Nauvoo Pageant

Here are some Not So Good pictures, rather grainy, taken in the dark, from too great a distance. But I wanted to give some kind of idea what the Nauvoo Pageant is all about. The shots are rather random, since I kept seeing more I wanted to share.

The pageant begins with the Bagpipers escorting the colors onto the stage. Then the audience joins the Nauvoo Brass Band in singing the National Anthem.
Deep into the storyline, there is a time of peace and quiet, in which Brother Joseph invites Sister Emma to dance (just the beginning of a really fun dance sequence, but my camera is JUST TOO SLOW to capture the Scottish Highland as performed by Robert & Becky Laird!)

Of course, Nauvoo started as a swampland. Here King Follett and Charles Makepeace have been working on the drainage ditches--and I managed to capture a stage hand about to close the canal so that folks in the next scene won't fall into the hole.

When Joseph is in peril, Robert Laird and King Follett offer to take turns guarding the Prophet's home. But when they overhear the prayer of young George Fordham, son of Elijah Fordham, Joseph sends the pair home, telling them that "God has heard the prayer of this boy."

After telling Hyrum that Nauvoo is the loveliest place and the best people under the heaven, Joseph and his brother walk from the stage, in the direction of Carthage.

Really out of Sequence, Robert Laird asks Parley P. Pratt for just ONE MOMENT of his time. Parley offers him, TWO, and Robert confesses that he is a "wee bit interested" in what his wife believes, but doesn't want to tell her--that would open the "floodgates" that could never be closed again.

This is the Temple after the Saints finish it--at least as the prop department constructs it. It is wonderful to watch the fabric panels rise, and the cupola lifts from behind it. However, we all know, it will be only a short time before it is demolished and the site plowed under and made into a pasture.

Oh, how many more things I'd love to share. But perhaps this is enough to make you want to come and see the Pageant yourself.

One of Marci's roommates, Jenny, is serving as a YPM (Young Performing Missionary) for the summer. She plays instruments in the Nauvoo Brass Band. Yea Jenny! And what tremendous music they play as the crowd waits for the Pageant to start.

Finally, after the performance is over, the cast mingles with the audience. I was able to catch Robert Laird and Joseph Smith together and get a closeup of them. Both the actors who play these parts are single young men--and they are surrounded by young ladies everywhere they go!