"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" Goes Up Tonight!

Oh, my goodness! The Final Dress Rehearsal was just where I hoped it would be. Not perfect, but close enough that I can see we have a show.

YES!

Any worries I had were due to my insecurities, not to any doubts about the kids. They say that 90% of directing is casting. If that's true, then I'm going to get an A!

The theater was full. There were people sitting in the aisles, which is rare for a dress rehearsal. I want to go on record here as saying that my entire cast ROCKS, and Amanda Sheriff is DA BOMB! Amanda is playing Beth, the narrator. The whole play is told through her memories. The child has three times the lines of the rest of the cast put together. People asked why I precast her. The reason should be obvious to anyone who sees the show. She was willing to put in the work to memorize the huge role, and has brought to it a character that is unique.

My Alice, who is Miss Goody Two-Shoes, has brought us an unexpected bonus: she's funny! The laughs just keep rolling in. She plays the character absolutely straight, which is the way it has to be, to be funny.

Working from the principle that Beth's memories are more about the events than the setting, I started with a bare stage and mimed props and actions. I added in pieces that seemed absolutely essential. The trappings for the Pageant scene--manger, sheep, bathrobe-and-bedsheet costumes; we dispensed with angel wings! Mrs Bradley has a notebook, as does Alice. Mrs McCarthey has a wooden spoon. There are two small benches for the Bradleys to sit on for one scene. And the omnipresent and multi-purpose ladder.

The show is all about the kids. I have four adults in the cast, and the other 30-odd are all kids. Mom, who is wonderful, Dad, who was cast more or less by default, but who turned out to be a real gem, Mrs Armstrong, who is totally out there, and Rev Hopkins, who could probably get me into a church, if she had one.

What a cast! What a show!