EUREKA SPRINGS — The Great Passion Play purchased two Haflinger horses Tuesday.

It was the first livestock the play’s operators have bought since all of its animals - about 200 of them - were sold or given away in November in anticipation of the play’s permanent closure because of financial problems.

But with new management and an infusion of donations, the Passion Play is once again acquiring animals and plans to begin the 2013 season in May. The play, which began in 1968, is a depiction of the last week in the life of Jesus Christ. The play normally runs from May through October.

Ney Killebrew, an animal trainer at the play, said he was given a week to sell all the Passion Play’s animals last fall. Now, he’s buying animals for the play or talking people into giving back the animals.

Killebrew said the play paid $2,700 on Tuesday for the two horses, Barney and Don, and their harnesses. Purchased from a farmer near Green Forest, the two 12-year-old horses will pull a chariot in the play, Killebrew said.

Three trained draft horses the play owned last year were sold and four white horses, all about 20 years old, were given away, Killebrew said. Those horses were so old the play isn’t looking to retrieve them, he said.

Killebrew said 150 pigeons, including 70 that were trained, were sold for $25 in November. The buyer purchased 25 pigeons for $1 each and went home with 125 free pigeons, Killebrew said.

“Some didn’t sell, so we gave them away,” he said.

The buyer has donated the trained pigeons back to the play at Killebrew’s request.

“They’re the ones I wanted back,” said Killebrew.

Dick Kelsey, executive director of the Passion Play, said the organization is fortunate to be getting animals back before the new owners “get attached to them.”

Killebrew himself bought 13 sheep and two donkeys from the play, and he’ll loan them back for the next season. In the play, one donkey pulls a cart and the other carries Christ.

The big issue at this point is acquiring a camel. Kelsey, a former Kansas senator, said he’s been camel shopping.

“I just didn’t know camels were that readily available,” he said.

A camel the play bought three years ago for $2,500 was sold to a man in Missouri for $1,700 before the play’s closure, said Killebrew.

Rumor is the buyer wants to sell it back to the play because the camel is too mean.

Kelsey said he’s heard that rumor, but Killebrew doesn’t think it’s true.

“If he wanted to sell it, he would call me,” said Killebrew, who said he couldn’t remember the buyer’s name.

Randall Christy, president of The Gospel Station Network of Ada, Okla., held a frantic fundraising drive in late December and early January to raise $75,000 to keep the play operating. Raised in 10 days, that money paid interest due on three loans from Cornerstone Bank in Eureka Springs. The bank was scheduled to take possession of the play property on Jan. 1 through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

After the play’s Oct. 27 performance, operators locked the gates, sold the animals and turned off the floodlights for the seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue that had been illuminated every night since 1967. Anonymous donors got the money together in December to pay the electric bill and turn the lights back on the statue.

At a news conference in January, Christy said he plans to raise $6 million in the next year for the play. Some of that money will come through operating the play more efficiently, he said. The play owes $2.53 million to Cornerstone Bank, Christy has said.

Christy will work this year with the Elna M. Smith Foundation, which has been operating the play since its beginning. If all goes well, Christy said, his organization intends to buy the play next year.

The nonprofit Elna M. Smith Foundation has lost $1.8 million over the past four years, according to tax records. The foundation tried to sell the property for $5.5 million but was unable to, said Keith Butler, chairman of the foundation.

Attendance at the play peaked in 1992 at 289,212 and dropped to 46,578 last season, Butler has said.

Last month, the play’s board announced that Kelsey had replaced Sam Ray as the play’s executive director.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/07/2013