The Art of Embarrassment

We were asked to be actors in the church play this Christmas. We weren't quite tricked, like last time, but we definitely didn't know exactly what we were agreeing to either.

Our church performed a shortened version of "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. We didn't know this until half-way though the first read-through. I naturally thought the Christmas play would be more nativity related. I was quite confused when there was no pregnant lady traveling with her fiance, & when the main character battled a monster named Apolyon. Stephen, who's read the book, on the other hand, guessed right away what the play was.

I was asked to be the wife/mother. I assume because ever expanding belly makes me look matronly. Stephen was my son.

The feat of learning lines in Japanese and knowing when to say them gave me a bit of a panic attack. Thankfully, our parts were small. And we didn't have to memorize our lines.

When my English students found out I was going to be in a play in Japanese, they asked about coming to church to watch. So, Christmas morning, two of my English students came to our church Christmas party to watch Stephen and I looking foolish reading lines in Japanese with bad American accents.

Everyone in the play was very gracious about our performance. Which was good, because when ever I said a line, the whole audience laughed. ( I don't think that is how the author intended it)

It was a light hearted production, and no-one took themselves too seriously. Well other than this guy...

It was a great experience. It forced us to learn some sentences we otherwise wouldn't know, and the promise of seeing their English teacher be embarrassed got two of my students to come to church.