Explore Your Archive Week: Mysterious Archives
As we explored our archives this week, we took “mysterious archives” quite literally and found photographs, scripts, and other production information from the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre’s English Mystery Plays.
Mystery Plays are sequences of performances, often referred to as cycles, and were popular in the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. Mystery plays were religious in nature, portraying numerous biblical scenes over the course of a day. Yes, that’s correct, these plays would often last a full day and were incredibly elaborate, encompassing everything from the creation story to judgement day.
Mystery Plays gain their name from their portrayal of the mysteries of God and because they were generally organized and produced by guilds, who were often called ‘mysteries’ at the time. The plays ultimately fell out of fashion as they became increasingly satirical in nature and lost the support of the Roman Catholic church as a result.
Featured here are photographs, a page from the annotated script, and a lighting map from the production of their Christmas Cycle English Mystery Plays during the Milwaukee Rep’s 1970-71 season. These can all be found in boxes 186 and 118 of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre Records 1953-1987, Milw Mss 95 at the UWM Archives.
-Lizzie, Archives Graduate Intern