Good News of Great Joy

Notes to Pageant One

This pageant would be a good choice for a first venture intodrama with your Sunday school, and it would work well either as partof the Sunday morning service or as a separate afternoon or eveningevent, including Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. (Bear in mind thatif you schedule your pageant right before Christmas, you will be bur-dened with last-minute planning and crises right up to the holiday; andif you schedule it right after Christmas, you need to be the sort of per-son who is willing to spend Christmas with the pageant still hangingover you.) This script is straightforward and literal in concept andentirely within the understanding even of first-graders. It tells theNativity narratives in order, and adds the prophecies from Isaiah toplace them in context.

Children need the most help from their director with 1) memo-rization of their parts; and 2) dramatic timing. There are a relativelylarge number of speaking parts in this play, because we found that thepossession of a speaking part was an important status symbol. Butspeaking parts mean work at home, and careful drill at rehearsal—onspeaking slowly enough, and loud enough to be heard; on expression;and most of all on pace and cues. It is not obvious to children, as theyread from a script, that lines should pick up from each other like natu-ral dialogue. They wait for the previous speaker to finish, and then theycome in. To make the dialogue sound natural, the director needs tospend the early rehearsals behaving like a choral conductor, training thechildren to watch for gestures that will “bring them in” at a pace thatwill at first seem excessively fast to them—while continuing to makesure that the actual words of their dialogue are spoken unnaturally slow-ly. Then, by the full rehearsals, the director needs to have determinedexactly what cue governs each speech, action, entrance, etc. Many ofthe stage directions simply specify “during singing;” the director needsto tell the children exactly which line of the song is their cue to theirspecified action. (See Appendix I for a sample “cue sheet.”)

Many of the performers in this pageant spend much of their timewaiting to go on. They should, of course, be seated in assigned spaces,based on their order of entrance; these seating arrangements should beworked out in advance of the first full rehearsal. It is wise to mix someadults with the children, with the dual role of keeping order and mak-ing sure that all the angels, sheep, etc. leave their seats and get readyto go on at the proper time.

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GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY

StagingThe script presupposes the following conditions. The stage, or

chancel, can be approached from either side, and also by means of acenter aisle through the audience (congregation). On at least one sideof the stage area there is a way to exit into the “wings,” more or lesshidden from the congregation, and a relatively inconspicuous routefrom the wings back to the rear of the congregation so as to re-enter bythe center aisle. Children who are not on stage are seated in some placefrom which they can be heard as they sing the carols, and from whichthey can conveniently come on stage either by the side access or bycoming up the center aisle. The first rows of pews will work well, buttransept pews or (if there is a rood screen to hide them from clear view)choir stalls might also work. A balcony could be used very creativelyif you are lucky enough to have one. The Narrator is in a pulpit orlectern. Two “inns,” from which Innkeepers can emerge, are suggest-ed at two points on the stage, either by purpose-built scenery or bysome more stylized means such as a screen.

CostumesIf you have done a Christmas pageant before, you probably

already have costumes for Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Kings,and perhaps the Ox, Donkey, and Sheep. The only other costumesrequired by this script are those for the Narrator, the Innkeepers, andthe Star, plus Page(s) and Sheepdog, if you include them. Innkeeperscan wear the same sort of robes as Mary and Joseph, and the Star canwear an angel costume (without wings) or something very similar.Acolyte robes are very appropriate for the Narrator. For details on allcostumes, see Appendix I.

PropsThe following items are essential to the action:

• A box of some kind, filled with straw or excelsior, for the manger.(A wooden or slatted crate looks fine, or a cardboard box may bepainted.)

• A baby doll, preferably not too small, not too stiff, and not too“cute,” for the Christ Child. (We have a parish tradition of allow-ing the girl who plays Mary to supply the baby doll, which has ledto some interesting situations; we have even occasionally used alive baby, and it works out surprisingly well and also, of course,brings down the house!)

• A length of white cloth, wrapped securely around the baby doll.

• A star on a pole, for the child playing the Star to carry. The starcan be an ornament intended for the top of a Christmas tree, or ahomemade cardboard (spray-painted gold) or foil star, mounted ona pole and carried like a processional cross; it can be made of

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metallic fabric, stuffed, and dangled from the end of a pole; or alighted taper may be used.

• Gifts for the Three Kings:

Gold: a jewelry box, the bigger and gaudier the better; or a goldcrown.

Frankincense: ideally, a lighted thurible with ample smoke curlingout of it; failing that, another jewelry box or a crimson or purplevelvet pouch.

Myrrh: a perfume bottle, as large and exotic in appearance as you canmanage.

Suggested additional props, for atmosphere (use your imagination here):

• Staffs for Joseph and some of the Shepherds.

• Jug and dishtowel for the innkeeper to hold.

• Leather satchels, toy lambs (if not too small), baskets, other“country” accessories for the Shepherds. (Let the children assembletheir own accessories, and encourage them to be imaginative.)

• Lighted candles for all the Angels (but only, of course, if the chil-dren playing them are old enough to manage lighted candles safely).

• Tambourines, bells, maracas, etc. for the Shepherds.

• Banners for attendants on the Three Kings to carry.

MusicIt’s a nice idea to distinguish the carols within the pageant from

normal hymns, by having them accompanied by some other instru-ment(s) than the organ. We have been lucky enough to have a number ofadults who play the recorder, and we’ve always had a recorder consortto accompany the carols. Then, at the end, when the organ strikes up“Go, Tell It on the Mountain,” it makes a rousing conclusion. Whoeveraccompanies the pageant carols has to be at the dress rehearsal,because many of the cues will be provided by lines in the carols; inaddition, if the children are going to sing them at all, they need topractice the lead-ins for them.

If at all possible, the carols “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Unto Us aBoy is Born!” and “We Three Kings”—which contribute to the dramaticaction rather than being mere interludes—should be sung by the Angels,Shepherds, and Kings, as assigned, rather than the congregation.

If you have children who can play the recorder, harmonica, auto-harp, or other appropriate instrument, the “pause” provided on page 12(Scene IV) would be a good time for one or more of your Shepherdsto lull their sleeping companions with a tune.

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GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY

Inclusive Language• In Narrator’s speech on page 8, “the weaned child shall put its

hand” replaces the Revised Standard Version language, “the weanedchild shall put his hand.”

• In stanza 7 of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” The Hymnal 1982,#56, “humankind” replaces “all mankind.”

• In stanza 3 of “Unto Us a Boy is Born!” The Hymnal 1982, #98,“all flesh” replaces “all men.”

• In stanza 2 of “Go, Tell It On the Mountain,” the word “watcher”replaces “watchman.”

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Appendix

Costumes

In recent years there has been an explosion of costume patternsin the catalogs of the major pattern companies. It is now a fairly sim-ple matter to outfit both adults and children as all the standard human(and angelic) characters for a Christmas pageant: McCall’s, Simplicity,and Butterick all offer collections of pageant costumes under a singlepattern number, for adults, children, or both. Each company’s collec-tion includes a simple robe with choice of length and sleeve styles,plus a variety of simple overgarments, headdresses, and accessories(wings, crowns, and jewelry in felt and cardboard). Shepherd cos-tumes can be made to look “medieval” by making the robe knee-lengthinstead of long, and adding tights, hoods, and capes in a mixture ofbright primary colors and earth colors. If you’d like to go further withthe medieval look, the costume section of the pattern books nowabounds in historic dress, from which you can make anything fromRobin Hood capes (for variety, you can shorten some of the capes tomake a simple hood covering only the head and shoulders), to authen-tic-looking medieval peasant garb. You could also have a lot of funwith the historic patterns in developing really elaborate costumes forthe Three Kings in Good News of Great Joy.

You will, of course, need to buy multiple copies of the pattern tocover the various sizes of your cast members. (Even if the pattern issold with multiple sizes per envelope, the pattern pieces will betrimmed down, with use, to the smallest size that you are cutting, andwill no longer be usable for larger sizes.) The sizing of costume pat-terns varies widely from company to company and seems to bear littlerelation to standard clothing sizes or to standard pattern sizes fromother parts of the catalog. The most reliable guide for sizing is the fin-ished garment back length (listed on the pattern envelope for eachsize). Measure your actors from the nape of the neck to where youwant the hem to be, and choose the size that comes closest to thatmeasurement; remember, however, that a robe worn with a belt at thewaist should be several inches longer than one worn unbelted, to allowfor blouson-style fullness around the belt. Experimenting with someacolyte or choir robes beforehand will give you some sense of theadded length to allow for various sizes of actors.

Oddly, none of these collections of Christmas pageant patternsincludes any of the animals in the nativity story, and the range of ani-mal costumes elsewhere in the pattern catalogs seems actually to havenarrowed in the last few years. Butterick has a sheep costume (pattern

number 6866 in the 2001 catalog) with both adult and child sizes in thesame envelope, but cow/ox costumes are nonexistent except in infantsizes, and donkey costumes do not exist at all (except for a DisneyEeyore outfit, about which the less said, the better). This does not needto discourage you unduly. In any animal costume, the body is simplya generic body suit, which can be turned equally well into a cow,sheep, or donkey by choosing the fabric creatively and adjusting thetail. The many convincing fake furs on the market will almost guaran-tee the effectiveness of your creations. Fake fur can be expensive andhard to work with, but is well worth it.

There are disadvantages to the full body suit (complete with legs)featured in this Butterick pattern. Such a costume is hot and confining,and will fit only a narrow range of wearers. You may wish to cut onlythe body and sleeves from the pattern, to make a simpler, more flexiblecostume that will end just below the hips. When you cut out the body,lengthen it to end with an even hem that will fall about halfway downthe thighs. Run a casing along the hem and thread 3/4-inch elasticthrough the casing so that the lower edge of the body bunches upbelow the wearer’s hips. The costume can then be worn over eithertights or slacks and will fit a wide range of wearers.

Along with the body fabric, it is the ears on the head part of thecostume that identify the animal. Someone with a little creativityshould be able to adapt the sheep ears in the Butterick costume toresemble a donkey’s, a cow’s, or a sheepdog’s. Note also that, becauseof the rapid head growth in a baby’s first two years, the head of aninfant’s animal costume (in the largest toddler size) will in all likeli-hood fit a small child just fine, and might even be adaptable to an olderchild. The Butterick infant cow costume (pattern number 5657 in the2001 catalog) is adorable, including little horns as well as ears. Itmight be worth your while to look it over.

If you are just not equal to the effort and expense of making full-scale animal costumes, you can choose to be very simple, dressing youranimals in slacks or sweats and shirts of more-or-less appropriate col-ors with attached tails and construction-paper headbands sporting theidentifying ears or horns. Or you can use grocery bags or cardboardboxes as masks, with holes cut for the eyes and some fancy paint andfelt and glued-on cardboard features, or buy animal masks from a partystore or a toy store or novelty catalog (try S&S or Oriental Trader). Atthe other end of the spectrum, if you have someone with real talent (andtime), you can outdo the pattern companies and make papier-mâché orwire-and-cloth masks, as elaborate as you please. Our donkey’s head,made by an unsung genius back in the 1950s for the then-traditionalBoar’s Head Pageant, is still going strong and has been borrowed atleast once for local productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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Some of the characters in these plays are non-standard enough sothat they are not taken into account by the developers of commercialpatterns. These include God the Father in A Child of Might, and Adamand Eve and the Angel of the Lord in People, Look East. The four OldTestament figures in A Child of Might are easily adapted from the cos-tume patterns intended for shepherds and kings (see the Notes toPageant Two, page 29 above); but God the Father should look differ-ent. As discussed in the Notes to Pageant Two, eucharistic vestments(white) are most appropriate to this role in the context of a medievalmystery play. This applies also to the role of the Angel of the Lord inPeople, Look East. Unless your congregation is uncomfortable withthe idea of a seventh-grader or a lay adult putting on the priest’s vest-ments to act these parts, a white chasuble from the rector’s collectionwill probably fit well enough to save you the trouble of making a cos-tume. If you do need to make the chasuble, or if you’re doing People,Look East and making matched chasubles for Adam and Eve, the jobis not difficult.

For an adult-sized chasuble, Simplicity actually has a pattern(pattern number 7950 in the 2001 catalog), which is described as “onesize fits all.” You can cut down the Simplicity pattern to fit a child, ormake a homemade pattern for a child or even an adult, since the chas-uble is an extremely simple garment: merely a large oval of fabric witha hole in the center for the wearer’s head. You will need a length of fab-ric to extend from the ankle or lower calf, over the shoulders, and backdown to the lower calf or ankle. Be sure to cut the fabric wide enoughto reach the wrists with arms extended, or it will look skimpy. A boltof fabric 60" wide will allow you to make the chasuble out of a singlewidth; other fabric will need to be seamed down the middle unlessyour Adam and Eve are quite small. When you’ve figured the lengthand width, make a pattern from newspaper or butcher paper to helpyou trim the resulting rectangle into an oval shape on all four corners.Don’t try to cut this curve freehand; it will be lopsided and uneven.You don’t need to worry about the exact shape of the curve; just makesure that it’s the same right and left, front and back. When you cut thehole for the head, be careful: it’s easy to make it too big. Bind the cutedges of the neck with ready-made bias binding or self-binding, orattach a bias self-facing and turn it to the inside. Narrow-hem aroundthe outer edges of the chasuble; a wider hem will lump. A couple ofrows of braid trim down the center, front and back, add a festive touch.Apply them before you finish the neck hole.

Cue Sheets

We have found the cue sheet indispensable for boiling down themass of information about each part in the play into a manageable setof instructions that a child stands some chance of adequately learningand remembering, and that adult prompters can easily use. The cuesheet is put together after the first run-through in the church (or wher-ever you are going to do your performance), mailed out early in thatweek, and brought to the final rehearsal for reference. It is not, how-ever, to be brought onstage during the performance—a rule that, forsome reason, is especially hard to enforce for adults in a play usingboth adults and children!

The cue sheet consists of a list, for each character, of entrances,exits, and other major movements, and their precise cues. Since manycharacters move together, their instructions can be doubled up. Thedirector, or whoever will prepare the cue sheets, needs of course to beextremely careful to make them complete and accurate, or their pur-pose is entirely lost. It is necessary to highlight each child’s part witha light-colored marker when mailing them out, or they will never lookat them; the realization of how little of the total performance is actu-ally highlighted for each small actor is very reassuring to children witheleventh-hour stage fright.

Between cue sheets, music sheets, rehearsal schedules, etc., therecan be a lot of paper involved in producing a pageant. It simplifiesmatters tremendously if you run each handout on a different color ofpaper. Then when you want everyone to look at a certain handout, it’seasily identified. And when someone comes telling you they’ve losttheirs, it will be much easier to pull out a replacement.

A sample of our cue sheet for Good News of Great Joy can befound on page 107.

The format of A Child of Might is similar to that of Good Newsof Great Joy, and the cue sheet would follow the same principle.

For People, Look East, it has worked much better to organize thecue sheet according to the nine Readings. A sample cue sheet can befound on page 108.

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Sample Cue Sheet for Good News of Great Joy

MARYCUE: “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel!” at end of SECOND verse

ACTION: You come on stage and kneel down. Play your scene. After that you

are always with

JOSEPHCUE: “Of the Father’s love begotten”

ACTION: Joseph comes on stage

CUE: “He the source, the ending he”

ACTION: Joseph and Mary exit. YOU GO INTO THE CHAPEL, THEN BACK

IN ALONG THE SIDE AISLES AND QUIETLY TO BACK OF CHURCH.

CUE: Narrator says, “Joseph also went up from Galilee”

ACTION: You start slowly up the aisle

CUE: Narrator finishes, “time came for her to be delivered”

ACTION: You reach a place close to front of church, and say your lines

CUE: Innkeeper’s wife leads Mary to stable

ACTION: You go into chapel and stay there

SHEPHERDS’ANGEL

CUE: Narrator says, “And an angel of the Lord ...”

ACTION: You come on stage. When narrator finishes, and shepherds have said

their surprise lines, you speak your speech. Stay with ANGEL CHOIR for the rest

of shepherd’s scene, and leave when they leave.

CUE: Shepherds have all left.

ACTION: Go get the manger with the baby in it, and put it on the stage. Then sit

down till “Go Tell it on the Mountain”

ANGEL CHOIR

CUE: MARGARET has gone on stage.

ACTION: You get out of your seats and line up to go on.

CUE: Narrator says, “And suddenly there was with the angel …”

ACTION: You RUN on stage to your places

CUE: Narrator says, “praising God and saying”

ACTION: You SHOUT, “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND PEACE

TO HIS PEOPLE ON EARTH” and then sing your song.

Sample Cue Sheet for People, Look East

(Organized by Reading)

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Reading 1 (pulpit): Genesis 3 (Reader’s Cue: Horn sounds, Lights on)

Reader: Jimmy 1. Adam & Eve Cue: Horn sounds, lights on

Action: You come out and play your scene

Adam & Eve at tree 2. Angels3. Mary & Joseph You are in your

4. Shepherds/Sheep seats in choir stalls

Hymn: Savior of the 5. Animals

Nations, Come 6. Crucifer, Torchbearers,

Acolytes, LAs, Priests Waiting at side

Reading 2 (lectern): Isaiah 11 (Reader’s Cue: End of first Hymn)

Reader: Grace 1. .Adam & Eve You are at the back (CHRIS Please have Ushers give

you the Prayer list to carry up to pulpit)

Tree of Jesse and 2. Angels Cue: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”

Peaceable 3. Mary & Joseph* *(Except Mary who is reader)

Kingdom 4. Shepherds/Sheep Action: Come out to your

5. Animals RED NAME with your mask

6. Crucifer, Torchbearers, Acolytes, LAs, Priests

(Cue: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”

Action: Music begins)

Cue: “…a little child shall lead them”

Hymn: O Come, O Come, Action: Process to the Advent Wreath.

EmmanuelAt wreath, Acolyte 1 (David) lights candle.

During Hymn, go stand on your RED NAME.

1. Adam & Eve Cue: “Purify our conscience, Almighty God”

Action: Come quietly to front (Put Prayer list in Pulpit)

Opening Sentences 2. Angels Cue: End of third verse of

And Collect 3. Mary & Joseph* “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

*(Except Mary who is reader)

4. Shepherds/Sheep Action: Give your mask to Gretchen or Tom,

5. Animals all stand up.

6. Crucifer, Torchbearers, Acolytes, LAs, Priests

Stand on RED NAME (Crucifer and Priests join

Shepherds; Torches join Angels)

Reading 3 (pulpit): Baruch 5 (Reader’s Cue: End of Collect)

Reader: Arike 1. Adam & Eve Cue: Reading starts

Action: Come to tree to be clothed by Angel. Stay there.

Enormously helpful in teaching children the structure of People,Look East was a bulletin board with a series of small posters, one foreach reading-plus-carol, with stick figures in different colored mark-ers (or silhouettes cut from construction paper) for principals, GroupA, Group B, etc., showing who was doing what when. We kept thisbulletin board set up in the Sunday school area starting in mid-November, and hauled it into the church for the first rehearsal.Videotapes of previous years’ performances are also useful, thoughless so than one might think, because they take so long to show andoffer so many distractions: children are bound to watch the tape in the“home-movie” mode, attending to personal details and memories,rather than being alert to logistical issues.