Photo By Spc. Kiyoshi Freeman | Spc. Tekare Weeks, a clerk with the 133rd Quartermaster Company, from Queens, N.Y.,...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Spc. Kiyoshi Freeman
3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Public Affairs
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq – On Christmas Day, approximately 100 service members attended a Christmas pageant at the main chapel.
"Harold the Angel" – a play on words for the classic Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" – was written and produced by Chaplain Maj. James Lewis, the brigade chaplain from Kent, Ohio, 371st Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).
"For myself and others who grew up with [these kinds] of Christmas shows, to not have [a Christmas pageant], leaves kind of a hole," Lewis said. "A part of the normal Christmas expectations for me is that there be some kind of Christmas pageant."
Essentially a nativity play, which recounts the birth of Jesus, Lewis' version instead focused more on an untold, behind-the-scenes type of story. It featured a fictitious character: Harold, a new angel getting on the job training.
This approach lent the pageant a comedic edge and allowed Lewis to localize it for his audience.
The angel who teaches Harold to fly, for example, was a swaggering, long-haired, sunglass-adorned aviation officer. The angels' armor: Army-issue interceptor body armor, complete with bright orange reflector belt.
More importantly, Lewis said, the comedic approach gave the players – many of whom had never done something like this before – room to recover if they missed a cue or forgot a line. The pageant, though, did not rely on their performances alone.
"The story is carried by the narration and the songs," Lewis said. "It was built with the assumption that we're not going to have a lot of time [and] we're not going to have a lot of resources to put this story together."
Instead of building a set or props, Lewis decided on using a slideshow presentation to set the stage, relying sometimes on iconic nativity scenes.
All of the nearly two dozen performers – the narrators, the actors, and the choir – were volunteers who rehearsed every Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night for a month to prepare for the show, which was performed only once.
The biggest obstacle that had to be overcome, Lewis said, was simply getting everybody together at the same time for those rehearsals and dealing with last minute attacks of anxiety.
"You come to the last few days, and you're supposed to be ready. But it's never all ready," Lewis said. "But every show I've been involved with has been something like that . . . everyone comes together at the end."
After the performance was over, the audience applauded and players congratulated each other on a job well done – this in spite of scheduling conflicts and inexperience.
"At first I was nervous," said Spc. Tekare Weeks, a clerk with the 133rd Quartermaster Company from Queens, N.Y., and one of the pageant's narrators. "But once everything started flowing, it was good."
For Lewis, the primary motivator for the event, it couldn't have been more worthwhile.
"For this short time, there's that sense of community that fills some of what family does for you when you're home at this time of year," Lewis said. "[And] to be able to say, 'Okay, now I've had a real Christmas here, even though I'm away from home.'"
| Date Taken: | 01.04.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.05.2009 05:41 |
| Story ID: | 28450 |
| Location: | AL ASAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 287 |
| Downloads: | 156 |
This work, Hark! Harold the Angel sings, by SPC Kiyoshi Freeman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
