Journey to the Passion Play
Henry and Linda Lenz and their daughter, Sonya, toured Germany and Austria last July to get closer to nature, the heavens and God.
The focus of the Slippery Rock family's tour was the famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany. The dramatic presentation depicts the Passion of Jesus, his trial, suffering and death.
The play was first performed in 1634 after the townspeople vowed to God they would perform a play once a decade if they were spared the bubonic plague, Linda said.
“The plague (bypassed) their little town and they've been doing the Passion Play for hundreds of years,” she said.
The play is performed repeatedly by the townspeople over five months during the first year of each decade, though exceptions have been made. The most recent season ran from May to October 2010.
Tour group members flew directly from Boston or Newark, N.J., and landed in Munich, Bavaria's capital.After arriving, they spent the day on a walking tour and saw landmarks including the gothic Frauenkirche church, the Church of St. Peter and the Marienplatz, the city's central square.Afterward, they traveled through the countryside to the town of Oberammergau. The initial tour included a walk with stops at several wood carving shops before entering the theater for the Passion Play.The seven-hour play is performed in an open-air theater, with only one meal break.Audience members may get up from their seats if needed, but everyone remains quiet and respectful.During the 2010 season, there were 102 performances for about 5,000 spectators each time. People come from all over the world to see the Passion Play, reserving tickets years in advance.Virginia McClelland of Butler, who was also on the tour with the Lenz family, first saw the play about 20 years ago and went for the second time last summer.“I just wanted to see it again to be reminded of what happened,” she said.Seeing the play is a spiritual experience, she added.“Anybody who is a Christian, of course they read the Bible,” McClelland said. “But to see it adds a new dimension to what they read.”Maribeth Knaub of Sewickley also went on the trip and was impressed by the choir members, who stood in a line across the stage during the performance.“I was very impressed with their musicianship,” said Knaub, who teaches at Slippery Rock University. “I could find no fault with their tone, it was very pure, and their diction in German was something I learned from.”
A moment that was particularly poignant to Knaub was the scene where an accused adulteress is about to be stoned by an angry mob.In the Bible, Jesus says to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” and the stones are dropped.Knaub viewed the exchange differently after seeing it onstage.“To see the drama and the effect of time, it made him very human,” she said. “He didn't just answer, he waited and thought. It was very powerful.”In addition to attending for religious purposes, people also enjoy the show for its theatrical value, Sonya Lenz said.“As a theatrical production, it's an incredible experience,” she said.The open-air theater was greatly different from an indoor theater, where the background is simply a plain wall, Knaub said.“If you stood and looked at the stage, you're looking out into the German Alps,” she said.On off years, the town allows tours of the stage and theater. Visitors may go behind the scenes to see where costumes and props are stored and learn more about how such a large-scale show is produced, Sonya said.The town even has a museum that showcases items used in the show, such as aged costumes literally falling apart behind glass.Even in off years, the play is the center of town life, Linda Lenz said.“Having gone for seven different play years, we have known many of the older people and met them, and now we're meeting their grandchildren who are in it,” Linda said.Almost every home has photos and plaques that show the history of their family's involvement in the play.“This is what they do and they're very proud of it,” Sonya said. “Every time a baby is born in that town, if it's a girl, they say, ‘Maybe one day, she'll play Mary,' and if it's a boy, ‘Maybe one day, he'll play Jesus.'”About half of the town's 5,000 inhabitants take part in some way.“There are crowd scenes, like when they're going to crucify Jesus,” said Sonya, who mentions being politely shooed out by shopkeepers. “They'll lock the door and run to the theater for the crowd scene and then come right back.”The play is the backbone of the town's economy, Linda said.“The monies are collected by the community,” she said. “When it's all over, they find out how much they made and the profits go toward the town as a whole.”The show goes on regardless of the weather, but the Lenzes were present during the only time in history the play was stopped due to hail stones the size of golf balls.The most valuable prop is the table used for the Last Supper, and it had been taken onstage just minutes before the hail began.“It started to hail,” Linda said. “Jesus and the disciples looked up, grabbed the table (to protect it from damage) and ran offstage!”The townspeople are wonderful hosts and their goodwill is almost shocking for tourists, Sonya said.“If you even look slightly lost or need help, people are going to approach you and ask, ‘Do you need help? Can I walk you there?'” Sonya said.“They're very friendly and almost all of them speak English.”She described the town as picture-perfect, clean and spotless with “every flower in place.”Although Oberammergau is best known for its Passion Play, it is also famous as a city of woodcarvers.The town offers wonderful museums about its own history and its woodcarvers and toy makers, Linda said.“They used to make their crafts, their wares, and put them on their backs with all the toys and things showing, and then they traveled through the countryside selling their woodcarvings,” Linda said.
After seeing the Oberammergau Passion Play, the group continued to Salzburg, Austria, for the remainder of their trip.The tour was arranged through the Cultural Studies Academy, a Slippery Rock-based educational travel company founded in 1960s by the Lenzes.Sonya, the youngest daughter, has run the company for about 10 years.A highlight in Salzburg was Mirabell Palace, or “Schloss Mirabell,” for a concert of Mozart's music.The baroque-style castle is one of the most-visited sites in Salzburg and even served as the set for many scenes in the film, “The Sound of Music.”“The concert hall is very famous and it's known as the ‘marble hall,'” Sonya said. “It's literally floor-to-ceiling marble. It makes you feel like, ‘This is what it was like in Mozart's time.'”On the last evening of the trip, which lasted July 20 to 29, a troupe of Austrian folk dancers performed.“It's a young group,” Sonya said. “It's nice to see the young generation still doing their traditional-type dances.”During this tour, Sonya said she focused on the region's cuisine.For example, the group sampled a traditional meal called “Bauernschmaus,” or farmer's delight.Along with Semmelknödel (bread dumplings) and sauerkraut, the dish includes pork and knockwurst.“It's designed for a farmer who's been working all day in the fields and comes in and needs that hearty meal,” she said.Another favorite was the Salzburger Knockerl, a merengue dessert formed into peaks meant to represent the Alps.Though their schedule was full, the group still had time to visit several churches and cathedrals.“The tour was about getting closer to God,” said Sonya.
• Location: Oberammergau is in the state of Bavaria, Germany.• Population: 5,200. Only those native to Oberammergau may participate in the play.• Area: 11.6 square miles• Major industries: Tourism related to the Passion Play, woodcarving.• The Passion Play theater was renovated after the 1990 performance to add modern stage mechanics and heating beneath the seats. It now seats about 4,700.• The village is known for frescoes painted on buildings to represent traditional fairy tales, scenes from scripture and for trompe l'oeil (French for ‘deceive the eye') architecture, which tricks the viewer into perceiving a flat image as three-dimensional.Source: Wikipedia.com.
Sharing their snapshots is the Lenz family of Slippery Rock.Born in Germany, Henry came to the United States at age 17. Lenz was a professor of history and the philosophy of education at Slippery Rock University. Henry and his wife, Linda Lenz, founded the Cultural Studies Academy, an educational travel company, in 1963.The Lenzes are now retired and their youngest daughter, Sonya Lenz, operates the company with her husband, Vipin Kohli.
