7) Organise your backing tracks
8) Organise access to your rehearsal music
11) Creating scenery
13) Using microphones
15) Many stagehands make light work
16) Organise your audience
20) Plan your thank you’s©2024 All rights reserved. Learn2soar Ltd, PO Box 431, Stockport. SK5 6WR. Established 2003.
Company number: 04784003 / VAT 419 2924 83
21 Steps To Organising A Nativity Play
Organising a Nativity Play can seem like a daunting prospect especially if it’s something you’ve never done before. The important thing to remember is that it will only be as hard as you make it. Therefore, always be realistic about what you can achieve given the size and age of your cast, also considering how much help you can get from parents and colleagues.
1) Look for the ‘Aww-Factor’ not the ‘X-factor’
It’s important to remember that your cast is made up of children not professional actors and as their director you’re staging a simple children’s play, not attempting to win an Oscar! If you demand perfection, then you will end up being disappointed and the children will feel too stressed. This in turn means they won’t perform as well and won’t enjoy what should be a truly magical experience for them. However, if you accept the children’s performance for what it is… a children’s performance, then you won’t be disappointed at all. And if there are mistakes on the night… so what? It adds to the charm of the event. Therefore, don’t look for ‘The X Factor’, look for the ‘awww’ factor!
1) Look for the ‘Aww-Factor’ not the ‘X-factor’
It’s important to remember that your cast is made up of children not professional actors and as their director you’re staging a simple children’s play, not attempting to win an Oscar! If you demand perfection, then you will end up being disappointed and the children will feel too stressed. This in turn means they won’t perform as well and won’t enjoy what should be a truly magical experience for them. However, if you accept the children’s performance for what it is… a children’s performance, then you won’t be disappointed at all. And if there are mistakes on the night… so what? It adds to the charm of the event. Therefore, don’t look for ‘The X Factor’, look for the ‘awww’ factor!
2) Edit your script
At Learn2soar Music, all our Christmas nativity publications come with editable scripts. Please make use of them! No two casts are the same, so please read through the script and edit it to suit your particular needs. Try to imagine each cast member reading out their lines. Are they too hard or too easy, too short or too long? Do you need to add lines or cut lots out?
In the end, we always recommend that you keep the script as short and simple as possible. It just makes everyone’s lives easier. But if you want to keep the script long, no problem. With even the longest of scripts it’s still possible to ‘divide and conquer’. Look for ways to divide the script between as many performers as possible so that everything doesn’t fall on a just a few people’s shoulders. For example, don’t just have one narrator, why not have a dozen narrators or even a dozen teams of narrators?
3) Arranging your cast
Unless you already know the performance skills of each cast member, you’re probably going to have to hold some sort of audition process. After each audition, encourage the child concerned with positive praise.
Once you’ve selected the cast and worked out who has what role, do remember to also cast understudies for the main roles. And so that the rehearsal efforts of the understudies isn’t in vain, during one of the final performances why not let the understudies take on the main roles?
4) Booking dates in your diary
At the same time as you organise the date/s of the show, you need to also organise dates and times of the rehearsals. Schedule them and stick to them. As the show approaches it can be tempting to add extra rehearsals, increasing their length or suddenly adding extra ‘out-of-hours’ rehearsals. But where possible we always advise you to stick to your original plan. Last minute changes along these lines rarely go down well with parents or your colleagues, who will probably have already made other plans. And remember that over-practising can sometimes be as harmful as under-practising. If the children have peaked too soon, they’ll be getting bored with doing the same thing over and over again and will give a lacklustre performance.
5) Plan each rehearsal
In the same way that teachers write a lesson plan to help them produce a good lesson, it’s a very sensible idea to produce a brief rehearsal plan for each rehearsal. Have an overall aim: Plan what songs or sections of the script are you going to tackle in the session. Plan for an introduction and ending that involves the whole cast, in which you ALWAYS tell the children how well they’re doing, even if inside you feel like you want to pull your hair out! But also remind them of areas in which they can improve.
During the middle of the rehearsal session, if possible, split into groups with other adults helping. For example, you might have the actors from the first scene rehearsing in one room, the dancers from the third song practising in another room, and the choir in yet another room. Of course, most of the time you’ll need most of the cast together, but wherever possible it’s imperative that you ‘divide and conquer’. And if you’re short staffed for teachers to rehearse the various groups, why not ask for some parental involvement?
5) Plan each rehearsal
In the same way that teachers write a lesson plan to help them produce a good lesson, it’s a very sensible idea to produce a brief rehearsal plan for each rehearsal. Have an overall aim: Plan what songs or sections of the script are you going to tackle in the session. Plan for an introduction and ending that involves the whole cast, in which you ALWAYS tell the children how well they’re doing, even if inside you feel like you want to pull your hair out! But also remind them of areas in which they can improve.
During the middle of the rehearsal session, if possible, split into groups with other adults helping. For example, you might have the actors from the first scene rehearsing in one room, the dancers from the third song practising in another room, and the choir in yet another room. Of course, most of the time you’ll need most of the cast together, but wherever possible it’s imperative that you ‘divide and conquer’. And if you’re short staffed for teachers to rehearse the various groups, why not ask for some parental involvement?
6) Backing tracks or live musicians?
We strongly recommend that you use the backing tracks provided. There are very valid arguments for playing the music yourself or even getting in a live band, if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford one. But having seen it from both sides, I personally think that the benefits of using a backing track far outweigh the benefits of playing the music yourself, or with a band. The main two reasons are:
(a) It’s a lot less stressful and saves a lot of time. You don’t have to spend hours practising to play the music perfectly – your time is precious enough as it is.
(b) The music on a recorded backing track NEVER changes, keeping it consistent for the children. On several occasions I’ve seen children rehearse endlessly to a plain piano, but suddenly for the dress rehearsal a live band is brought in. This sounds good, but can really throw the children off, adversely affecting their performance.
7) Organise your backing tracks
We strongly recommend that you put the backing tracks in the order you want them, on a computer or portable device and play them directly from there. Although all the digital publications on this website contain audio players for your convenience, we still advise you to download the mp3s to your own hard drive, make your own playlist and play the tracks from there. Why? Although we’d love you to use our online audio player all the time, the reality is that the internet can sometimes be unreliable. Our website has an excellent performance record and is seldom offline (99.9% uptime for the past two years). However, local internet outages and wifi issues in your location, can be the most common cause of not being able to access the song players on our website. And that’s the last thing you want to happen during a show.
On the other hand, if you have the mp3s downloaded to a hard drive and you play them directly from there, during the show, then there shouldn’t be any issues for you. You can download all the mp3 tracks, by scrolling to the bottom of each digital publication.
7) Organise your backing tracks
We strongly recommend that you put the backing tracks in the order you want them, on a computer or portable device and play them directly from there. Although all the digital publications on this website contain audio players for your convenience, we still advise you to download the mp3s to your own hard drive, make your own playlist and play the tracks from there. Why? Although we’d love you to use our online audio player all the time, the reality is that the internet can sometimes be unreliable. Our website has an excellent performance record and is seldom offline (99.9% uptime for the past two years). However, local internet outages and wifi issues in your location, can be the most common cause of not being able to access the song players on our website. And that’s the last thing you want to happen during a show.
On the other hand, if you have the mp3s downloaded to a hard drive and you play them directly from there, during the show, then there shouldn’t be any issues for you. You can download all the mp3 tracks, by scrolling to the bottom of each digital publication.
8) Organise access to your rehearsal music
We now provide a new service (available upon request), where we can provide your establishment with a personalised password protected webpage, which contains the audio player for your publication. This means that any child in your cast can easily access the songs to listen to and learn, any time they want, on any device, without having to access the digital publication through your customer account. Please contact us for a quote, with access to a demonstration page.
8) Organise access to your rehearsal music
We now provide a new service (available upon request), where we can provide your establishment with a personalised password protected webpage, which contains the audio player for your publication. This means that any child in your cast can easily access the songs to listen to and learn, any time they want, on any device, without having to access the digital publication through your customer account. Please contact us for a quote, with access to a demonstration page.
9) Prepare costumes
The ‘production notes’ document found in each of our publications contains valuable advice about costumes. But please don’t try and do it all yourself. It’s always a sensible idea to ask the parents for help.
9) Prepare costumes
The ‘production notes’ document found in each of our publications contains valuable advice about costumes. But please don’t try and do it all yourself. It’s always a sensible idea to ask the parents for help.
9) Prepare costumes
The ‘production notes’ document found in each of our publications contains valuable advice about costumes. But please don’t try and do it all yourself. It’s always a sensible idea to ask the parents for help.
10) Using make up
Most of our nativity plays come with specific suggestions for makeup. One thing we would say here, is that you should always use good quality, non-toxic face paint or make up. Some cheaper makes can cause the wearer to suffer bad skin reactions. Therefore, it’s also very important that you ask for parent’s permission before applying any type of face paint.
11) Creating scenery
All our Christmas publications come with ready-made PowerPoint scenery, and some even have video scenery! Just display or project it behind the performers for an instant professional looking backdrop. Some also contain advice for making your own scenery, but whatever you do, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Unless you have lots of people helping to make the scenery and even more stagehands for on the night, try to stick to just one general background that can be used for every scene.
11) Creating scenery
All our Christmas publications come with ready-made PowerPoint scenery, and some even have video scenery! Just display or project it behind the performers for an instant professional looking backdrop. Some also contain advice for making your own scenery, but whatever you do, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Unless you have lots of people helping to make the scenery and even more stagehands for on the night, try to stick to just one general background that can be used for every scene.
12) What about stage lighting?
If you’re performing your show during the day in a normal school hall or church, then you probably won’t need to worry about lighting. But if you’re performing at night, lighting is very important. Don’t just rely on the glow of normal ceiling lights, stage lights make a huge difference. And if you don’t have any installed, you can usually hire some for a very reasonable price from a local staging materials supplier.
13) Using microphones
PLEASE USE MICROPHONES! I feel this is so important that I’m going to say it again: PLEASE USE MICROPHONES…
Let me paint you a picture: I’ve seen it happen so many times, Little Jenny has spent ages memorising and rehearsing her all-important line. She nervously stands and just as she speaks an elderly gentleman starts to have a coughing fit. Jenny’s tiny voice is lost in a noisy avalanche of coughing and her moment is gone. A single microphone would have made all the difference. And even if there is no coughing fit, no baby crying, no phone ringing, even if for once the audience is completely quiet, children still get nervous and as they do their quiet voices can often become even quieter. Microphones make ALL the difference between a successful show and a poor show.
13) Using microphones
PLEASE USE MICROPHONES! I feel this is so important that I’m going to say it again: PLEASE USE MICROPHONES…
Let me paint you a picture: I’ve seen it happen so many times, Little Jenny has spent ages memorising and rehearsing her all-important line. She nervously stands and just as she speaks an elderly gentleman starts to have a coughing fit. Jenny’s tiny voice is lost in a noisy avalanche of coughing and her moment is gone. A single microphone would have made all the difference. And even if there is no coughing fit, no baby crying, no phone ringing, even if for once the audience is completely quiet, children still get nervous and as they do their quiet voices can often become even quieter. Microphones make ALL the difference between a successful show and a poor show.
14) Think carefully about the sound levels
Never turn down the backing music during a performance! Instead you need to turn up the microphones. The worst example I’ve seen of this was during a performance of my musical ‘Will Santa Get Shot Down’. At the end of the song ‘What Silent Night’ there’s a beautiful three-part harmony involving the three main characters. In one school I visited, as it got to this section, the teacher responsible for the sound turned down the backing music so that the audience could hear the children… Good intentions but BIG mistake! The harmony fell to pieces as none of the children knew where they were up to. They couldn’t hear the music, so the timing and tuning went out the window too! All the children’s hard work and weeks of practice had been spoilt. It was such a shame as I’d also heard their dress rehearsal performance which was absolutely amazing! And this bit of advice isn’t just for three-part harmonies, any time you turn down the backing music, you take a huge risk. Children, much more than adults, really need to hear the tune and timing of the backing music in order to stay on track and avoid a musical nightmare. Keep it consistent and their performance will be consistent.
15) Many stagehands make light work
It’s okay to use children as stagehands for prompting lines and for moving props and scenery off and on stage. But please remember to give these stagehands just as much practice and direction as your actual cast.
You also need some responsible adults back stage to supervise the off-stage children. These children will most likely be as high as kites given the excitement of the event and will need a cool-headed individual to keep them under control and move them off and on stage at the right times.
15) Many stagehands make light work
It’s okay to use children as stagehands for prompting lines and for moving props and scenery off and on stage. But please remember to give these stagehands just as much practice and direction as your actual cast.
You also need some responsible adults back stage to supervise the off-stage children. These children will most likely be as high as kites given the excitement of the event and will need a cool-headed individual to keep them under control and move them off and on stage at the right times.
16) Organise your audience
Always ask the audience to switch off phones. Apart from the nuisance of one ringing in the middle of the performance they can also interfere with sound systems and you don’t want that happening either!
There will also most likely be some babies/young children present. Unfortunately, you can’t switch off a baby’s cry, but you can organise a crèche in an adjoining room. If you wanted to be very professional about it you could even organise a simple live video feed from the show into the crèche, so that any parents that have to temporarily visit the crèche don’t miss out.
16) Organise your audience
Always ask the audience to switch off phones. Apart from the nuisance of one ringing in the middle of the performance they can also interfere with sound systems and you don’t want that happening either!
There will also most likely be some babies/young children present. Unfortunately, you can’t switch off a baby’s cry, but you can organise a crèche in an adjoining room. If you wanted to be very professional about it you could even organise a simple live video feed from the show into the crèche, so that any parents that have to temporarily visit the crèche don’t miss out.
17) Get your performance licence now
In order to perform any type of musical/play from any company, not just us, you will need a performance licence. This is a legal requirement. However, while some other companies will charge a lot of money for this and get you to fill out lots of forms, our performance licences are completely hassle free and are usually included in the initial purchase. However, if you are re-using an old nativity from previous years then you will most likely need to obtain a new licence by taking out a new ‘digital publication’ subscription. For further details please click here.
18) Get your recording licence now
If you’re planning to distribute recordings of your performance, then you may require a recording rights licence. Low level usage is usually covered by your current purchase, but if you need to sell or distribute your recording to a wider audience, then you will need to order an extended recording licence from us. For further details please click here.
19) Publishing your tickets and programme
On tickets make sure to include:
- a) name of show
- b) date/time
- c) venue (even if the venue seems pretty obvious)
- d) whether seats are numbered or available on a first come first served basis
- e) door opening times.
On your programme include:
- a) title of show / author / name of cast
- b) cast list
- c) title and order of songs
- d) credits and thank you’s
- e) adverts
20) Plan your thank you’s
After the final show, carefully make a list of all the people who deserve a special thank you and have some appropriate gifts / flowers ready to give them in order to publicly say thank you.
21) Throw an after-show party
They do it in professional performances, why not do it after your children’s performance!
20) Plan your thank you’s
After the final show, carefully make a list of all the people who deserve a special thank you and have some appropriate gifts / flowers ready to give them in order to publicly say thank you.
21) Throw an after-show party
They do it in professional performances, why not do it after your children’s performance!
