This is a very busy time at the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York. Crews are working daily to get every thing ready for the Pageant that starts on July 12th. Here are some of the things that have done: Twelve large towers have been erected for the lighting, the stage has been put in place, and tents have been erected for various uses. The cast members will be arriving this weekend. A great deal of time and effort goes into the preparation for this huge event. We stopped by on the 4th of July and spoke with some of the crew and a photographer, Michael Boren, who is filming a special about the Pageant that will air on KSL-TV at 4 pm after the last session of October General Conference. The costume crew has been at work for sometime.
The 750+ cast members will will be chosen for rolls tonight, Friday, and will be selected . On Saturday. they will then be trained in their rolls. They also have training from the full-time missionaries from Preach My Gospel, and are trained in how to talk with people. For an hour or so before Pageant starts the cast members, dressed in costume, mingle with the crowd and talk to all that they can. It is such a great tool to show everyone how friendly we are as Church members. There will also be devotionals for the cast and crew daily. Other activities are planned too. The cast members will practice for 4 days and will hold the dress rehearsal on Thursday the 12th. Performances will be on 13,14 and 17-21 July. This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Pageant. There are already exhibits in the Visitors Center showing some of the old costumes along with pictures of actors wearing the costumes. It is a great exhibit.
There are many great Pageant stories, we would like to share two with you that we recently learned about. The first one happened over 10 years ago: On the audition day a young woman was chosen to play the part of Mary (mother of Christ). That is when they discovered that there were some problems with selecting her; she was not on the official list of participants (she was a foreign exchange student and had come with her sponsor family, and they assumed that she was included), she was not LDS, and she was Japanese and spoke very little English. The selection committee asked the Pageant President what they should do, because they felt inspired that she should be Mary. The President told them that he knew they could work things out and that he felt good about giving her the role. A separate committee selected Joseph, and amazingly he turned out to be a returned missionary who spoke Japanese. They were both very pleased to have someone else to speak Japanese with. He not only helped her communicate through the Pageant, but taught her the missionary lessons, and baptized her a few days after Pageant. The couple ended up getting married a while later. Miracles do happen and the Lord is directing things.
Another story was from last year's Pageant. A missionary had just ended his mission and was picked up by his parents and released so he could join his family in being participants in the Pageant before going back to his home town. His father gave him a blessing prior to the casting auditions and promised him that he would come to know Christ better than he ever had because of being in Pageant. When selections were announced he was selected to be Christ in the scene where Christ decends from the sky to visit the Nephites.
We really look forward to the coming two weeks and will write another blog to share the experience with you. May the Lord continue to bless you and your families as you search the scriptures and partake of the written word of the Lord.
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