Seventeen LMU students along with three faculty and staff will head to the University of Toronto to participate in York Plays 2025, a daylong performance of medieval biblical plays with students and scholars from all over North America on June 7, 2025.
Senior theatre arts major Ethan Mullen is thrilled to fly to Canada and be a part of this unique show. “I keep telling everyone, we are going to Toronto and get to push a wagon in open air and perform a little play,” said Mullen. “Then, we push the wagon again and then do the play. This will take place all day from 6 a.m. until midnight. It’s like a renaissance fair for theater.”
The production was spearheaded by John Sebastian, vice president of mission and ministry and English professor. He partnered with Kevin Wetmore, professor of theatre arts, and John Flaherty, special assistant to the vice president of Mission and Ministry, who is leading the choir for this theatrical production.
The LMU community can get a preview of the show on June 2, 3 and 4 on the Drollinger Family Stage at noon. “Medieval theatre was written for community by the community,” said Wetmore. “The plays are silly, serious, inspiring, spiritual, and most of all, human. One of the most remarkable elements of these medieval plays is how much they humanized what could have otherwise been very pious and very dull art. Plus, free theatre at noontime on the Drollinger Family Stage: Where can you find free entertainment that makes you laugh and think these days?”
Mullen said working on this production has “been so awesome and already taught me so many different skills as a student actor.” The crew will not be performing on a traditional stage but on a moving wagon and that creates unique experiences with audiences’ engagement.
Avery Abell ’25 was drawn to audition for York Corpus Christi Plays 2025 for this exact reason. “I love environmental theater, being outside and performing site-specific stuff. So, that was a major reason I wanted to do it,” said Abell. “It’s a unique experience. How many opportunities are there to use a wagon, let alone perform on one! I think it will be cool to tell people about this for the rest of my life … I am excited to see what awaits.”
Mullen says the collaboration across campus drew him in, “there is a huge community of scholars, like John Sebastian, who study medieval literature partnering with theater enthusiasts,” said Mullen. “I had no idea this even existed. Its super cool to dive in why these plays exist. We are literally reenacting research. It’s cool that we are attempting and doing the same thing that people did hundreds of years ago far away from us.”
The plays date to 1376 and were produced yearly on the Feast of Corpus Christi until 1569 in York, England. Playmakers would pull their plays on wagon stages and move them across the city, performing biblical dramas that retold the story of salvation history from sunrise to sunset.
LMU students’ part of the show focuses on Mary: the annunciation, the assumption, and the coronation. “I am most excited about watching this experience in an embodied way that is not so much cerebral but emotional,” said Sebastian. “It really combines both of my hats as a medievalist and a mission officer. People did these plays in the Middle Ages because they believed in the meaning of these stories. The centerpiece was the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. Seeing that played out in front of you in a way is meaningful. It’s not the dry presentation of the Bible.”
Wetmore said students learn many things from these types of experiences. “We talked about how the plays were the forerunners to Shakespeare. Students learn history, theology, and philosophy from encountering and performing these texts,” said Wetmore. “They are also challenged as actors – this is not realistic theatre. It is not like anything we have seen or do ourselves, so it is a challenge for them to explore pre-modern characters using the tools of the contemporary actor. It is a different approach to performing and producing that compliments the education they receive in their contemporary acting classes.”
