“AlongtimeagoinatowncalledNazareth...” begins the Narrator and takes a pause.
One of the
teachers indicates to him to go slow.
“....there
lived a young woman called Mary and a young carpenter called Joseph.”
Enter Mary
and Joseph in their simple ‘Before Christ’ costumes.
“They loved
each other very much.”
Mary and
Joseph look at each other and smile.
Mary
pretends to be busy. Joseph exits.
“One day an
angel appeared to Mary.”
Enter Angel
Gabriel fluttering the paper wings designed by a clever mum.
Mary kneels
down and looks up at the angel. The angel moves her rosy lips to tell her the
good news.
“..The angel told Mary that she was the chosen one.
Soon she will have a baby boy. He will be very special. He will be the Son of
God and she must call him Jesus.”
Exit Angel
Gabriel and Mary.
The Narrator
explains about King Herod’s order that everyone must return to the place they
were born to pay a special tax.
Enter Joseph
and Mary. Mary ties up bundles and puts them in a big basket for Joseph to
carry.
“Mary rode
to Bethlehem on a donkey with Joseph by her side.”
Joseph
brings in a makeshift donkey fashioned from a child’s two-seater bike.
Earlier
during the rehearsals, the children had found this bike in the hall and had
taken turns to ride it.
“Does
anybody have a hobby horse that we can make into a donkey?”
None of the
children had one.
“Let’s make
this bike into a donkey” said Joseph. Mary seemed only too happy to take a ride
on it.
Everybody
liked the idea. The mums played along and made a 'donkey head' to attach to the bike's handle and covered the 'donkey' with a grey cloth.
“...Every
inn in Bethlehem was full.”
Enter
Innkeeper. He shows the “FULL” sign to Joseph and Mary and leads them to a
stable.
In the
stable, a manger is pre-arranged with a toy baby bundled up behind it and hidden
from the audience view.
“In the
night, Mary’s baby boy was born.”
Mary cuddles
the baby and lays him in the manger. Joseph looks on.
“On a
hillside nearby shepherds are watching their sheep.”
The
shepherds are sitting in the front row of the audience. A mum has been
supervising them because the sticks they held in their hands had a tendency to
go this way and that.
They rush to
the little fireplace in front of the stage, warm their hands, and pretend to look
for their sheep.
“A very bright light came into
the sky. The light was an angel sent by God.”
Angel Gabriel and the little
angels are backstage and are expected to enter at this point.
No sign of them.
The Narrator doesn’t notice.
He faces the audience and goes on
“The light was an angel sent by God. He told the shepherds not to be afraid
because he had good news. The Son of God has been born. They will find him in
a stable in Bethlehem.”
Still no sign of Gabriel and his
tribe.
The Narrator realises that he has
gone too far. So he takes a long pause.
Angels, where are you? Please
enter now – the mums of the angels are
holding their breath.
The angels are getting organised
to make an appearance. Mary quickly glances in their direction and gestures to
them to enter.
Enter Angel Gabriel and the tiny
angels from the lower primary classes pirouetting like ballerinas.
Angel Gabriel
tells the shepherds the good news.
The
shepherds are excited and run to the steps leading to the stage. The youngest
shepherd’s headscarf comes off. He walks to his mum who fixes it.
Meanwhile
the other shepherds have reached Bethlehem and are admiring the new baby.
The Narrator
waits for the youngest shepherd to join them.
The shepherds
gesture vigorously and tell Mary and Joseph about the message from the angels.
“A long way
away in the East three wise men who studied the stars saw a new
very bright star shining in the sky. They knew that this meant a great ruler
had been born. The wise men followed the star to the stable in Bethlehem.”
The Three Wise Men, in their
royal finery, have been hiding at the back of the audience.
They make their way to the stage
through the audience pointing at the star on the stage.
Their crowns dazzle and their
silks shimmer.
“They found Jesus lying in a
manger. They gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
One by one the Wise Men give
their gifts to Baby Jesus.
The angels, the shepherds, and
the Wise Men arrange themselves in a frame around the holy family.
Joseph and Mary take turns to
cuddle the baby.
“Each year people celebrate the birth of Jesus and they call this
special time Christmas.”
(It was wonderful to celebrate the story of Christmas yesterday with these little actors who came from far corners of the earth - Venezuela to Australia and from Russia to India.)
