The joys of the ensemble – multiple views from the stage

“My Joseph has been such a good son, following in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter.  I say “has been”, well I suppose he still is but I shall miss him.  I must say I was a bit concerned that she is already pregnant but I have to be proud that the Lord has chosen our family to bear his Son.  I shall probably cry at the wedding but hay ho, there’s the party after to look forward to.  I wonder if it will snow?”

“So here we are praying at the temple.  What’s going on in there?  That man has been in there for a lot longer than usual.  Oh look, here he comes . . . but he can’t speak!  And wow, another highly unlikely pregnancy – I thought that old couple were well past it, but once again, the Lord has been benevolent.”

“My it’s cold, and we all have to go and register for tax or something.  Herod could have had us do it in summer.  It’s freezing.  We’ve all had to travel for days on foot and there’s nowhere to stay.  Horrid person.”

“I just love skipping around the fields with my friends.  People are making cheese from our milk now – it’s still a bit strong but the makers are getting better.  Meaheaheaheah!  Some of us are going down to the river to drink this evening.  It’s tastier than the trough water. There’s a new, very bright star in the sky – it’s almost as bright as the moon.  Slurp, slurp, slurp, . . .ooh.  that’s odd, we all stopped drinking for a moment then.  I felt a bit holy for a second.  Meaheaheaheah!”

“At last – the three of us have been travelling for months.  Here’s Herod’s palace.  Not very impressive compared to ours back home.  But this is is where we should find our new king.  Hmm, not sure how pleaed Herod is to hear about Him.  So we must move on further to find the child.  Here he is – just sleeping in a manger – that’s really humbling.”

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As a participant in the project – great to work with old friends and new.  Amazed to find I can still finger the piano and write music!  Love doing tableaux, zany games and all working together to create it all.  Wondering how we will all fit into the changing box…

– Carenza Ellery, performer