Searching for angels

Early last December, my photo editor gave me an assignment: Find a Christmas play to photograph. As I made phone calls to local public schools, I soon realized how much times had changed. Public schools no longer hold Christmas pageants because their students are so multicultural. Today's kids might celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or a combination of all four - a reflection of the changing nature of America's melting-pot society.

Still, I needed to make a photograph, so I centered my search on private religious schools with homogeneous student populations. I finally found a Christmas pageant at Saint Mary-Sacred Heart Catholic School in North Attleboro, Mass. Their play would be performed in the basement of a church.

Excited parents filled the hall in anticipation of the kindergarten's version of the Nativity play. Unfortunately for me, the children who played Joseph, Mary, and the wise men faced away from the audience as they performed. No photo there. But these singing angels faced the audience, looking adorable, and I got my photos.