We still had several hours until the opening devotional, so we also visited the Sacred Grove only three miles away from the hill. It was beautiful to see the Palmyra temple just across the street from the Smith property!
The opening devotional was pretty short and was immediately followed by auditions for women's "movement" roles. I ran down to the "bowl" (as was nicknamed the grassy audiency area) and started to get my groove on! There were several dance instructors present who taught us a short dance that incorporated parts of different dances for the show so they could see how each person (of the 200+ audionees) moved, and which role(s) they would be best suited for. I made sure I was in the first batch of dancers that auditioned after learning the dance, and was the first girl handed a number card - which means you went on to round two. Quickly other girls with number cards joined me in waiting for round two and we continued practicing the dance to make sure we didn't forget it. Round two was quicker than the first, and I was once again the first girl handed a permanent role tag! I was excited; I ended up being cast as a dancer in the opening scene of the pageant, and there were only 8 girls assigned to this group - some other groups had 30-40 people in it.
Rehearsals began the next day, and were held every day after that with the exception of Sundays. Because of the large cast size (more than 700 people) there were two "cyber stages" painted in the grassy area where scenes could work on blocking, and often times there were 2-4 different scenes being rehearsed on the stage at a time!
It was also during rehearsal week that the cast was allowed one night to sit in the audience area and watch the run through - as long as we paid attention to what was happening and didn't miss our cues to be on stage. Several scenes were skipped during the run through however; they hadn't been blocked yet. These are pictures of my scene; the first during rehearsal on media day, and the second during our first run through (without costumes). 
During rehearsal week our group of ceremonial dancers sadly dropped from 8 to 7 people... poor Geminee turned wrong during a practice and sprained her ankle - everyone heard it pop; it was pretty gross. We also started getting our costumes in order, and learned that it was IMPOSSIBLE to put the entire thing on without help! They were a little hard to get used to too; having a belt cinched as tight as possible across your ribs doesn't allow for much breathing. But we sure looked good when we had it all on! You'll notice there's 8 girls in the fully costumed picture... we got our dance instructor to wear the extra costume and perform with us on one of the show nights!
The prop shop looked cool, and they even spray painted my shoes black so I could wear them on stage!
Because Geminee could no longer dance she was the only cast member that could sit in the audience area on the night of our dress rehearsal, so of course we made her take pictures of the performance. Nephi and his family aboard the ship followed by the Lamanite/Nephite pre-battle dance scene:
And the highlight of the entire show: Christ's visit to the Nephites in ancient America after his crucifixion and resurrection.
I happened to have done my hair a little crazy this day... another cast member one day had been looking at my long hair and was inspired to give me a small bottle of purple Hannah Montana Hair Mascara, so I did my hair in a style I thought would be appropriate to show off the glittery stuff.
During rehearsal week our group of ceremonial dancers sadly dropped from 8 to 7 people... poor Geminee turned wrong during a practice and sprained her ankle - everyone heard it pop; it was pretty gross. We also started getting our costumes in order, and learned that it was IMPOSSIBLE to put the entire thing on without help! They were a little hard to get used to too; having a belt cinched as tight as possible across your ribs doesn't allow for much breathing. But we sure looked good when we had it all on! You'll notice there's 8 girls in the fully costumed picture... we got our dance instructor to wear the extra costume and perform with us on one of the show nights!
The prop shop looked cool, and they even spray painted my shoes black so I could wear them on stage!
Because Geminee could no longer dance she was the only cast member that could sit in the audience area on the night of our dress rehearsal, so of course we made her take pictures of the performance. Nephi and his family aboard the ship followed by the Lamanite/Nephite pre-battle dance scene:
And the highlight of the entire show: Christ's visit to the Nephites in ancient America after his crucifixion and resurrection.
Whenever we weren't in rehearsals or devotionals, etc. we would spend time with our cast team - a group of single people about the same age as you. My cast team (R2) had a tent close to the 10 year old boy's tent, and were playing games in the open field next to our tent when we were bombarded by air missles from the boys. While they hadn't intentionally fired at us we did threaten to get even... and heart attacked their tent when no one was around. Watching the 10 year old boys scream and gag upon finding their tent covered in lots of pink hearts was priceless!
We also took turns doing service which included serving meals. My salad smiled at me the day that Emily played mashed potato lady.
Rob Moffat was the production manager at pageant, and most people were suprised to learn that I had known him since before my mission; he had been my brother's roommate, I had spent Thanksgiving at his Aunt's house in California, and he is currently my brother's writing partner for a Christmas oratorio about the nativity. Talented guy - but always busy!!
Once performances started our schedule for rehearsals was incredibly less demanding, and we were even granted a "free day" to spend with our cast team and others at Hobart and William Smith College. I enjoyed decorating the dorm sidewalks with my version of Colorado, and was pleased to see others join in with their own versions of the states they came from. There were cactuses for AZ, the Declaration of Independence for PA (it was written there), the delicate arch for UT, and many others. Later in the day several people from my cast team took a bus to visit the Martin Harris farm (I think that was the farm...) and we toured the home and then climbed trees in the orchard.
I laughed when I saw that the golf cart that collected trash from the study shelter (where we had devotionals and meals) had an Air Force One sign on the front.
There was a morning once that we didn't have to be at the Hill Cumorah very early, so Emily, Dianna and I went to the temple grounds. Pretty!
These are some of my favorite people from Pageant!! Nikita and I would sit together during the burning of Abinidi scene and quote it word for word. She's such a sweet girl! Gabby is our dance instructor's daughter, and she has the cutest smile!
There was a morning once that we didn't have to be at the Hill Cumorah very early, so Emily, Dianna and I went to the temple grounds. Pretty!
These are some of my favorite people from Pageant!! Nikita and I would sit together during the burning of Abinidi scene and quote it word for word. She's such a sweet girl! Gabby is our dance instructor's daughter, and she has the cutest smile!
Lauren was my buddy and hung out with me after she and her mom had been in the Waters of Mormon scene (that was the scene I was in when I was 13!); her mom had to take one of her brothers to another part of the stage for another scene, but her dad and other brother didn't finish the destruction scene quick enough to allow her mother to be in place. So Lauren would be dropped off with me and we'd watch the bursts of fire and water coming from all over the stage, and watch how high the rock cannons would blast their rubble into the air before the stage would go dark and allow her dad to run off and pick her up. There was one unfortunate evening where a storm blew in during the performance and opened up a downpour on us which resulted in cancelling the rest of the show for the evening just as Lauren and I were waiting for the destruction scene. It was hectic trying to find her family amongst the 700+ people making their way to the cover of the study shelter and dressing rooms, but Lauren stayed calm and wasn't worried a bit that I'd find her family.
And of course, one last trip to the Sacred Grove was necessary.
This great guy was my scene director: John Huntington. If you've ever been introduced to Feature Films for Families, go back and watch Rigoletto again... you'll see a much younger John in the role of Hans. Great guy!
While most days seemed long at the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the weeks were short, and soon enough we'd packed up all the audience chairs and were saying goodbye to the great people we'd met. Here's a view of the stage and "bowl" from the top of the hill, and my most favorite street sign that I've EVER seen that we passed on the way home to Fairport every night.
While most days seemed long at the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the weeks were short, and soon enough we'd packed up all the audience chairs and were saying goodbye to the great people we'd met. Here's a view of the stage and "bowl" from the top of the hill, and my most favorite street sign that I've EVER seen that we passed on the way home to Fairport every night.
And of course, one last trip to the Sacred Grove was necessary.
Before flying back to Las Vegas, Emily's kind sister Kim (who let us live in her house and use their truck, and eat her family's food) drove us out to Kirtland Ohio and Niagra Falls to let us have some fun. The Kirtland Temple (not owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now):
The Newell K. Whitney store:
Our stop in Kirtland was cut shorter than we'd planned so that we'd have time to do some fun stuff in Niagra... when I got out of the truck I happened to look straight at a diamond ring that someone had dropped in the parking lot. And so the fun began! We decided to turn it in after we went to the maid of the mist - since we had to run to barely make the last boat of the day.
Someone mentioned that it would be funny to get men to pretend to propose to us with the ring, so I scouted out a cutie and asked him to. He willingly agreed! Isn't he great?
Someone mentioned that it would be funny to get men to pretend to propose to us with the ring, so I scouted out a cutie and asked him to. He willingly agreed! Isn't he great?
It turned out that Markus Niemela is a Finnish racecar driver, and was traveling around the US for some races, but was also with his cameraman who was getting footage for the pilot of a Finnish reality show about Markus' life. Markus was about halfway through the mock-proposal when I noticed that the guy was filming us! I have yet to discover if they used any of the proposal in their show, but there's a possibility I'm famous in Finland now. Haha...
Niagra was super fun! We even went in to Buffalo after turning in the ring and ate at the home of the original Buffalo wings. I still hold that Buffalo Wild Wings is better.
Niagra was super fun! We even went in to Buffalo after turning in the ring and ate at the home of the original Buffalo wings. I still hold that Buffalo Wild Wings is better.
I finally got back to Las Vegas to finish out the month and was given the opportunity to see Barbara Self - the last companion I had on my mission - when she came to UNLV to work as an EFY councelor for two weeks. Such a fun girl!
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