Nativity PlaysEvery year the little kids at schools all over get to put on a play. Often it's christmas themed, but the key thing is that everyone gets a part, whether it's Snowflake #12 or Mary or Grendel (yes, really).
Personally I played a 'Rich Husband' who refused to buy matches from some scabby street urchin. Never did see her again...
Who or what did you get to be? And what did you have to wear?
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chthonic, Thu 26 Mar 2009, 17:45)
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Curiously enough,despite having attended two C of E schools, I have never taken part in a nativity play. At my second school this was because we alternated doing a proper panto and a proper play (Cinderella one year, The Duchess of Malfi the next, for example. Very cultural).
But why not at prep school? It was a Christian foundation, stuffed fuller than Bert's rectum with teeny-tiny children, ranging from 4 to 13 years old. Perfect Nativity fodder, you'd think.
But nooooo. Since the school was closely linked to one of the university colleges, and had (still has) a very famous choir, the school took every opportunity available to shoehorn in a shed-load of music, to show off the choristers and music department. And not just any old music. No, for a while we had a series of classical music extravaganzas, culminating in 5 "gala" performances of Britten's "Noye's Fludd" in the college chapel. Performances to which all local dignitaries, celebrities and mentalists were invited, and which was recorded for local television. A large ark was built in the chapel, next to the organ screen, the choristers were all chosen to play the main singing parts (apart from the Head, who played God, and the drunken RE teacher, who was Mrs Noah), and every single other child in the school was enlisted to play the animals.
Letters were sent to parents, asking them to make an animal costume for their little darlings, and informing them that they'd have to give up all semblance of a normal life for the next three months while we rehearsed our little socks off.
At the first performance, as the platoons of animals marched up the central aisle to the strains of the opening chorus, laughter rippled outwards through the audience. I saw my own mother stifling her giggles, as my father took a sneaky swig from his hipflask. You see, the school made one fatal error: they didn't specify which particular animals our parents needed to make their little darlings into. According to our performance, Noah went onto the ark with his family, a dove, a raven, an eagle, seven cows (no bull), and an army of nearly two hundred mice.
The following year, we did "Puss in Boots". I was a fairy, with 30 seconds stage time and no lines. Huh.
(, Wed 1 Apr 2009, 12:40, 1 reply)
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