Alison Curtis: The school nativity play has been known to create drama in our house
Pic: Marc O'Sullivan
The school play has been a solid fixture in most children’s lives for years. Every Christmas it becomes the main focus to get a festive production-ready for the whole family to enjoy.
The amount of preparation on behalf of teachers, schools, and students is really quite impressive. From deciding on the play, auditioning for the play, and practicing it really is a massive undertaking to get 30 odd kids stage-ready.
The school play I feel does so much for children’s development. It helps them learn how to express themselves, how to memorise, and how to put a story into action. It also helps so much with their confidence to be able to perform in front of others and they learn how to work together as a cast. Importantly they get to see how each role is important and can support one another as a team.
For parents, however, it isn’t that clean-cut! For most watching their children perform every Christmas of course does create so many proud moments and happy memories. But other times it can be really stressful.
My daughter Joan didn’t react well to the school play for the first few years of taking part in them.
When she was in reception class she just got up, walked off the stage, and wandered over to me deciding it wasn’t for her. In the days leading up to the play, she was insisting that she didn’t want to do it. I didn’t know what to do with this information and part of me just wanted to keep her home that day. But then I thought I should take her in and make her at least have a go at it. So not only was Joan not into it I was stressed during it too.
In Junior Infants, I worried that she was going to dislike the whole experience again and I was right. This time unfortunately she got so upset the first two rows of students on the stage had to break character and part to make a pathway for her to leave and get to me. Another red-faced and stressful moment in a packed hot gymnasium!
By Senior Infants, she was tolerating the experience but not yet loving it. Our take on it was to talk about the play in a positive and excited way at home in the weeks leading up to it and try to be as encouraging as possible.
Thankfully by 1st class, Joan was enjoying the play a lot more and last year in 2nd class she took the big leap of offering to do a piano solo for the production. This bowled my husband and I over, we were so surprised and happy that she wanted to do the solo and thankfully it went really well.
Joan’s class is no different and over the past two weeks have been knee-deep in preparation. Based on the after-school chatter about the play I think the excitement levels have been matched this year and kids are really looking forward to taking part.
I also feel that the kids this year feel they have more control and input into the play. It seems that they had a bigger role in deciding who plays what and the content of the play. Roles in production were assigned this year for the first time which I think is a brilliant idea. Most of all they all seem really excited that the play is going to be recorded.
In short, modernising the whole experience based on keeping classes and families safe has in many ways “saved” the Christmas play this year. We as their parents are still going to be able to watch them perform and to take part. We will still have our proud moments and happy memories but this year I also think many will be saved from red-faced stress moments in hot gymnasiums!
