University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

Page 19 text:

THE REDWOOD ingenuous audience refreshed itself dur- ing the long and tedious acts — there were eighteen of them — with the un- disguised consumption of pretzels and beer. At the Grand Opera House, San Francisco, where the cast — which was unannounced, though the chief per- formers were recognized by old play- goers, especially the ' Christus, James O ' Neil, |of Monte Christo fame — there was the art of the professional and the theatrical atmosphere which is inseper- able from it. It was the refreshing art- lessness of the students of Santa Clara College who filled every role in the beautiful play and alone deserve the credit for its perfect production, that went straight to the heart and thrilled it with unwonted emotion. The players were all youths, some of them were children. For more than three months Nazareth had been in rehearsal. No classes in the college course were interrupted in all that time. At the close of the evening study hour, or during the half-holidays, a portion of the play was carefully rehearsed. Thus, day by day, and week by week, each grew into his role and it became a part of him. I overheard a protestant clergy- man who was present at an afternoon performance of the play, say: I do not see how it is possible for these young men to enter into their parts as they do with so much earnest- ness and reverence; and recite their scriptural lines with such conviction, without its having a marked influence upon their character hereafter. It was all very real and very sympa- thetic to me. I cannot believe that it was because I was taken behind the scenes and introduced to several of the actors; or my love for the college and the old Mission church and all who are in any way associated with either, that has prejudiced me in favor of the play and the players. I believe that the majority of those present were affected as I was, seriously and profoundly. Of course, I knew what perhaps very few people in the audience knew, that before the curtain was drawn aside each mat- inee and evening the whole company was assembled on that stage, and, as with one voice, they uttered an earnest prayer to Saint Joseph for the success of the play. ' Thy special favor we now implore for success in the coming Pas- sion Play. This, with the versicle re- peated seven times over, in honor of the seven joys and sorrows of Saint Joseph, and a concluding prayer, pitched the key-note in a harmony almost celes- tial. Then appeared before the curtain two heralds who blew one long note upon their golden trumpets, and with- drew. These heralds looked as if they had stepped for a moment from a picture by Fra Angelico. The six court pages were such angelic children as Fra An- gelico alone could paint. Indeed, in the careful selection of the cast each was physically fitted to his part and had no word been spoken, but the whole been merely a series of tableaux, these, with the musical accompaniment, would have made the ensemble perfect. Nazareth, the Passion Play, was produced for the first time on any stage,

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THE REDWOOD SANTA CLARA ' S PASSION PLAY THE NAZARETH OF CALIFORNIA ' S OBERAMMERGAU A PRODUCTION OF BEAUTY, POWER AND REVERENCE It was my good fortune in 1889, to see the Oberammergau Passion Play- produced in all its original simplicity at Brixleg, a village in the Austrian Tyrol. At Oberammergau I visited Joseph Mayer, the famous Christus of 1870-187 1, 1880 and 1890. The Judas also was my friend — the Judas, an impersonation so realistic that when the actors were leav- ing the theater after the play, mobs of peasants stoned him in the streets and he was obliged to flee for his life. He was a wood carver, as was Joseph Mayer; his son was an artist in burnt wood etching. I asked the father if the son was to succeed him in the part of the mercenary traitor; and the old man with a look of horror mingled with love and pity said: Not if I can prevent him. He shall not suffer as I have suffered. If I am not mistaken, that son has since assumed the part. I saw also the admirable production of Salmi Morse ' s Passion Play at the Grand opera house, San Francisco, California, in 1878. It was an artistic mingling of tableaux and recitation and deeply impressed the large audiences that gathered to witness it, but through the bigotry of certain fanatics it was suppressed after a few represen- tations. This play was the realization of an almost life-long dream of the author and in its production he invested his whole fortune. Having been boycotted in San Francisco he vainly endeavored to find an opening in New York and at last, losing all hope of achieving the triumph he had striven for he was fin- ally driven to despair and suicide. I twice saw the Santa Clara College Passion Play — twice in a single day. At the matinee I seemed to be keying up to the proper pitch for a thorough ap- preciation of the representation that followed in the evening. The interval between the two productions was so brief the actors retained their costumes and their make-up — which in many cases was not elaborate — and the col- lege campus reminded me of a market place in Jerusalem. If I were asked which of these Passion Plays affected me most profoundly; which touched my heart more than another and has left an impression that is not likely to fade with time, as that of the others have, I should say without hesitation, it is Nazeretb, the Passion Play of Santa Clara. It seems to me the most reverent and the most beauti- ful and it grows in beauty and reverence the more familiar one becomes with it. The Passion Play at Oberammergau has become a theatrical speculation in the interest of the Theater Royal of Munich. The performers have grown stagey, according to the traditions of the conventional drama. At Brixleg — as at Oberammergau — the simple and

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THE REDWOOD during the week of May 27, 1901, at the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Santa Clara College, the pioneer insti- tution of learning in California. It was written by Clay M. Greene, an alumnus of the Class of 1868, and he, the original native son of San Francisco. On this occasion Mr. Greene assumed the role of Dathian, emissary from King Herod to Bethlehem. So pronounced was the success of the play in 1901, it was re- solved that it should be revived at in- tervals. It enjoyed a second season in 1903, and was in rehearsal for its third season when the terrible disaster of 1906 paralyzed for a time the spirit and energy of the people of the Pacific Coast. The greatest success of all was the triumphant reproduction of the play during the week of May 13, 1907. The costumes were historically correct; the scenery and appointments rich and of great beauty; the music, delightful and dramatically appropriate, was a fitting accompaniment to a play that was in conception and execution an epic poem. The electrical effect was briUiant and startling and the crowning achievment — an inspiration — so quickened the im- agination of the spectator that an emo- tion akin to awe was awakened when a mysterious light, glowing softly in the wings of the stage heralded the approach of the Redeemer, whose radiant body was never for a moment visible to the breathless audience. One could but look and wonder at what seemed something akin to a miracle. Even on the way to the Cross, the agonizing ascent of Calvary, all that took place during the tragic pilgrimage was suggested; the Apostles crouching, grief-stricken, by a closed gate in a wall beyond which the howl- ing and raving mob passing slowly by, while above it appeared the helmets and plumes of the mounted centurions, the weeping and wailing was heard, and the tips of the waving palms in the hands of the followers of the Christ; and then just the upper portions of the Cross borne upon the bleeding shoul- ders of Him who was to sanctify it with the sacrifice of His body; then the moment of faintness when the Cross fell and the stoning of the Divine victim by the mob that followed after! I venture to assert that this remarkable scene, so appalling in its suggestiveness, yet so reverentially veiled from the flooding eyes of those who witnessed it, has never been equaled in tremendous effectiveness on any other stage. At least three of the original cast of the Passion Play appeared in its third production. The Judas of John J. Ivan- covich holds its own in comparison with the best impersonations on the modern English stage. James Bacigalupi and Michael Grifiith appear also for the third time and with others in the cast assume their parts with all the ease and self-possession of professionals. They have the art, also, but ' tis an artless art that is guiltless of affectations, and lends to the production a charm that one sel- dom finds in the theaters of the day. Over two hundred students were em- ployed in the representation of Naza- reth. With them it was indeed a labor