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253 ½ Xenia Ave. | 937-767-7373 | ysnews.com/subscribe Serving the Yellow Springs community as the paper of record with journalism anchored in integrity, accountability and transparency. Independent and locallyowned since 1880 . Subscribe to the Yellow Springs News . GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 93 River, and passed down from memory as a form of oral tra- dition, until the 19th century. In the 1850s, Austrian linguist Karl Julius Schröer collected the plays in his folkloric studies. The plays were printed and distributed in the 1890s throughout Germany, and were then performed and enjoyed by a much wider audience; it was also around this time that music was added to the plays. An English translation was published by Cecil Harwood of The Inklings — the literary club that was frequented by such writers as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien — in 1944, and it was this translation that was performed in the village. Stave first saw the play when she was 7; she told the News at the time that the play was performed in her northern German school each year by teachers, and she considered it “a German newcomer’s con- tribution to the observance of Christmas in America.” “The play is very simple, but parts of it may sound strange if you don’t remember how old it is,” Stave said. The original Yellow Springs debut of “The Nativity and Shepherds Play” starred Elsi Kappe as Mary, Richard Fowler as Joseph, Jean Putnam as the angel and Robert Hardman and Aaron Everett as shep - herds. The News reported that high school students Ricky Vernon, Jon Whitmore, David Casenhiser and Holger Stave also participated, and that Carole Abrams served as piano accompanist. Stave continued to direct the plays until 1974 when she moved away, passing the torch to Ruth Bent. The community formed the YS Christmas Players to address the annual shows, though in 1977, the Players began performing the shows biennially. In 1987, the Players celebrated the holiday tradition’s 25th anniversary in Yellow Springs, inviting all 71 cast members who had participated to celebrate at Ruth Bent’s home after the production wrapped. Reporting on the 25th anniversary for the Xenia Daily Gazette, villager and frequent community theater actor Ron Siemer wrote: “ ‘I’ve been a shepherd in the Shepherd’s Play 13 times,’ said Tony Bent, husband of director Ruth Bent, who by now has his role fairly well committed to memory. ‘One never tires of this kind of thing, it seems to get richer and more satisfying somehow.’ ” The plays were actually part of a trilogy, with the third, “Three Kings Play,” historically performed on Jan. 6, the day when the Catholic Church observes the arrival of the wise men. “Three Kings Play” was never performed in Yellow Springs. “It’s a fairly bloody thing — fake babies are stabbed and thrown around the stage, since it’s the story of the slaughter of the innocents,” said Ruth Bent in the Gazette article. “Somehow it didn’t seem very Christmassy.” Some villagers retained their roles year after year — Siemer was a shepherd from the 1970s on, and Jim Felder is well-known in the village December, 1991: The Medieval Miracle Plays were a holiday tradi - tion in Yellow Springs until 2011. Above, from left, are cast members Dick Northway, Ron Seimer, Tony Bent and Paul Van Ausdal. | YS NEWS ARCHIVE PHOTO for having played God in “The Paradise Play” since the begin- ning. Throughout the years, many young actors sharpened their stage chops playing Mary and Joseph or Adam and Eve. The plays were always performed the same way since 1962, following the Harwood translation. As times changed, however, the themes of the plays were viewed in a new light. In 2012 — an off year for the mystery plays — another group of villagers presented an updated version of “The Paradise Play,” entitled “Return to the Garden: A Ceremony for the New Time.” The updated version was meant to look past the themes of shame and punishment inher- ent in the story of Adam and Eve’s banishment from Para- dise in favor of themes like rebirth, change and healing. Though the plays were still beloved by a core audience who considered them tradi- tion, as Ruth Bent wrote in a letter to the News’ Com- munity Forum page in 2013, “traditions don’t always last forever.” In the letter, she announced that, 51 years after the Oberufer plays were first introduced to the village, the YS Christmas Players were retiring, and that the 2011 performance had been the last. “Thanks to the many folks who came to the plays year after year,” she wrote. “We hope you have happy memo- ries of the plays, as we do!” ♦