At St Andrew’s Leytonstone this summer we’re hosting Mystery Plays as an organ fundraiser.
I’ve made an initial list of ten plays (playlets really). The idea is to have all of these covered by the beginning of June, after which if more people want to join us they’re welcome and we can expand.
Various local groups have expressed interest in participating and I’ll be approaching them this week to see what they’d like to do. In the meantime, if anyone reading this wants to take on a play, either with a few friends or in an already-established group, please let me know!
You don’t need to be a church-goer or a Christian to take part, or to be available for loads of rehearsals. There will be a wide range of groups taking part, from (I hope) the local Scouts to semi-professional actors, and I expect that the style and presentation of the plays will vary accordingly. You do need to be able to get to St Andrew’s Leytonstone on Saturday, 20th July for the performance, and you need to be able to rehearse on your own. You can use a traditional rhyming script (please remove the anti-Semitism if you do: if you’re not sure about this, I can help), or make up your own, or we can provide you with a modern-language script for some of the scenes listed here.
Don’t worry about there not being enough space: once these ten playlets are covered, we can always expand, so if you want to take part you won’t be displacing anyone who has already registered their interest.
1. Creation — Eve and Adam | this play is now TAKEN
2. Flood — Noah
3. Exodus — Moses
4. Ruth
5. Nativity
6. Baptism of Jesus
7. Last Supper
8. Crucifixion & Death of Jesus
9. Supper at Emmaus
10. First Pentecost
I know this leaves a lot of holes in the story: we will have a narrator (or a few narrators) who can fill in the gaps, so that e.g. Jesus doesn’t go directly from being baptised to the Last Supper without anything happening in between!
If you’d like to take part please contact standrewsorganappeal at gmail dot com. You can also comment here and leave your details, but if you’ve commented here before the comment won’t be moderated so it’s probably best to e-mail instead.