rivka

After church today, I met with families whose kids want to be in the Christmas pageant I wrote.

Over a tasty pizza lunch provided by

acceberskoorb and

unodelman (because they are wonderful), I explained the basic plot of the pageant and read a children's book illustrating the carol "The Friendly Beasts." I explained the different kind of roles available: big speaking parts (animals), little speaking parts (humans), a preschool chorus of doves, and a big kids' chorus to sing the verses of the carol.

I handed around information sheets for kids and their parents to fill out. For kids, I collected their names and what kind of part they would like to have. Parents were asked for their names and preferred method of contact. They were also asked whether their child would be able to make all the scheduled rehearsals and whether they were willing to help in any way (I offered a list of suggestions). I had forgotten to include a line on the form about clothing sizes, so it was a good thing my costume person was there to ask.

I got back 16 information sheets, plus I know of three other kids who definitely want to participate but didn't attend the meeting. Six kids really want speaking parts - most of them specifying that they want big parts, animal roles. Six want to be in the preschool chorus. Three want to be in the big kids' chorus, and one wants to help with the pageant but not be onstage.

That's probably not enough for the big kids' chorus unless we get additional volunteers, so we're probably going to need to have all the animals sing the carol verses as well - which should be no problem. But then we'll need to think of something to make a chorus of three look less weird - like maybe costuming them as angels? I don't know. I just think that three kids up there in their street clothes is going to look weirder than eight kids up there in their street clothes.

The parents came through in a big way. Two are willing to machine-sew costumes. Eight are willing to bring doughnuts or bagels and juice for one of the morning rehearsals. Six are willing to help with crowd control at rehearsals, and two are willing to build scenery and/or props. That's not counting the mom who already volunteered to lead the chorus, the teen who's going to provide instrumental accompaniment, and my teen assistant director.

We'll be rehearsing for an hour before church on every Sunday in December, and then having a final dress rehearsal on the night before Christmas Eve.

Pageant tasks I need to accomplish:

Find artistically skilled adults who can make animal-head hats. We're going to do these with posterboard, two mirror-image drawings fastened together so the bottom slips onto the child's head like a crown. I have a couple of leads for this.

Coordinate with the music volunteers so they can start figuring out the music.

Adapt the script to divide some of the animal roles in two, so we have more speaking parts to give out.

Contact the kids who I know are interested, but who weren't at the meeting, and find out what they want to do.

Figure out who should have which roles, in consultation with acceberskoorb and my AD Emily.

See if I can find one more person who sews.

Get an announcement into the bulletin and weekly e-mail newsletter, asking for volunteers from outside the RE program. I keep missing the deadline for this because I am lame.

There was a lot of enthusiasm, which is wonderful. I am excited. Except that I also keep asking, "How did I get myself into this? Am I crazy?"