For the Church of the Holy Trinity’s annual Christmas pageant, baby Jesus may come from Rosedale or Leslieville or Cabbagetown. This year, after a baby came down with a case of the sniffles and a scramble to avoid using a plastic doll, a happy twist of fate brought to the church’s door a baby Jesus descended from Nazareth.Last Sunday morning, Angela Gentili called Susan Watson, director of The Christmas Story play at the church near Yonge St. and Dundas St. W., to share some bad news. Gentili’s son Samuel was sick and couldn’t perform as baby Jesus in the production later that day. At first, Watson thought she would have to use a doll as Samuel’s replacement. But 40 minutes before show time, an usher told Watson that he found a baby girl to play Jesus. Not only that, her parents were from Nazareth, the Israeli city where Jesus was said to have been born.“Nazareth is only 80,000 people, it’s smaller than Guelph. What are the chances?” said Watson, who has directed the play for 28 years.The couple, Reem and Anan Mazzawi, had arrived early with their daughters Noor and baby Tala. Once the usher heard that the original baby Jesus was sick, he asked the family if 10-month-old Tala could perform.“They just asked us if they could borrow Tala for the show, and we said ‘yeah, but she’s a girl, she has earrings.’ ” Neither of those things mattered, and the crew got her ready for the show. Her parents fed her mashed bananas so she wouldn’t be hungry. According to Reem, who took care of Tala when she was off-stage, baby Jesus enjoyed her debut, and didn’t make a single fuss.“She loved it, she was very happy and interactive with the performers,” Reem said. “It was emotional in the way, because I am a performer . . . It was kind of exciting to see my daughter on stage.”Tala is from a line of performers. Her grandparents run a theatre and dance troupe in Nazareth a ...
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