The cast of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” are solidly into rehearsals for the final production to the Oswego Players’ 2025 season. Performance times and dates of this beloved Christmas show are 7:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, December 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th, and 2pm Sundays, December 7th and 14th.
“Over 30 hugely talented people auditioned for the production, meaning many of the more major roles could have been filled twice or three times over,” said Director Jennifer Hitchcock. “However, after a lot of internal debate, we have finalized an incredibly strong cast of adults and kids, both of whom feature returning actors to the Oswego Players and those who are making their stage debut. This is going to be a fun show!”
Central to the plot are the Bradley and Herdman families. The Bradley parents, Grace (played by Alyssa Clavelli) and Bob (Josh DeLorenzo) are in real life both teachers – Clavelli at Oswego Middle School and DeLorenzo at the High School. Clavelli describes herself as having been a Drama Queen since she was a “wee lass”, whose greatest joy is shaping young minds and developing students in the critical middle school years. DeLorenzo’s love is working with young people, especially through theater.
Backing up their parents are the two Bradley children, Beth (Parker Nesbitt) and Charlie (Este Barreto). Parker is a seventh grader at Fulton Junior High School who used to do competitive dance but transitioned to theater a couple of years ago; Este is a third grader at Leighton, whose favorite subjects are PE and lunch! He has been acting and dancing since he was three.
Rounding out the central characters are the six Herdman children – the most inventively awful kids in history. Imogene (Meg Adelman) and Ralph (Alex Wallace) are the eldest. Meg is homeschooled and loves to get on stage and play different characters; Alex attends both OHS and P-Tech Mexico. He enjoys theater as an opportunity to express himself and he spends downtime as a video gamer.
The four younger Herdman kids are Leroy (Mallory Gordon), Claude (Helen McDonald), Ollie (Abby Adelman) and Gladys (Catelyn Adelman). Since 2020, Mallory has been home-schooled with history being her favorite subject. She loves theater as an opportunity to play different characters in each production. Helen is a creative student at OMS whose last performance with the Players was as Virginia in the 2024 Christmas production of “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. Abby and Catelyn are both home-schooled with Abby loving Art and Catelyn enjoying singing and dancing. Abby has been doing theater since she was six, while Catelyn just loves the whole theatrical experience.
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc www.concordtheatricals.com
This project is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information and ticket sales please go to https://oswegoplayers.org/ or for phone reservations please call the Box Office at 315-343-5138.
Pictured are the members of the Bradley and Herdman families in the Oswego Players’ forthcoming production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”. Front (l-r): Mallory Gordon, Este Barreto, Catelyn Adelman, Helen McDonald; Center (l-r): Alyssa Clavelli, Josh DeLorenzo; Back (l-r): Meg Adelman, Parker Nesbitt, Abby Adelman, Alex Wallace