Seattle Public Theater to Present THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER

For the fourteenth year in a row, Seattle Public Theater (SPT) welcomes back the horrible and hilarious Herdman family for another assault on our seasonal sensibilities in Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever directed by Emily Purington.

To everyone's shock and awe, the Herdman kids hijack the annual church Christmas pageant. Chaos escalates as the festivities are turned upside down and the kids ultimately challenge everyone's traditional notions of Christmas. For young and old alike, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (BXPE) has become a holiday family tradition at SPT and is not to be missed.

This season, teaching artist Emily Purington takes over the BXPE director's chair and makes her SPT Mainstage debut with a holiday favorite that has become as much a tradition as candy canes and eggnog. "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has a special place in my heart," says Purington. "It's scary to love something so much! There are a lot of memories packed away in the history of this play. BXPE reminds me that when we stop being scared of change, we open ourselves up to discovery, transformation, wonder and mystery. Getting to tell this story has been the greatest gift. My cast and crew-the people telling this story with me-they inspire me beyond words. I could not have asked for a better team on this joyful adventure."

BXPE is directed by Emily Purington (SPT Youth's The Wind in the Willows and The Taming of the Shrew) and features the acting talents of Rebecca M. Davis (The Stay Up Late Show's Girl You Know It's True and Balagan Theatre's Les Miserables), Erin Stewart (Annex Theatre's Blood Countess and Radial Theater Project's Profile), Marquicia Dominguez (SPT's Slip/Shot and Annex Theatre's Black Like Us), Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako (Village Theatre's Big River and My Heart is the Drum) and Sujay Chattopadhyay, with Srija Chattopadhyay, Jasmine Anderson, Emma Blessing, Chloe Swedberg, Eileen MacDonald, Tessa Weinland, Skylar Tibbets, Duncan Weinland, Leo Campbell-Klein, Nathaniel Mascis, Hersh Powers, Sylvie Knox, Elora Coble and Derek Mulkins. BXPE is assistant directed by Melissa Slaughter and stage managed by Xandria Barber.