Sight & Sound celebrates 40 years of Biblical theater this year. It is the highest-attended Biblical theater company in the world, and its own history is filled with uplifting, faith-affirming, live-action drama. Their story deserves its own stage show.
In July 1976, after years on the road as a multimedia presentation, Glenn & Shirley Eshelman came home to permanent quarters, where they started the Living Waters Theatre in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Ten years later, slides and music had given way to original, live-action biblical dramas in a new 1,400-seat auditorium. Forty years later, more than 600 Sight & Sound employees mount two large-scale biblical epics in two locations, 20 times a week: Samson in Lancaster County and Moses in Branson, Missouri.
“We pinch ourselves at the work we get to do,” CEO Matt Neff said. “We are surrounded by creative people, and every day thousands of guests leave with an ancient story as a source of new hope.”
If hope is Sight & Sound’s dominant theme, tenacity is the counter melody. In 1997, when a fire destroyed its second facility (the 1,400-seat auditorium in Lancaster County), Sight & Sound returned in 18 months with a massive, state-of-the-art, 2,000-seat, opera house-sized theatre. The Branson site—a twin of the Lancaster County structure—opened in 2008.
More than a million people come each year to experience a Sight & Sound Theatres production—with their trademark towering sets, dazzling special effects, animals on stage, original music and large casts.
“We stand on four-decades of purposeful entertainment,” President and Chief Creative Officer Josh Enck said. “And the exciting thing is, we’re still growing, learning, changing.”
This summer, Sight & Sound Theatres received TripAdvisor’s highly regarded Certificate of Excellence for businesses that have earned excellent traveler reviews on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period.
For tickets to Moses and Samson, special offers and more information, visit Sight & Sound’s website
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