PRINCEVILLE — Waldorf School has long left the wooden building in Kilauea. But the bonds made at the school many years ago strengthen every Christmas through “The Shepherd’s Play,” which is in its 25th edition on Kaua‘i. “The school is
PRINCEVILLE — Waldorf School has long left the wooden building in Kilauea. But the bonds made at the school many years ago strengthen every Christmas through “The Shepherd’s Play,” which is in its 25th edition on Kaua‘i.
“The school is long gone, but friends and family of mine kept the play alive,” said Chad Deal, whose children attended Waldorf School.
Deal will be one of the shepherds in this play that goes back many centuries. “The Shepherd’s Play,” a family-friendly musical about the birth of Christ, was written in the 1500s on the island of Oberufer in Slovakia, Central Europe, according to Deal.
But it is believed that the play actually goes back even further, when it was passed on through oral tradition, he said.
In the 1850s, Dr. Karl Schroer discovered the play on Oberufer. He was a friend and teacher of Waldorf School founder Rudolf Steiner, who began the tradition of having the play as part of the school’s curriculum, Deal said.
Waldorf schools all over the world perform the play, and because of Kaua‘i’s location, this is probably the last place on Earth where the play is performed each year, he said.
All of Deal’s children have participated in the play in the past.
This year his oldest child, Sky Deal, who is 29 and attended Waldorf School from kindergarten to grade school, will play one of the shepherds.
The play will be performed today at the Church of the Pacific in Princeville, from 7 to 9 p.m. It’s free and open to the public.
