THESE pupils from Lord Deramore’s School are about to follow in some famous footsteps on Sunday as they take part in Moses and Pharaoh, part of the 2010 cycle of Mystery Plays in the Treasurer’s House gardens.

Luminaries such as Robson Green and Christopher Timothy have appeared as Christ, while Dame Judi Dench played Mary three times in 1957, and the latest stars from Lord Deramore’s have been rehearsing for weeks.

Head teacher Sheena Powle said the children were thrilled to be taking part. She said: “They have been learning to speak in Middle English and have studied the medieval period in some detail.

“Also one of the teaching assistants has made the costumes, with help from the pupils.”

The York Mystery Plays, also known as York Corpus Christi Plays, will be performed in traditional style by city guilds on moving pageant waggons.

In medieval York, the guilds presented the entire Christian narrative of the Creation to the Last Judgement to mark the Corpus Christi Festival in June.

Each guild took one of 48 plays, mounted it on a waggon, and then paraded through the city streets.

Originally each guild performed stories that related to their work; the shipwrights played the Building Of The Ark, while the butchers acted out the Death Of Christ.

The first plays took place in 1340 and continued until the Reformation, when Archbishop Edmund Grindal confiscated all copies of the cycle.

After their suppression during the Tudor period, the performances remained little known until Lucy Toulmin Smith got permission from the Earl of Ashburnham to examine the manuscripts of the plays, which were in his possession.

In 1885, she published her transcription, alongside an introduction and short glossary.

In 1909, The York Historic Pageant included a parade of the banners of the guilds through the streets of the city, accompanying a wagon representing the Nativity.

In December of that year a selection of six of the plays was performed to fundraise for St Olave’s Church, York.

The plays were not seen again until the 1951 York Festival of the Arts.

This year, 12 plays will be performed. Part one begins at noon on Sunday in Dean’s Park, and the pageant waggons will move through the city streets to stage the plays at different locations in College Green, St Sampson’s Square and the new playing station at the Eye of York, near the Castle Museum.

Audiences are welcome to watch the plays free of charge on the city streets and tickets for the playing stations are available from York Visitor Information Centre, on 01904 550099.