Back left to right: Kieran Chenier, William Kerr, Charlie Vanstone, Anna Halowski, Madeline Kerr, Sophie Christopher, Corrin Lewis. Steps: Lilli McDonald, Katie Kerr, Madeline Hudson, Delaney Liesen, Meg Gibson. Front: Gwen Gunn, Marissa Kingston, Kyla McAuley-Stone, Gordie McDonald, Ellie Helmstaedt, Will Britton. Front of stage: Suzanne Kerr.

The Best
Christmas Pageant Ever

Left to right: Meg Gibson, Suzanne Kerr, Will Britton, Madeline Kerr Debbie Baker (left) and Ava Waugh Anna Halowski

by Barbara Robinson
directed by Rachael McDonald
Thurs.-Sat., Nov. 30-Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 16, 2:00 p.m.
The Davies Foundation Auditorium
52 Church St., Kingston, ON

In this hilarious Christmas classic, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids--probably the most inventively awful kids in history.

The Christmas pageant director finds herself in traction and has to call for backup. Grace Bradley agrees to take over. Then Grace's son Charlie makes a mistake. When the unruly Herdman children take his candy bar at school, he responds by bragging about his church's Christmas pageant and the fact that the minister, Reverend Hopkins, hands out sweets.

The Herdmans, never ones to pass up a chance at free goodies, show up to audition for the pageant. Cast in several major roles, they appear to be wreaking havoc on the Christmas story. There is talk the pageant will have to be cancelled. But in the end, some lessons are learned all round.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is based on a book that Barbara Robinson wrote in 1971. Robinson first published the story in McCall's magazine. She adapted it for the stage in 1982 and into a television movie that aired on ABC in 1983.

Barbara Robinson

Barbara Robinson was born in 1927 in Portsmouth, Ohio. Her mother, a schoolteacher, got her interest in books, and she began writing very early. Robinson attended Allegheny College, where she received a bachelor's degree in theatre.

Best known as an author of children's books, particularly the one on which the play is based, she also published a number of short stories in magazines such as Redbook, McCall's and Ladies Home Journal.

Besides The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, she wrote two other books featuring the Herdman kids—The Best Hallowe'en Ever and The Best School Year Ever, as well as Across From Indian Shore, My Brother Louis Measures Worms and other Louis Stories, and others.

Barbara Robinson died in Pennsylvania in 2013.

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