Previz frame · The Living Nativity
A 22-minute immersive experience of the Living Nativity — captured in 360°, built on his life's work, made while he's here to see it.
The man
If you stood in the rotunda at EPCOT and heard eight voices fill the room, that was his. The Voices of Liberty opened with the park on October 1, 1982, and they are still singing today — one of only two acts left from opening day.
If you went to the Candlelight Processional, he arranged and directed it.
If you were in Central Florida between 1975 and 1994, you may have stood in front of the Glory and Pageantry of Christmas at what is now Disney Springs, and felt something you couldn't quite name.
Before all of that, he founded The Re'Generation and took them out on the road for twelve years. A million miles. Six thousand concerts. Twelve million people.
He has written 150 songs and 2,800 arrangements. He spent 33 years as a creative consultant to Walt Disney World. He holds a Mousecar.
But ask the people who know him and they don't lead with any of that. They talk about what he did for them — the young singer he took a chance on, the direction he gave, the thing he said once that they've carried for forty years.
He is 93 years old.
His Christmas work has never been preserved. Every performance he ever built existed for one night and then was gone.
That ends now.
What we're building
We are staging a single live performance of the Living Nativity — full set, full lighting, projection mapping, and Derric's music — and capturing it in 360° stereoscopic video.
Not a film of a show. You are in it. Look up and there's the star. Turn around and the shepherds are coming up behind you. Twenty-two minutes, no narration telling you what to think, no one asking you for anything. Just the oldest story we have, told the best way we know how.
When it's finished you'll be able to experience it on a phone, on a computer, in a VR headset, projected in a sanctuary, or under the full curve of a dome theatre.
One night, captured. Then it belongs to everyone, every Christmas, for good.
The Tribute Book
{{ countdown }}Somewhere in the last sixty years, Derric Johnson probably touched your life. Maybe he directed you. Maybe he taught you. Maybe you sang one of his arrangements in a church choir in a town he's never been to. Maybe you just stood in a crowd once at Christmas and didn't know his name.
We are collecting those messages into a book.
Every person who supports this project — at any level, starting at $25 — can write to him. What his music meant. What he said to you once. What you remember.
We're binding it, and on December 12 we're putting it in his hands and reading some of them out loud to a room full of people who love him.
He has spent his whole life giving this away. This is the part where it comes back.
Messages close November 24 so we can bind the book in time.
Every level includes your message in the Tribute Book and your name on the honor roll.
Preview only — no payment is processed. Live checkout will run on Stripe.
Message received
On December 12 we're putting the bound book in Derric's hands. Your name goes on the honor roll this week.
{{ savedMessage }}
{{ savedSignature }}
From the book so far
You put me in the front row of the Re'Generation when I was nineteen and terrified. I have never once sung since without hearing you count us in.
Sandra — Nashville, TN
My mother took us to the Glory and Pageantry every December until she couldn't. That's where I learned what Christmas sounds like. Thank you.
David — Orlando, FL
We sang your arrangement of "O Holy Night" in a church of forty people in Kansas. You never knew we existed. You were in the room anyway.
Ruth — Salina, KS
Eight voices in the rotunda, 1983, and I stood there until my family made me leave. Forty years later I still tell people about it.
Michael — Charlotte, NC
Sample entries — replace with real messages before launch
Ways to be part of it
Every level includes your message in the Tribute Book and your name on the honor roll.
Your message in the book. Your name on the honor roll. Early access to the finished experience when it releases.
Everything above, plus the soundtrack.
Plus the production book — the script, the artwork, the photographs from the night.
Plus a numbered art print from the production.
Plus an item signed by Derric. Limited and numbered.
Plus two seats at the December 12 evening honoring Derric.
Plus two seats at the live capture, where you will be permanently inside the finished experience — and your name on the honor wall on December 12.
A note on rewards: you choose what you'd like after the experience is released. We'd rather you pick something you actually want once you've seen it than guess now.
Name a song. Name a scene.
The production has eleven musical selections and six scenes. Each one can carry a name — yours, your company's, or someone you want to remember.
A choir director who changed your life. A parent who took you to see the pageant every December. A spouse who loved Christmas more than anyone you've known.
That name stays with that scene, in every version of this experience, for as long as it exists.
One of eleven musical selections carries your name. Named in the credits and on this page. Two seats on December 12. Signed soundtrack edition.
One of six scenes carries your name. Named in the credits and on this page. Two seats on December 12 and two at the capture. Framed artwork from your scene.
Sole "Presented by" credit at the head of the experience, in every format, permanently. Named across the 2027 live tour. Four seats at both events.
Cash or in-kind — equipment, services, hospitality. Named in the credits and on this page. Two seats on December 12.
One promise: no sponsor appears inside the experience. Nothing interrupts the twenty-two minutes. All recognition sits at the beginning and the end, where it reads as this was made possible by — which is what it is.
Tell us a little and the executive producer will call you himself.
A real person answers. Usually within a day.
The people making it
Stage production, lighting, sound, and immersive technology — including people whose credits include Disney and Universal.
Produced by Ruscella Immersive, which builds immersive learning studios for universities, government and industry.
Where the money goes
The full production is budgeted at $350,000.
Much of the design work happening right now is being done by people who deferred payment because they believe in this. Part of what we're raising pays them.
This is a commercial production, not a charity — contributions are not tax-deductible. What you're funding is a thing that will exist, and that Derric will see.
December 12
December 12, 2026 — Orlando
We're bringing together the people whose lives he shaped. Singers from Re'Generation and the Voices of Liberty. The ones he mentored. The ones who just loved the work.
You'll experience the first look at the production — the full stage, lighting and music, rendered in 360° and shown in a dome so the whole room stands inside it together.
And we'll put the Tribute Book in his hands.
Seats are limited and included at the $1,000 level and above, and with every song and scene sponsorship.
Request received. We'll write back with details as the evening comes together.
Questions
The capture happens in February 2027. The finished experience releases in November 2027, in time for Christmas.
Nothing special. It works on a phone, a tablet or a computer. If you have a VR headset it's extraordinary. If you don't, you're not missing the story.
It's the Nativity, told as the story it is. There's no sermon and nobody is asking you to believe anything. It's twenty-two minutes of one of the oldest stories we have, made as beautifully as we know how.
No. This is a commercial production.
The production is moving forward. Funding beyond the base determines scale, not whether it happens.
Yes, at any level. Song and scene naming exists for exactly this.
info@ruscellaimmersive.com. A real person answers.