Thursday, December 8, 2011

So You Think You Will Host a Christmas Play?

By Yvonne Brixey


If you want to host a Christmas play, the most important thing you need is a good Christmas story or script. The script for your Christmas play may be based upon the Nativity or A Christmas Carol, or any of a hundred other Christmas play stories that are popular this time of year. Having a good script for our Christmas play is like having a strong backbone to your production. A good script will help to make your Christmas play one that your guests will treasure for years to come.

Equally important to having script for your Christmas play is having a flexible cast and crew. Even if your Christmas play is short and simple, there is still an enormous amount of work that goes into a Christmas play. You will need a cast flexible to rehearsal dates, roles they play and time they are able to meet for practice. A talented and flexible cast is like the glue that holds your Christmas play together.

Choosing an appropriate cast is important to any Christmas play because your cast are the people that are most visible. It is important to hold an audition prior to selecting cast members in order to ensure that the cast you choose for each role is appropriate, able to project their voices well and will be flexible to meet all rehearsal dates. If you are hosting a large Christmas play production, you may be working with experienced actors. If this is the case, be prepared to cater to fragile egos when managing your cast members

Although the cast of your Christmas play will undoubtedly draw the most attention, sets and costumes are also very important. As you hold auditions for your Christmas play, be sure to recruit and welcome volunteers to help with making a simple exterior set and simple interior set. You will need staff to help make costumes as well. As set and costumes draw a lot of attention from you Christmas play audience, you will want to be sure and get help from a crew that has experience in the area where they will be helping out. Keep in mind also, that when it comes to a Christmas play that relies upon volunteer help you may need to encourage those volunteers to get their work done. Getting involved in a Christmas play production can be very exciting, but that enthusiasm can easily wear off when the work is laborious and the position unpaid.

A Christmas play can be such a magical thing especially for young children. Getting children involved in your Christmas play can be enjoyable for audience and the cast of your Christmas play. Christmas play productions that have many children in the cast can sometimes tend to be unruly. You may wish to hire one or two assistant directors to help you keep the children in your Christmas play focused and on track. Children do require more time and effort to help them memorize their lines, so if children are involved in your Christmas play it may also be wise to schedule a few more rehearsals just for them. As you rehearse your Christmas play, keep a close eye on the time each scene takes to complete. You may need to cut out a few minutes of dialog here and there to keep the Christmas play productions within time constraints.

Planning a Christmas Play




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