This is an extremely practical book dealing with issues every director faces in staging seasonal pageants, plays, and musicals. The text is highly readable and covers virtually every special effect, from how to make angels as ’bright as lightning’ to multiplying loaves and fishes. Other props and effects include stars, flogging Jesus, nailing Jesus to the cross, rolling the stone away, making shepherds’ crooks, the manger, magi gifts, campfires, palm branches, and much, much more. Lee discusses how to handle live animals onstage, and controlling fog and smoke. Illustrations provide easy-to-understand instructions, and there is an excellent glossary in the back of the book.
