Well, yesterday was our annual Christmas pageant, and I am happy to announce there were no Herdman moments to report. So in terms of memorable programs, this one will go not go down in the record books for mishaps. If I were truthful, I would say the mishaps really belonged to the director known as me.
When I agreed to return to directing, our church’s Christian Education committee asked me if I had a script in mind. I spent some hours researching and discovered two that I liked. One especially grabbed my attention and did so for the committee members. We all perused the marketing materials, and I was given the go-ahead to purchase the set.
The date was chosen, the rehearsal schedule set, a couple co-directors came on board, and finally the box arrived. Like a child on Christmas morning, I ripped the packaging open and began digging through the box. I found the sets of cd’s and DVD’s, but I kept digging for the actual play itself. Eventually, I dug until I reached the other side of the box and no script could be found.
After a frantic dash to the website to figure out what went wrong, I discovered the problem was with me (and the other adults who looked over the original materials). There was no script. Only curriculum and some really jazzy music videos were what the group promised. How in the cat hair did we all miss that? When my daughter got home, I lamented our job as co-directors just got harder. She was a better sport about it than I, saying “Mom, we’ve got this!”
She gave up four hours the next weekend for the two of us to intertwine the curriculum materials and the videos into a script. It really helps when you attend a smaller church and when you are somewhat familiar with your actors’ personalities.
As rehearsals progressed, it was amazing to watch how everyone worked together. This included one mom who stumbled across some amazing choreography for one of the songs. Since we are simple servants open to input, we jumped for joy for such a great suggestion. Our other co-director added amazing touches that added so much to the final performance, but what completely blew us away were the ideas the kids themselves added to the show.
To use up some nervous energy, we went around the room before the service allowing each one present to share their most favorite part. My heart melted when a few chose to say their favorite part was a way another child did their part. What encouragers! Our curtain call came just as we wound ourselves back to me. They inquired my favorite part. Honestly, I told them all my absolute favorite part was getting to work with all of them. The sighs of contentment said that was not the answer they expected.
The pageant went beautifully with perfectly said lines, adorable cuteness in preschoolers who always steal the show, as well as great songs and dancing. However for me, there was a pre-pageant moment that stuck in my heart. As we waited in the wings to enter, I went through the line high-fiving each one, telling them how awesome they are and how proud of each one I was. We could hear the offering song, and that was when my eyes could no longer hold in my emotions. Those sweet little angelic voices were singing along to “The First Noel”. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard before a pageant because they sang with unhindered joy. It would not have mattered if everything else had gone wrong because I could bottle up that moment to savor forever!
