Sunday, November 26, 2006

T -15 days and counting

At half term, I posted a little about the Infant Christmas Production. Well, it's now two weeks tomorrow until the first full performance - we've been learning the songs but things are beginning to get a bit hectic.

In the end, I squeezed about 27 speaking parts out of it. Two boys who will either miss the rehearsals or miss the main performances due to holidays are in the percussion band and the remaining girls are in seventh heaven as part of the Angel Choir. However, now I think I should have given the children their words to learn before this week, since the rehearsals start next Friday (dress rehearsals 8th Dec). I know the Head thinks Infant productions shouldn't be over rehearsed, but perhaps I've taken that too literally.

But I have other worries.

My Angel Choir are mutinous since I won't let them wear wings - our parents are lovely but can suffer greatly from "wing envy" and they are likely to try to produce the biggest wings possible if they get have a chance.

I have a Wise Man who would much rather be Herod and had told his Dad he would be Herod. He tells me Dad has made him a wooden knife and a wooden sword to enable him to kill the babies (I kid you not) and having consigned himself to being a mere Wise Man has kindly offered Herod the knife ("I'll need the sword myself, you see. A King needs a sword"). Can't wait to deal with that one when the costume comes in.

Several Narrators have the hump at being asked to dress as angels or shepherds because they would rather wear their party clothes - I found myself in a reasonably heated debate with one little cherub who was finally silenced when I told her in no uncertain terms that in our version, the angels would wear white, not pink, whether her mother was ironing that best frock right at this moment (as said cherub claimed) or not.

To top it all, there is a small contingent who can't understand why L, who taught them last year, won't let them have Anna (who would be 3 weeks old by the time of the production) as the Baby Jesus...

Balance that however, with the lullaby they sang so beautifully this week that they had me in tears...

I love my job!

2 comments:

Jane Henry said...

Hey Nic, it's really funny to hear from the other side of the fence how you put the nativity together...

As a vet of nativity plays, I can tell you, fourth time around I've really had my fill. None of mine have yet been Mary, but no 4 is the first not to be an angel. I wish my school would say no wings!!!

I remember being truly grateful when it was no 2's turn for angelic duty and I realised the other class all got to be stars, with stars sewn on their costumes... arts and crafty mummy I am definitely not!

Good luck...

Always brings tears to my eyes too. Even though I think I'm a hard nut!

love Jane

Nic said...

Apparantly one of the Y1 parents asked S why her child hdadn't been given a speaking part...

It's a good job she didn't ask me or she would have been writing a nativity with 76 speaking parts...