Late this afternoon, my children were able to join others in a brief play that kicked off our parish collaborative's three-day Lenten mission. The play was an original one beautifully written, directed, and narrated by a talented parishioner.
Since my children and I only heard about the opportunity to join after the initial rehearsal, we came to the church early today to get up to speed on what the kids would do.
Luke was a bit surprised when he was asked to stand in for Simon of Cyrene, who would be absent.
Jack piped up that he'd like to be Simon, but once he saw how big and heavy the cross was, he rescinded his comment.
So it was that we settled on roles and went to find some costumes to be the littlest Roman soldier:
... a woman in the crowd...
...and Simon of Cyrene.
The children and I had some laughs while getting their costumes on.
Then, it was time to welcome people to Jerusalem.
Jack stood guard at the gate.
While Nina joyfully waited (even if Jerusalem at that time was hardly joyful.)
After everyone was seated, the wait came to an end.
The guard had to leave his post to go move Jesus along.
Not long after, amidst words from the narrator and song from the choir loft, Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service.
And so the play was performed with the author narrating it as the children simply acted out the narration and a man sung from the choir loft.
I would love to post some images of the whole cast in action, but as I did not get permission to do so from everyone, I can only post snapshots of my crew. I hope you've enjoyed them and, perhaps, are inspired to do something similar at your own parish or co-op.
I'd love to hear about Lenten and Easter children plays you and yours have participated in. Links to favorite scripts and resources are welcome, too.
