I have been a negligent blogger this last month. My reason is that we have been super busy. At the end of July, we went to the Nauvoo Pageant. We were able to participate once again in the Gold Cast like we did in 2007 and 2014. We picked up our daughter at the end of her cross country camp in Price, Utah on our way out of town. Then we drove to our friends' house in Golden, Colorado near Denver to stay the night. It was fun to reconnect if only briefly.
The next night we were in Lawrence, Kansas, visiting my brother and sister-in-law and their family. That was also fun but short. We left the next morning, attending nearby church before taking off. We arrived in Nauvoo around 4pm with just enough time to have dinner at our cabin before going to our orientation at the pageant building.
The next day we went to the pageant building to get our costumes and to learn how to do our hair in the 1840 styles.
Here we are in our costumes:
We enjoyed a cast picnic on Tuesday where we got to meet other members of our cast as well as members of the core cast who are part of the pageant for all 4 weeks.
The major job of the Gold Cast is to run the Country Fair with all its many family-oriented activities. I was assigned to the country fair band with Talmage and Susanna while my husband and two youngest girls were assigned to the puppet show. I was a little bit sad not to have an assignment with my husband. And it was also a little hard to play in the band the whole time because you don't get to talk to many people at all. However, if I had the attitude of serving where I was called, then I was okay with it.
Something else we enjoyed was our district meetings. We were assigned to the Barnett district and our district leader was Andy Johnson who played the part of Joseph Smith in the Nauvoo Pageant.
Every night before the pageant and country fair, we had a meeting with him to add more of a spiritual emphasis to the pageant.
We got to be in both pageants at the very end when there were quite a lot of people on stage.
The first picture is the British pageant, the second is the Nauvoo pageant.
Here we are with just our cast:
The next night we were in Lawrence, Kansas, visiting my brother and sister-in-law and their family. That was also fun but short. We left the next morning, attending nearby church before taking off. We arrived in Nauvoo around 4pm with just enough time to have dinner at our cabin before going to our orientation at the pageant building.
The next day we went to the pageant building to get our costumes and to learn how to do our hair in the 1840 styles.
Here we are in our costumes:
We enjoyed a cast picnic on Tuesday where we got to meet other members of our cast as well as members of the core cast who are part of the pageant for all 4 weeks.
The major job of the Gold Cast is to run the Country Fair with all its many family-oriented activities. I was assigned to the country fair band with Talmage and Susanna while my husband and two youngest girls were assigned to the puppet show. I was a little bit sad not to have an assignment with my husband. And it was also a little hard to play in the band the whole time because you don't get to talk to many people at all. However, if I had the attitude of serving where I was called, then I was okay with it.
Something else we enjoyed was our district meetings. We were assigned to the Barnett district and our district leader was Andy Johnson who played the part of Joseph Smith in the Nauvoo Pageant.
Every night before the pageant and country fair, we had a meeting with him to add more of a spiritual emphasis to the pageant.
We got to be in both pageants at the very end when there were quite a lot of people on stage.
The first picture is the British pageant, the second is the Nauvoo pageant.
Here we are with just our cast:
Do you know how hold cast (the one for 1 week) compares to the other cast? I'm wanting to take my family this summer but every week we have a conflict except for that very last week. I have 7 kids, ranging from 14 years to 1 year at the time of the pageants. Maybe it's best if I wait for the following year,but I worry about not getting selected. I guess I'm just wondering if you enjoyed the gold cast or if being in the pageants (which is what I was excited about) would be better?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I just saw your comment. Gold cast is definitely a different experience from the other casts. We did the yellow cast this last summer after doing gold cast 3 times. It is easier to get into gold cast because more people want to do the other casts.
DeleteThe other casts require a lot of intensity that first week and you will get very tired. We had some really hot weather that first week and it was challenging to rehearse in the morning on stage. Fortunately in the afternoon you rehearse in the pageant building. On the other hand, it is fun to really learn the pageant and be part of it. I am glad we did both. I don't think I could have handled doing the two-week casts before we had fewer children at home and older children. I don't recommend doing the two-week cast with small children, younger than maybe 4 or even 5, and they might not accept you in the cast before that. Gold cast is a good way to participate without the huge commitment of the two-week cast. We definitely enjoyed both experiences. So I would suggest trying gold cast especially with your children being still fairly young. Good luck!