BETHLEHEM, CHATSWORTH-STYLE : LOCAL CHURCH REPLICATES ANCIENT CITY TO CELEBRATE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

It's a town where all the hotels are full, all the cops look mean and everybody's trying to sell you something.

Hint: It's not Las Vegas.

Obviously, this must be Bethlehem, circa 1 B.C.

Well, actually, it's Chatsworth, circa 1996, which for the next three days may be the closest thing to Palestine on the North American continent.

While many Christians try extra hard at this time of year to follow in Jesus' path, the parishioners at Chatsworth's the Church at Rocky Peak take that adage more literally than most.

For the past 10 years, the nondenominational church has hosted ``Bethlehem,'' perhaps best described as a low-tech, interactive theme park.

Suggesting an evangelical version of colonial Williamsburg, it comes complete with joyous shepherds, luminous angels, hulking Roman centurions, pushy street vendors and greedy tax collectors, plus sheep, goats, a donkey and a manger, where ye shall find the real-live guest of honor wrapped in swaddling clothes - probably sleeping, eating or squawking.

This year, in the interests of even greater verisimilitude, a camel has been rented from a movie-studio animal farm.

Some 5,000 people are expected to drop by the free event between 7 and 9 p.m. during the next three nights to pay their respects to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, who'll be alternately played by three West Valley newborns.

Jeff and Joan Holder, the Winnetka couple who coordinate the event, came up with the idea for ``Bethlehem'' after visiting historic Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts on their honeymoon.

Their aim, they say, wasn't to recruit souls, but to provide a family-friendly entertainment that humanizes and enlivens the gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke.

``The power of the story is what it is,'' said Jeff Holder, a highly animated fellow who scripted ``Scooby-Doo'' cartoons at Hanna-Barbera before he became vice president of creative affairs for Sony Wonder, the company's children's entertainment division.

``Every character in `Bethlehem' has a story. The baker has a point of view, the mason has a point of view, the basket weaver has a point of view, the shepherd has a point of view, Mary and Joseph have a point of view.''

In the early years, when the church was still based in Van Nuys, the Holders themselves played the holy family, casting all four of their children in the star role at various times.

``People say, `You have that baby out there in the cold?' This is California!'' said Joan, a former teacher at Village Christian School in Sun Valley.

Since then, the production has grown to incorporate more than 100 ``actors,'' designers and ``backstage'' workers, with a budget that Jeff Holder described as ``in the neighborhood of several thousand dollars.''

Located at a bend of Santa Susana Pass Road, about three miles west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, the Church at Rocky Peak commands an inspiring view of nearly the entire West Valley. Cecil B. DeMille might have coveted it for one of his sand-and-sandal epics.

Perched at the base of a rugged outcropping that gives the church its name, on an area about half the size of a football field, ``Bethlehem'' is run entirely by parishioner volunteers. They build the sets, sew the costumes, tend to the needs of the nonhuman actors and otherwise do their best to persuade visitors that they have stepped back into the Holy Land on the holiest night of the Christian calendar.

Many pains are taken to replicate the historical, Roman-occupied Bethlehem, right down to the goat-milk samples and the free shekels handed out for bartering. The goal, said chief carpenter Ray Martin, was to lend some realism and grit to what otherwise could seem like a Disneyland attraction.

``Everything now is so cute with Mary and Joseph,'' Martin complained, ``it's almost like they were camping. But really it was pretty miserable.''

Even so, visitors sometimes have trouble suspending their disbelief.

``You always get someone who's like, `I know you, you work at the 7-Eleven,' '' said Tim Brennan, a marketing executive for an aerospace company when he's not impersonating a shepherd. ``You're like, `What's 7-Eleven? Is that across the Jordan?' ''

Most, however, quickly enter into the spirit, snapping their cameras and peppering the Bethlehemites with points of information. Though Kodak moments technically haven't yet been invented, ``Bethlehem'' actors are always willing to break character and pose for pictures.

``One person asked me, `How was your labor?' '' said Annie Martin, the 19-year-old Canoga Park medical student who plays the Virgin Mary. Having no first-hand experience, Martin demurred that her labor was immaculate, thank you.

When she first performed two years ago, Martin said, she ``just kind of sat there staring at people and trying to look as holy as possible.'' But over the years she has come to identify with the pressures and responsibilities that she believes Mary, as a young woman, must've felt.

``Being able to play her made me realize how important her role was, and yet how unimportant, because she really was just a vessel for God. And it just humbles me.''

Brennan, the shepherd-aerospace worker, said he has watched similar epiphanies occur to ``Bethlehem's'' visitors.

``You can see people's amazement, people in tears,'' he marveled. ``It's really amazing to see. After a few seconds they're beyond just looking at you in a costume. It's like it becomes real.''

Now, if only the skies would be calm and bright this weekend ...

``Last year we got blown out the last night with the wind and rain,'' Jeff Holder said. ``Not only was there no room at the inn, there was no inn.''

THE FACTS

What: ``Bethlehem''

When: 7 p.m. Saturday through Monday.

Where: The Church at Rocky Peak, 22601 Santa Susana Pass Road, off Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Chatsworth.

Information: Please call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Annie Martin as Mary and Tim Brennan as Joseph lay the baby Jesus (Sarah Wardle) to sleep as part of the interactive Bethlehem event.

(2) Richard Pferdner dresses as a potter as part of the production by the Church at Rocky Peak.