Play Suggestions: Christmas plays

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Christmas plays

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1883
Printed Date: 10/30/25 at 8:40pm
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Topic: Christmas plays

Posted By: adrene
Subject: Christmas plays
Date Posted: 6/12/06 at 7:05am

It's that time of year (or will be): we're looking for a Chrismas-themed
play.

Has anyone done "A Christmas Story"? It is "expandable"--but just what
does that mean in terms of actual parts? We're looking for something that
has several parts for kids, boys and girls, as well as adults (who would be
played by older teenagers).

How about "A Rented Christmas"? The subject sounds wonderful (a cash
cow), but I seem to remember the script was rather simple/lame. Has
anyone done this one?

Any other Christmas suggestions?

Thanks!

Replies:

Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 6/12/06 at 9:13am

Can't comment on the stage version of Christmas Story as I've never seen or read it. Love the movie, though.

If you haven't done it already, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a funny show that uses lots of kids and manages to sneak a "message" in without being even a little bit smarmy.

-------------
POB
Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard

Posted By: DannyGilx
Date Posted: 6/12/06 at 9:23am

I directed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in 2004 and it was great!!! We had over 50 kids. It was my first directing experience and I had absolutely the best time, I highly recommend it.

DannyG

Posted By: 75director
Date Posted: 6/12/06 at 11:55am

We did "A Christmas Story" this season and it was a HUGE hit. Played to a nearly sold-out run. It's very well written and in my opinion funnier than the movie and the characters actually have a little more depth.

A couple of words of caution though about the show. The prop list is very long, and specialized (you need two leg lamps - one working the other broken) so get the list to your prop master early. You'll also need two strong actors to play adult Ralph and young Ralphie. Adult Ralph is on stage almost the entire show doing all the narration and young Ralphie has to be a strong non-verbal actor to show all the emotions and thoughts that the adult Ralph is talking about. There's a lot of very fast scene changes too so design a flexible set and have a strong run crew to help with all the scene changes.

The cast can be expanded to add as many kids as you want in the school scenes and at the store to see Santa. Adult Ralph steps in and plays some of the supporting adult roles, but those could be cast as seperate adults if you really wanted.

Overall it was a fun show for us to produce and we probably could have easily added another week to the show's run and still be sold out. Just be warned that it's not a simple little Christmas play, it's a full fledged production so don't under estimate the challenges the show has.

Posted By: adrene
Date Posted: 6/12/06 at 9:14pm

Alas, we did The Best CP Ever last year--"alas" only because we can't do it
again! It was a great show.

Re. A Christmas Story: can you give me an idea of how many adult roles
there are? Great to know the kids parts can be increased pretty easily.
Also, aside from Ralphie, how many other kids have bigger roles? Any
girls?

Thanks again,

Adrene

Posted By: pauliebonn
Date Posted: 6/13/06 at 1:16am

I think you might be better off with Best Xmas pagaent. I don't think there are alot of Christmas shows w/ lots of kids (I could be wrong)

Posted By: 75director
Date Posted: 6/13/06 at 11:04am

Here's a basic breakdown of major "A Christmas Story" roles.

Adults:2 men (Adult Ralph and Dad), 2 women (Mom and the teacher, Miss Shields

Kids: 5 boys (Ralphie, Randy, Swartz, Flick, Farkas) 2 girls (Esther Jane, Helen Weathers) The girls are minor parts in the movie, but are beefed up very nicely in the play.

Posted By: stor-e-tlr
Date Posted: 7/11/06 at 12:11pm

We did "A Rented Christmas" two years ago and it was a huge hit. It was shorter than we would have liked but with good direction you can lengthen the transistions between scenes and add some non-verbal action. It was very heart warming and we added some dimmension to the characters to make them a bit funnier. I loved it.