Last Supper Drama April 5, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more details, call Bill Brantley
515-225-2727 or 515-202-4338

Boone area residents invited to see a Lenten tradition beginning its 40th year
One of the nation's longest running religious dramatic presentations will be presented at the Central Christian Church, 803 Greene St., Boone, IA on Sunday April 5, 2009. This will be the 40th year of the drama.
The 7 p.m. worship service will feature the living dramatization of "The Last Supper" painting by Leonardo da Vinci as presented by men of the West Des Moines United Methodist Church. In the past the group has presented the drama 384 times--since starting in their own church in Holy Week of 1970.
The inspiring hour of music, drama and worship depicts Jesus and the 12 Disciples in positions like those painted by da Vinci in his famous painting. In it, he chose to capture the moods of the Disciples just after Jesus said: "One of you will betray me."
Since seeing the drama at a National Conference of Methodist Men in 1969, the West Des Moines group has presented it in locations ranging from missions and small churches to Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, the Upper Room Chapel in Nashville, TN, at four churches in Missouri, and two churches in Nebraska.
Over 67,200 people have witnessed their presentations in person, plus thousands more saw it in an hour-long TV special. Inquiries about it have come from as far away as Florida and Colorado. Some congregations have formed their own cast to present the drama after seeing it.
These modern disciples have an ambitious schedule this Lenten season: Besides Boone, they will present the drama in Des Moines, Indianola, Prole, Booneville and West Des Moines.
The drama, written by the Rev. Ernest K. Emurian, was first presented at a church in Virginia in 1954. It's based on da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper, which he was commissioned to do in 1494, to decorate the dining room of the Convent Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
The cast and crew for the drama number about 35 persons.