Decern her 
1919 
19 
A MIRACLE PLAY IN A COUNTRY HOUSE 
From the Old English Coventry or Chester Cycles Can Be Adapted 
a Flay for Christmas Eve or That Holiday House Party 
GRACE NORTON ROSE 
I F YOU have wondered what you can do to 
make this Christmas somewhat different 
from other Christmases, try gathering together 
a houseful of eager workers, and enlist the in¬ 
terest of your neighbors and the community, 
to give at midnight, Christmas Eve, a Miracle 
Play. 
Have your trimmed tree for the children by 
all means, and frolic and feast to your heart’s 
content on Christmas Day, but set aside this 
Illustrated by Jack Manley Rose 
time at midnight for the presentation of a very 
beautiful and impressive version of the old 
English Christmas plays of the Coventry 
and Chester Cycles. Any version is adaptable 
to modern use, and a study of these pageants 
will reveal a wealth of charming detail. The 
one described was given last year by the Play¬ 
house Association of Summit. New Jersey, and 
found much appreciation in the community. 
The joint effort of the members themselves and 
private subscriptions to cover the slight cost of 
the presentation made it possible to give the 
play without charge to the people on Christmas 
Eve and two succeeding nights of the holidays. 
If you give it, do it as wonderfully as you 
can, preserving the old English atmosphere. It 
should last barely half an hour, music and all. 
Have plenty of greens, tall candles, and clouds 
of incense, and depend a bit upon unusual light¬ 
ing and rich costuming for the effects. Under 
SjlZ&SfSZi 
jNttptfysij# 
z 
V A. .c 
NN E' 
LA 
• .Y " 
iPIpifS 
gi 
wism 
The Annunciation, the opening scene of the play, begins by the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah taking their positions against the proscenium arch. A glow of 
light appears, and out of the darkness comes the angel. To one side curtains part, showing the Virgin, her Fra Angelico hands upraised in awe 
