Nauvoo Pageant

Nauvoo Pageant

The pageant cast has come and gone for another year.  They were wonderful - they brought with them energy and excitement and a spiritual feast, but they also brought heat, humidity and thousands of people, including protesters.

Just a quick note about the protesters.  We have never experienced much of this and I really can't understand it.  We, as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, testify of the Savior in everything we do and say.  These people, who claim to be "Christians" and wrongfully think that we are not, spend their time walking our streets with signs, shouting obscenities, and making fun of sacred things.  I thought a "Christian" was a follower of Christ.  I can't imagine HIM acting that way.  We are cautioned to ignore them and not to confront them in any way, so we smile and turn our backs, and pretty soon they get tired and move on.  Pretty sad if you ask me - (which you didn't.)

Back to the Pageant.  They come with a core cast of main characters who are professional actors and they stay the entire time.  Then each week, a bunch of families who have auditioned to be in the supporting cast come and stay for two weeks each.  They practice the first week and perform the next, while a new set of families practice and then perform and so on, until it's all over.  They perform for 4 weeks with 4 different family casts.  Families come and do this for their family vacations, and they are all ages, from little bitty kids to old people. 

Pageant begins at 8:30 p.m. because it needs to be dark for part of it, but they begin with a country fair at 7:00.  This includes all kinds of pioneer type activities and games for the kids and the adults.





The bagpipe band plays at the fair and also around town during the day.



We have several productions here that tell the story of Nauvoo, and the pageant does also, but in a more professional and serious way.  The pageant stage is really interesting.  It is huge and slanted up towards the back.  It has trap doors that open up to make holes, and places that rise up to form platforms, and buildings etc.  During the performance, they actually build the city of Nauvoo and the Temple.  It's AWESOME!  I tried to get pictures that would do it justice but I couldn't - you really need to be here and see it in person.

When I set my camera on a night setting, the action on the stage made the pictures blurry, and when I set the camera for the action, the pictures were too dark.  I finally got frustrated and quit trying.  Elder Knudsen was able to get some though.



 













 

 











At the end, the temple they built on the stage falls down and you can see the real temple illuminated up on the hill.  Breathtaking!