We’re so excited that it’s #auditions week & we get to meet the cast for “The War in Heaven”! We’re taking a break from our usual #MysteryPlayMonday essays so we can focus on welcoming them- we’ll be back next week w/ more behind the scenes stories! #medievaldrama #yorkmysteryplays

Director’s Notes: Designing the Mystery Happy Easter #MysteryPlayMonday! We've been busy designing our production of "The War In Heaven", and our show's director reflects on what it means to imagine portraying heaven, hell, and their inhabitants. What does an angel look like? How about a daemon? Or Heaven, or Hell? I've been designing this week, getting the answers to those questions get out of my brain and on to paper, so that they can eventually be brought to life on our Mystery Play waggon.

For this Easter #MysteryPlayMonday, our "War in Heaven" director writes about creating the design of the play, which includes otherworldly spaces & supernatural characters from biblical tradition. Stop by hiddentheatre.com, under the announcements, to read it!

A Director Prepares… With Medieval Theology On today's #MysteryPlayMonday, our "War in Heaven" director talks about how looking at medieval beliefs about our play's story influence her ideas about the characters & the production. So much of the drama of the twentieth century was a push towards realism. I don't mean the way it's staged, I mean that there has been a trend away from characters who exist primarily as relatively flat "types", without a lot of nuance or subtext.

For #MysteryPlayMonday, our "War in Heaven" director writes about how medieval theology influences her ideas about the production & its characters. Find it at hiddentheatre.com under the announcements. #yorkmysteryplays #medievaltheology

An Art History of “The War in Heaven” This will make the most sense if you can take a look at our Pinterest board by the same title while you read this! Let me preface this all by saying, I am not an art historian. I'm just someone who enjoys art, galleries and museums, and I find art useful as a window into how people look at their world and their stories.

As we start the process of designing "The War in Heaven", we're taking a look at how artists have depicted this episode through the centuries. Join us at hiddentheatre.com (under the announcements) & our Pinterest board to discover more! Happy #MysteryPlayMonday! #arthistory #YorkMysteryPlays

Meet York’s Tanners’ Guild Look around the place where you're sitting. How much of what you can see is made of plastic? Although you obviously have many items that medieval people wouldn't need- couldn't have dreamed of- such as whatever device on which you're reading this!- consider this: they didn't have plastic. Their ubiquitous material of seemingly infinite shaping capabilities was leather. And to have leather, you needed people who could make it from animal hide.

It's #MysteryPlayMonday! This week at our website, meet York's Guild of Tanners & their work. hiddentheatre.com #yorkmysteryplays #medievalhistory #medievaldrama

Meet Lucy Toulmin Smith, the Woman Who Brought Us the York Mystery Plays In honour of International Women's Day, for this #MysteryPlayMonday, our director reflects on the woman who first brought the York Mystery Plays to modern eyes. Ever since I first started studying the York Mystery Plays, I was intrigued by the fact that the first modern edition of the plays was edited by a Victorian woman. There were plenty of male antiquarians, discovering medieval documents and bringing them to publication and public notice throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but similar work by women was relatively thin on the ground.

Meet Lucy Toulmin Smith, the Woman Who Brought Us the York Mystery Plays

In honour of International Women's Day, for this #MysteryPlayMonday, our director reflects on the woman who first brought the York Mystery Plays to modern eyes. Ever since I first started studying the York Mystery Plays, I…