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Dominic's Christmas Play
Dec. 22nd, 2010 01:04 pmI forgot to mention that I attended Dominic's very first play. He got to play the shepherd in the Christmas story. It was your typical preschool Christmas play. The teacher read the story aloud while the children "acted" it out. Mostly, the kids sat around and did silly things like wave to their parents, make faces, and lay down in the middle of the stage.
I was just thinking about how they cast this show. All the boys had roles and the girls were lined up on the side dressed as angels. This isn't surprising since there's really only one female role in the story. They also had a little girl play the Angel Gabriel and another little girl was the Christmas star.
I imagine Dominic got cast as the shepherd so that he would be separated from all the other children. I shouldn't laugh about this, but it's very funny to me. He sat far away from everyone else holding a stuffed lamb and a cane. Then he started spinning the cane around and had it taken away. Throughout the play he chatted to himself. Just talking and singing. The only time he was quiet was during the part where he gets to see the baby Jesus. He quietly walked up the stairs to the stage, stepped across the little boy who, for no reason whatsoever, was sprawled on the ground, kneeled down in front of the manger, then loudly announced that he needed a drink of water. He'd been given his cane back for his big scene, but then he started spinning it again and had it taken away once more.
After the play, the kids sang a few Christmas songs. This was my favorite part of the show. It was a major cluster. For some reason, the kids were singing very, very quietly. The teacher would shout, "Louder!" and for half a verse, the kids would yell the song and then they'd quiet back down again. The absolute best part was "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." The kids started "phasing" (a phrase I learned in marching band where one side of the field is a few beats ahead of the other side of the field, but don't know it because of the way sound travels). The kids near the center of the stage were confused about where they should be in the song. Dominic, who was stage right of center, stopped singing, then decided he was going to do whatever part he wanted and started belting out "Then one foggy Christmas eve!" a propos of nothing. I was, apparently, the only parent who found this whole debacle hilarious. Luckily, after I'd guffawed for a few seconds all by myself, a few other parents joined in.
These silly plays and terrible singing are what these preschool plays are all about. They're not supposed to be perfect and solemn. They're fun and silly and awful. And if you can't laugh at that, what can you laugh at?
I was just thinking about how they cast this show. All the boys had roles and the girls were lined up on the side dressed as angels. This isn't surprising since there's really only one female role in the story. They also had a little girl play the Angel Gabriel and another little girl was the Christmas star.
I imagine Dominic got cast as the shepherd so that he would be separated from all the other children. I shouldn't laugh about this, but it's very funny to me. He sat far away from everyone else holding a stuffed lamb and a cane. Then he started spinning the cane around and had it taken away. Throughout the play he chatted to himself. Just talking and singing. The only time he was quiet was during the part where he gets to see the baby Jesus. He quietly walked up the stairs to the stage, stepped across the little boy who, for no reason whatsoever, was sprawled on the ground, kneeled down in front of the manger, then loudly announced that he needed a drink of water. He'd been given his cane back for his big scene, but then he started spinning it again and had it taken away once more.
After the play, the kids sang a few Christmas songs. This was my favorite part of the show. It was a major cluster. For some reason, the kids were singing very, very quietly. The teacher would shout, "Louder!" and for half a verse, the kids would yell the song and then they'd quiet back down again. The absolute best part was "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." The kids started "phasing" (a phrase I learned in marching band where one side of the field is a few beats ahead of the other side of the field, but don't know it because of the way sound travels). The kids near the center of the stage were confused about where they should be in the song. Dominic, who was stage right of center, stopped singing, then decided he was going to do whatever part he wanted and started belting out "Then one foggy Christmas eve!" a propos of nothing. I was, apparently, the only parent who found this whole debacle hilarious. Luckily, after I'd guffawed for a few seconds all by myself, a few other parents joined in.
These silly plays and terrible singing are what these preschool plays are all about. They're not supposed to be perfect and solemn. They're fun and silly and awful. And if you can't laugh at that, what can you laugh at?