The Best Play Ever

Amidst the flurry of the beginning of this Holiday season, our family participated in the play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”.Every rehearsal was an adventure and every performance a joy.


But the best part about this play was watching the unexpected coincidences that kept popping up throughout. As I watched the Pageant unfold it was clear to me that we were doing more than just a play.

When we first decided to perform a play during Christmas time, we wondered whether or not people would want to participate during the busy holiday season. It was decided that the risk was worth taking and we opted to put on the play before Thanksgiving in order to avoid conflict with school events in December. We held our first audition in September and a large group of people came to try out for parts. In the history of doing plays here in Wendell, that has never happened. But, just like in the play, there were sufficient willing volunteers for every part. Last year, when we performed “Hello Dolly” there were very few at the try-outs, and those few who got parts initially, all dropped out of the show. In fact, the whole show was re-cast after the first three rehearsals.

One of the first people to be cast in the show was Candice. She was asked to play the part of the meddling and bossy Mrs. Armstrong who, in the play, has broken her leg and is unable to run the pageant. She accepted the role and within a short time actually broke her leg (not on purpose) and played the role from her wheelchair. Her diligence in coming to practices in spite of the pain, the inconvenience, and difficulty was an inspiration to all of us. She also brought her two beautiful children with her to be an angel and a shepherd in the play. Just like in the play, she literally ran the show from back stage by getting people in their places, bandaging bruises and trying to keep the angels quiet.

The children of the play were cast all at once after the audition. Each child just seemed to be made for a certain part and there was no question as to who would be whom. We did have a little trouble with one of the boys, though. He wasn't able to make it to the rehearsals and when we talked to his mother, she said that she had not been feeling well. She was due to have her baby soon and was having a hard time getting everything done. She said that her boy was really looking forward to being in the play, so we offered to get him rides so that he could come. Just like in the play, this little family had little means and many hardships to overcome in order to participate. He was going to play the part of one of the Herdman boys, they are the children in the play who have never heard of the Christmas story. In the pageant, he was going to be one of the wise men. The little boy's name is Gaspar. Someone asked me, “Wasn't that the name of one of the wise men?” Yes, there is a tradition that names the wise men, and that was one of them.

In the play, firemen come to the church after someone pulls the alarm, when it is only cigar smoke in the ladies room. Like in the play, on the night of our dress rehearsal, we somehow tripped off the building alarm. We wondered if the police or firemen were REALLY going to come. We also had our share of little disasters, like in the play. The Herdmans in the play are rowdy, obnoxious and get into a lot of trouble. In our play, while the Herdmans were being Herdmans on stage, one of them got a little over-zealous and actually hurt one of the other children. During the fire scene of chaos, one of the little angels who were supposed to run screaming through the room, was actually screaming in pain after running into one of the other children and getting her hair caught in a belt attachment. One of the angels even fell off a riser, in spite of all we tried to do to prevent it.

In the play, Mrs. Bradley keeps telling Gladys that she is supposed to say, “Unto You a Child is Born”, and that is ALL. She grabs her by the shoulders to emphasize the importance of “that is ALL”. Ironically, I myself, was standing off stage before the play giving much the same council to my son. “You don't say ANYTHING”, I would tell him. “Just sit quietly and be good.” I might as well have said it to the wall. I think that we were lucky to witness our own Best Christmas Pageant. And, like in the play we learned a lot about each other, and a lot about Christmas.