About the Play

AboutAbout thethe PlAyPlAy

Nativity play from the film Love Actually. Photo credit: The Washington Post.

In a small Midwestern city, the local avant-garde theater has been tasked with presenting the annual nativity play sponsored by St. Ignatius Episcopal Church. The Prairie Community Players do both traditional community theater fare such as Neil Simon and Steel Magnolias, but their real bread and butter is avant-garde and experimental theater. Director Jules is happy to take the church’s promise of a full house and a majority share of the ticket sales, but is wary of putting on the traditional story of the birth of Jesus.

So, they don’t plan to. As the Prairie Players work through rehearsals and Jules’ adaptations of the Nativity story, they try an experimental piece full of blood and high metaphor, a Shakespeareanstyle drama, and an Avenue Q inspired puppet piece, but none of those seem to satisfy Father Juan. Jules gets more and more frustrated as her priestly producer gives kind, but firm notes on her attempts to make the annual Christmas pageant something new.

In the meantime, the drama isn’t just limited to the craziness onstage. Will Prairie Players regulars Mateo and Vanessa rekindle their previous showmance? Can Jules come to terms with her father’s failing health? Will newcomers Peggy and Hank be able to dig themselves out of retirement debt? Will leading man Karl get the appreciation from Jules he so richly deserves? Can a puppet change a man’s entire being?

As the onstage and offstage drama concludes, opening night approaches. The Prairie Players scramble to create a show that combines Jules’ vision with the church’s requests. The play concludes with a dress rehearsal and a heartfelt, stripped down version of the Nativity story: ready for opening night.