Play shows Christmas transformation
Church to offer ‘Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ this weekend
Little Elmer Hopkins (played by Samuel Butler) is surrounded by the rough and rude Herdman children.
Submitted Photo
The “Best Christmas Pageant Ever” could have been the worst, according to Jeff Schroeder, creative arts director at East Hill Church in Gresham.
Barbara Robinson’s classic play tells the story of how a group of “nasty kids” – the Herdmans – come to a church because it’s serving snacks and wind up the stars of the congregation’s Sunday school Christmas play.
“They come in thinking they just want to have fun and in the end really, because of them and their presence, it really becomes a wonderful show,” Schroeder says.
The play is both lighthearted and meaningful, he adds.
“People try to put Christmas in the box,” Schroeder says. “What’s great about this is it shows the messiness of Christmas, that’s it’s real and raw and something you can’t do the same old way.”
Family affair
Shari Chinchen plays the role of Grace Bradley, who directs the pageant. Chinchen’s daughter Hazel, 13, plays Imogene Herdman, who is eventually cast as Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, in the church play. Meanwhile, Chinchen’s daughter Emma, 11, plays Janet, a “nice girl.”
Chinchen described her character as “a nice little housewife” who never really gets involved in anything.
“She’s not used to dealing with all these children,” Chinchen adds. “At first I think she’s a bit taken aback by the whole thing.”
Nonetheless, Grace evolves through the play from someone overwhelmed to someone in tune with her younger charges.
“She learns that she is more capable than she thinks she is, and she learns that sometimes it’s OK not to have everything go the way it’s supposed to happen, that controlling things may not be the way, that maybe God has other plans for how things are going to play out,” Chinchen says.
The play has overtaken her own household, she adds with a laugh.
“Hazel seems to be something of a method actress and takes on her role maybe more than I’d like at the time,” Chinchen says.
Hazel agrees.
“Around the house I get kind of mean when I act,” Hazel says. “I guess I kind of hit people a lot more than I’m supposed to.”
However, she notes, it’s all part and parcel of bringing the Herdmans alive on stage.
“We are basically like the rudest, meanest people that you know,” she says.
She adds that her character is actually dealing with abandonment issues, and becomes very upset, for example, when there’s no room at the inn in Bethlehem for Joseph and a pregnant Mary. In the end, we learn her character is actually harboring a lot of sweetness.
“The exterior isn’t always what the inside is,” Hazel says.
If you go
WHAT: ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19, and 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 20
WHERE: East Hill Church, 701 N. Main Ave.
COST: Free
INFO: 503-661-4444 or www.anewchristmas.com