British actor Darren Hill knew something was different about the Nauvoo Pageant from the first rehearsal.
Instead of beginning with a vocal or physical warm-up, “we started our first rehearsal, as we start all our rehearsals, with a prayer,” said Hill, who makes his living as an actor in his native England and is in Nauvoo for the first time performing in the pageant. “We work together as an ensemble. We work together as one, united in one thing — our love for Jesus Christ and what He’s done for us.”
Nowhere else does a core cast of 20 actors with speaking parts supported by more than 850 volunteers — many who return year after year — take the stage to tell the story of their faith, and in many cases, their ancestors who helped settle Nauvoo. It’s a professional, beautiful production filled with song, dance and costumes with sweeping skirts and colorful bonnets. It’s also something more, something pageant officials bill as part of the “Nauvoo experience” fueled, and filled, with faith.
Cast members say they feel “called” to the pageant, to take time away from their daily lives, and sometimes their family, to share their talents.
“The Lord prompts me. I know that being obedient to Him is the only happy way. When we are disobedient, we reap the consequences,” said cast member Mary Jane Wadley. “It is special being here.”
Five separate family casts volunteer for two-week stints with the pageant, traveling from across the United States to Nauvoo.
The family casts “have very little theatrical experience if any, very little music experience if any. They come not because of the pageant and the show but because they are convicted in their beliefs. They want to leave a trail of their courage as early people in the area did, a living testament of what they do believe,” pageant artistic director Ray Robinson said.
Many families save for years to come to the pageant, battle flat tires and long journeys to reach the Mississippi River. Others had no intention to get involved in the pageant until something, or perhaps a higher power, intervened.
They perform in the pageant and participate in the Country Fair Pre-show which introduces people to 1840s pioneer activities including games, dance and quilting.
Investing the time helps others and other communities.
“We don’t create communities by presenting plays. We create communities by getting together, and we believe we create stronger communities by getting together to build something greater than ourselves and to serve God,” Robinson said.
Hill, one of three British actors in the core cast, wanted to serve his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he found few opportunities to do so as a professional actor in Britain.
A letter written to a church leader followed by e-mails, phone calls and an audition over the Internet using Skype brought him to Nauvoo and the pageant that he knew next to nothing about just five months ago.
“We’ve all been praying for everybody involved in this pageant, not only the people you see on stage, but the people who are coming to share that experience in Nauvoo,” Hill said. “Our prayer is that you will share that experience with us. Not only do you share that by what you see through your eyes and what you hear through your ears, but what you feel in your heart.”
