Jane Dawson reports from the Chester Mystery Plays
EASTER marked a massive milestone for this year’s Chester Mystery Plays company as well as providing a well-earned break for the performers and the production team.
Performers will have been learning their lines as director Peter Leslie Wild has asked everyone to be ‘off the book’ when they return to rehearsals. Meanwhile volunteers and members of the production team have continued their work behind the scenes. Volunteers have been busy making costumes, composer Matt Baker has been writing more music (including a piece called Christmas Bells) and production manager Peter Herbert has been working out film projection needs. Video and motion graphics designer Andy Davies has also been roaming the streets of Chester in preparation for a weekend of filming in the city centre on April 13 and 14.
He said: “As well as filming in Chester in a couple of weeks’ time we’re looking for some open fields of rape.
“The challenge is to get the timing right – given the weather we have no idea when it’ll be perfect for filming!”
The team is currently looking for a location so if you know of anywhere please get in touch via www.chestermysteryplays.com.
It was also very exciting to see our first banners going up in the city centre. As well as flags and a banner at the cathedral, we are using the ‘toblerones’ at a number of sites including HQ and the amphitheatre, and we are looking forward to seeing more going up in the coming weeks. We’ve also booked advertising space on buses so we hope that no-one will say they didn’t know the mystery plays were happening!
