The Last Hurrah

Every December, some of the staff members prepare the nativity play (Krippenspiel), also known as "The Shepherds' Play" in American Waldorf schools, and put on a production for the school and community.  This is a rather involved process as there is choreography, singing, costumes, and makeup.  Also, the play is performed in an old German dialect - much akin to performing in Shakespeare's English. 

The final week of school before the much needed winter break consisted of a Monday and half of a Tuesday, both days which had major events happening at the school.  The first public performance of the play happened Monday night.  This production was open to students, their parents, and the community.  The following morning was the performance for the student body -- in essence the "real deal" since the purpose of putting on the show is to give Waldorf students an experience about miracles.

For Mike, Annelie, and me the "big day" was Monday when we prepared a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal for the staff -- those performing in the play; those who helped with the production by doing lighting, makeup, or handling the audience; and those who were there to support everyone else by watching the show.  Being one of the few times the staff gets to be together and socialize for the sake of being together, it was also a highly anticipated meal.  That and most people here haven't had traditional Thanksgiving food before.  They were all excited to try something new.

It was an extremely crazy day since we still had to teach our normal classes on top of preparing dinner for about 35 people by 8 pm.   We thought we had bought all of our ingredients over the weekend (not on Sunday!),  but somehow we had forgotten little things here and there, so between some classes, I dashed over to the grocery store across the way to pick up things for pumpkin pie and such.  The other major hurdle was getting all of the food from our apartment to the school.  For example, a heavy giant pot with a thawed turkey is not easy to transport down seven flights of stairs (because of course the elevator was broken) and down the path and across the school yard covered in icy snow.  Plus, we kept forgetting random spices and such... both Mike and I got quite the workout running back and forth that afternoon.  There was this prevailing feeling of being on Top Chef: Wolfsburg... or some culinary olympics gone horribly awry.

Despite working in the school kitchen that has a refrigerator the size of one you keep in a dorm room, one stove top, and one oven, we were able to pull off quite a nice dinner for our colleagues.  School ended at 3, and we worked from then until dinner was served at 8 -- just after the conclusion of the night production of the play.  I used a different recipe for the turkey and it turned out absolutely perfect.  We also made gravy from the drippings, stuffing, lots of mashed potatoes, wild rice, scalloped potatoes, Annelie's pumpkin soup, and put together a big salad.  As you can see, there were a lot of potatoes.  There were even potatoes in the soup.  With all of the peeling, Mike definitely earned a doctorate in potato peeling.

Except for whipped cream, desserts were prepared ahead of time.  Mike and I made apple crisp on Sunday.  The pumpkin pie was also a combined effort between the two of us and made by running home during random breaks throughout the day on Monday (preparing filling from scratch, making the crust from scratch, and finally baking it).  Annelie made her gooey and yummy glutin-free fudge brownies during her lunch break at school.

Obviously, it was quite the spread.  Except for the dry goods and a few odds and ends, all of the produce that went into the dishes and the turkey came from the organic farm that one of our teachers (actually one of the founders of our Waldorf school) owns.  She also holds a little market every Friday and sells teachers, students, and parents organic food.  While we cooked, Christiane, as well as other people, would come poke their heads in to see how we were doing and comment on the smell which, even I will attest to, was delicious.

The school owns a number of buffet servers, so a few of the other teachers turned our teachers' room into a very cozy little buffet "restaurant".  The numerous tables that usually form one large circle for Thursday conferences were separated and then pushed together to make a number of little tables to seat five or six.  Every table was nicely decorated with pine branches, ribbons, and lit candles.  Unfortunately we don't have many pictures of the final result.  Hopefully the few we have give an impression of our cozy evening.

Below, happy and hungry teachers are in line for deliciousness.  Most people had never eaten turkey or pumpkin pie.  Stuffing was also a great mystery to most.

 

Heiko, in front and staring wistfully at the food, and Erdmude who is smiling at the camera, were both in the Krippenspeil. 

In addition to mastering the peeler, Mike beautifully carved this turkey.

 

Ulrich always seems to be in line for food...  Here, the table has been reset for coffee and our various desserts.  Next to the pie is a lovely raspberry cream dessert with meringue that is also glutin-free.

The dishes that were left at the end was rather scary to face.  Luckily, a bunch of our fellow teachers stayed to help rinse, hand-wash, load the dishwasher, dry, and put away all of the school dishes.  I think it only took an hour and a half or so to get it all done. 

Around spring of last year the school had finished building a new main hall that serves as both a commons area, a cafeteria, and a place where a stage can be built for concerts and shows. Most of the student body sat down there for the performance.  The little ones had long benches and rows and rows of chairs were set up for the older ones.

Here is Frank, current class teacher of the 6th grade and light technician, given the opening remarks and introduction to the play.

 

I was positioned in the loft with some of the 11th class in addition to select members of the 8-10th classes... hence the bars and such.*

 You can see Heiko above in all his get-up.  Below is a better view of more or less the entire cast. 

The teachers who played the three shepherds did a fantastic job.  They were absolutely hilarious and and a lot of fun with their characters.  Ulrich, in the middle, continually blew his nose in the noisiest of manner -- it is entirely possible that he just had an awful cold.

Probably one of my best pictures from the morning.  It was extremely hard to sneak in pictures inconspicuously.  

 

Once the play ended and most of the kids had left, we had the rest of the afternoon to clean our apartment and begin packing for our flight back to the states.  And we all know what an adventure that was...

*All accounts of the Krippenspiel are Vicki's alone.  For Mike's experience, feel free to e-mail him.