The production of Son of God Son of Man at my church was a success. The best news: Jackie the Donkey didn’t buck Dustin Kelm, the actor who played Jesus, off her back during the scene where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a Donkey. What a relief!

Let me paint a picture of how this scene works. Dustin would run backstage and slowly lower himself onto Jackie’s back while my friend Ben held her lead rope at her head and me by Jackie’s back helping Dustin. When I say backstage, I mean we were standing in the wings of the stage in almost complete darkness, with about 30 people crowded around us waiting to go on for the same scene we were in. My job as Jackie walked on stage was to follow off to one side and make sure that she didn’t swing her back end into the group of dancers that were on the crowded stage or step on anyone’s feet. I was also there to help out in case Jackie were to get spooked for some reason. Once Dustin was on her back, we waited for the group of actors in front of us to go out onto stage. As they left to go on stage, they were all waving palm branches and singing, “Hosanna!”. Ben led Jackie about one third of the way across the front of the stage, where she would stop and stand while Dustin does a line in answer to another actor. Next, she is led by Ben across to the other side of the stage, where she is to stop again so Dustin can dismount, and then we lead her from the stage in the wings and total darkness again. Sounds complicated, right? It was! It also took about 2 minutes from the time Dustin climbed on her back until the time we were backstage again with the scene being complete.

Here’s how the performances played out:

Dress Rehearsal: Perfect. Jackie hit all of her cues and seemed relaxed.

Friday Evening Performance: Jackie started off well, but we could tell she was very excited. She stopped at her first stopping point, paused for about 10 seconds, and then started moving again. It took everything Ben had to get her to stop again, as she was ready to move on to her next cue! Ben got her stopped after just about five steps though, and it all worked out. Her second stop was right on cue.

Saturday Afternoon Performance: Jackie stopped when asked to for her first cue. She even looked out at the audience. The part that didn’t go quite as planned was the second stop. Ben could not get her to stop at the appointed spot. She got about 15 steps past the spot where she was supposed to stop so Dustin could dismount and she just kept right on going. Fortunately, Dustin is a professional unicyclist, so he just jumped right off of her and acted like that was just what was supposed to happen.

Saturday Evening Performance: Jackie was perfect. When she stopped for Dustin to say his line, she again looked out at the audience. When she stopped for Dustin to dismount, she stood perfectly still while Dustin climbed off. She even stood still long enough for Dustin to run his hand along her back, look at her with a big smile on his face, and then turn and do his next line. It was a tremendously exciting moment.

The scenes with the other animals also went well. The goats added quite a bit to the scenery of the marketplace scene, as did Sheba the donkey.

I’m glad that whole thing is now done. I got a lot out of it personally, but it was a tremendous amount of work and by Sunday afternoon, when we finally got things cleaned up, I was exhausted.

Will I do it again? Who knows. Maybe…..

–Pete