Lights, camera, action—and the true meaning of Christmas! In a wintry dazzle of red-wrapped gifts, glittering candy canes, and one of America’s most beloved holiday classics, the Rolla schools are proudly featuring “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” as their 2024 annual district-wide play.
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” a pervasively popular play adaptation of its titular 1972 novel, tells the story of the six wild Herdman siblings. Notorious around their town for their rowdy antics, these misfits stun their community when they volunteer to play lead roles in their church Christmas pageant…and, against all odds, put on the best pageant the town has ever seen with their unconventionally charming performances.
Lesley Pitts, a Rolla High School English teacher, is directing this year’s play.
“I always direct the district-wide play, which is open to grades four all the way through twelve. We have some first-time actors doing some of the lead roles—so that’s really fun—and then we have some seasoned actors,” Pitts said.
A multi-faceted process went into selecting this year’s production, with official preparation beginning in the summer.
“First, we look for how many roles we can accommodate. We want a large production because we really do like to cast everyone,” Pitts explained. “Not everyone will get a lead role, but our purpose is to build our program from the youngest all the way up, so that by the time then those now-fourth graders get to junior high, they want to take drama classes. And then, by the time they get to high school, they’re so involved that they’re already on their way to being thespians.”
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is a well-known classic, making it perfect for the budding holiday atmosphere.
“Since we’re doing [this production] around Christmas time, our other stipulation was that we wanted it to be a Christmas holiday show. It’s a really cute, heartwarming story, and it has religious undertones to it, but I feel like even people who aren’t religious know the story and would really enjoy it,” Pitts said.
Kelli McNeven, RHS theater teacher and Christmas play assistant producer, offers more insight into the nature of the play.
“We have thirty-four cast members. It’s not a musical—there are little bits of songs, but it’s not enough to be a full musical. It’s definitely one that will make you laugh. Even just reading the script, I laughed a lot, and when the kids did their first read-through of it, I was laughing again,” McNeven shared.
RHS junior Haiden Cramer is playing a lead role in the Christmas production.
“This show is definitely all about coming together and bonding overall…It’s a lot of happy, it’s a lot of uplifting. I always like the Christmas plays, especially being able to help the younger kids, and I think this one’s going to be really good,” Cramer said.
Likewise, Rolla junior Chloe Kissinger will be participating in the play with a major role.
“With the bigger cast, things can be a little more hectic. We’re rehearsing every day after school, from about 5:30 to 7:30 PM, until the first week of December. I’m really excited, especially since it’s formatted from a book to a play, rather than selected from some random Christmas show,” Kissinger explained.
Next month, the play will open in full, dazzling Christmas spirit.
“Come see our show! We open December fifth and sixth, the first Thursday and Friday of the month. We will be at the middle school auditorium, and the show starts at seven!” Pitts said.
