Canada’s premiere Passion Play celebrates milestone performance
DRUMHELLER, AB�"For the past 16 years, Walter Albrecht has donated 10 weeks of his summer to acting in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play.
“I just love doing it," says the 75-year-old volunteer, joined recently in the annual production by his two granddaughters. “I just love telling the story of Jesus."
And that's what the 20-year-old Canadian Badlands Passion Play Society is all about: telling the story of Jesus.
According to its website, the Canadian Badlands Passion Play Society formed in 1990 after several years of planning and nurturing by Rosebud School of the Arts. The name “Canadian Badlands" was deliberately chosen as the play was to be set in the Badlands because of its topographical similarity to the Isreali country-side around Jerusalem.
Falling on the third and fourth weekends in July, this year's 100th performance is expected to sell out thanks to a new sound system, casting methods and script.
“It's a fascinating story that has rippled through our culture," says Royal Sproule, an actor who's written the Passion Play's script through the eyes of Matthew for the past five years. “[The natural outdoor amphitheatre] is also an amazing site, and we're going to be using music that travels through 18 to 20 speakers. It will never have sounded better."
In addition to the implementation of a $100,000 surround sound system�"which general manager Vance Neudorf says will sweep viewers' attention across a stage six football fields in diameter�"other changes include the choir joining actors on stage, the script reflecting the mystic gospel of John and the play itself running for seven nights instead of six.
“It's going to be a big year for us," says Neudorf, who, prior to being hired by the society in 2009, served as staff at Prairie Bible Institute for 18 years.
Despite being seen by a total of 200,000 viewers worldwide, with last year's audience surpassing 2,625 per show, Neudorf is hoping for 3,000 each night this summer. After all, he says, with 200 volunteers, 35 staff and three professional actors, it's no bathrobe theatre.
“Obviously the story is the greatest story ever told. We want to do it in such an authentic way that people feel they've gone back 2,000 years."
Sproule ensures this by working with the original biblical text. He uses what he hesitantly calls “pageantry" to pull the audience in, warning that, while Matthew was an easy story to digest, John doesn't pull any punches. “You might have to go home and grapple with what this thing tells you."
Yet if past years are any indication, the viewers will return. “We believe if you tell the life of Christ�"if you do it well�"then people will come," says Neudorf.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
