Evening update.
Dec. 22nd, 2008 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaAlex is fast asleep, hopefully to stay that way until morning. At the NP's advice, we added some Vicks medicated stuff (camphor, I guess) to her hot-steam vaporizer in hopes of suppressing her cough. I wedged her door almost-closed with her sweater, to try to keep in more of the steam. Also at the NP's advice, we sprayed saline mist into her nose in large quantities. Poor kid. Although, man, do I ever appreciate the difference between a three-and-a-half-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old. She hated the saline spray, but she submitted.
Today I made three more pans of pumpkin-cranberry-pecan bars and also two pans of cornbread for Michael's work lunch tomorrow. (He's cleaning up my baking mess in return, so I consider it an equitable trade.) Tomorrow I don't have to bake anything. On Christmas Eve I am planning to make two pecan pies for the church potluck. I tried to convince myself that no one would expect me to bring anything to the potluck because I was directing the pageant, but I didn't believe me, so: pies. My compromise is using storebought crust. I can't believe how far I've fallen, except that this is the same kind of crust that I used for the baby shower quiches and they were tasty, so it's hard to bring myself to feel the proper amount of shame.
This evening was the dress rehearsal for the Christmas pageant. This was our first rehearsal in the sanctuary - our previous rehearsals have all been before church and hence during choir practice. In some respects it was unfortunate not to be in the right space all along, but I also now have an acute appreciation for how much easier it is to keep all the kids corralled in a Sunday School room.
Tremendously exciting rehearsal. The stable was present. Everyone was in costume. The cows and sheep had their masks. The mask-makers did them quite differently than I had suggested, which means that they'll be different in form and concept from the doves' and the donkey's masks, but I am not going to be a perfectionist and worry about that. Joseph rebelled and refused to wear his headpiece. All the kids looked fantastic.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unodelman took pictures, to which I should soon be able to provide a link. Yay! I had some worries about making pictures or video available, but it turns out that acceberskoorb has photo permissions on record for all the kids.
acceberskoorb had done a lot of thinking about technical issues, for which I was extremely grateful. We're going to have a hanging mic and a standing mic. I hope that works well. We don't have enough of the clip-on lapel mics for the whole cast, and I hated the idea of having the kids pass a hand-held mic back and forth. And nothing will induce the kids to be loud, which is awfully strange when you consider that it's also hard to get them to be quiet.
We ran through the whole play once, and then worked on trouble spots. I have come to realize the extreme hopelessness of expecting my flock of three- and four-year-old doves to remember what to do. I feel lucky that they remember they are doves. We blocked out their route on the floor with blue tape, and we decided that it will be in-character enough to have the donkey, who suggests that they should sing to Baby Jesus, go get them at their cue and physically lead them into place.
Really, all the troublesome spots involve the younger kids. The older ones have almost all the lines, but the younger ones have more parts to actually act out, and that doesn't necessarily go smoothly. I hope our little Mary will be early enough on Christmas Eve that I can sit down with her and figure out why it's taking her five minutes to wrap a doll in a tea-towel-sized swaddling cloth.
It was unbelievable, how much progress they'd all made on their lines since yesterday morning. I am expecting some panic at the performance, though, so I have plans to hide out behind the pulpit and provide prompting as necessary.
I grew up being taught that one doesn't applaud in church because the elements of a worship service are devotions directed at God, not entertainments designed to please the audience. I still feel very uncomfortable applauding in church although obviously this is something that UUs no longer believe, if they ever did. Nevertheless, I am certain that there will be applause for the pageant, so I had the kids practice taking their bows. If God wants to strike someone dead, presumably it will be me and not them.
The kids are coming along so beautifully, and working so hard, and the adult volunteers have put in so much effort to make the music and scenery and props and costumes wonderful. I confess that instead of just basking in my luck (although I am, I am, I promise) I find myself feeling annoyed that at the kids' main opportunities for church performance (lay-led seasonal services called Winterfest and Springfest) they get thrown up on stage unrehearsed and minimally directed, holding scripts in their hands, and stumble their way through clumsy material. It seems like such a waste of their time and talents, now that I see - not only what they can do, but what they obviously want to do and are excited to do.
...Crap. You know what this means, don't you? It means that I'm probably on the hook to do more of these in the future.
Today I made three more pans of pumpkin-cranberry-pecan bars and also two pans of cornbread for Michael's work lunch tomorrow. (He's cleaning up my baking mess in return, so I consider it an equitable trade.) Tomorrow I don't have to bake anything. On Christmas Eve I am planning to make two pecan pies for the church potluck. I tried to convince myself that no one would expect me to bring anything to the potluck because I was directing the pageant, but I didn't believe me, so: pies. My compromise is using storebought crust. I can't believe how far I've fallen, except that this is the same kind of crust that I used for the baby shower quiches and they were tasty, so it's hard to bring myself to feel the proper amount of shame.
This evening was the dress rehearsal for the Christmas pageant. This was our first rehearsal in the sanctuary - our previous rehearsals have all been before church and hence during choir practice. In some respects it was unfortunate not to be in the right space all along, but I also now have an acute appreciation for how much easier it is to keep all the kids corralled in a Sunday School room.
Tremendously exciting rehearsal. The stable was present. Everyone was in costume. The cows and sheep had their masks. The mask-makers did them quite differently than I had suggested, which means that they'll be different in form and concept from the doves' and the donkey's masks, but I am not going to be a perfectionist and worry about that. Joseph rebelled and refused to wear his headpiece. All the kids looked fantastic.
unodelman took pictures, to which I should soon be able to provide a link. Yay! I had some worries about making pictures or video available, but it turns out that acceberskoorb has photo permissions on record for all the kids.acceberskoorb had done a lot of thinking about technical issues, for which I was extremely grateful. We're going to have a hanging mic and a standing mic. I hope that works well. We don't have enough of the clip-on lapel mics for the whole cast, and I hated the idea of having the kids pass a hand-held mic back and forth. And nothing will induce the kids to be loud, which is awfully strange when you consider that it's also hard to get them to be quiet.We ran through the whole play once, and then worked on trouble spots. I have come to realize the extreme hopelessness of expecting my flock of three- and four-year-old doves to remember what to do. I feel lucky that they remember they are doves. We blocked out their route on the floor with blue tape, and we decided that it will be in-character enough to have the donkey, who suggests that they should sing to Baby Jesus, go get them at their cue and physically lead them into place.
Really, all the troublesome spots involve the younger kids. The older ones have almost all the lines, but the younger ones have more parts to actually act out, and that doesn't necessarily go smoothly. I hope our little Mary will be early enough on Christmas Eve that I can sit down with her and figure out why it's taking her five minutes to wrap a doll in a tea-towel-sized swaddling cloth.
It was unbelievable, how much progress they'd all made on their lines since yesterday morning. I am expecting some panic at the performance, though, so I have plans to hide out behind the pulpit and provide prompting as necessary.
I grew up being taught that one doesn't applaud in church because the elements of a worship service are devotions directed at God, not entertainments designed to please the audience. I still feel very uncomfortable applauding in church although obviously this is something that UUs no longer believe, if they ever did. Nevertheless, I am certain that there will be applause for the pageant, so I had the kids practice taking their bows. If God wants to strike someone dead, presumably it will be me and not them.
The kids are coming along so beautifully, and working so hard, and the adult volunteers have put in so much effort to make the music and scenery and props and costumes wonderful. I confess that instead of just basking in my luck (although I am, I am, I promise) I find myself feeling annoyed that at the kids' main opportunities for church performance (lay-led seasonal services called Winterfest and Springfest) they get thrown up on stage unrehearsed and minimally directed, holding scripts in their hands, and stumble their way through clumsy material. It seems like such a waste of their time and talents, now that I see - not only what they can do, but what they obviously want to do and are excited to do.
...Crap. You know what this means, don't you? It means that I'm probably on the hook to do more of these in the future.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 03:54 am (UTC)hasn't smited memissed his chance to smite me. Or something like that.no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 04:44 am (UTC)Well, the traditional reward for a job well done is another job after all.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 06:10 am (UTC)Yes, they'll probably expect you to start writing and directing more plays with the kids. Start collecting ideas!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 06:55 am (UTC):)
Rehearsal photo album link is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/uurebaltimore/08PageantRehearsal?feat=directlink
Great job tonight!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-24 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-23 05:41 pm (UTC)Suspicion: She's being perfectionist. She sees it just so in her mind, starts in, doesn't like the way the first fold is draping, undoes it all, starts over, gets the first drape OK but then the second drape disarranges the first, she undoes it all, starts over . . . etc. She's no sense of time, she's oblivious that she's dragging the entire performance to a grinding halt . . . she wants the swaddling to be just so, and then she'll expect to be complimented on how well she did the wrapping. (This exegesis from my experience of four year olds.)
Applause
Date: 2008-12-24 06:29 pm (UTC)Mileage may vary quite a bit from UU congregation to UU congregation. If there have been no instructions issued from the pulpit either way, people tend to behave as they would in the secular world because so many people either grew up unchurched or left all of their church behaviors behind with their old beliefs. Some congregations have been trained not to applaud. I saw this done poorly in one congregation, where the (lifelong UU) minister said that applause is a harsh, disturbing sound that interrupts the calm, centered atmosphere of worship. The applause issue can turn into a symbol of a cultural battle in a congregation, with the behavior signifying which faction of the church has the upper hand.
I think First U Baltimore, as an urban congregation, may have a higher turnover and tourist visitor rate than usual, so it may be a waste of energy to try to cultivate a unified understanding about applause. If people can listen to each other and leave their high horses in a stable, I think the applause issue can turn into an interesting discussion about what church is for and about the relationship between worship and performance.
And, yes, I agree that performances by children are an exception in any case. Especially when the congregation is likely to be dominated by family members of the performers.