By Gillian Ellis
So! Eight hours of Bible stories. What exactly is this Pageant Play?
To begin with, it’s going to be a real arts community event. Many ensembles within MTD will contribute a scene in their style to the production, in much the same way as the various wards of New Orleans build a float to represent their neighborhood in the city’s Mardi Gras parade.
The pageant (or mystery) play is one of the oldest forms of drama. It originated in the churches of Europe where clergy would perform parts of the biblical story in Latin, as an enhancement to their liturgy. As time passed, the plays were taken over by the town’s craft guilds, performed in the vernacular, and became less serious in nature. They were annual events, much anticipated both for the fun and spectacle they offered, as well as the officially sanctioned holiday they represented.
On Saturday, April 9 and Saturday, April 16, MTD will perform its own cycle of medieval English plays in various locations around Varner Hall from 2 pm until 10 pm. Back in medieval times, scenes from the play would be staged on wagons, known as pageants, which would progress around the town. In MTD’s production, the audience will move from one scene to another. The scenes will depict familiar stories from the Old and New Testaments.
The Pageant Play audience can expect to see scenes involving musical theatre performers, dance, steel band, chorale, African drums, percussion, and more, as well as authentic representations of how the scenes would have appeared in medieval England. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It marks the final production of Professor Michael Gillespie’s long career with MTD. Michael became interested in medieval mystery plays as he taught the history of theater and he’s delighted that “the process will involve so many ensembles and so many students.” Almost 200 performers will participate in the cycle. And, of course, many faculty members are involved in the production as they prepare their ensembles to be part of this event. Among them is Theatre Program Director, Professor Kerro Knox, who has also long been fascinated by this dramatic form and who last year traveled to Oberammergau, Germany to see the famous Passion Play cycle.
The Pageant Play is also the final production for Donna Buckley, Costume Shop Supervisor since 2000, who is leaving OU to pursue an MFA in Costume Design at Wayne State. Costuming almost 200 performers is an enormous task. “We have ten racks of clothing,” she says. “I don’t want to even count them.”
Donna has been working fourteen hour days for the past month and a half to make sure the performers are accurately garbed for “the whole scope of human history from Adam and Eve to present day times.” She works with a team of theatres tech students and together they have followed the mammoth project through from research to design and construction, all aspects of which, Donna says, she loves. Especially the research.
For those unable to enjoy MTD’s full eight-hour experience, excerpts from the cycle will be performed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday April 13, 14 and 15 at 8 pm in the Varner Lab Theatre and on Wednesday, April 13 and Friday April 15 in the Varner Studio Theatre.
The Lab Theatre will showcase the New Play Festival, which includes four original plays inspired by the stories of Esther, the Three Wise Men, Joseph and Mary, and Lazarus.
The Studio Theatre will showcase The Nativity Plays which include an hilarious medieval farce and a poignant opera based on the birth of Jesus.
General admission tickets for the Saturday full-cycle performances are $32 for adults, $24 for students, $28 for seniors and Oakland University employees. These tickets include a medieval buffet and those planning to attend are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance, to ensure that there is plenty of food for all! Tickets for the weekday evening excerpts productions are $13, $7 for students.
In the photo:Wesley Miles and Abigail Alexander play the Angel Gabriel and God.
