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First Congregational

United Church of Christ

... exploring the frontiers of faith in Jesus

PARABOLA logo

First Congregational’s
PARABOLA Youth Theatre

During the school year, Parabola meets Thursday evenings from 6 - 7:30 PM. We are looking for new members to join us as we take on new projects. Please spread the word to any interested high school students. We produce numerous short skits and videos throughout the year, but here are some of the highlights from our past two seasons:

2010-2011

Parabola at Speed Theater

In February we participated in Speed Theater at the Waterloo Community Playhouse. At this event, each team was assigned a theme song and had 24 hours to write and produce a script based on that song. It was a lot of fun and we were excited that, even though we were the only youth group participating, we won two of the five awards distributed that evening! More photos from that performance are here.

We finished up the year with a Center for the Arts performance that included original TV scripts from "I Love Lucy," "Friends" and "Saturday Night Live."

2009-2010

Performance at Fringe

Our project for this year was dont u luv me? - the story of a sophomore girl, named Angela, who gets to date the dreamiest guy in school. Looks, however, can be deceiving. As the relationship continues, Angela’s boyfriend begins to tell her how to dress and who she can be with. When she attempts to break up with him he threatens to harm himself and finally becomes violent.

This thought-provoking play explores the hidden world of aggression and violence in teen dating while encouraging young people to make choices that result in healthy relationships. We toured the production to Iowa churches, high schools, service organizations and juvenile detention centers.

CJ getting angry

Finally, in August, we took the show to the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis for 5 performances! Of the 169 productions at the Minnesota Fringe Festival our group rated #4 in audience review ratings! The reviews are still posted on the Fringe website. Click on the Reviews tab in the middle of the page.

Video clips of scenes from dont u luv me?

Girls swooning over CJ

Girls talking with Angela about hooking up with CJ

Girls talking with Angela about CJ (text messages on screen)

At Jen's house, girls sharing makeup, chatting

Jen asking about Angela's relationship wth CJ

Jen encouraging Angela to get help

CJ gets abusive

Jen on phone with Angela after abusive episode

PARABOLA on YouTube!

Two young people talking

Watch the movie "Search for Stewardship" presented by the PARABOLA drama troupe om YouTube! Just click on the image above.

Girl with questioning face

Watch the movie "Dot Emaus Just Doesn't Fit In" presented by the PARABOLA drama troupe on YouTube! Just click on the image above.

Prodigal Son video

Watch the movie "The Two Brothers" presented by the PARABOLA drama troupe on YouTube! Just click on the image above.

Parabola's creative video retelling of the Jonah story is here: http://youtu.be/N-gQ519LWKY