Form without meaning

Yesterday we tromped over to the company's auditorium for the "Dress Rehearsal."

This is a special time of high anxiety in the hearts of the performers, big dreams and sad realities. It's the same in any production and as I've been in a few throughout my life...I know the drill.

A bus picked up our 16 Elementary Students and 40 Kindergartners and we shuttled down the road to the company's building.

The auditorium seats 1000 and is an amazing room filled with beautiful red theater seats and a massive stage.

As I've already blogged, we (the Elementary School) are doing a living nativity scene. We're using narrators (Magpie & our 6th grade boy) who are sharing the story directly from the gospels. We have Mary, Joseph, four shepherds, three wise men (even though they really didn't show up at the stable), one donkey, two sheep, a cow and an angel (played by the Bug.) We constructed a manger and a massive Star of Bethlehem that will hang over the stage some three stories high. We have costumes that resemble some of the clothing from the period. (This was so interesting to provide pictures of the appropriate dress to the parents who most have NO IDEA what a shepherd or Mary should wear.) After everyone arrives at the manger the children sing 3 verses of "Away in a Manger" and 5 verses of "The Friendly Beasts" with three solos injected from the cow (all white and red), sheep (with the curly horn) and the donkey (shaggy and brown.) Then The Bug closes the performance with singing "What Can I Give Him" as a simple, a capella solo and after singing she turns and bows before the manger.

I cannot tell you how many conversations we've had with the student's about this story, where it comes from and why we're telling it. Most of our student's had never heard of it...but of course, more of them had heard about the West's tradition of Father Christmas. There are some books in our library about the life of Christ both for children's reading and pictorial depictions of the nativity. They (our students) now get it that this is an important story.

Daddy and I have been drafted to perform a guitar and vocal piece for the extravaganza as well, "O Holy Night" is on tap. So, we've been practicing it with another brother who plays the guitar. Most of the rehearsals have been disasters,but the dress rehearsal yesterday was the first time that the guitars didn't sound like cats mating in the alleyway. And my vocal interpretation has sounded like nothing more than a middle-aged woman who's eggnog was spiked at the Christmas party and then was surprised but obliged the groups when she was asked to sing (very heavy, very affected and too cumbersome.)

Yesterday we saw where, in the order of performance, they've placed the precious performance of the kids and our massacre of O Holy Night. The Elementary school leads off the entire performance. Which is great since most people watching will have no idea what the Christmas story is all about. All the scripture and the lyrics will be translated into the local dialect and shown on big screens in the auditorium.

Then the Kindergarten performs (with Brownie, Potato and Bub.) Let me just say that though I've seen this bunch performing their dance and song numbers (and have been totally amused by the dance number, in particular) I was unprepared for their sequined costumes that made them look like very junior ballroom dancers. Brownie continued to suffer repeated costume malfunctions as she vigorously shakes "what her Momma gave her."

So right after this Kindergarten's display of cute mixed with 80's flashdance and Star Search...then it's the foreigners up to sing O Holy Night. Let me tell you...it really flows...

Then after we have our big high note finish to the classic song...the next act comes up to perform...a hip-hop dance crew of 8 employees from the company....dancing their funky feet off to a blaring Asian hip-hop band.

What's after them, you wonder?

A belly dancer.

Followed by another hip-hop crew dancing to an American hip-hop group with lyrics that would make even a hardened criminal blush.

Then a traditional local dance number with ladies in beautiful pink satin gowns.

Up next, a traditional flute accompanying a popular love song from the radio here.

Followed by another hip-hop crew.

Folks... it's like a talent show. A talent show to celebrate Christmas.

I sat there in the auditorium yesterday nestled next to the Angel and the Donkey and thought..."this is so RANDOM! Everyone here wants the party of Christmas and they have the tree on the stage, plus Santa hats on here and there and NO ONE has any idea why we celebrate it."

All the form (okay, some of the form) yet no meaning...no understanding.

So lift us up as we prepare for our big night on Friday. For so many it will be the first time anything has been associated with the talent show for Christmas that has anything to do with Him. We struggle with feeling silly... and missing home where everyone would get misty eyed at the Angel's dramatic proclamation to the Shepherds... and just plain old overwhelmed at the field before us...

Daddy reminded me last night..."this is why we came...we came to bring the heart of Christmas to this place."

So Christmas 101 takes off on Friday night...