Severna Park Area Residents Travel To Ancient Jerusalem In “The Chosen”

Deborah Mackall and her mother, Severna Park resident Gerry Wood, have been big fans of “The Chosen” for a long time. They’ve been to the show’s convention, ChosenCon, multiple times. In 2025, they took a trip together to Texas for Mackall to be featured as an extra in the show.

At the beginning of the trip, they spent time with Mackall’s brother who lives in Texas and then drove out to stay in an Airbnb near the set. Each day, Mackall got up early to head to set for a long day of filming, braving the heat of an August day in Texas.

Participating in the show helped Mackall gain greater appreciation for the work that the actors do. “I learned that I wasn’t an actor. It’s much more skilled than we think, right?” she said. “They do a lot of research. They do a lot of writing it out and figuring out what their character is like and how their character would act.”

This wasn’t Mackall’s first time traveling to be part of the show. She did the same for season five, although her scenes didn’t make it into the final product. She has more hope that she’ll be seen in season six, due to her proximity to the main story. During her season five trip, she made friends with fellow extras, and season six gave her the opportunity to reunite with them.

The show asked the extras to provide their own costumes, although the producers had strict guidelines to keep things consistent with the look of the show. Mackall created her own costumes, which she also wore to ChosenCon with Wood.

Wood and Mackall began taking trips together regularly after going on a cruise together. “We have a lot of fun,” Wood said. “I pretty much am agreeable to whatever she wants to do, and I don’t give her a hard time, and I always want her to invite me again.”

Though Wood wasn’t an extra, her voice is still heard in the show. In one episode, the people sing “Hosanna” during Jesus’ triumphal entry. “They wanted it to feel more full, more people,” Mackall said. “So at ChosenCon with all 5,000 of us in the auditorium, they had recorded us singing the song. So that was cool. So she was a background actor there.

“The biggest thing on being a background actor is having this sense that you’re part of something so much bigger than yourself,” Mackall said. “Their goal is to reach over a billion people with a gospel message. They want it to be in 600 languages. So you’re part of making that happen; you’re part of getting the gospel message out there and being part of this grand story, and that’s the best feeling.”

The scenes with Mackall are part of season six, which will portray the final hours of Jesus’ life culminating in his crucifixion. The new season will premiere in fall 2026, leading up to the season finale, which is slated to come out around Easter 2027.