The Great Passion Play may have a 2,000-year-old story line, but the musical score is brand spanking new, organizers say.
John Stanley, a Baptist composer from Texas, crafted the sounds. An orchestra in Hungary brought them to life. They’ll be played on the stage in Eureka Springs this weekend. The music was scheduled to premiere on Friday.
The Budapest Scoring Orchestra, which helped with the „Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One“ soundtrack, recorded the score. A clip of the music is available at tinyurl.com/363dua93.
Storywise, there aren’t any new-fangled plot twists.
„The bare bones of the passion story, you can’t and shouldn’t change,“ said Kent Butler, the lead director of the play and operations.
Other aspects of the play have been overhauled, however. „It’s experienced a complete facelift,“ Butler said.
There’s better lighting and new costumes. The sound system is state of the art, he said.
In promotional materials, the Great Passion Play is promising „the same great story in an all new play.“
Oberammergau, a village in the Bavarian Alps roughly 50 miles southwest of Munich, has been staging passion plays since the 17th century. An American version, launched by German immigrants in Spearfish, S.D., debuted in the late 1930s.
The Arkansas incarnation was launched in 1968 and has drawn 8 million viewers since then, promoters say. Billed as „America’s #1 attended outdoor drama,“ the play is a major tourist draw for Eureka Springs, population 2,190.
It nearly folded in December 2012 due to dwindling attendance and mounting debt. But a fundraising drive by the Oklahoma-based Gospel Station Network brought in $75,000 in 10 days, enough to forestall foreclosure.
Since then, the Great Passion Play has paid off $2.7 million in debt. And it has cut its number of performances each year from roughly 120 to approximately 80.
Attendance averages roughly 600 to 700 people per night, Butler said.
Tickets are $35 for people 17 and older, $25 for youths 12 to 16 and $20 for children ages 4 to 11.
Shows are held on Fridays and Saturdays from May until early November, with shows on most Tuesdays between June and October.
Due to the change in financial circumstances, there’s more money to make improvements. „We can invest in the show now that we’re out of debt,“ Butler said.
The turnaround is remarkable, according to Randall Christy, president of the Gospel Station Network and executive director of the Great Passion Play.
Asked whether the show had survived a near-death experience, Christy said, „Maybe a few of them.“ These days, „It’s growing and thriving,“ he said.
„The Passion Play has been America’s No. 1 outdoor drama, and now it’s, by far, the best presentation of the life of Christ,“ he said.
If you go: Information on show times and prices available at greatpassionplay.org.
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Frank Lockwood is editor of the Religion section at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and has worked at the newspaper since 2006.
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