
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 13, 1990                   TAG: 9004130138
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: STATE  
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

LIVING EASTER STORY TO BE PLAYED

A bit of Jerusalem will move to Wythe County Saturday night when the Easter story will be re-enacted right up to the Crucifixion.

People in the audience will have to return to Sheffey Elementary School on Easter Sunday to see what happens next, after the tomb of Jesus is found to be empty.

Members of five United Methodist Churches on the Cripple Creek Circuit have been performing in the Easter drama written by their pastor, the Rev. H. Joseph Carrico, for three years now. And each year it gets a little bigger.

This year, a segment showing Jesus (Jamie Johnson) raising Lazarus (Dewey Aker) has been added to the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. And the drama starting at 8 a.m. Sunday has been expanded to go all the way to the Ascension.

The cast of about 50 people ranges from children to retirees from Calvary, Crockett's Chapel, Huddle Memorial, Mount Zion and Olive Branch United Methodist Church. Many of them are repeating roles from the first two years, although this year the cast has expanded by about 10 people.

"It'd be more realistic if more of the men had beards," said Luther Armbrister, one of the cast members at a dress rehearsal this week.

Carrico and several other men designed and built a wooden device to physically raise Johnson, in the role of Jesus, upward for the drama's new final scene Sunday. Until it was moved to the school, the device sat in Carrico's driveway and caused many passersby to ask him what it was.

Few of them got much help from his answer. "It's an Ascension machine," he would explain.

One scene has Peter, played by Bobby Williams, using a sword to cut off the ear of a centurion trying to arrest Jesus. Someone commented that he might consider using the sword instead of a gavel to maintain order as chairman of the county Board of Supervisors.

"I don't know whether to stay on the board," Williams said, laughing, "or just go on out to Hollywood."

There is no admission for attending the performances. Sheffey Elementary School is located on Virginia 94, off U.S. 52 in eastern Wythe County.

by CNB