Take the Family to Stebens Children’s Theatre for Two Great Upcoming Shows!

{MEDIA_SOURCE}

Stebens Children’s Theatre will be putting on two great shows in the upcoming weeks; both are sure to have your family rolling with laughter.  The weekend of the 14^th thru the 16^th, they will be putting on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” a hysterical rendition of the book, written by Barbara Robinson back in 1972. 

“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” focuses primarily on the Herdman family, who has the “world’s 6 worst behaved children.” Every year, the congregation of a nameless small town puts on their re-telling of the Christmas Story from the Bible and every year, it’s the very same.  The same kids play the same parts under the watchful eye of the same director.  But this year, it all changes when the usual director breaks her leg, and someone different directs and new “talent” takes the stage.

Through an incident at school, the Herdman children find out about the pageant and decide to show up and tryout.  Because no one else wants to be anywhere near these kids, they end up getting all the lead roles.  Ralph, the biggest of the clan is always getting hit and bit by his sisters Imogene and Gladys; he takes the role of Joseph, but really has no clue what that means.  Imogene is the boss of the family and that’s the way she likes it.  Naturally, she takes the role of Mary, and spends practice smoking cigars.  Leroy is the schoolyard bully and is the one who found out the about the pageant and passed on the info to his siblings; even though he’s a thug of sorts, he gives the gift of a Ham to Jesus. Ollie and Claude are partners in crime and always looking for trouble, while Gladys rounds out the bunch as the smallest and the fastest but she’s mean and she bites.  She takes the role of Angel of the Lord, but thinks she’s her favorite comic book character, the Mighty Marvo.

As an audience member, you get to witness the disastrous and comedic rehearsals that follow in the weeks to come. As everyone fears that the pageant will be a terrible failure, the Herdman’s finally pull themselves together and turn it in to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Then, January 9^th, they will be performing an adaptation of “The Fisherman and His Wife,” a fairy tale written by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.  The story of a Fisherman and his wife, Isabel, who live in a small hut by the sea, has been heard for generations and the performance is sure to be a crowd pleaser.  If you’ve never heard the tale, here is a brief rundown. 
Every morning, the Fisherman heads out to the sea to fish while Isabel tends the garden.  One day, the Fisherman catches a huge Flounder in his net; but he quickly discovers it is no ordinary Flounder…..this Flounder can talk!  The Flounder begs the Fisherman to let her go. The Flounder explains that she used to be a princess, but an evil spell turned her into a fish.  The kind Fisherman decides to let the Flounder go.

When the Fisherman’s wife hears the tale of the talking fish, she thinks that the fish must be magic, and if the fish is magic, it must grant wishes!  Isabel insists that the next morning, the Fisherman go back out to sea, and ask the Flounder to give them a nicer cottage.  After Isabel gets her first wish, she gets greedy and begins wishing for bigger and better things.  Eventually the Flounder decides that Isabel needs to learn the difference between what she wants and what she needs. 

In an effort to remind Isabel those possessions will not make her happy and that she had a good life before she began making wishes, the Flounder reverses all the wishes.  When Isabel goes from a stone castle with a beautiful view back to her little hut, she realizes how foolish she was to think that bigger houses and more influence would make her happy.  She realizes that with a roof over her head, meals of fish and cabbage, and a loving husband, she may not have everything she wants, but she does have all that she needs to be happy.

Throughout the story, each member of your family will likely be poking each other saying, “See, I told you to be happy with what you’ve got!” But the lesson to be learned through this tale never gets old, and it’s especially appropriate during this time of year.

To purchase tickets for either show, contact the Stebens Children’s Theatre at 641.424.9802 or log on to their website at www.stebens.com for more information.