Maria Goretti that some of my drama class families had given to me as a gift back in June.  I prensented the relic for veneration after the show and a priest from Guam gave many of the pilgrims a personal, individual blessing with the relic.  It was a perfect, prayerful ending to a powerful and grace-filled performance.

 

I didn't realize just how many different countries were represented at the performance on Friday night until after the show when many of the pilgrims spoke to me and took photos.  I asked everyone present to sign my Australian flag with their name & country.  From those signatures, I discovered that my audience that night was filled with young people from at least the following countries:

 

 

Every performance venue that week had been assigned a stage manager as well as a staff technician.  I'm not sure if the union worker from the Convenion Centre who assisted us that night is Christian or not, but after the performance he remarked to Sarah that my performance was the best event he had witnessed all week and that it was also the most well received.  Praise God!

 

I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support, which made this whole blessed experience possible for us and all those who were touched and inspired by our performances.

God bless you!!

World Youth Day 2008

Official Youth Festival

Sydney Convention Centre

Darling Harbour

Sydney, Australia

Friday, July 18th @ 8:00pm