{"id":11896,"date":"2017-12-19T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=11896"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:32:05","slug":"old-neon-star-open-christmas-eve-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/old-neon-star-open-christmas-eve-night\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Old Neon Star\u2019 open Christmas Eve night"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The holidays often evoke a sense of joy and harmony; however, some individuals face a different story.<\/p>

\u201cThey might be struggling with health or finances, so this whole presentation kind of deals with all those facets,\u201d said Lou Wiebe, the creator of \u2018Old Neon Star.\u2019<\/p>

\u201cAt the end, it shows that God is the divine intervention for all of this. He\u2019s got the solution for all of it if we just listen.\u201d<\/p>

Wiebe, 62, a real estate agent in Madera, first thought of creating a Christmas show after watching an orchestra five years prior.<\/p>

\u201cMy wife and I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra live in Fresno about five years ago and the music just captured our hearts and, so we bought the CD,\u201d Wiebe said. \u201cWe listened to it nonstop throughout the holiday season and so this year I thought it would be so awesome if we could throw together a program along with the music.\u201d<\/p>

It\u2019s different than your typical Christmas story. Wiebe created a visual representation of everyday individuals struggling and in need. He takes the idea of assistance through divine help, but also from the community as the remedy to our struggles.<\/p>

Along with the help from drama director Louis Leonard, 58, Wiebe\u2019s unique approach is a twist on the typical Christmas story.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s geared more to like real-world life experience,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI just think it\u2019s a unique Christmas service, because it\u2019s not a traditional service. Even though we are sharing the same story, I guess you can say it\u2019s a more real-life kind of story. Hopefully it will touch people and help see Christmas in a different light.\u201d<\/p>

Wiebe wrote the bones of the script in early October and started practicing the production before Halloween.<\/p>

Both Wiebe and Leonard play a role in the production and they aren\u2019t the only locals in the set up. The entire cast and crew is Madera native.<\/p>

\u201cThey absolutely are, all of them are from Madera,\u201d Wiebe said enthusiastically. \u201cIt gives it a real hometown feel because it\u2019s all local talent and people that are in other positions but on this night, they become musicians, they become actors and lighting techs. It is just an evening that really transforms everybody, whether they are in the audience or part of the drama.\u201d<\/p>

The show will be held at Harvest Community Church at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve and it\u2019s free to the public. However, with a little more than 250 seats available, it\u2019s important to arrive early.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holidays often evoke a sense of joy and harmony; however, some individuals face a different story. \u201cThey might be struggling with health or finances, so this whole presentation kind of deals with all those facets,\u201d said Lou Wiebe, the creator of \u2018Old Neon Star.\u2019 \u201cAt the end, it shows that God is the divine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":26631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28,32],"class_list":["post-11896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-charity","tag-culture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}