Driving to Bethlehem: Our Lady of Lourdes School to present ‘Drive-Thru Living Nativity’

Story and photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald

On Friday and Saturday night, two dozen costumed student-actors from the drama club at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Slidell will present a drive-thru Living Nativity that will capture all the beauty of the beloved Advent tradition while keeping the young cast members and their audience safe.

The drive-thru dramatization will be open to the public Dec. 11 and 12 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Our Lady of Lourdes School parking lot at 345 Westchester Place in Slidell.

After paying the entrance fee of $5 per car, passengers will receive a one-page program that will guide them through nine drive-up, Scripture-based stations. The chronological station themes will be:

• The Prophecy
• The Annunciation
• The Visitation
• The Census Proclamation
• The Birth of Jesus
• The Angel Appears to the Shepherds
• A Multitude of the Heavenly Host
• Shepherds Visit the Manger
• Magi from the East

The student actors, who are in grades 3-7, will pose against painted backdrops while mostly frozen in place. This “tableau” style of acting was chosen not only to lend poignance to the dramatization, but to enable the cast to participate as safely as possible, said Pam Lisotta, drama club moderator and director of the Living Nativity. There are no spoken lines, and in lieu of singing, sacred Christmas music will be piped into the parking lot, Lisotta said.

The scriptural excerpts connected with the nine scenes – taken from Isaiah, Matthew and Luke – are listed in the program so that passengers can read them silently or aloud in their cars as they stop at each tableau. Each stop at the nighttime event will be lit.

Lisotta said families can expect to complete the route in 20 to 30 minutes.

The drive-thru Nativity – an idea pitched last October to Our Lady of Lourdes principal Roy Delaney by parishioner Tommy Benasco – will fill a void. Last week, the school decided to cancel its traditional Living Nativity presented by fifth graders because of nationwide spikes in cases of COVID-19.

“(As a director), you’re always trying to come up with ways to keep your students involved in theater and keep them safe, which is quite challenging,” said Lisotta, who bypassed the usual audition and rehearsal process for the Living Nativity by walking her cast members through the scenes and showing them where to stand.

Following the Christmas break, Our Lady of Lourdes's drama club of a record-high 47 members will begin work on two virtual productions slated for February 2021: “The Show Must Go Online” and “Would You Hug a Cactus?” both by Beat Press.

“They’re just excited to be doing something. We don’t get to sing or say any lines (in the Living Nativity), but at least we get to get out there and share something,” Lisotta said. “It’s hard on theater kids when they don’t get to do the things they enjoy doing. We wanted to give them something to fill that void and give us all something to look forward to, because they can’t do a musical right now.”

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