Summary: Our Sunday school teachers were discussing how to have a nativity play which included the Wise Men given it is generally assumed the magi weren't there at the actual birth. I piped up with the idea of "Where were you when it happened" style interviewing and the final result is this Special News Report script. Possibly there is something similar out there but I hadn't found this web site or anything similar until after the fact.
The play is introduced with an audio-visual component which highlights our own contemporary society and some of its ideas about Christmas. It then flows into on-stage interviews with the people who were actually there, encouraging us to think about what Christmas really is all about. There's not a heavy emphasis on the Christmas story details, rather a focus on those who participated and their perception of events, trying to get the audience to internalise and relate to the ideas. It finishes with a final simple audio-visual component challenging the audience to experience Christmas the way it was originally - all about Jesus. I used Windows Movie Maker to put the video bits together.
Inadvertently it was also a great way to incorporate the older kids who were getting too cool to participate in the "little kid's" play. They loved doing the "television" stuff. We also used songs at points I've marked in the script. I haven't included the music details. You could use anything you like in those spots.
Style: Drama. Duration: 15min
Actors: 16+ M/F/C
To download a copy of the script, click here.