Havant actors create living advent calendar to tell nativity story through videos in lead-up to Christmas

Jesus’s birth story will be told through 26 separate dramatic monologue videos by the Havant Passion Play group, each clip portraying a different character in the nativity story.

Every morning during Advent, a new video will be unveiled on Youtube – the virtual equivalent of an advent calendar, but with real people behind each window.

Some of the three-minute videos were recorded ahead of November’s lockdown at St Francis Church, Leigh Park. The remaining videos will be recorded once lockdown restrictions are lifted in December.

Alongside classic Nativity characters the writers have also written scripts for rarely portrayed characters, such as Mary’s mother, a Roman official announcing the census, and Herod’s servant.

Ingrid Corrigan, who attends Bedhampton Methodist Church and is part of Havant-based Bench Theatre, has recorded one of the early videos.

Ingrid, who acts as Miriam receiving a letter about the birth of John the Baptist to Elizabeth and Zechariah, said: ‘I’d never been involved in the Passion Play productions, but I heard about this advent calendar plan and thought it was a great idea.

‘I really wanted to do something to help, and I appreciate that doing it online is the only way we can do it at the moment. Although my character is some way away from the nativity story, it still helps to build up a picture.’

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The Rev Jonathan Jeffery, vicar of St Francis in Leigh Park, will be lending his comic talents to the role of the innkeeper.

He said: ‘Focussing on a different character every day during December will help us to imagine what it might have felt like 2,000 years ago and engage with the hope and expectation of the moment, which we believe changed everything.

‘It’s a message we need to hear this year more than ever, and we are delighted to have found a way to offer the story as widely as possible to the biggest possible audience.’

The first video will be available on November 29, Advent Sunday, and they will then be unveiled each day until Christmas Eve.

The Living Advent Calendar videos will be available on their Youtube channel at HPP – Living Advent Calendar.

For more information, visit havantpassionplay.org.uk

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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