We started out with the script HERE based on the book and adapted it slightly to fit our needs. We have several children that we take to church whose parents do not attend, and in the beginning I had casted some of them in the major roles. After a few weeks I realized that wasn't going to work, as they often slept in on Sunday mornings when we did most of our practices. So I re-assigned the roles, giving the main roles to the children who were always there.
I had scheduled three major practices, figuring the ones that weren't there regularly could figure out what they were supposed to do in those practices. The first one was a disaster. All of the kids, including 5 out of 6 of mine, were misbehaving. Rachel was being a terror, Abby was picking on people, Joy was stuck in character as Imogene Herdman and couldn't seem to act normal between scenes, Timothy was running around and jumping off of things and trying to reach the microphones, and Jay was having a bad attitude. Sarah and one other girl were the only ones being good. Afterwards, some of the kids got into a fight and some of them decided to walk home by themselves and Erick had to go pick them up.
By the third practice things were settling down, but I was getting nervous because my Joseph still had not shown up for even one of the major practices. I figured we could work on his lines Sunday morning, but when his mom came she told me he was sick and wouldn't be able to make it. I ended up having to ask one of the girls who played a shepherd to be Joseph. She worked on her lines that day, carried a script, and we dressed her up as a boy and she played Ralph Herdman (aka Joseph).
The play itself went well. There were a few forgotten lines, a few funny mistakes, but overall people enjoyed it. For those who aren't familiar with the plot, it's about a Christmas Pageant that a church put on and a family of hoodlum children take over the pageant. There's a scene in the play where the mother (that was me) was asking for volunteers for the main parts, and only the Herdman children volunteer because they've threatened the other children into not volunteering. During the play, I asked if anyone else wanted a part in the play, and Timothy raised his hand. He wasn't supposed to raise his hand, but he did. I said, "Not you--put your hand down!" and everyone laughed, except for poor Timothy who was heartbroken. He wanted to be in the play. Erick had to comfort him backstage and let him know that it was okay--he was already in the play!" I think that was the first time Tim had actually listened to what I was saying, because he'd never raised his hand during the rehearsals.
Here are a couple of pictures. (We had to go buy a new camera just for the play, because our other one wouldn't work!)
The first one is the nativity scene, with the baby angels, Joseph and Mary, the three wise men, the shephereds, and a couple of ladies holding up the backdrop.
The second one is the entire cast, although some of them had already taken their costumes off by this time.
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