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Snohomish County News | Kids' Christmas pageant chockfull of old wisdom | Seattle Times Newspaper
In this era of high-tech entertainment, sometimes the very amateurishness of a show is what makes it a winner.
That's the case in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," a holiday classic about a town's struggle to put on a Christmas pageant with a ragtag bunch of kids. The show will run this weekend at the Snohomish County PUD Auditorium.
Just an hour long, the stage adaptation of Barbara Robinson's children's book has humor, reverence and even a subtle message of transformation: The tough Herdman kids get cast in the Nativity scene by the harried director, a volunteer mom named Grace Bradley (Camille Pauley). Though in the past they've lied, stolen and smoked cigars, Christmas rubs off on the Herdmans as they take on the roles of Joseph, Mary and the wise men.
Tough-talking Imogene (Katie Rieb) as Mary finds herself crying as she cradles the doll they were throwing around like a football earlier. Little Gladys (Catherine Rourke) transforms her angel into a "Shazam"-spouting superhero. Joseph is played by Evan Eriksen, who is proud of himself for figuring out that the biblical reference "Mary, being great with child," means she's pregnant.
"I don't think it's an accident that the mother's name is Grace, because she ultimately understands the family should be in it, too. We are all Herdmans, one way or another," said the show's director, Marsha Stueckle, youth director for Woodinville Repertory Theatre. "It comes down to the human need to be wanted."
Peg Phillips of "Northern Exposure" fame founded the company 10 years ago, and this is its Snohomish County debut.
A "kid cast" of 32, with only seven are adults, never fails to touch the heart. The Herdmans didn't know that Christmas was for them, too, she said. "The theme is that everybody needs to be needed."
The show is paired with different musical opening acts each night. Not in the original script, but innovative, is a deaf character. Caroline Rourke plays a deaf girl, performing her lines in American Sign Language, a real "choreography of hands," said Stueckle, who taught her ASL.
All proceeds from the shows go to charity. After being approached by a national nonprofit, Safe Place for Newborns, the company decided for the holidays to give all ticket proceeds to the group, which "provides an alternative to a mother who might otherwise abandon her newborn," according to the group's Web site.
Working with kids from 6 to 16, "the joy for me is unlocking someone who is timid," Stueckle said. "They get permission to put down their guard and cut loose, and that's the thrill for me, when the light bulb goes off and they assume their character.
"You want each kid to feel valuable, part of a team, even the one-line little kids."
In this era of high-tech entertainment, sometimes the very amateurishness of a show is what makes it a winner.
That's the case in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," a holiday classic about a town's struggle to put on a Christmas pageant with a ragtag bunch of kids. The show will run this weekend at the Snohomish County PUD Auditorium.
Just an hour long, the stage adaptation of Barbara Robinson's children's book has humor, reverence and even a subtle message of transformation: The tough Herdman kids get cast in the Nativity scene by the harried director, a volunteer mom named Grace Bradley (Camille Pauley). Though in the past they've lied, stolen and smoked cigars, Christmas rubs off on the Herdmans as they take on the roles of Joseph, Mary and the wise men.
Tough-talking Imogene (Katie Rieb) as Mary finds herself crying as she cradles the doll they were throwing around like a football earlier. Little Gladys (Catherine Rourke) transforms her angel into a "Shazam"-spouting superhero. Joseph is played by Evan Eriksen, who is proud of himself for figuring out that the biblical reference "Mary, being great with child," means she's pregnant.
"I don't think it's an accident that the mother's name is Grace, because she ultimately understands the family should be in it, too. We are all Herdmans, one way or another," said the show's director, Marsha Stueckle, youth director for Woodinville Repertory Theatre. "It comes down to the human need to be wanted."
Peg Phillips of "Northern Exposure" fame founded the company 10 years ago, and this is its Snohomish County debut.
A "kid cast" of 32, with only seven are adults, never fails to touch the heart. The Herdmans didn't know that Christmas was for them, too, she said. "The theme is that everybody needs to be needed."
The show is paired with different musical opening acts each night. Not in the original script, but innovative, is a deaf character. Caroline Rourke plays a deaf girl, performing her lines in American Sign Language, a real "choreography of hands," said Stueckle, who taught her ASL.
All proceeds from the shows go to charity. After being approached by a national nonprofit, Safe Place for Newborns, the company decided for the holidays to give all ticket proceeds to the group, which "provides an alternative to a mother who might otherwise abandon her newborn," according to the group's Web site.
Working with kids from 6 to 16, "the joy for me is unlocking someone who is timid," Stueckle said. "They get permission to put down their guard and cut loose, and that's the thrill for me, when the light bulb goes off and they assume their character.
"You want each kid to feel valuable, part of a team, even the one-line little kids."