Nativity play 2013 - waiting for a star to fall Ages: 3+ Narrated. No speaking lines. Cast: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Narrator (this is the only speaking part) Jewish commuters from scene 1 (these could be the same as the Mission Impossible spies) Angel Mary Joseph Caesar Donkey (optional) Innkeeper Shepherds Toy sheep Star of Bethlehem Dancing stars Mission Impossible spies (optional)

Note: Song ‘Waiting for a star to fall’ by Boy Meets Girl

Download it for 99p from iTunes (1988 The Best Year of My Life) track

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Scene 1 – Watching the clock

Staging: Children seated on stage in rows like passengers waiting for their train. Holding up open newspapers hiding their faces. One child enters carrying a large clock and stands at the front of the stage. Option: You could use a sound effect of a ticking clock throughout the scene as well. Narrator: Tick tock. Tick tock. The Jewish world was waiting… eagerly anticipating… The arrival of their king. Tick tock. Tick tock. They watched the clock… (All lower their newspapers and look impatiently at the clock) Hoping now was his time to come. And their freedom from the Romans would be won. Tick tock. Tick tock. They didn’t know what else to do. So they searched the Scriptures for clues… (They turn the pages of the newspaper as if searching

for clues)

Aha! Their king would come from Bethlehem. (All children jump up in excitement, punching the

air – letting newspapers fall all over the place)

They just didn’t know how… or when… (They all shrug their shoulders and slump back down in

their seats)

Tick tock. Tick tock. So they watched and waited and anticipated… the arrival of their king. (They all look at their

watches)

End of scene – all exit taking chairs and newspapers.

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Scene 2 – Mary Narrator: Mary was waiting too. Mary was waiting to get married to Joseph. She was very excited about her wedding day.

Mary enters brimming with excitement, carrying a bunch of bridal magazines, admiring her engagement ring. Maybe even wearing a veil. Narrator: So she was rather surprised when the angel Gabriel appeared to her with some quite different news.

Gabriel enters carrying a bunch of pregnancy books/magazines and starts showing them to Mary who looks amazed. Narrator: The angel Gabriel told her that God thought she was fantastic. And God had chosen her out of all the young women he knew – which was all of them – for a very special task.

Music: Play Mission Impossible theme tune – Here you could have some boys dressed up as Tom Cruise charge across the stage like Mission Impossible spies (in black with sunglasses) and then go off. Narrator: The angel told Mary that she’d been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah that everyone had been waiting for. That she was going to have a baby boy…

(Angel hands her a ‘It’s a boy’ card, and a series of blue baby items: mittens, hat, nappies etc until she’s loaded up with baby stuff) Narrator: And that she was to call him Jesus. He would save the world from their sins. Mary was amazed at this news – but she loved God with her whole heart – so she quickly agreed with God’s salvation plan.

(Mary nods and falls to her knees with her arms full of baby stuff, looks up to heaven) End of scene – Mary and Angel exit taking all props with them.

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Scene 3 – Joseph

Joseph is in bed, tossing and turning under a blanket on the floor Narrator: Joseph was waiting… waiting for his broken heart to mend. After he heard the news that Mary was pregnant he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep… he knew that he would have to break off the engagement. He couldn’t marry her anymore.

Angel Gabriel enters and speaks to Joseph who sits bolt upright listening. Narrator: But God sent an angel to tell Joseph not to be upset. That this was all part of God’s amazing plan.

Music: Play Mission Impossible theme tune – again, here you could have some boys dressed up as Tom Cruise charge across the stage like Mission Impossible spies (in black with sunglasses) and then go off. Joseph and angel watch spies in amazement until they exit. Narrator: The angel told Joseph that Mary’s baby had no ordinary father. But he was the son of God. The long-awaited Messiah – and that he would save everyone, who called on him, from their sins.

Joseph nods enthusiastically and gives the angel a big thumbs up. Narrator: After that Joseph slept like a baby.

Angel leaves and Joseph falls asleep and snores loudly. Narrator: He would marry Mary after all and he would bring up the baby Jesus with her.

Joseph exits with his blanket and pillow.

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Scene 4 – Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem

Enter a very pregnant looking Mary and Joseph with a large book such as ‘What to expect when you’re expecting’. With or without a donkey. Narrator: Mary and Joseph prepared for the birth of the baby Jesus. Joseph read all the baby books about what to expect when you’re expecting. But what neither of them expected was a decree from The Greatest Ever Roman Emperor.

Caesar enters proudly with an abacus and a calculator and a times table poster. He punches numbers into the calculator and moves the abacus beads and consults his times table poster and looks confused. Narrator: Caesar Augustus decreed a new law. He wanted a census of the entire Roman world. He wanted to know exactly how many people were under his rule so he could sort out their taxes. So he announced that each family must return to their family home and be counted. NOW.

Caesar stomps off. Narrator: So though Mary was about to have the baby any day, she and Joseph had to catch a donkey and travel 80 miles south to Bethlehem, the home town of King David to whom Joseph was related.

(Mary and Joseph traipse up and down the stage wearily) But when they got to Bethlehem late at night, every hotel in Bethlehem was booked solid. There was no room for them at the Holiday Inn… or anywhere else for that matter.

(Mary and Joseph stand centre stage, an innkeeper enters and puts his arm around them. Points offstage and leads them off) Narrator: Finally one kind innkeeper, who could see that Mary’s baby was about to be born, offered them his barn. So Mary and Joseph settled down among the straw and the sheep and goats and cows, and when baby Jesus was born they didn’t have a portacot, so they popped him in the manger for a bed. And the Star of Bethlehem… the Christmas star… appeared in the sky directly above that humble stable – to declare to the heavens and the earth that the wait was over. The Son of God was here on earth at last! Scene 5 - Dancing stars – waiting for a star to fall Play music: ‘Waiting for a star to fall’ by Boy Meets Girl

You could choreograph a short dance for this section while the music plays. This is a good way to involve the younger children.

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Scene 6 – The Shepherds

Enter Mary holding the Baby Jesus. Joseph with a chair. Settles her centre stage. Narrator: Shortly after Jesus was born Mary and Joseph had their first visitors.

Shepherds rush on with toy sheep and gather around the baby, looking and pointing and doing a little celebratory dance. Narrator: While the shepherds had been minding their sheep, and their own business, on the hills outside Bethlehem, a host of angels had appeared around them, singing and proclaiming the Messiah’s birth. So they hot footed it into the town and to the stable where Jesus was snoozing in the manger. They worshipped the newborn king (shepherds kneel) and then ran off to tell anyone they could find that the wait was over. The Messiah was here at last!

Shepherds rush off in excitement. Finale – the wait is over

Play part of the song ‘“Read all about it’” by Emeli Sande “ I want to scream, I want to shout…so put it in all of the papers, I’m not afraid, you can read all about it, read all about it.” Or you could play the “Waiting for a star to fall” song again. The children from scene 1 re-enter with their newspapers – you could mock-up a few headlines and stick them on the front of the papers saying ‘“Messiah is found in Bethlehem’”… ‘“The King of the Jews is born!’”… “’The wait is over!’”… “’The son of God arrives as a BABY!’” They’re excited, pointing at the articles in the newspaper – high-fiving each other, hugging etc. The other characters enter and mingle with them, sharing their excitement – except for Caesar who looks rather put out. The End

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