Joseph was a crap part anyway
After being cruelly snubbed for the role of Joseph, I got to be 'Shepherd #1' instead. This, of course, meant that I had just the one line, "Let's follow that star!". This also meant that in the rehearsal time there was nothing much for the other two shepherds and myself to do other than sit at the edge of the stage making rude noises and twatting each other with the crooks.

Oh yes, we had proper crooks, none of your poncey cardboard affairs. Some misguided old woman donated her dead husband's walking sticks to the school, allowing for hours of fun having epic duels with your mates.

Anyway, it came to the final performance, and we shepherds had decided that we'd had enough of being second-class parts, so we waited until the very last scene, when Mary and Joseph take a bow.

And then I am very sorry to say that I tripped Joseph up with my crook and sent him flying off the stage and facefirst into the audience, while Shepherd #2 pulled Jesus' head off and cracked it with his crook, baseball-style, into the back row.
We tried to blame it on the three Wise Men but The Innkeeper grassed us up. The wanker.

The school got rid of the walking sticks the next year, and we were demoted to livestock.
(steadfastmeat Laconic ham, perhaps?, Fri 27 Mar 2009, 7:20, Reply)