My pastor scheduled a short third rehearsal: just 45 minutes before an all-church event. That’s three quarters of an hour for two complicated jobs.
1. Re-block what Didn’t Work
The first job was to re-block things that were troublesome last week. Sticking with my original plan might preserve my pride, but only temporarily. Better to just admit where it hadn’t worked.
The problem was big movements during short lines: when Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, and again when Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus went to Jerusalem.
Some of the trouble was adapting the play to an oddly shaped space. More was because my imagination didn’t quite match reality.
I needed to improve the timing. No long awkward pauses while people walk around. No speeches before the people were face to face.
In my script I studiously marked the words that cue them to start walking, and the words that had to match their arrival in Bethlehem or Jerusalem.
Then we had to work out how quickly or slowly to move to hit those marks.
I had to fight the fear of seeming pedantic, or of boring my actors. To make it work, and to remember how to make it work, we had to walk through the process at least 3 times.
2. Including the Children
The second big challenge of our short rehearsal was another scary one for me: including the children. I’m at ease with my own kids but I’ve never done much with groups of children.
During blocking I had 1 shepherd, 1 angel and 2 magi.
Now we had 5 shepherds 3 angels and a full complement of magi.
Working with the Shape of the Sanctuary
Blocking had led to a blockage: the sanctuary has a very small door at stage-left for a whole herd of children to move through.
Sollution: we laid claim to the front row of pews on the stage-left side of the sanctuary. Angels and shepherds could enter and exit from there.
Nobody sits in the front row of a Presbyterian church anyway.
Getting the Angels in Place
Time was as tight as the space: Scripture says there was suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host. If they had to get up, climb the stairs, and find their places it was not going to be sudden.
Solution: have the Angels come in at the same time as the shepherds, and hide under sheets of brown cloth. We would convince ourselves that they looked like rocks.
When their cue was spoken they could toss off the sheets jump up and give glory to God.
Then practice that three times.
Getting the Magi to Herod on Time
The Magi presented another timing puzzle. Since they were coming from a distant land I’d planned them a stately march up the center aisle.
They were only half-way there when they had to start talking to Herod.
Solution: find an exact cue in the narrator’s speech to begin their march, and time their walking to arrive in the throne room on time to speak.
Then we had to do it three times.
Working on the Dialogue
Last was the problem of speaking the lines. All three groups of kids had things that needed to be said in unison, as well as some lines being given to individuals.
Really the lines gave us two things to work on.
First was the basic matter of hearing the cue, speaking, and being loud enough to be heard. To deal with that we needed to have several repetitions. Just telling kids how they should do something would certainly not have a good result.
Solution: take a 3 or 4 line fragment of the play and run it maybe 5 times in a row.
Works great. By the end I could be silent, and they could speak and be heard without any prompting.
The second dialogue challenge could make a huge difference in the production: I had to try to help the kids get past simply saying their lines. I had to help them speak the words from their hearts.
Find the emotion behind the words and it turns into acting.
Solution: I resorted to amateur standup comedy.
Take the moment when the shepherds saw the angel. The text simply says
and they were filled with great fear.
But since this is in the style of reader’s theatre, the shepherds have to actually say this line. In unison.
As a group of little kids they were doing well to say these words at all, not to mention on cue. But I wanted more than simple recitation. I told them
Imagine what she looks like. The angel Gabriel glows in the dark! You’re sitting out with your sheep at midnight, and then and this huge person appears and she seems to be on fire! Would you say if that happened to you?
One shepherd guessed
AAAAAA!
I told her she was right. I told her they all had to think and feel
AAAAAA!
But at the same time they had to say
and they were filled with great fear.
Then I dramatized it, took it over-the-top, saying the line with a big shocked face and a scream of fear behind it.
Then we all tried it together — over and over again.
I don’t know if I succeeded, but I did have fun.
They did great. I’m proud of them.
Next rehearsal? I have to make the grown-ups feel their lines too.
Maybe you should pray for me.
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