Gardner Community Theatre has resumed!

It doesn't seem that long ago we were lamenting the end of the Music Man but we've already started working on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. At the last tryouts, I was wondering whether I even wanted to tryout for a part (and we know how that turned out) but today I was actually a part of the selection process - albeit a very small part. The director, Franci and the assistant director, Paula allowed me to sit in on their selection process and even wanted a bit of my input.
This show has two main parts for adults but all the rest of the roles are for kids. We considered casting me in a role with two lines, Reverend Perkins (that wouldn't be typecasting or anything) but instead I'm going to make a cameo as a fireman. I'm glad for it, as Franci said (because I kept telling her), "don't worry about practice, you can watch your football." Erin is going to be doing some speaking in this one, though.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has an incredible message! The Herdman's are the main characters; they're a dysfunctional and messy family that crashes the sacred Christmas Pageant. I'm going to strongly encourage my church to go see the show. The 'nice' church people are struggling with the 'messy' Herdmans' being a part of their church. Early in the show, the churched mom is listening to her son tell how bad the Herdman's are. She encourages him to simply avoid the family. The boy responds, "I do avoid the Herdmans. I go to church." The main question is whether 'messy' people can fit in at church. The show gets to the theme that Jesus was born into the world for 'messy' people. In reality, the only difference between 'clean' and 'messy' is that some are better at hiding their sin. We all need Jesus!

There's another line that gave me goosebumps every time I heard it. One of the Herdman girls (who bullies her way into the Mary role) is asking the church girl who's been Mary for years, "what's this play about it?"
The church girl responds, "Jesus."
The Herdman girl responds, "Everything here is."

Yep, that's what church is all about; messy people meeting Jesus!

To see the whole cast list, check out the GCT website.