WAASUP was featured in our local newspaper, The Daily Journal, again! Click HERE to view the article on The Daily Journal’s website.
Blog
New Tour Dates
We’ve just added a few performances to the Tour Dates page. Coming up we have a performance at Lutheran Island Camp, our home church, and then back to camp!
February Update
“It has begun.”
These words were said from one puppeteer to another in a sort of anticipation-filled whisper (to add dramatic effect) as we were setting up for our premiere performance of our new production, Stand Firm. The next morning, we kicked off what we hope will be a very memorable new “tour” for WAASUP – memorable for the audiences and for us as a team.
This premiere was not as Lutheran Island Camp on December 20th as it was planned though. It took place at Calvary church here in town on January 4th for their Sunday school. The L.I.C. performance was canceled due to the weather, and although we were somewhat disappointed, it did give us more time to get the production ready and Ken at L.I.C. is already getting us lined up for another event this year instead.
In other WAASUP news, we are excited to be registered for the MN regional puppetry festival in the Twin Cities on March 20 – 21 for the second year. There we’ll attend workshops, learn about new resources available, meet other people in the puppetry ministry, and watch performances and competitions. We’re also very excited (and somewhat nervous) to be signed up as part of the competition for the first time. We’re starting work now on a new blacklight song that will take place entirely outside of the stage with some forms of puppetry and performing that we haven’t done before. Besides using this song for competition, we hope to add it on to the end of Stand Firm as something of a “finale song”.
Lastly, we plan to perform a song from Stand Firm for the Ladies’ Valentine Dinner, which will be done by the Trinity A.C.T. youth group this year.
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team
January Update
Often, when we find ourselves entering a new year, we pause for a moment to reflect on the events of the year past. If WAASUP was to do that, it would probably look a little something like this…
January – Last Countdown to Christmas performances at a pastors circuit meeting in Wadena and at the Broen Home in Fergus.
February – Two children’s messages and Ladies’ Valentine Dinner at Trinity. Our first ever bridal shower took place at Bethel church in Fergus.
March – With help from donations from Trinity members, we were able to attend the Minnesota regional Christian puppetry festival in Bloomington.
April – Started groundwork planning on our new production, Stand Firm.
May – 4 new puppets and 1 new puppeteer.
June – Worked on “Jesus Is Life” parade song.
July – The parades began! We performed “Jesus Is Life” at the Erhard (our longest parade ever) and Battle Lake parades. Kyle was on the Dream Team at the International Festival of Christian Puppetry and Ventriloquism and, with help, taught puppetry at Lutheran Island Camp. Our website (www.waasup.org) was launched.
August – Vining parade (we called upon the “Honorary WAASUPeteers” for help). Children’s message at Trinity. Pastor D’s suprise 50th (our first completely originally scripted and recorded program).
September – Dalton parade. Grand re-opening of The Promise Shop in Fergus. The German Heritage Festival at Trinity.
October – Morning Son’s fall festival in Fergus (doing 4 shows was the most we’ve ever done back-to-back).
November – “Nose to the grindstone” on Stand Firm.
December – Premiere of Stand Firm at one of Lutheran Island Camp’s Christmas Dinners was canceled due to snow, but the January premiere at Calvary was soon to follow.
Now, obviously, those were only some of the biggest events to take place over the past year. We met once a week, every week of the year (minus one or two) where we honed our puppetry skills, did an incredible amount of planning and work “behind the scenes”, and, most importantly, grew in our faith through devotions and prayer and grew in our abilities to share that faith. As you can see, we had a lot of firsts and new experiences and we were definitely kept busy! We praise God for all the ways He blessed us in 2008 and we look to Him for guidance and direction in 2009.
Regarding our upcoming performance, we will be at Calvary church for the Sunday school here in town on January 4 with our first performance of Stand Firm, but we would actually encourage you to wait to see our new program until we have it completely finished the way it was planned. It won’t be a long wait…we’re very close!
Happy New Year!
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team
Stand Firm Debut: Calvary Church, Jan 4 (Updated)
Although the performance at Lutheran Island Camp was canceled, the new debut of Stand Firm is just around the corner! We’ll be at Calvary Free Lutheran Church in our hometown of Fergus Falls, MN on Sunday, January 4. We’ll be performing for the children’s and high school Sunday school at 9:30 AM.
Remember that details about performances will always be available on the Tour Dates page.
December 20 Performance Cancelled
The premiere performance of Stand Firm that was scheduled for Saturday, December 20 has been cancelled. The performance was to be part of one of Lutheran Island Camp’s Christmas dinners (L.I.C. is in Henning, MN), but they decided to cancel the event due to an expected blizzard.
Be sure to watch the Tour Dates page for future performances.
December Update
Well, we didn’t quite get that new song we mentioned in our last update ready in time for our performance at Morning Son Christian School, but the shows went very well nonetheless. We did four 15-minute shows for kids, parents, and anyone else willing to spend the tickets it took to get into the sanctuary to see us.
So although the new song wasn’t ready in time, we will have it ready for the first performance of our new program, Stand Firm. On December 20th, we’ll be at Lutheran Island Camp for one of their Christmas Dinners. You might remember that we were at camp last year with our Countdown to Christmas program, and they’ve asked us to come back again.
Other than that, there isn’t a lot of news to relay as we’re really focusing on getting this production put together. We’ve made our weekly practices a little longer and we’re already “outsourcing” some of the work, but that deadline just keeps getting closer (as most deadlines do)!
Merry Christmas!
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team
November Update
Busy, busy, busy! Like we said in last month’s update, we performed for the grand re-opening of the Promise Shop Christian bookstore here in Fergus and the next day we were at the German Heritage Festival at Trinity. Both of those performances were “mash-ups” of past songs, all strung together with some custom scripts fit for the occasion. While we’ve enjoyed putting those programs together, there’s something bigger that we’re even more excited about coming just around the corner…
If you were to scan back through past updates from WAASUP, you’d notice that there’s been mention of a new production being in the works since last June or so. As a group, we’ve found that being in parades and putting on workshops and performing for children’s messages, surprise birthday parties, bookstores, and festivals takes a lot of time! Busy though we were, we were actually working slowly and steadily on the planning and groundwork for this new production, Stand Firm, and we are now happy to announce that one of the new songs is coming together nicely as props and costumes are being designed and built, probably as you read! It’s our goal to have this new song, “Build Your House Upon the Rock”, a sort of old rock-n-roll song sung by a very familiar-looking character, ready for our next performance.
What is that next performance? We’re glad you asked! We will be at Morning Son Christian school here in town for their fall festival on October 24th. The way we understand it, we’ll be doing 4 shows between 5:30 and 7:30 that festival-going kids can come watch for a certain number of tickets. We always love these chances to reach out to our own community and we’re just hoping our song is ready in time!
Once we’re done with that performance, we’re planning on really putting our nose to the grindstone in November to try and have Stand Firm ready for Christmastime performances. Because we wanted to have a non-seasonal production, Stand Firm won’t be Christmas-themed, but we think our holiday hosts will enjoy it nonetheless. We already have one date lined up at Lutheran Island Camp for their Christmas dinners (Sat., Dec. 20th).
We’d like to take this paragraph to thank those who have recently made donations to our ministry. Obviously, in putting this production together, we come across a lot of “up front” expenses with all the prop materials, set pieces, costumes, and puppets that we need to just get the show off the ground. We’re also stepping into some new territory with this production as we look into blacklights and other lights and “special effects” that we haven’t used before. So thank you again for your much appreciated and well-utilized gifts!
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team
October Update
We did it! WAASUP made it through the Dalton Threshers parade on September 6th, marking the 4th and final parade performance this summer! It’s our hope that the message that “Jesus Is Life” reached many people who wouldn’t otherwise step foot in a church, and we hope that good things would come from the publicity created for Trinity Lutheran School. As far as our group goes, we’ve been getting more phone calls and emails than ever before, some of which we can probably attribute to this county-wide exposure.
If you were really sharp, you might’ve noticed our very subtle hint in the August newsletter that read, “…you might see some familiar characters popping up at VBS and maybe somewhere else this month.” If you were at a certain surprise birthday party, you know what we were talking about! Our group had a lot of fun getting to poke some fun at Pastor Deterding’s 50th birthday party. We tried something new that we don’t do a whole lot of which was writing and recording all of the speaking parts ourselves. It seemed to go over really well and it’s something we hope to do some more of in the very near future.
Speaking of the very near future, WAASUP has 2 performances just around the corner. We’ve been asked to perform for the grand re-opening of The Promise Shop (the Christian bookstore on Lincoln Ave.) on Saturday, September 27th at 10:30 AM. Then, the very next day we’ll be back at Trinity for the German Heritage Festival following the 10:45 worship service.
We’ve also received calls and emails from other places in the community as well as out of town, so we’ll be sure to keep you all posted!
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team
New Upcoming Performances
WAASUP has 2 new upcoming performances, both of which are taking place in our fair city of Fergus Falls, MN.
We’ve been asked to perform for the grand re-opening of a Christian bookstore in Fergus called The Promise Shop. That show will be on Saturday, September 27, will start at 10:30 AM, and will run about 20 minutes.
Our second new performance is the very next day, September 28th, at Trinity Lutheran Church (our home church) for the German Heritage Festival. The festival takes place after the 10:45 worship service, which places our performance at noon or so. This performance will probably be very similar to The Promise Shop show.
We’ve recieved many calls and emails lately and we have a few other bookings-in-the-making, so we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the Tour Dates page.