Wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome here!
Riviera United Church of Christ
451 Riviera Drive NE ● Palm Bay, Florida 32905 ●  321-723-3963
© Riviera United Church of Christ
Drama Ministry
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Community Family Players
"Connecting Youth with Community through the Performing Arts!"

A need for positive activities in this community for our youth is self evident.

There is a great void of places for our younger folks to belong, to have fun, to imagine and create, to dare to do new
things, to interact with adults, to learn and grow and to work to give to the community. And to get positive responses from
the community.

Riviera UCC has designed Community Family Players to help to begin to fill this void. Our debut production was Alice in
Wonderland in the summer of 2009. The plays are directed by our pastor Rev. Scott Elliott who has years of theatre
experience including directing musicals and Leading a similar group in Oregon for over half a dozen years. Community
Family Players will continue to provide wholesome theatre productions in a manner that provides the opportunities for
families to work together and for youth to shine on stage while entertaining folks of all ages in the process.

The cast and crew of each production includes a mix of adults and youth from throughout the community-with the youth
generally out numbering adult performers three to one. The presence of adult performers is to provide in-cast teachers
and positive role models for the youth, as well as to legitimize the production as "real" theatre in the eyes of the audience.

Perhaps more importantly, the presence of youth and adults in the cast and crew is to provide the opportunity for family
and community members to work and play together outside the home.

Community Family Players is operated and sponsored by our Church.  While we have no plans to provide scripted
doctrinal messages about life, or religion, or spirituality; we do want the youth to receive one over-riding message: that
there is a lot of good in the world and, a lot of people who care about them. It is our intent and hope that our actions will
not only provide theatre skills and experiences, but give clear resounding messages of love and compassion, of respect
and charity, of hope and joy, and of community commitment to positive growth in all of us. We plan to do this by providing
community family theatre experiences on and off stage, and for the audiences.

Last summer, we produced, A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. We had so much fun, we did another of
the bard's classic comedies this year too: Much Ado About Nothing.  Stay tuned to this webpage for details about our
2012 summer production in the upcoming spring!

In the Gospel of Mark at chapter 9 verses 36 to 37 we are told that Jesus took a child and had her stand in front of the
twelve disciples and Jesus put his arms around her and said to the disciples "Whoever accepts a child like this in my
name is accepting me." This offers a perfect image of what Community Family Players is all about.

To put children in front of a friendly audience with a warm and supportive embrace.

This is a heavenly project, designed to help those most close to heaven, our children.