c. 2006 Religion News Service

STRASBURG, Pa. _ Few signs beckon pilgrims seeking the Millennium Theatre. They know the way, or at least their bus drivers do.

“Our audience doesn’t have any trouble finding us,” public relations manager Pamela Evans said, explaining the paucity of billboards along the Lancaster County roads leading to the 2,000-seat Millennium and its older sister, the 700-seat Living Waters Theatre.

Most patrons have traveled far, and from the east, to see “The Miracle of Christmas” (which runs through Jan. 6) at Millennium on a bright recent afternoon.

By day’s end, more than 4,000 will have watched two performances of the 2 1/2-hour show about the birth of Christ.

The production, which cost more than $1 million to mount, features dozens of actors, spectacular sets, banks of laser lights, live animals and heavenly angels hovering by wire above the 300-foot wraparound stage.

By year’s end, more than 800,000 people will have paid to see one of the several shows staged by Sight & Sound Theatres, the for-profit corporation that operates the two theaters.

That annual total makes Sight & Sound the nation’s largest faith-based theater, as well as tourist-rich Lancaster County’s No. 1 ticketed attraction.

Visitors to this “Christian Broadway” near Strasburg are mostly white, mostly senior citizens, mostly middle class and overwhelmingly Christian. Eight in 10 are from East Coast cities, including one in four from the New York-New Jersey region.

Many pay $250 or more for an overnight bus trip that also buys them a motel bed, a Pennsylvania Dutch buffet, outlet shopping and a visit to another of Amish country’s attractions.

These people are part of a trend in the travel industry. Industry insiders call it affinity-based tourism, or less formally, “togethering.”

Faith-based travel is the fastest-growing segment in the “togethering” marketplace. Millions of the faithful, Protestant and Roman Catholic, pool their recreational clout to demand cruises, theme parks and live shows that reflect their values.

“People want to get together with people of similar interests, whether it’s traveling to the Holy Land or the Philadelphia Flower Show,” said Kevin Wright, president of the World Religious Travel Association, which next month will launch the first magazine devoted to faith-based travel.

“We’re talking about a billion-dollar industry,” Wright said.

Sight & Sound, already a seasoned player, is well-positioned for the evolving market. Founders and owners Glenn and Shirley Eshelman have seen their vision of Christian entertainment mushroom since they first offered slide shows set to music 30 years ago.

“I really saw the potential this had for ministry purposes,” said Glenn Eshelman, who grew up on a Lancaster County dairy farm. “We get so many people here you could not get to walk through a church door.”

In 2008, Sight & Sound will open a theater in Branson, Mo., a tourism center with demographics similar to Lancaster County.

Glenn Eshelman said he’s the dreamer, his wife the realist.

“I’m the throttle, and she’s the brake,” he said. “You need the throttle to keep moving ahead, and you need the brake to keep you from going over the cliff.”

The Eshelmans believe theater is a natural way to spread the Gospel, pointing out that Christ was a storyteller who often used props to illuminate his message.

“If it worked for Jesus, it can work for us,” Glenn Eshelman said.

The Millennium, which opened in 1998 after an accidental fire destroyed the previous theater on the site, is dedicated to a Christian message.

A lamb-and-lion sculpture greets visitors outside the entrance doors, a visual reference to the biblical promise of Christ’s return. Broad hallways with statues of angels in wall niches lead the way to rest rooms, concession stands and the arenalike auditorium.

That’s what today’s Christian traveler, with high standards for visiting U.S. attractions, expects, according to industry insiders.

“They are very smart in replicating Broadway,” Wright said of Sight & Sound. “This is not the same old mentality of poverty, where people think they have to stay in rat-infested hotels on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They are willing to go and spend money to see a Broadway-type production because they are going to go and see an actual Broadway production if there is not a faith-based option.”

Sight & Sound provides that option, although it is not a place for those who like their theater edgy. Despite first-rate production values, the shows are faithful retellings of well-known Bible stories. There is no profanity or sex in these displays.

“Not everyone who comes is the stereotype of a devout Christian,” Evans said. “But we do express in each show what the Bible says. Every show is going to present the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Evans said more than 90 percent of Sight & Sound’s visitors come back.

“It’s a great group travel destination,” said Jeff Gayduk, publisher of Leisure Group Travel, a magazine for industry insiders. Gayduk’s subscribers recently chose Sight & Sound as their favorite theater destination in the United States.

Nearly everything seen on a Sight & Sound stage is created in-house, including the animatronic animals used when real ones are impractical (lions) or impossible (dinosaurs).

Backstage is a maze of rooms that includes dressing rooms, holding pens, the costume department and the set-design shops. Behind the theater are the barns and outbuildings where Sight & Sound’s animal husbandry department is headquartered. Trainers prepare the 100 resident horses, dogs, camels, sheep, goats and alpacas for stage work.

Animals are used regularly in productions, often traveling down the theater aisles. Some are trained to go to a certain spot, while others perform intricate maneuvers.

Training methods for the animals are gentle, without beating or bribing.

That’s in keeping with the flashy theater’s low-key approach to evangelism. Audience members seeking more information about Christianity are advised to see an usher after each performance.

There’s no sermon beyond the show itself.

The privately held company rotates its shows and regularly works in new ones. The ability to restage productions helps to keep Sight & Sound profitable, because budgets for new productions can run into the millions.

“Miracle of Christmas” is staged each holiday season. Other shows include the Easter favorite “Behold the Lamb” and 2003’s “Daniel,” which featured animatronic lions and a geyser of fire.

Now in development is the $5 million “In the Beginning,” which, at its scheduled March opening at Millennium, will tell the biblical story of creation. Evans said 30 percent of the tickets for the seven-month run already have been sold.

Company executives said there is no litmus test for employment by Sight & Sound, but they concede that over time, the 500-member staff has evolved into a solidly Christian unit.

“Generally, people who are happy working here are in harmony with our mission,” Evans said.

KRE/JL END DUNKLE

(David N. Dunkle writes for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.)

Editors: To obtain photos from the Millennium Theatre, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

See related story/sidebar, RNS-THEATER-SHOWS, also transmitted Dec. 28, 2006.