The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 2, 1901, Page 4

THE SUNDAY CALL. /ANCOVICH WO " PRACTICE REHEARSAL OF | THE_BETRAYAL SCENE % FATHER FORD - STAGE By Morrizon Pixley. AZARETH,” the Passion Play of Santa Clara, is the-most dramatic of all conceptions of the story of the New Testament, and its pow- er l'es most in that which would thought s weakness—the prove omission of the part of the Savior from actual representation on the stage. Tut the greatest potentialities lie in con- cealment. Is this any the -less evidently God's world because the godform is itself in- visible? Does the power of a great engine ap- pear the less because one does not see the steam at mo it? The clectric curre that flows on the wire fs ever umscen, but where is the hand that dares touch tue wire which Is known to alive'? Greatcst of a! the power of the un- seen. And the Passlon Play suffering of the Yesh, of the ains wonder for r abused body of the Savior, mutilated by the rabble, comes tory not in sight. “Hamlet,” with the .part of Hamlet omitted, has become a hy-word for the fllusiration of the impossible; but Naz- areth at Santa Clara proves that the Pas- sicn Play with Christ left off the stage is a st.onger drama than the brutal realism of Oberammiergau. Where lives the man who can play the part but to weaken the mental concep- tion wirich we bave of the Savior? It was the one fallure of Christ’s life that he could not play it himself. Of the vast audience who saw the Nuzarene go through his life, how many 1 “amen”? Christ could not convince: the mass by the mere spectacle of his existence. It was the “word” which lived and that in time worled the leaven. So when the holy man of the Society of Jesus at Santa Clara conceived the idea of actinr the drama of the New Testa- mert. it was with dependence upon the effect of the wo~i rather than the form. From lmitncens come freedom, and from obstacles .t rceess. There Is throughout the Christian world a repugnance to seeing man-born mortals acting the part of the Son of God. There is In this part of the land a specific enact- ment of the law forbidding it. Yet the power of the stage is great for good, ard the Jesuits at Santa Clara are showing how the presentation of the spec- tacle of Christ’s birth and death makes a stronger sermon for conversion than can be preached from a pulpit. For the brain of man is more devoted to the ocular per- ception than to all the other four senses and is in proportion as many times as ly reached through that channel. Whether or not the spectacle does not gain in strength from the fact that there is in it no woman's part is a ques- tion which can only be settled in the spec- tator’s own mind. It was fmpossible, of course, to have them in a play to be presented by a mon- astic order, and it certainly gives to the whole a ruggedn 1t is refreshing after long years of Kiralfyan ballet. How the Play Came to B: Written. The Jesuits, ever foremost and ag- e in carrying ahead the work of have the growing in- power of stage, and in- stead of idly spending their time in com- hating have determined to turn its power from evil to good; to make it the pedium of reaching those to whom sermons do . hot appeal. A year ago, when first they began plans for the celebration of the fiftieth year's commencement exercises, the president of the college, Rev. Robert E. Kenna, wrote to Clay M. Greene, the dramatist, who bad been his classmate at the college in 1867, and asked him for some play of the scrt which should entertain and instruct. At that time it was not thought possi- ble to produce such elaborate work as the subject afterward chosen demanded. Nev- ertheless, Clay M. Greene was a Califor- niar and ambitious. There was the chance of a lifetime to present a “Passion Pluy” under the auspices of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, with actors who had been trained in a Christian college. Here is Mr. Greene's story of his work as he told it while sitting after dinncr un- der the palms of the quadrangle of the Mission Santa Clara: “l1 was in New York at the time Father Kcnna wrote me first about the intention of making elaborate preparations for cele- brating the golden jubilee of Santa Clara College. “He and I had been schoolmates here together and as boys had played under the mission oltves and through the old garden of the Franciscan Fathers. To- gether we had spent the happlest years of our lives within the thick adobe walls that had been a fort, capable of formida- ble resistance, at the time when no other white men were west of the Rocky Moun- tains and none but pirate sails were on the Pacific. “The traditions of the college were rich in dramatic efforts from the time when the first Indian converts gave rude repre- sentations of their former wild lives and later conversion. These were Christmas plays, entirely in the open, and usually performed on the eve of Christmas, ‘La Noce Buena.’ That was when the mis- sion was under the Franciscans, during the time that I was here; we had a very - passable theater and gymnasium com- bined. and it was there that I got my first liking for the stage and its work, to which I have devoted my life. “Father Kenna’s first request was that I choose my. own subject, whether grave or gay, but I knew that there could be no doubs as Yo his own choice In the matter. “The preparations for the ‘Passion Play' at Oberammergau were then being made, and comments upon them were fre- quent. The idea kept itself uppermost in my mind, but ever with the crushing fin- ish that in America there was too much sensitiveness to stand the shock which the phlegmatic Teuton actors administer in their realism. “One night after the last act of ‘Ben Hur," where the presence of the Savior is irdicated by dramatic device without his actual appearance, I was struck with the possibility of carrying on the same iilu- sion” throughout an entire drama. “That made the ‘Passion Play’ a possi- bility. “I set to work upon one which would tell the story of the real drama t¥at trans- formed the world, and tell it in such a way that it could be acted without the slightest possibility or thought of sacri- lege; a play which could be acted where or whenever wished without inflicting upon sensitive people the painful specta- cles of the great characters unworthily rep: ented. “I was always familiar with the Scrip- tures, but my first preparation consisted in a minute study of both the Old and the New to enable me to grasp the wonderful dramatic possibilities with which they abound. “The magnitude of the undertaking as- tonished me. “Evary verse had a situation in it. None could be lightly treated. “I wrote to Father Kenna that t would cost thousands of dollars to stage the production properly and that months of the hardest work would be required for preparatioris and rehearsals. “After considering the. matter he an- swered, agreeing to do everything neces- sary for the success of the play, and I went to work. “It was determined to make the specta- cle in everything the work of the college, or of the talent of its alumni. “The new theater, which had replaced the cld gymhasium in which I had done first dramatic work, was amply spa- 5 to accommodate 2000 people in the auditorium and 200 actors on the stage, but in the matter of scenery, lighting and spectacular effects, all was to be prepared. “After completing the dramatjzation of the stcry I came from New York to the mission. here, and have been working for the last two and a half months every day in the theater. and living in the same old room that I had when a student, thirty- five ycars ago. “The scenery was intrusted to Mr. O’Sullivan, also an alumnus, who was at the time doing landscapes in Eurorpe. “For the last two months Mr. O’Sullivan and myself, together with the electrical engineering corps of the college, have worked ccntinuously on the mechanical, scenic and electrical effects, until I can say that in many respects there is no theater in the United States so equipped for the peculiar requirements of this most delicate of all plays.” The Theater and Its Surroundings. It will seem strange to most people that there should exist a theater, with all its paraphernalia, under the management of and supported by a church. The fathers of the Jesuit College at Santa Clara built, own and manage this theater, and, as will be seen from the photographs, take part in assisting in the rehearsals. The exterior of the building i{s shown in the extreme right of the panoramic view. 1t is three stories in height, of pure Ionic architecture, even to the ground plan. The entire building is devoted to the theater, having no other rooms within it. The auditorium has a steeply sloping floor, as is usual, but, what is not so common in this country, although more so in France, 1s that the stage is also steeply inclined toward the footlights. The auditorium seats 100 people, and when crowded to its standing-room ca- * pacity has contained over 2500. There are 1% persons on the stage in the present production, of whom nearly one-half have speaking parts. There was on the stage a good stock of scenery adapted for all ordinary require- ‘ments, but for “Nazareth” all is new. In order to give the scenic features required for representinrg the magnificent archi- tecture of Jerusalem before its glory de- parted it was necessary to cut away all of the old “gridiron” and build a new one several feet higher. This was possible, as the fly gallery did not take all of the height of the building. The depth of the stage Is enough to allow ample room for the four sets, with more than the usual space between. The electrical light controlling. devices are the chief boast of the stage mechan- ies, who pride themselves on the fact that in no other theater in America can st marvelous results be obtained. The cu: rent used Is an alternating one, which is transmitted from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 180 miles away, at a line pres- sure of 60,000 volts. At San Jose the cur- rent is transformed down from 60,000 vol to 1000 volts, and brought out to the t ater at that pressure, where it Is again transformed to the various pressures quired by transformers, choke colls an geries wiring. The use of choke coils in the rheostats instead of resistance of the ordinary form allows holding, the current at any stage in the lighting circuits for any length of time without danger of undue heating, which so often gives serious trouble when heavy currents are to be carried for long periods. Three colors are useu in the foot and overhead lights, as well as the ground and bunch lights. Each of these thres colors has its own rheostat and can bs fput at any intensity, from the faintest dull glow of bare incandescence, though by imperceptible decrease, to tull eandle- power. In this way it is possible by working combinations of colors to get all: of the faint delicate blue grays and ross tints, the purples and violet colors of eve and dawn, all brought on in the absolutely tmperceptible rate at which nature does it, instead of coming by jerks as sudden as the blowing out of a lamp, which more nearly approaches the usual theatrical ef. fect. Much of the action of the play depends upon the lighting, for the halo of the Sa- vior must be remembered, and whenever his presence is indicated the lighting ef- fects do their part in carrying out the il- luston. All through the New Testament it will be remembered that optical phenomena are referred to, and Mr. Greene has made the most of the possibilities. It is the weird effect of unexpected light that is used to create the impression of the presence of the Savior without his ap- pearance on the stage, and the most strik- ing example of this is on the march to the crucifixion, when behind a wall at the back of the stage is seen slowly passing the cross, which he himself bears, and shining on it continuously from below the halolike light of the “bunch” glare, which is carried simultaneously. Whenever the Savior is Indicated as appearing in view from those on the stage, a light illumines them from the direction of his presence. Almost would an unbeliever of the pres- ent day wonder which is the greater mira- cle, that a light should radiate directly from the person of a man or that a tum- bling, snow-fed torrent 200 miles away in the high Sierras should send this blaze of light over a rod of clay-formed alumi- num, to glow or dim at the touch of the wizard at the switchboard. The surroundings of the theater are such as to make it pecullarly fit for the pre- sentation of a solemn play of this sort. The ground on which it stands and all about is almost solid mold of the first Christians of the West. The California Indians, nearly all of them of Western California at least, were buried in and around these missions. By the ten thou- sand they are there, and, according to their own custom which they grafted upon the Christian burial, the tombs are all un- marked. It would have been according to Indian ethics a mark of the greatest dis- respect to place a tombstone. The mother who could not remember where her son was buried or the son who forgot where lay his ancestor when came the day of the dead and the time for burning a can~ dle above him would have been indeed & faithless mourner. It was their pride that they remembered the spot of the inter- ment of each deceased relative. But now the race is gone and over their unmarked graves there are none to mourn, except as the plous fathers say each night at half past 8, when tolls the dead bell, “De Profundis’ for all deceased. Not only is the theater thus standing upon a vast cemetery but it adjoins the old Franciscan church, which was bulit by the earlier followers of Junipero Serra, and still remains, used daily by the wor- shipers. Built on to the church in two directions are’the old mission bufldings, which form part of the quadrangle, and surrounding the quadrangle are the va- rious halls of learning which constitute tlLe college that the fathers maintain, Every part in the play will be taken either by students of the college or by alumni, of whom many have risen to prominence. In the center of the panoramic picture, in which the theater is shown on the right, will be seen a tall white cross. This is a wooden casing which surrounds the original cross that was the first stick erected by the Franciscans. The old cross is still to be seen through a glass plate let into the side of the boxing. It is of un- painted redwood, and, like ail of the heavy timbers in the cid mission, was carried on the shoulders of the Indian converts from the mountains which le back of the flat valley of the mission as do the-mountains lie back of the little plain in which is set the village of Oberammergau. Around this cross in the century befors the last took place the allegorical plays of the Indians, which were half mixtures of their old war dances and of their strange conceptions of Christianity, which were, as they themselves were, serious, deep, and reverent beyond our flippant comprehension. So much has been said of the low order of the Californian Indians that it has come to Qe believed, despite tha fact that their works remain to prove them of ability possessed by few abor- igines mow living. The frescoing on the Mission Church cefling was done by full- blooded Indian converts. While as art It is iacking, yet there is a heavy, solemn, pra-Raphaelite realism to it that awes