The Christmas Play

On the 20th of December my church put on the play that Liana wrote for her church to perform (on the same day, hoorah! Except, due to time zone differences, ours was first O:)).

In this week of general slackerlyness and unofficial posts, I thought perhaps you might like to see a few pictures :o)

All the books you see are from the correct time period (as in, pre-1863) - I borrowed them from work, hoorah! :D The oldest one was from 1759 :) Much happiness.

The play tells the story of how Henry Longfellow came to write the poem "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day", which was later set to music and became a well-known Christmas carol (though less well known here in Australia :)). His son, Charlie, was sent home from the American Civil War with injuries, and having lost his wife three years earlier, the holiday season sent Longfellow into a slump...

"How can you lie there and talk of peace while men die?"


His five children (including the injured Charlie) decide they must cheer their father up, and set about decorating the house and buying presents.

"Father, you must come. We're making Christmas decorations, and Annie is crushing the berries and making a terrible mess!"

And this is "Charlie" on his pratice bed (we used a comfier one on the day). The picture gives you a reasonable idea of the stage we had to work on. Behind the books were a desk and chair that represented Longfellow's study.



The cast:

Charlie, Henry Longfellow, Mr Sumner (a family friend), our narrator, Ernie (another son);
Me (the director), and the three daughters Edith, Alice and Annie.



The cast again, in Henry's study.