Dramas

In_between_days

One of the funniest things I will ever remember as a JW are the "Big Dramas" at the assemblys. It was amazing how everyone would sit through the torture of the infinate talks and "Skits" with an incredibly bored look on their faces, yet when the drama got closer, the apathetic faces piped up, became animated, excited. It was, as far as I could see the "Best of the worst" piece of the programme, and by god, even though I spent almost the entire time at the assemblies outside feeding ducks, I was always in one of the front rows for the drama.

I always thought it was funny when a brother would first of all come out and give a little talk about the drama, and tell everyone not to take photos (LOL) And then the lights would dim, the excitement would rise, and then the focus is on a cheesy troubled family where the "Head of the house"" would directly relate their problem to some scriptual scenario (was it just me, or was it always about Rachel?) and then it starts: The tinky "Time warp" music, the paper mache rock, a couple of guys dressed in green drapes and some incredibly annoying sheep noises. Lots of really bad mouth synching to over pronouced American accents; the 165th JA HOOOOOOOOO VAH finally lulls you to sleep as you realise with a wave of dissapointment that it is exactly like last years drama, and the one before.

Now, what I noticed was that in the last say 10 years, the dramas have been a hell of alot worse than before, I remember back in the late eighties and mid nineties, the dramas were a hell of a lot better; better storyline, better cast, more realistic, hell, I remember one drama about youths and it was like watching Beverly Hills 90210 it was so entertaining. (Well, I liked the show at the time)

I always thought it was strange that no one could actually say that they didnt enjoy the drama, or were dissapointed in it. They alwasy skirted around the issue with "Didnt that drama have a great message"? No comments about the effort put into it, because everyone knew it sucked.

Why have dramas been getting slowly worse and worse in the last decade?

And.............

If you can, Describe the best and the worst dramas you have seen and what made them good or crap.

Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice.

They made such a huge impression on me that I cannot recall any in particular, only that, overall, they were good for a laugh for their piss poor presentation.

cheeses - crude and uncultured.

Duncan

Hi In-Between

One thing I particularly remember with regard to the Dramas was that me and my pioneer buddies for weeks afterward would all - for a laugh - speak to each other in outrageous deep American accents in a language I can only describe as "Drama-ese"

For example, when asking your Pioneer-partner if he thought it was time to go to coffee (we always went to the Watermill cafe, run by a chap called Eamonn) it would be:

"Let us proceed from this place, and indeed seek refreshment for our souls!"

"May our peoples rise up and proceed to the Land of Eamonn, and let us reside among the sons of the Eamonnnites!"

"It is even so!"

... and so on. We used to think this was a scream, it became a private kind of language.

You have to understand how ridiculous those Amercan accents came over to us boys from Norf London.

Duncan

Francois

I wouldn't be able to name even one drama, mainly because I wasn't in attendance. Drama time was exit time for this ol' boy (and whatever georgeous babe I had hooked up with). We would hot foot it to my hotel room for a little indoor contact sport while you all were suffering fanny fatigue and having your ears scream in agony from the over-driven audio system. Don't you remember me? I was the guy coming back into the assembly area with the good looking chick on my arm and a look on my face like I had just swallowed the canary and the cage (minus the Awake! in the bottom).

francois

Oroborus21

Dramas didn't always used to be the way they usually are now, with the modern setting-problem, flashback to bible days and back to modern setting-application, a formula that developed in the 90s and only occassionally gotten away from.

In the past, in the long past--before my own time but during my parents' time, dramas were really DRAMAS in the sense of a theatrical presentation of the bible passages and I think were much longer too. They probably were pretty interesting then but even today you have to admit anything that breaks up the drone of the talks in a good thing.

--Eduardo

shamus

I made a few comments in another thread, and still giggle at them.....

Remember one year my roommate whom I was sitting with, along with a whole wack of young kids said out loud, and I mean LOUD, "That sucked!". He said it three times.

When just coming into the truth, everyone would tell me about the dramas, the dramas, the dramas, yada yada yada...... I can honestly say that they were absolutley pathetic..... I remember, when they were in "the present", and just about going into "The past" (or other way around), one of the lines for the young boy was "WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SUCH A DASTARDLY DEED?". Well, we all BUST OUT LAUGHING, AND COULDN'T CONTROL OURSELVES. People were pissed off at us, for making so much noise, but we seriously couldn't help it.

All in all, they were 1 hour of utter boredom, and utter stupidity. So predictable, WTF?

Austrian

The best part was when the lights went dim so it was harder for my parents to see me sleeping...

NewYork44M

I remember a few dramas from prior years to be somewhat entertaining. Recently however, they have been de-emphasizing the dramas. If I remember correctly, there was only one short drama last year. The drama last year was disjointed. I had a very difficult time trying to follow the drama and could not really figure out what point they were trying to make.

Mulan

The absolute worst one was about 1984 or 85. It was a modern day drama, and a family with a teenaged son, who didn't want to be a witness anymore.

The resolution of the drama was for him to prepare better for field service, and "thank you Mom and Dad and Brother Elder for snatching me out of the fire."

It was a bad time in our family since our son (17) was being rebellious and wanted to quit being a JW. He was sitting between us, with his head in his hands, saying "I can't believe this shit". I couldn't believe it either. Dave and I were angry about that drama................they had an opportunity to really help families and they came up with THAT?!!!

We were in a drama in the late 80's about Rahab. That one is my favorite because we got to be in it, and it was very fun. Dave was Joshua and I was Israelite woman #4. I also sewed about 1/3 of the costumes.

We were in another one the year we decided to walk away from it all (1995). We did do the drama anyway, and Dave's picture from the drama, was in the WT, that January '96, featuring the conventions that year. He had a major role of course, and I played a wife helping her mother with housework...........prophetic?. The drama was about helping the elderly in the congregations. Our teenaged son was in it too.

asleif_dufansdottir

I remember really feeling gyped when they dropped from 2 dramas (a biblical and a 'modern day') to one. You used to be able to get 'interested ones' to come 'just for the day' or 'just for the afternoon' of the drama, why would they cut back on the most popular part of the convention??

I also remember the one drama (I think it was a drama, it might have been a short skit during a talk or something) about the elders counseling a young newly married couple who bought expensive stereo equipment rather than spending their money on "kingdom interests"...I remember thinking that was a bit much! It was their own damn money!

LOL at "drama-ese"...I'm a midwestern American and WE thought they talked funny too!

Dramas

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