A week in the life of Mary

Some of our members have been acting in the Christmas story with Wintershall. We asked Carrie to write a week in the life of Mary (whom she played).

Here it is here -

Friday 9th Dec:
The last day of Travelling Crib. Wintershall had visited schools across the country from Basingstoke to Shalford to Kingston, over 3 weeks, teaching the Nativity story. Our fourth and final week ended today after a week in London at Lambeth Palace. The day started of like any “normal” day at Wintershall where myself and some of the team took the 2 donkeys, Sam and Frodo, for a walk around the Palace gardens. We bumped into the Archbishop of Canterbury while he was walking his dog and had an ever so normal talk about how some of our sheep decided to escape the other day. The team later met for the morning meeting and we had our final brief before the last few schools arrived. I then got dressed into my Mary costume which consisted of a white dress, some blue and white scarfs, a head dress and I then created a baby bump out of some left over scarfs and a hot water bottle to try and fight off the cold. The kids got handed out these purple bags on arrival by Lucy (the coordinator of the education at Wintershall) where they would collect a gift from each person they met and put it in the bags. They then began their journey. I performed my monologue for the last school group, handed out their token cribs that each child collected on their journey and sent them to their last thoughts with Lucy. After the schools left we had 2 hours to pack everything away, move 10 sheep and 2 donkeys from one end of the gardens to the other, and say our final bittersweet goodbye (Although we would see most of the team the next day for Nativity tech). Over 4500 children, plus their teachers, were taught the Christmas message.

Saturday 10th Dec:
An 11am start at Wintershall, collecting our costumes for the show. I picked up 1 Mary costume, 1 Roman soldier costume, 1 temple guard costume and 1 Shepherd costume. Not forgetting a sword and a spear. I then met my friend Martha who plays the other Mary and grabbed a coffee at the local cafe near Wintershall. We headed back to the estate and up to Holly barn to start the tech for the show. It was -5* and no matter how many layers of socks and jumpers were layered on it was freezing. After rehearsals I headed back to Martha’s, had a girly night in making pizza and then straight to bed for another early start.

Sunday 11th Dec:
The second day of tech and another freezing cold day. We had a safety briefing for the show which I was slightly late for, as I had to walk Sam the donkey up the steep hill which took me roughly an hour. After the briefing we headed outside to tech the outside Shepherd and Innkeeper scenes. Christian (who played Joseph for my performances) took lead of the donkey while I mounted onto him. As we started the scene the Surrey hill skyline turned magical as it snowed. Although this was very pretty indeed it did add another complication to the technical system. But we continued. We then ran the inside scenes with the tech and plotted the finale. I met one of my baby Jesus’s who coincidently played my Jesus at summer but was now a slightly bigger 8 month old.

Monday 12th Dec:
The first day off from Wintershall in a while however not
from school. Outside of riding donkeys and looking after
baby’s I was completing mocks. After my exam I went home
and practiced my drama monologue, tidy my room for the first
time in a while, whoops, and popped out to The Well cafe to see my friend Eve for a milkshake catch up. I then went home and had a long sleep.

Tuesday 13th Dec:
I got up early and went to school for my drama exam, completed my monologue, grabbed a cheese panini and headed straight to Wintershall. It was dress rehearsal day. Myself and Christian handed the baton over to Martha and Ollie to play Mary and Joseph for this rehearsal while we transformed into some scary looking (I guess) soldiers. It was freezing and icey and any heat from my body was pulled away from the cold metal armour.

Wednesday 14th Dec:
Show day! It was the opening show. I started the day with the education team performing my travelling crib monologue for one last time to some year 1 and 2 children in the rehearsal barn. I then trekked up to Holly barn but luckily got picked up by Herod (played by Buzz) half way up the hill in his 4x4. We headed into the Green room and quickly got changed into our costumes. Everyone buzzing with excitement got called into the auditorium for our final meeting before the first show. We held hands, said a prayer and then headed down the hill to start the show. I stood in Mary’s house chatting to Angel Gabriel waiting for the show to start. I handed her prop of lilies to her and we said our pre show phrase to each other “magic time”. Ashley, one of our directors, stepped onto stage and gave the pre show announcement. The sweet sound of the choir echoed across the estate and the show had started. Our months of preparation had been successful and the opening show was amazing. The Baby didn’t cry however we did have a bit of a stubborn donkey but that wasn’t unusual.

The rest of the week
The rest of the week was great! We had a cast and crew party on the Thursday. Soup provided to keep us going by the wonderful team. And Martha and I took it upon ourselves to have a lil photo shoot. We did have some challenges like escaping donkeys and sheep, poorly baby’s, sore throats, slippery mud and frozen speakers/tech system but through it all the show still continued and the experiences that I had this week will stay with me forever. Lifelong friends were made and old friendships grow stronger and playing the role of Mary in both the Travelling Crib and the Nativity was such a pleasure and the memories will stick with me for a long time. Playing the role of Mary made a young 8 year old Carrie very happy. These times at Wintershall are forever kept in my heart!