Labor of Love

This week we've become involved in an interesting project: the village Passion Play.

The play itself is a multi-day affair that starts on Palm Sunday, when a guy playing the role of Jesus rides through town on a burro while onlookers wave palm fronds. Then on Thursday they stage the arrest, Friday the crucifixion, and late Saturday the resurrection. 

Phil and I don't have any religious beliefs, but we still find the whole spectacle both impressive and moving, and we know it means a great deal to both the actors and the audience.

One of the guys who directs the whole thing and makes it happen is our neighbor Lalo (the nickname for Eduardo) and this year we told him we were willing to help in any way we could. The lot where they are assembling the sets and props is just around the corner for us so we are now spending many evenings up there helping out. 

For the folks working on this project, it truly is a labor of love. Our town, Ajijic, is known for having a particularly impressive Passion Play and I think they try to outdo themselves every year.

I'm posting photos here of the construction process for the props, still in very early stages. I'll post more as it goes on and of course will get photos of the many acts of the play itself!

This is the model, carved in styrofoam, of what the Roman temple is going to look like. (The sign says, loosely translated, "Put tools back where you got them.")

These are the Roman columns from last year. All new ones are being made for this year.

The columns start out life as these cardboard tubes. These are forms used to pour concrete columns for buildings. You can see they have been used for that purpose and slit open to remove them from the concrete.

Styrofoam ridges and other details are added.

Our current job is adding a few papier mache layers over the top of the styrofoam using newspaper, diluted white glue and paintbrushes. It usually only takes a few minutes before my fingers are sticking together, but we are getting pretty fast at this after many hours of repetition.

Here are a couple shots of the work area and all the columns being worked on. 

Some Roman soldier's sandals and a helmet from last year. The helmet is also made from styrofoam.

A stack of Roman armor from last year. I don't know who did this leather work.

Shields, helmets and capes from last year.