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ALT presents 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever'
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The Herdman kids are the town terrors.
They torched the firehouse when they were smoking cigars. They swear, drink jug wine and shoplift their way through the mall 鈥� and that鈥檚 just the beginning.
These juvenile delinquents attend Sunday school for the first time because they heard there were snacks. Then they bully their way into the lead roles in the Christmas pageant.
Barbara Robinson鈥檚 鈥淭he Best Christmas Pageant Ever鈥� opens at the Albuquerque Little Theatre on Dec. 8, running through Christmas Eve.
Turns out, the original play director breaks a leg, leaving the naive mom Grace Bradley in charge.
鈥淭hey are described as the worst kids in the world,鈥� said Art Tedesco, ALT director.
Scourge of the local school, the Herdman kids range in age from 8 to 12.
鈥淭here are six kids who are raised in a single parent household,鈥� Tedesco said.
They have never been disciplined because their father abandoned them when they were babies and their mother is always working multiple shifts to make ends meet. Despite their terrible grades, the school steadily passes them because holding any one of them back would mean having two or more of them in the same grade.
ALT presents 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever'
鈥淭hey bully, they pick on kids, and they fight,鈥� Tedesco said. 鈥淭he oldest girl bullies her way into playing Mary.鈥�
Imogene, the oldest, tells Alice, who also wants to play Mary, that she will stick a pussy willow into her ear and watch it grow if she doesn鈥檛 drop out.
Eventually, their humanity emerges, appalled that the innkeeper forced a pregnant woman and her baby to sleep in a stable, and that the Holy Family fled King Herod, who wanted the baby Jesus killed.
鈥淚 considered it a fun little kids鈥� show,鈥� Tedesco said. 鈥淏ut then I read the play and it was very moving to me.鈥�
Robinson first published the story in McCall鈥檚 magazine before adapting it into a book in 1971. ABC turned it into a television movie in 1983.
鈥淲e sort of rediscover the Christmas story through them,鈥� he continued. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very moving story to watch them learn about the birth of Christ and the weight that carries.鈥�
Without her, the Herdman children would never have been given the chance to take part in the pageant. Without the lure of delicious snacks, the welfare-dependant Herdman kids would never have volunteered in the first place.
