Caitlin Bailey found the script for The First Christmas online. “The script was free for all church, school and community groups,” she said. “I ended up modifying portions of the script to best suit St. John’s as a whole, as well as the amount of children I had participating.”
For more information on St. John’s pageant, contact the church by email or Bailey by email.
Send stories of your youth group (preschool-confirmation age) or craft ideas to Andrea S. Pohlmann.
Caitlin Bailey made her solo directorial debut in 2009's The First Christmas. The production was a hit and went off so well that many members of St. John Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., didn't even know the director was a 10th-grader.
She got her start in 2008 when Amy Huber, chair of the church's mission team and choir director, asked Caitlin and her mother, Lori Bailey, to direct the pageant together.
"As a ninth-grader, Caitlin had just graduated from the middle-school choir," Huber said. "I knew she was interested in exploring church music directorship as a career. ... This '08 production went very well, but Lori declined to direct the next year. Caitlin was ready to take it on."
Caitlin added, "I have a background in musical theater and performing, so it was something I felt prepared to handle."
Handle it she did.
"Caitlin had an overall vision of the look and feel of the pageant and she knew how to get that across to the actors," Huber said.
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