Into the Wardrobe

I always try to create good parts for girls - I had 5 wise people, including at least one girl. And why can't girls be shepherds?

BeeLayne, a wise thought just hit me, so I'm editing my post.

Did those previous productions have dryads, naiads, fauns, and other mythological creatures? Because if those naughty directors replaced them with angels as being more "christian", then they were making significant changes that reduced the value of the story. It is an insult to Lewis to remove parts of his story that seem not to appeal. Why didn't they simply have more animals - did they just happen to have a box of angel dresses?

If this is what happened, then not only is it offensive to children and schools (in spring? not the time for Nativity stories!!) but also it would break the copyright (I presume they had permission?).

Actually, I was a shepherdess in my own Christmas pageant days. But the stereotype is so deeply ingrained that none of my boys would consent to being an angel, I don't think. They weren't particularly thrilled to be shepherds, either. One of my girls flatly refused to be an angel.

I'm glad to hear that you no longer have that director with you. It's a case of taking dreadful liberties! (enough to report it to the Lewis Estate!)
Why couldn't they get them all to come in long tees and trousers in earth colours, and give some of them basic masks as extra animals? Not hard!

I'm glad to hear that you are a director with integrity, who will avoid making the same awful errors.
If you have lots of extras, I'm sure you could have a group of blue coloured ones who are naiads, or a group of green coloured ones who are dryads... (just get them to find something at home, and assign groups!)

Oh yeah, that director was... well, was is the point. And I am. So, yeah they will be animals and dryads and naiads and other things that were actually mentioned in the book. And because we have the costumes from the previous productions that means we will only have to make ones for those parts previously assigned to angels (which is good because of our very small budget ).

I am very excited about this show, and have been breathing, eating, sleeping (have dreamed about it) Narnia since I found out I will be directing. Maybe I'll be able to post pictures after the show and get some feedback on it!

Well done, director!

Just a thought - do these angel costumes have to be used as angels again, or are you allowed to dye them blue or green for naiads/dryads?

Yeah, and by the way, what version are you using? I will probrably be directing a show this summer and would love to do Narnia (of course).

I would certainly agree with no angels in Narnia, but I am going to put kind of a different spin on this: I always viewed the stars (ex. Ramandu) to be the Narnian equivalent to angels. Well, not exactly equivalent, but I think there are possible similarities. They are kind of mysterious, more powerful than the people, they watch over Narnia, give messages to the centaur prophets... I don't know, does anyone else agree with me or are star/angel comparisons too much of a stretch? (Of course, I am not suggesting having stars attend to Aslan in the play.)