Our son had a birthday last week, and we celebrated his life by going to see Daniel at Sight & Sound in Lancaster where he works on the lighting team. We did the usual gifts, dinner, and cake thing with him, but the real fun this year was getting a tour of the backstage, substage, and catwalks where Andrew spends most of his time at work. It was kind of a take-your-parents-to-work day. Not only is the facility massive; it’s also a technological marvel. Broadway’s on-stage talent is phenomenal, but they’ve got nothing on Sight & Sound’s sets and tech operation. Backstage photos are forbidden, so I have just a few snaps below that comply with the rules.
The production itself was fantastic. While David was downright emotional, Daniel was quite cerebral. The former made me cry; the latter made me think. It surely had touching moments in it, too, but the real power of the script was its correspondence to today’s realities. America is just a modern-day Babylon, and God’s people are now in exile, much like the Israelites of old. So be it. God still has plans for us, so we live for the good of the city while we’re a part of it. I know the tickets are pricey, but if you can at all go see Daniel, you won’t regret it.
Drew asked his nerdy seminary prof of a dad if I had seen any historical inaccuracies. There were only two that I noticed—one major and one minor. The major error involved the Star of David Daniel had on his satchel. That symbol originated with the Jewish community in Prague in the 17th century AD. As such, it has neither biblical nor Talmudic authority, and Daniel surely wouldn’t have had it on any of his property in the 6th century B.C.
The minor error involved an incorrect vowel point in the handwriting on the wall scene. The Hebrew samech (“s” sound) in the last word of Daniel 5:25 should have had a chireq vowel (single dot) underneath it, not a tsere (double dot), such that it looks like this.
Actually, the vowel pointings were anachronistic, too, as those dots and dashes weren’t added until the middle ages by the Masoretic scholars. Moreover, the original handwriting on the wall likely appeared in cursive Aramaic (an international language at that time), not the Hebrew block script. But if the Hebrew block script is used, the vowel point they want under the samech is a chireq not a tsere. (My hunch is that that someone mistook a sublinear cantillation mark in the Hebrew Bible as a vowel point.)
Anyway, I shared those things with Drew only because he asked. We don’t go to such productions to find fault. I’m sure there were also fabrics, weapons, helmets, etc., that were likewise anachronistic, but that’s pretty common in these kinds of productions. You do the best you can with the budget you have. Still, I was impressed. And inspired. Daniel is possibly my favorite Old Testament book, right up there with Genesis, Exodus, and Ecclesiastes. I did a sermon series in it last year, and it was a blast.
I love that my son is having the time of his life working for such a wonderful Christian organization. His perseverance has paid off. On top of everything, he was just cast in a small part for Sight & Sound’s second film, which will be in production shortly. Their first film, I Heard the Bells, was the moving story behind the writing of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Christmas carol of the same name. Their second film has yet to be announced, so stay tuned!
