The Nauvoo Pageant, Part 3: The Rehearsals

To learn 2 pageants in a little more than a week requires lots of rehearsal time--6 hours a day for about 7-8 days.  We practiced 4 hours in the morning (8-noon) and 2 hours in the afternoon in the air-conditioned pageant building (2-4pm). So the part I remember most about the pageant are the rehearsals.  The pageant director did a good job of being very positive.  One of her favorite comments about some scene we just rehearsed was "That was just right!"  Our "mission language" was movement.  The audience could only see big movements, not really facial expressions, and our only talking was when we sang.  So we worked on doing big, creative movements.  I have to admit, dances were pretty hard for me without a lot of rehearsal.  They gave us blocking booklets and papers to make our own notes.  I did not take this as seriously as I needed to until the 11th hour (after the dress rehearsals) and I needed to be more sure of my dance moves.  So I worked on learning the songs a little better and taking notes of the dance sequences so I wouldn't totally blow it on stage.  The rest of the family seemed a little more confident.  Most of these pictures are from the Nauvoo Pageant rehearsals, although the first pictures are from the afternoon that the kids learned the opening dance of the British Pageant which Scott and I were not in because I was holding a flower shop pole and Scott was shoveling pretend manure.  So we had time to take pictures.

One of the great challenges was getting Camille to drink all her water and stay well-hydrated despite the heat.

This was the Nauvoo healing scene where Mindy was supposed to be very sick and then was healed.

This was Everett's street scene when the streets of Nauvoo were being laid out.  Everett put a lot of enthusiasm into this:  "Mulholland Street!"

We had to pantomime actions that were helping to build Nauvoo and freeze whenever there was action over in Britain.

Susanna got to play the violin for the Evening Waltz scene.

This is the Robert and Becky Laird Highland Fling dance

This is the Evening Prayers scene where we gathered as a district in family groups and usually said an actual prayer.

This is the scene where the Relief Society sisters sang "Praise to the Man" as we finished the temple.  It was one of my favorite scenes.

This is "Hat Man" who took off his hat when the stage was being shifted so it wasn't safe to go on the lifts until his hat was back on.

This was our first night when we had a music rehearsal on Sunday night.