CG.Drama History

2001
CG.Drama, started as the youth drama ministry at CCCNJ in the fall of 2001 by Founder David Teng; in an effort to foster the arts in the church and as a tool to lead audience members to ask questions about Truth.

During the first year, the drama team met on Friday nights after Youth Group and was, unofficially, christened, “Drama bin Laden” by some of its members. They spent the first semester training and preparing the team to perform. Although they were given very short notice, its first performance was the mime, King of Hearts directed by David Teng, performed before a crowd of hundreds at the CCCNJ Chinese New Years Celebration in January 2002.


2002
The drama team’s second year saw its numbers virtually double, its practices moved to a new place and time, and the inception of a name. In the Fall of 2002, the Children’s Ministry of CCCNJ asked the drama team to perform something based on the story of the “good Samaritan” for the children. Wey Wang wrote the drama team’s first sketch, Lampstand directed by David Teng, which featured the unforgettable “paste scene”. It was during this time that the drama team finally decided on its next name: Soul Purpose. Towards the end of production for Lampstand that Soul Purpose’s current leader, Tony Lim, joined the team to assist in leadership responsibilities.

In December of 2002, one of Soul Purpose’s main members, Todd Chen, left to pursue the new CCCNJ dance ministry, “Undignified”.


2003
As 2003 opened, Soul Purpose moved into a classroom on the first floor of CCCNJ and began meeting on Sunday afternoons. Again, Soul Purpose was asked to perform at the CCCNJ Chinese New Years Celebration. This time, they performed the passion mime Decision Time directed by David Teng. Due to the performance’s powerful impact on audiences, Soul Purpose would later perform this same mime during Easter Sunday service, at the First Light concert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and at service for the Good Will Missions Men’s Shelter in Newark.

In August of 2003, the Common Grounds arts ministries: Soul Purpose, Undignified, and Broken Strings, put together an evangelical night called “Boba Nite”. During which, Soul Purpose performed improve as well as the sketch Costly Blood adapted by Mike Tang and directed by David Teng.

The first semester of the 2003-2004 year, Soul Purpose’s third year, was one of the hardest for the team. With 15 members now, Soul Purpose ventured on its most difficult production yet, Perspectives, the self-written piece of acting achieved entirely through monologues. During this time, Soul Purpose’s founder and leader, David Teng, had to leave the team for personal reasons; Tony Lim and Wey Wang assumed positions of leader and assistant leader respectively.

For Christmas, Soul Purpose performed its first sketch designed to introduce a sermon during Sunday service; Triple Helix written by Wey Wang and directed by Tony Lim.


2004
After Triple Helix, Soul Purpose shifted into high gear in preparation for Perspectives in March. During the interim months, Soul Purpose continued to struggle to pull things together for its biggest show to date. Finally, performance day arrived and Soul Purpose, along with Undignified, were able to put on a great show.

In fall of 2004, we produced a series of sketches: Fulcrum, written and directed by Wey Wang, Backup Girls, written by Wey Wang and directed by Mike Tang, Run Away, written and directed by Joyce Chen, and The Perfect Kiss, written and directed by Wey Wang. Along with Undignified, we put forth Boba Nite 2, which was a rousing success. It was also during this time that we decided to form a new organization to over see all the arts ministries in the church: Common Ground. Tony Lim was promoted as director of Common Ground, while Wey Wang was promoted to director of Soul Purpose, now renamed to Common Ground Drama, or CG.Drama. Likewise, Undignified was renamed to CG.Dance and Broken Strings was renamed to CG.Music.


2005
In the meantime, Dan Lin and Joyce Chen began working on a one hour play. We started rehearsing in the Spring in preparation for Boba Nite of the Living Dead (aka Boba Nite 3). As all three teams prepared for the show, it became clear that no one was ready to put on a show other than CG.Drama. It was then that we decided to change the name of the show to Irreplaceably Precious, after the title of the play. CG.Dance and CG.Music would help CG.Drama by serving as stage crew.

Unfortunately, this was also the darkest era for CG.Drama. We were under tremendous stress and spiritual attack. It was decided among the leadership that the best idea was to cancel the show. After months of preparation, the team was heartbroken, but agreed with the decision. To this today, we look back and wonder what that show would’ve been like.

Fall of 2005, Wey Wang stepped down briefly to let Becky Pigott direct CG.Drama. We spent this first semester feeling out a new format, where we would come up with our own mimes to music.


2006
In the Spring, we settled on a story and developed New Day, our first silent work since King of Hearts. Common Grounds didn’t have enough material to put on its own show, so we joined with United to support them. CG.Music no longer had a leader and disbanded. CG.VisualArts started and stopped. And CG.Dance would perform its last dance.

In Fall of 2006, CG.Drama was the only surviving ministry in the CCCNJ arts program. Undaunted, Wey Wang once again stepped up as director with a new vision. Over the course of the year, Wey Wang wrote a 6 episode miniseries titled: Popular. The story unfolded over a period of 5 months, culminating in our first 2 hour play.


2007
During the Summer of 2007, many CG.Drama alumni came back and were interested to produce something. We decided that we would try and produce our first movie: Love Angle. It was a great learning experience with its own set of challenges and rewards. The movie is still in the final stages of editing, but we’re excited about it.

In the Fall of 2007, CG.Drama decided to continue its foray into digital video with a series of music videos. As we plan and prepare for the revival of Boba Nite, we are confidant in what God is doing with us.