LAKE COUNTY — The 28th annual Passion Play came to Lake County during 98 degree-weather. Despite this, close to 500 people attended the play at the historic Beltramo Ranch in Upper Lake on Sunday. The play ran two days, after six weeks of rehearsal.
The two-hour performance featured brightly-colored costumes, actors, horses, sheep and goats roaming an expansive field, Garden of Gethsemane, three Corinthian-column stages and a set for the Last Supper. The pre-recorded script featured a wise-sounding Jesus, animated voices of the 12 disciples, and music, including popular Christian singer-guitarist John Michael Talbot.
The play details the last days of Christ, from the Last Supper to after the Resurrection.
Wayne Muller, a Roman Soldier in the play the past two years, mingled with the crowd after the production, along with other actors, who led goats, horses and sheep for children to observe up-close.
Muller said of performing, “once you join, you get hooked.” He said he participates to share in the joy of Jesus Christ.
Dirk Widman, also a Roman Soldier for four years, considers it “a privilege to participate,” and plans to continue doing so in years to come.
A clergy from Clovis viewed the Passion Play for the first time on Sunday. He didn”t plan to see it, and said the Holy Spirit led him to the play.
After attending a week-long church retreat that left him exhausted, he decided to escape for the weekend to Clear Lake. Once in the visitor”s center, he saw flyers advertising the Passion Play.
“The Holy Spirit led me here. It was a very moving experience, I was crying,” Paul Joseph Yang said, a minister at Memorial United Methodist Church in Clovis, as he posed for photographs with Roman Soldiers Muller and Widman.
Next year, he plans to come again, and bring his children along.
“I think for kids, it would be different to see it, rather than just hear the story. It brings it close to home, and it becomes tangible. I think the performance today made a lot of disciples of Jesus Christ,” Yang said.
He said ministers “get drained” and viewing the Passion Play left him feeling renewed. “It”s a blessing, I”m ready to go back and minister,” Yang said.
More than 130 actors and 400 colorful costumes and props along with the topiary of the Garden of Gethsemani brought the 80-plus acre lakeside property to life as the Holy Land.
Several vehicles pulled over on adjacent Highway 29, and some made their way down to the site to further investigate and view the play.
“I thought, ?my word, what is going on?” I”m driving by and I see Jesus on the cross and all of his disciples on the hill. I had to stop and see what it was,” Kayla Enos said, of Sacramento.
“I”ve seen the movie The Passion, but this is even better. Seeing it in person brings out more emotions and feels more real than a movie ever could,” Enos said.
The next step for the non-profit Lake County Passion Play, which purchased the 80-acre ranch, is to restore a three-story 140-year-old Victorian house on the grounds, according to Father Philip Ryan, a founder of the play. For more information about the play, contact (707) 279-0349.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
