Christmas Pageant 2011

Well, he was right! 

This year was our third building on Pastor Heidi's experience with an approach to Christmas Pageants that was new to us just a short time ago, but now seems like the only rational way to present one. Instead of just the typical Annunciation, trip to Bethlehem, and manger scene with shepherds, animals, angels and wise men, our recent pageants are a bit more cerebral.  This year, the pageant dealt with prophets -- and their prophecies -- and takes us to the manger scene.  It's interesting.  The kids really seem to like this approach.  It doesn't get old from year to year, and the kids actually learn something! (So do the adults.)

Of course, we have a few things going for us that few other small parishes can match.  We've got superb musicians -- starting off with a very competent (and very young) violin trio, and highlighted by a solo by a fifth grader with significant performance credentials on the musical stage. We've also got our music director, Christine Gevert, and the Trinity Choir in a backup role. In terms of theatricality, we've got not one but two in-house playwrights with off-Broadway credits.  We've got Pastor Heidi, of course, with her imagination and creativity, not to mention her own experience teaching dance (no dance this year; next year maybe).  And this year we even defied W. C. Field's advice never to take the stage with children or animals and brought three dogs "on stage" to illustrate the prophet Isaiah's "lion lying down with the lamb" in a very direct way.

We held only one big standalone rehearsal, and it was great!  The kids love this format, they were absolutely focused, and the results showed it. 

The rehearsal was December 17, and the performance was during the 10:30 AM Holy Eucharist the following day, December 18, which was also the fourth Sunday of Advent.

Violin trio

A dramatic moment

Some of the kids on stage

Waiting in the wings

Solo