Every spring, Delmar D. Darrah's theatrical retelling of "the greatest story ever told" is brought back to life on the local stage. | From Our Past page

The American Passion Play - the nation's oldest at 85 years and counting - tells the story of Christ, and his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. The former Scottish Rite Consistory Temple, now called the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, has served as the play's home for all but one season.

Darrah, who passed away in 1945, had an eye for the epic. This Bloomington Cecil B. DeMille surrounded his amateur actors with hundreds of props, elaborate costumes, live animals, and even inspired stage effects, such as Jesus walking on water. The former Illinois Wesleyan University professor of elocution would make an annual theater pilgrimage to New York City, spending two weeks immersed in the latest advances in "lighting effects, stage settings and the directing of the plays."

As a result, Bloomington's staging of the Passion Play harkens back to the golden age of the Great White Way. And the most impressive stage effect just might be the 46 hand-painted canvas drops, or curtains, that appear and reappear in various combinations during the play's 3½-hour running time.

The drops include exteriors with trees, classical ruins and roads leading off into the distance.

Others show fully realized interiors, such as Herod's Court with its blue marble pillars and opulent red drapes.

Most of the drops are used more than once, and many scenes feature several drops at the same time.

The drops with cutaways or openings can be layered, one behind the other, and smaller ones can be used as framing devices for larger ones, lending a theatrically rich, three-dimensional effect to the performances.

Up until a few years ago, the scenic drops were permanently hung far above the stage in what's called the fly loft, visible from the building's exterior as a massive, shoebox-shaped protrusion jutting out from the roof.

The drops are the work of Becker Studios Inc. (formerly Becker Brothers) of Chicago. The larger drops - measuring 24 feet high, 40 feet wide and weighing around 150 pounds - were painted at the company's West Taylor Street studio on the city's west side. Inside, the drops are still run through a slot in the floor, so they can be "scrolled" up or down depending on what section of the canvas is being worked on by the artist-painters.

Established in 1903 by John C. Becker, the art studio designs and builds trade show exhibits, stage sets and props. Recent clients include Chicago institutions such as Marshall Field's (now Macy's), the Lyric Opera and the Jerry Springer show.

After the 2005 season, the city of Bloomington spent millions of dollars to convert the old Consistory into the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. At that time, the drops were taken down for first time since they were hung way back in the early days of the play.

Many of the drops, cracked and faded over the years, were showing their age, so Passion Play organizers had Becker Studios create 18 nearly identical replacement drops, which debuted last season.

During the 1943 season, the canvas drops required 23 miles of wire cable and another 48 miles of rope. Three men, stationed in the fly loft some 50 feet above the oversized stage, operated the drops. These "fly men," under the supervision of off-duty Bloomington firefighter Merle Hempstead, were said to "manipulate the ropes with the agility of monkeys on a string."

There are now two fly lofts, with the west side (stage right) using the old system of hemp ropes and sandbags and the east side using metal counterweights. Hidden in the lofts are five men (now called "fly people") who still lower and raise the scenic drops, much like Hempstead did 65 years ago.

Today, unlike years past before the city-led renovation, the drops are taken down after the season's final show. The originals are rolled and stored in racks located in the building's rear addition, while the replacement drops, which can be folded, are stored in canvass carts.

The 85th season continues this Saturday, April 5-6; and ends with one last performance April 12.