Walk the original performance stations of the York Mystery Plays. One of the extraordinary things about the York Cycle is that most of the original route can still be followed and some of the structures connected with the event still remain. So, ahead of the coming Festival in June, we are delighted to be…
The War in Heaven was originally staged by the Tanners’ Guild. This is the first of the York Mystery Plays, originally played as dawn breaks. What happens God creates Earth, Heaven and Hell. In Heaven he first forms nine orders of angels to live in eternal bliss, as long as they are loyal to…
We have been joined by the talented British art and cultural historian and TV presenter, Nina Ramirez who is getting involved in this year’s York Mystery Plays. We decided to ask her a few questions about why she is getting involved and the connections she has with both the city of York and the Plays…here’s what we learned!
Pocklington School, Ravens Morris and the York Mystery Plays Alan Heaven, director Judgement Day Through Pocklington School I have been involved with the plays for 12 years, and have thoroughly enjoyed the remarkable opportunity it has given us to perform York’s own plays in front of thousands. The School’s connection began in 2006 when…
On Sunday 10th June a ceremony dating back to the 15th century marked the official start for the Guilds, Companies and Groups of York to prepare in earnest for the quadrennial York Mystery Plays. The ceremony of the Presentation of the Billets to the Masters of the ancient Guilds and Companies ordered them to ‘bring…
‘Have you come far?’ asked the volunteer ‘Mystery Maker’ in charge of selling programmes. Yes, I had come far, twelve thousand miles: from New Zealand to England, Auckland to York, I had come to see the York Mystery Plays staged in the Minster. York Minster in the Middle Ages was one of England’s great pilgrimage cathedrals; now, half a millennium later, I had come on my own personal pilgrimage to see the plays performed live after several years of studying them from the other side of the world.
This month we look at the people who make the York Mystery Plays happen. Outside of the core team of Pageant Master, Project Administrator and Chair of the Trust, there are hundreds of individuals from across York and further afield who direct, perform, create and otherwise make the plays happen!