A Family Tradition
BY LUCRETIA VOIGT INDEPENDENT ARTS WRITER
It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, walking down Main Street laden with oversized shopping bags, rushing from one holiday party to another. This past Sunday the First Congregational Church at 62 Centre Street, together with the Christian churches on island, put together an oasis in the desert of holiday madness in the form of the Christmas Pageant.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Trish and Tim Collette, with their baby Caroline were Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in this year's Christmas Pageant.

"The church has been putting it on for around 34 years," explained Kathy Richen, who directed the pageant this year for the eighth time. "It was originally called the Christmas Cantata. It was something that Harlan Davis, a member of our church who has passed away, started. They used actors who I think actually came from Theatre Workshop and were called the Festival Players. When I got involved with it, by then it was the Christmas Pageant. It was very informal."

That informal pageant has turned into a Christmas tradition for Nantucket families. A retelling of the Christmas story, complete with the Archangel Gabriel and King Herod, takes place in the unheated sanctuary. Though Richen has directed the pageant for eight years, the directors have changed throughout, developing the concept as filtered through their own understanding of the story, adding elements, some of which continue from year to year and others which move into the history books.

"Ginger Andrews directed [the pageant] for a number of years, and used dancing slave girls with Herod," said Richen when commenting on the development of the pageant. "[Andrews] did the lighting with the big star and now we still use that. My husband (Neville Richen) directed [the pageant] for a number of years. He played Archangel Gabriel when it wasn't a singing role and Gabriel walked the baby up the aisle, then gave it to the Holy Family. It always had a different flair. We have singing kings now, which is a very recent development."

During the early years the costumes were rustic, accumulated year to year from volunteer shepherds and wise men. Then Paulette Allemend brought her designing talents to the Pageant, changing the aesthetics from amateur to professional and creating the costumes that have adorned the actors for the past several years. "Paulette Allemend designed these fabulous costumes," reminisced Richen. "I think she had been involved in theatrical costumes in France. She designed these gorgeous costumes and so now we have flashier costumes."

It is a production that has grown through the years with a cast this year of 30 children, 20 choir members, three kings, two prophets, three centurions, two narrators, King Herod and the Archangel Gabriel. Of course, the star of the Pageant is the Holy Family: Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. Just like the shepherds sought out the Christ Child on Christmas Eve, Richen's quest for the perfect Holy Family is long and arduous, usually beginning in October. "Finding the families is the hardest part. I have the same assistant director, same lighting person and the narrators - people love to narrate. But you have to get two families with babies that are going to be here and want to be in it. So it's not easy. One year we had a family drop out two days before the pageant."

This year the Holy Family was played in the 4 p.m. pageant by Andrea and Aaron Markavitch and their daughter Beatrice. The 7 p.m. pageant saw Trish and Tim Collette as Mary and Joseph, with baby Caroline filling in for the Baby Jesus.

Trish Collette never thought of herself as a Mary stand-in. Casting her in the role came about as a result of her need for caffeine, a staple for any young mother. "I was coming out of The Bean with Caroline and Kathy [Richen], she's so nice, she came barreling outside, and asked 'Do you have a husband?'" laughed Collette when explaining how she came to be Mary. "I said 'I do.' Then she explained that she was directing the Christmas pageant and wondered if we would be interested in being the Holy Family. I said yes, knowing my mother would get the biggest kick out of it."

The Collettes began their family here on Nantucket. While Tim has been a Nantucket resident for 20 years, Trish came to visit her brother seven years ago and never left. Baby Caroline was born on June 21 at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. The opportunity to play the Holy Family reminded Trish what Christmas is all about, and the true meaning behind the Christmas Pageant.

"Honestly, I never knew what family really meant until I had a baby," remarked Collette, when asked what the pageant meant to her. "I always knew family was important and have always been close to my family. I know now that family is the only constant you have in your life besides God. Family is the most important thing."

The Christmas Pageant is a gift from the First Congregational Church family to the families of Nantucket, a yearly reminder of our connection to

each other. I