The Christmas Players: Yellow Springs Miracle Plays

Many years ago during the beginning of my first period of living in Yellow Springs, Ohio, I was invited to play piano for a group which was putting on two old mystery plays (the religious kind) from the 13th century, the Paradise Play and the Shepherds' Play.

The Paradise Play deals with God and Adam and Eva and Satan and Angel Gabriel, and the "fall" of humankind due to the "woeful sin" of eating a certain fruit from a certain tree.

The Shepherds' Play is the Nativity story, told from the country folks' point of view, with a lot of silliness and pranks on the shepherds' end of the crook.

When I left the village at the end of 1995, I thought I'd left forever, since I'd been called by the Powers That Be - always a mystery! - with no telling where I might end up. After nine - plus years of pilgriming, however, I wound up back in Yellow Springs at last. To my utmost delight, I have also rejoined my old Mystery Play family, the Christmas Players. This time someone else is playing piano. In 2008 I was tapped to fill in for our long-term Angel Gabriel player,whose foot problem wouldn't allow her to tread the boards. And the Shepherds' Play turned up one Innkeeper short, so for that role I shed Gabriel's wings and bare feet, and changed into hiking boots and medieval innkeeper's clothes.

One of the best parts of our every-two-years productions is the ritual of breaking-in of our newest Adam and Eva. The actors who play God, Satan, and everyone else pretty much stay the same for years. I mean YEARS. But we always get brand-spanking-new Adam and Eva from among the village high school students, and then the fun begins. Of course there's always just a little teasing about Adam and Eva's costumes - and yes, they do have costumes.

Here, from the Paradise Play, are some of Archangel Gabriel's closing lines, which follow the big windup where God sends Satan crawling offstage on his belly, and then raises Adam and Eva up to stand beside him:

"So think no evil, nor chide our play, But if in aught we have gone astray and shown your Worships what was not fit, Blame not our will, but lack of wit. Think it but well, so all's made right - And we wish you, from God Almighty, Good Night!"