Preston Passion Play
It was like hearing the Gospel for the first time!
The Preston Passion was performed by a cast of 62. The Preston Concert Band composed an overture; and played some 20 pieces of music. The choir (volunteers) were 40+. It was filmed by students from Salford University with equipment from Media City, Manchester.
Winckley Square Gardens were the venue for the major part of the play. We were the inaugural major event in the Square thus garnering much enthusiasm and great photos. The Way of the Cross was over a mile long! The length of the gardens allowed us to complete the heckling and three falls. We then processed along our main thoroughfare, Church Street which is a shared, paved space. This caught the attention of all shoppers at mid-day on a Bank Holiday.
Finally we staged the crucifixion scene on the Flag Market, the venue for all major public events. This venue was full and this scene engaged many extra spectators. We staged the final scenes on the steps of the Victorian Harris Museum and Art Gallery. This is another listed building which provided the backdrop to the crucifixion. As such it gave us iconic photos of the Preston Passion play which were taken up by the media.
Media coverage of the Preston Passion Play
The Lancashire Post (main Daily) gave us a great press with stunning photos on the front page, an extra cover double and a double page inside. They also live streamed the broadcast and it was watched by 13,500 on the day. Scrolling alongside were many comments: people watching from Western Australia, Eastern Australia, Brazil, Winnipeg, Poland, Germany, Spain, from a place of incredulity…….! This is on the Facebook page. They also provided about 80 photos.
BBC Lancashire did us proud, mainly through Joe Wilson, main presenter and cover for many national major events, presenter of Sunday morning faith based breakfast programme. He had already interviewed me and called me on air another 5 times. He attended the last half, interviewed me the moment the play, and played a sequence about 2 minutes on BBC TV news as well as producing an album of extra photographs. The news sequence has 8.3k views.
