Eleven students and two faculty members from Shenandoah Conservatory’s acting program participated in the York Plays 2025 in Toronto, Canada. The event featured 50 short plays in 35 clusters, each produced and directed in medieval style by a different contributing group. It began at 6 a.m. on Saturday, June 7, 2025, and continued past midnight across three different performance stations. Shenandoah Conservatory was one of 17 performance groups from across North America that participated in this event.

Organized and hosted by Toronto’s Poculi Ludique Societas (PLS) and the Center for Renaissance and Reformation Studies (CRRS), the event converged at Burwash Quad at Victoria University of the University of Toronto. Each play was performed on replica medieval wagon stages across three performance stations outdoors. In true medieval style, there were no chairs set up at any of the stations and audiences wandered from play to play at will. This was only the third known time the cycle has been performed in its entirety since 1600.

Shenandoah Conservatory produced and performed three episodes from the biblical plays: “The Flight Into Egypt,” “The Slaughter of the Innocents” and “The Remorse of Judas.” They also participated in the grand finale “The Last Judgment” with all performers. 

“Word has it that Toronto and the Medieval drama community is still buzzing about our performances,” said Associate Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs and Professor of Theatre Carolyn Coulson, Ph.D. The event was referenced in a recent conference call for papers on the topic of resistance on refuge by the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium in April 2026.

Participating Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting students include Emrie Branch ’25, Giavanna Bruno ’26, Dylan Buchwald ’25, Megan Griffin-Ferry ’28, Maggie Herber ’26, Katherine Marston ’26, Izzy Miller ’26, Wyatt Moore ’27, Emma Reed ’26, Tenebrae Rouner ’28 and Fiona Sullivan ’27. Participating faculty include Dr. Coulson and Adjunct Instructor of Theatre Kit Wilder, B.A.

About the York Cycle

Imagine the medieval York Corpus Christi Plays: 50 short play scripts, each one based on a different Bible story (or on medieval “fanfic” of the Bible), each one produced and performed by a different craft guild (or other group), all on one day. Nearly every year, from 1376 to 1569, the playmakers of York put their plays on wagon stages and pulled them across the whole city, with each of the 50 plays repeating at each of 12 different stations, from sunrise well into the night. Their massive biblical drama focuses primarily on the lives of Jesus and his mother Mary, but the story extends all the way back to God’s creation of the universe, and continues forward to the Last Judgment.