Cornwall’s Christmas Pageant tradition

CORNWALL — Jane Prentice of Cornwall has directed the Cornwall Christmas Pageant since 2005. This year will mark her nineteenth and final pageant.

She will be turning the role of director over to Katherine Freygang, who is helping her cast this year’s pageant. “It is time for me to pass it along,” said Prentice.

The pageant tells the traditional Christmas story, complete with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, and three kings.

Jane Prentice said they’ve been using the same script since the pageant began. She is not sure how long the pageant has existed, but she has written documentation going back to 1959 and knows that it was going on before that.

Jane took over the directorship from Charlotte Frost in 2005. Charlotte Frost took over from Prentice’s grandmother-in-law, Theodora “Dody” Prentice who, Prentice thinks, took over from Mary Shefflin.

The Christmas Pageant is filled with tradition. “Zejke Herman started as a littlest angel, became a shepherd, king and then narrator – 60 years of involvement,” said Prentice.

“Dody got the job because she had the costumes,” explained Prentice of her grandmother-in-law’s years as director. Those costumes are still in use with some repairs and updates over the years. Prentice said she and others “snatch up things that might fit at Cornwall’s annual rummage sale.”

Casting has gotten harder over the years, she commented. “Demographics and the people who live here have changed. In Charlotte’s day there was a choir at the church, and a children’s choir and the high school had a choir. Now we are a pick-up choir.”

“Before it was kind of like tryouts for the kings and Mary especially. Now it is about trying to fill the cast and find children to fit the parts. It is harder to find people,” explained Prentice. “One year, I called thirty-five men in turn to find the last king.”

“Now we really, really need community to make it happen.”

Added to that is that the parts are sung, so not only does she need someone who fits the role visually, but they have to sing.

Prentice recalled one year that was a disaster. “Mary lost her voice on the day of the pageant. I had to find a new Mary that day.” She added, “Basically it flies by the seat of its pants every year.”

The year of the COVID pandemic, “We did it outside on the front steps of the church. Being outside, we could have Robert the llama from Llama Quilt Farm take part.”

“It was beautiful when it was done. The lighting was great. Luminaries were on the front lawn. It was beautiful.”

She talked about favorite memories. “Something special happens every year.” For instance, one year she remembers “The little angel yawning” in the middle of the pageant.

One year “one of the shepherds had to help a ‘sheep’ (his family’s dog named Minnow dressed in a sheep costume) up the steps,” she said. “He was a Jack Russell, and his legs were too short. He was also elderly.”

Prentice talked about what she will miss about directing the pageant. “I think what I’ll miss is this: When it is all over and everything is cleaned up and everyone’s gone home, I sit in the dark with just the star illuminated, reflecting on how beautiful it is really – even with the disasters.”

This year’s pageant will be on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. with a snow date of Dec. 15, though Prentice said they have only had to cancel for snow twice in all the years of the pageant - once when Theodora Prentice was the director and once Jane herself had to call it off.

The pageant takes place at the United Church of Christ Meeting House at 8 Bolton Hill Rd. Anyone attending is asked to bring a present wrapped in white for children in need.