Author note: Wendy Churchill

Wendy Churchill, the author of Limelight Musicals’ A Christmas Story, has written many songs, cantatas and musicals with a Christian theme. Wendy’s published material includes the well-known hymn, Jesus is King.

Wendy Churchill (nee Mitchell) was born in Broxton, Cheshire, and educated in Cornwall, Cumbria, Leeds and Plymouth, before moving to Southampton to study Music and English at university.

She fell in love with the musical as a genre when she took part in The Wizard of Oz as a teenager. While based in Southampton she co-wrote two musicals for her church: Joshua for adults, and a nativity play for children entitled The King’s Birthday.

Wendy taught Music in St Anne’s School in Southampton for 15 years. During that time she wrote many songs for the Junior Choir, including Winter doesn’t last forever, Hey You! (You’ve gotta feel this rhythm) and At the Stable Door.

As well as cantatas based on biblical stories, Wendy wrote the musical Emmaus, which was performed as part of the JC 2000 millennium celebrations at the Anvil Theatre, Basingstoke.

Wendy and husband Peter moved to London in 2005, and she now teaches Year 2 in a prep school in Blackheath.  She wrote A Christmas Story when she was required to find a Christmas musical which would involve 105 children, with a scene for each class.

Rebecca Jones, a colleague, provided her with valued support by writing the lullaby and helping to produce the play.

In terms of the wider school curriculum, Wendy also enjoys writing songs to help her children remember facts such as how to tell the time, subtract eleven, and keep fit.

Learn more about A Christmas Story