First play

During the turbulent years of the 19’70s David was serving a church just outside Washington DC. The architecture of the church fit the place and times. Circular in shape, the building looked more like a Pizza Hut than a church.

Just two weeks before Christmas, 1972, we realized that we had no traditional Christmas pageant in the works . What to do? No time for casting or rehearsals. Since the sanctuary was “in the round” we decided to try something different. As the costumed children created a tableau a Narrator told the Christmas story and the congregation made sound effects. We dishephavided the congregation into three sections 1) shepherds sleeping (snoring sounds) 2) little lambs (baaaing softly) 3) sngels (standing and saying “Glory to God in the Highest!) Sounds were all around us.

A second Act was the Manger scene with animals sounds and the third Act was the Wisemen (plodding camels)The congregation made the appropriate sounds.

Arthur Zapel, editor of Contemporary Drama, heard about the play and asked if he could publish it. In the following years I wrote over two dozen plays for him and from these plays I began writing books for Abingdon Press, Discpleship Resources, Cokesbury and Upper Room Press. Most of the plays I wrote for Conatemporary Drama (now Christian Publishers) are no longer in print. But that little spur-of-the-moment play, “Listen to Christmas” is still listed in their catalog and I still get a yearly Royalty check.