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

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Entered Dec. i8, i )02, at Santa Clara, Calif, as second-class matter, under Act of Congress of March j, iSyg. VOIv. VII. SANTA CLARA, CAL., OCTOBER, 1907. No. i OCTOBER IN SANTA CLARA VALLEY Aueenli) enchantress thou, would ' twere mine S Sweet Iif to tell the charm that lures mi heart When ' neath the suhtletij of thy ma ic art pur vale more heauteous £rows! hy form divine I 3 seen, .and lo, der plain and knoll and hill he purpling Scrape from hroad vine leaves amon eeps forth in conscious beauty, while all day lon£ (From sky of chastest blue the sunbeams fill The land with radiance, ut ' tis at ni ht hen mellowest rays fall from a mellow moon Silvering the vale with brightness akin to noon; ' is then my heart is ravished with delight. S). . JDe nan, ' iO.

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The Vkry Rhverknd Geo. de la Motte, S. J. Superior of the California-Rocky Mofntain Il ' sion

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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