Farewell, Nauvoo

As we crossed that little steel bridge across the Mississippi and away from our beloved Nauvoo, I thought again about bridges.  When we crossed into Nauvoo we didn't know what to expect, only that we felt we should go. We crossed out of Nauvoo changed in good ways we never expected.  But crossing the bridge was also a leaving, leaving behind the Zion we had found there and the people we had so quickly and easily learned to love, and turning our faces homeward.  We comforted ourselves by playing the pageant music and singing along, including counting out all the dance steps in the appropriate places. We also talked a lot in the car, as we processed our experiences, what we wanted to take away, how to implement those changes, and we wrote down some goals.

Our trip home was uneventful mostly.  The highlight was on the afternoon of the second day, when we were exhausted from the journey, as we pulled into a gas station in Wyoming, our district family, the Barnes pulled in right behind us.  Kaitlin had been texting with their daughter and they had been trying to catch up with us all day.  We jumped from the car and hugged each other, right there in middle of the parking lot.  Later Kaitlin said how glad she was to see the them, that it meant for her that our friendships and experiences we had in Nauvoo were real and would carry on with us, all the way home to Utah.

Girls Camp

We got home on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning we drove Ruth off to Young Woman Camp.  When we got there, however, the camp was empty. We texted with the leaders and learned that they were on a five mile hike, so we got the location and decided to try to meet them on the way down.  We ended up hiking a mile and a half up a rather steep incline.  The hike was beautiful and lined by thousands of wildflowers in every color. When we reached the lake, the other girls were so excited to see Ruth that they greeted her with hollers and hugs.  Ruth came home from camp on Thursday and said she had had a good time.

Scout Camp

After spending a few days doing laundry and grocery shopping, I was off to Webelo Scout Day Camp with Jared and six of my Webelos.  We had a fun day learning compass skills, shooting BB guns and doing archery.  Jared went back on Saturday as well, but I got to stay home and rest.

Some Nauvoo Pictures

Kaitlin and Jared learning to Polka on the first day.

Jared is exhausted backstage after a show.

Frozen Custard at Annies with Grandpa and Uncle Bob

Riding the Ox cart.  The man working with the Oxen was so impressed with the pageant that he said he was going to pay for all his grandkids to come to the pageant next year.

Saying goodbye to our district leader Malia on closing night.

In front of the temple.

Looking at the temple.

Kaitlin took this great picture of Jared.

On the temple steps.

Ruth in the Seventies Hall waiting for a vignette.

Kaitlin backstage ready to go on.

Chuck practices his dance moves backstage.

A snowcone was a popular treat.

The kids at the temple

Because of time we always ended up eating dinner after getting dressed in our costumes.  I also did dishes more than once at midnight in bloomers, bun and a t-shirt.

Jared in the stickball scene. Jared is in the orange/brown vest on the left.

Kaitlin in the street throwing scene. The goal was to throw the fabric as high as they could. On the last night Kaitlin said that they really caught some good air.

Our family on stage in the picnic scene and Cody the stage crew guy.

More dancing! Chuck and I are just left of center.

Chuck is in a shirt and vest, I'm in a light tan dress with brown dots. We are up and left of center.

Putting up the temple. I'm on the third row, third from the right. Chuck is on the pull line on the right and the kids are sitting there on the right. Kaitlin's dress is orangish and all fanned out and Jared is sitting by her. Ruth is in blue.

Raising the temple at the end of the show.

 

Our final pose. You can't see us but we are in the back on the right.

I have a couple hundred pictures from the trip. I've just tried to pick out the good ones and show a mix of pictures that captured our experiences. I posted our individual pics in our pioneer cloths on Facebook. Is there anything else you are interested in knowing or seeing???

We went on our way, rejoicing!

Nauvoo Day 11

The weather is cooler today and less humid, though my hair still curls twice what it normally does at home.  Kaitlin is up early to mentor again. The blue cast has now learned the entire pageant. 
At lunch time, Kaitlin goes to the temple with other youth in the pageant. She takes the six temple cards we had prepared as a family as part of our Nauvoo preparation.  Chuck and I go to a lecture on the leadership patterns developed and used at the pageants.  Bro. Warner, our director, was the man originally in charge of creating the pageant.  In his presentation he holds up the new youth curriculum booklet and says that most of what is in the new curriculum are concepts developed and learned in the creation and implementation of the pageant.  I fill several pages of notes as I learn to lead and teach as Christ leads and teaches.  Even though I’m a life-long member the concepts blow my mind and I walk away feeling like I have much pondering and spiritual work ahead to implement these qualities into my character.

Throwing Jared into the well at the Homestead.

That afternoon we take the kids down to some of the sites owned by the Community of Christ, including Joseph Smith’s home and Hotel Nauvoo.  We don’t have enough time for the whole tour so we just walk around the outside of the buildings and along the Mississippi.  We are amazed at how huge the blueprint of Hotel Nauvoo is and are once again inspired by Joseph’s vision for this place, and not just that, but that there were armies of covenant keeping people who were willing to work hard for that vision.

We rush back to the condo now and get in our costumes because we have an appointment for family pictures.  Each cast has a cast historian that volunteers to take pictures of our experiences here.

At our pre-show devotional we hear several inspiring stories about God’s hand in our work. Miracles are happening here every day.  I’ve had miracles happen in my life, but never have been in a place where they are so frequent, almost expected.

Water stations at the fair were our favorite place.

The country fair is in full swing when we get there.   The evening is cooler and there are several buses full of youth - hundreds and hundreds of youth.  I have a good chat with some youth leaders from Mississippi. One leader has an accent so thick I hardly understand her.  The dance floor is full, and Kaitlin dances there all evening.

After the pageant Ruth and I go out to make contacts with the people. We are approached by a man from Lehi who is anxious for us to meet his family. We are introduced and have a good chat. As the conversation goes on I feel prompted to give my testimony and have a powerful experience.  Walking back to the car we are once again energized by our missionary experiences.

Nauvoo Day 12

Singing at the talent show.

Friday morning finds us out in the field picking up trash for our district service assignment.  We are doing it with the Barnes, which makes it fun.  Then we are off to the cast talent show.  We got a half hour to practice out talent the day before so we are more than prepared and have a good time singing “The Pirates That Don’t Do Anything” for our new friends (even Chuck joins in, singing and  playing the tambourine – really, no lie).  We took an ox cart ride and then off to a cast picnic where we visit, play and enjoy all you can eat hotdogs.

Hanging out with Joseph and Emma

The core cast performs little vignettes around Nauvoo a couple of times a day and we make it to our first one about Joseph and Emma. It is so amazing to watch the actors dramatize real letters from these historical people in the place they actually lived and walked.  A particular highlight that Kaitlin loved was when Joseph expressed that he would happily walk to Nauvoo barefooted, bareheaded, and half-naked to see Emma. We go back down to Parley Street, all the way down to the Mississippi’s edge and skip rocks and explore, and then visit the boot shop demonstration where we learn to be more thankful for our modern shoes.  The grove is only a couple blocks away, so we go and watch another vignette, this one of Joseph Smith giving one of his most famous addresses about the eternal nature of families.  I am amazed at Alex, the young man who plays Joseph, that he has memorized this 20 minute sermon word for word and delivers it so eloquently it as if he were actually Joseph and we were not listening to a dramatization but hearing true doctrine taught to us for the first time.

Jared loves to play the hoop game.

At the fair that night I meet two couples from Japan at the country fair and Chuck meets a lady who was investigating the church from Iowa. After the show Kaitlin gets a referral all on her own from a young man she was visiting with, and I get one from a family I meet as well. 

Nauvoo Day 13

Saturday comes and we cannot believe it is our last day in Nauvoo.  The week has flown by in a blur and none of us want it to end. Well, none of us except for Jared. Even though we had been out late the night before, Chuck and I get up early to go to the temple.  The temple is beautiful and there is an amazing spirit here.  My mind reflects over and over on the Nauvoo saints who built and then were forced to leave this temple.  In the pageant, my 3rd great aunt Eliza says that when the saints left the temple behind that they “felt to rejoice,” and I always questioned that.  But there in the temple I thought how very grateful and excited they must have felt to get those blessings. Afterward the temple workers let us look around a little before we go; we see the baptistry and a gorgeous stain glass window there and also some cool artifacts.

At the temple.

We pick up the kids and head out to our cast testimony meeting. It goes for two hours and there is laughing and tears. We have all grown to love each other and this place. It’s amazing because we’ve all been on the same journey, but it’s also been individualized for each of us by the Spirit. 

After lunch we go to our last vignette, this one is held in one of the old pioneer buildings and it’s really good; Not only does it feature my 3rd great grandfather, and it’s in this hall that’s very bright and therefore it sounds fantastic, but our friend Malia is in it.  Later, the core cast puts on a performance of an outreach show they do in the area called Our Story Goes On.  They perform it in the school gym, which is less than ideal, but still it is amazing!  This is the first time we get a view of how fantastically talented these people really are.  Free of the confines of representing religious historical figures, they are in their native waters of performing, and performing they did, as good as any theater I’ve ever seen. The story is touching, and we are all in tears, performers and audience alike.

We gather for our last pre-show devotional and our last district meeting with the people we have grown to love the most while we have been here. They feel like family. We share together what we have learned; there is so much to say and so little time.

Some final words from the director.

There are fewer people at the fair tonight, it’s Saturday and there are no youth groups. While I am walking around, trying to find someone to talk to, I see the actress who plays Emma Smith, alone the grove, in the distance, apart from the cacophony of activity.  She is there, in yellow pioneer dress, with black ringlets framing her face, trying to comfort her fussy baby.  I stand there a long time, watching her bounce and rock, and I think of Emma, and how this is how it must have been for her, always surrounded by people, always being watched and wanted but so often alone, with her responsibilities for her children and the weight of her husband’s calling.  It amazed me how I’m sure Melinda, the actress who plays Emma, had no idea anyone was noticing her there, but in her quiet, stolen moment of motherhood, she taught me.

What the stage looks like from back stage.

Our final performance goes by quickly, like a blur, yet I try to absorb every moment, every sound, every sight, every feeling. Soon we are raising the temple the last time, and while I am sad, I also feel to rejoice that we are here, that we are experiencing this.  Missionary work is slow for us after the show, the crowd is smaller, so after awhile we sit and enjoy just being there. We gather on the stage one last time and make a record a short segment for the British Pageant, which is opening for the first time in August, and then we all kneel on that hard wooden stage for a cast prayer.  We linger after to hug and say our goodbyes. The girls especially are heartbroken at leaving all their new friends, but I feel mostly satisfied at having had this amazing experience.

Checking in costumes.

We get back to our condo by 11:30. We have had very little time to clean and pack, so I leave Chuck to start that while Ruth and I go to the school to turn in our costumes.  An army of volunteers are there to check all of our pieces (over 40 individual piece for just our family) and then we push little converted  baby strollers full of our costumes past bins and tables – hats here, vests here, bloomers here. Dresses are turned in to this table that had 8 ladies with seam rippers taking out the hems.   By 1:00am I finally to sleep, but the costumers will work all night washing and ripping hems to have the costumes ready by Monday morning for Yellow Cast.  Even though we will pack up and leave in the morning, the work goes on in Nauvoo.

What happy living it was!

Nauvoo Day 6

Stage manager giving Chuck "ruffian" tips

We are back on the hot stage this morning. Chuck was assigned to be a torch bearer in the ruffian scene, which will take some coordination as the torches are real. We were also re-staged in the prayer scene. No problem! We have learned just to roll with the punches here in Nauvoo and take everything in stride. Everyone here has a real willingness to do whatever is asked of them. Even the directing staff and core cast are all pitching in and working together with us. We have another great district meeting. District meeting is my favorite time, not just because we get to sit in the shade for awhile but it's a chance to talk together in a more intimate setting.

In the afternoon we have a class on the writing of the music for the pageant. They tell us that hundreds of words are in the show that are never spoken because the hymns that are playing stir up words and ideas in the hearer’s heart and mind.

Kaitlin and some of her new friends.

Dress Rehearsal tonight! Ah, it is so awkward to be walking around in skirts, petticoats and bloomers! How did those pioneer women do it? It’s a little stressful to figure out what to wear when and when and where to change, but the feeling of being there in our costumes is amazing. Everyone looks so wonderful and that spirit of our pioneer ancestors feels more present than ever. When we are singing The Spirit of God and the temple is raising, I hug some of my new friends and for me it is not acting, together we have accomplished something wonderful. I can’t wait until we can do this again, but we are excited to get our first day off tomorrow. Sunday will truly be a day of rest!

Nauvoo Day 7

Did I say Sunday was going to be a day of rest? We go to church Sunday morning and then after lunch are off with a few other families to Carthage, the jail where Joseph Smith and his brother were Martyred. There is quite a crowd, but our visit there is nice. The emotional impact is much less than I remembered, partly because they have changed their tour to be more upbeat and partly because of the huge emotional investment we have in the pageant that the jail experience doesn’t hold a candle to. I haven’t talked about the emotional ride the pageant is every night. There are highs and lows in the show, moments of joy and moments of sorrow and you feel it all down to your soul. I don’t know if it’s because of this place, and the feeling that these are my people, or if it’s the spirit, but I feel it all deeply here.

In the evening on Sunday we meet at the park with other families to visit and the teens play games. It’s there that we hear about the “Trail of Hope” that is going on that night. So as it starts to get dark we head over to Parley Street and stand in a long cue having no idea what to expect. We are taken in small groups down the same trail the saints used during their forced exodus. Along the way we stop to hear short dramatizations of journal entries from the people who were there. It was so wonderful and spiritual. We were taught in one of the sessions with our director that, if people are going to be taught the gospel in their own language, that for some, that language is music and drama and pageants. That is our language so these vignettes and musical numbers are perfect for us and cause us much reflection. As we walk towards the car we talk about Zion and what it’s like living in a society with true saints.

Nauvoo Day 8

Aurora, the choreographer give us tips.

We wake up to pouring rain and when we get to the stage site we are told that practice has been moved to the school. We spend an hour fine tuning our dancing, and spacing in several scenes. This is Monday and the next cast, the Blue Cast (we are the Red cast), has arrived. We meet them and together we dance the circle dance, waltz and polka. It’s fun to welcome new faces and I am amazed how far we have come in only a week that we feel so comfortable and like we are the experts.

After lunch, Chuck and I go to an incredible workshop about the evolution of the pageant and the creative process that was used to write it. I take several pages of notes because this resonates with me and my talent set.

Learning to dip candles

That afternoon Chuck’s parents and sister arrive. We are so happy to see them and that they have come this long way to see us. We tour some of the houses and see some demonstrations. Because of the rain all the windows are fogged and dripping, as are Chuck’s glasses.

Before our final dress rehearsal we meet together with our districts and talk about what gospel truths we are learning in the pageant. There are so many it’s hard to choose. The Blue cast has learned to put up the covering on the cabins, and how to lower the temple. This is the first time I have ever seen these effects on the stage and it’s amazing. The show is wonderful, but it is so hot and humid that sweat is literally dripping off our faces and our costumes are so soaked that at the end of the night we have to peel them off like wet suits.

Nauvoo Day 9

At the post office.

Chuck and I let the kids sleep in and we go to the old Nauvoo Cemetery. It is an out of the way place surrounded by a jungle of trees on one side and a field with cattle on the other. In a fenced area there are a scattering of old head stones, some standing, some leaning with age, others broken to the ground. They are barely legible and covered with moss. Many of the head stones, especially ones for children list how old they are in years, months and day, as if every day is precious. We have a short devotional and prayer with our cast. As I stand there looking over that sacred place, I think how I’ve always thought that the saints greatest suffering happened as they crossed the plains, but now I know that it started long before. Thousands died from sickness in Nauvoo, and thousands more died before, in Kirkland, Missouri and at sea as they traveled from Europe. Standing there my feelings are tender and at the surface.

Uncle Bob tries his hand at the cross cut.

Kaitlin has woken up with a fever, and feels awful so I order her to bed and she goes happily. We meet up with Chuck’s parents and sister and go to the Country Fair rehearsal, where the Blue cast have just received their fair activity assignments and need participants to practice on. The first station we come upon is the stilt walking. A bewildered family is there with 20 pairs of stilts trying to walk on them. They have received no training and no one on staff seemed to know how to do it, so I teach them how to hold the stilts (we had some when I was a kid, and even today I have a pair in my garage) and walk on them. The mother is so excited that she tells me that God must have sent me to Nauvoo just to share my special talent with them. Of all the talents I thought I had to offer, I had never considered stilt walking among them.

After lunch back at our condo, we again go out and visit more sites, the brickyard, the tinsmith, the gunsmith, the post office. Grandma Barnum likes the pioneer houses; Uncle Bob loves the cooper demonstration.

The temple is there in the middle above the trees.

Back to the condo for dinner, hair and make-up; 1840’s hair is a challenge and takes time. It’s opening night and everyone is excited. Even though Kaitlin is still feeling crummy she gets out of her bed. 'That’s what the pioneers would do,' she says. The cast meets for a devotional, more excellent hymn singing ensues, and then another district meeting, where we pray for Kaitlin, as well for other that have fallen sick to heat and injuries (there are many wrapped knees and ankles).

Grandma and Aunt Denise resting.

 The country fair runs for an hour and a half before the pageant and by the time we get there Kaitlin is feeling better. There is a whole field full of activities, everything from crafts, to races, to handcart puling, to dancing. Even though it is like a steam room, there are hundreds of people there. We meet up with our visiting family and Grandma shows Kaitlin how to polka (grandma is quite the dancer) and Ruth and I dance the round dance.

When the pageant starts most of seats are filled, it must be over a thousand people. Time goes very quickly back stage with few times to rest. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much. There is a powerful spirit on stage, and while there, it’s just a little slice of heaven. During the final scene, when I hold up the temple panels, we sing The Spirit of God, and I feel full, full and overflowing. After the show we talk to our family. They have had a good time and enjoyed the pageant. We are so glad that they have come and shared this experience with us.

Nauvoo Day 10

 No rest for the weary. Kaitlin is up to go and mentor the Blue cast at 8 am. She is feeling much better and is willing to go back into the sun for another day of rehearsals. Jared and Ruth stay back to watch cartoons and Chuck and I go over to the Land and Records office to read more about my Nauvoo ancestors. I find a journal entry from my ancestor John Chidester that I had never read before. In his journal he writes, “ My impression on beholding the Prophet and shaking hands with him was, that I stood face to face with the greatest man on earth.” I also learn that John was one of those that went into the Nauvoo temple when it was finished, a part Chuck and I get to reenact in the pageant. What a great personal connection!

Grandmother Phoebe's quilt.

We then tour a few more houses, including one of our ancestors house, where I find a quilt made by my 3rd great grandmother Phoebe. I let the tour go ahead and I can’t resist reaching out across the rope and moving my hand lightly across the fabric.

Since Kaitlin missed all of yesterday she gets to choose what we do that afternoon and she chooses to walk around the shops in the town. Us girls all find necklaces we like and Jared buys a wooden sling shot, then back for dinner, hair, costumes and then pre-show devotional and district meeting. When we get to the fair, the air is much cooler. Kaitlin spends the whole hour dancing, Chuck and I spend a long time talking with a family who is very interested in applying for the pageant, and I take another turn at stilt walking (which is much harder in a dress).

Leonora Taylor District!

After the show we all go into the audience to talk to the people and do missionary work. I talk to couple from Arizona and place my first missionary referral card. Chuck places a card as well and Kaitlin is so fired up and excited about missionary work, and she talks to so many people about the church, that she is mistaken several times for a sister missionary. We go home that night exhausted but super charged; who knew missionary work could be so fun?

When You're Here, We're Here!

Nauvoo Day 1

Learning a round dance 1st day.

 At 9 am on Monday morning we turn into this little Junior High school with this cool huge viking standing sentinel in the front and start our check-in with 22 other families that have come to this place from all over the US. We have all felt the spirit pulling us here, and I have that in my mind as we smile and greet one another for the first time - behind all these faces are stories.  We get packets, sign paperwork, stand in lots of lines and get our photos taken for our ID badges.  They waste no time in getting us dancing in the school gym, a traditional round dance and then a waltz. The morning is full of orientations, information and get-to-know you/team building activities.

There are vikings everywhere in the school.

After lunch, the "core cast" (the professional actors that are here are summer that play the lead rolls in the show) do a performance for us - they are crazy good - and the bag pipe band puts on a little parade that Jared gets to march in.  We meet our new district leader, a member of the core cast that is assigned to mentor our family. Our district leader's name is Malia, and she plays Leonora Taylor in the show. Before we came we had seen her on PBS and YouTube and so we are excited to meet her.

The volume of costumes is amazing!

That afternoon we are off to costuming. It is amazing.  We are separated into boys and girls and lead into a classroom full of racks of costumes. Costume women, with measuring tapes around their necks, size us up and hand us bodices and dresses to try on. Our district has been assigned to be farmers, and we are assigned the color brown.  After we receive our dresses we are handed petticoats from big plastic trash cans, shawls or cloaks from a big table, and bonnets from yet another.  We are costumed the shabbiest of all the cast, and while I'm a bit jealous to not see Chuck in a top-hat and tails, he is grateful to be in only a shirt and vest.

Each costume is hemmed and fit to each individual

That evening we drive into Nauvoo proper for the first time and we see the core cast perform the show for the first time. It is missing a lot because the family chorus is missing, but it is still wonderful and touching all at the same time.

Nauvoo Day 2

We start day two in a morning devotional at a church building. The bag pipe band is there in kilts, the brass band in uniforms, the work crew in dirty jeans, and we are there, in the chapel, in our shorts.  There is already a feeling of camaraderie among us, everyone is so open and kind.  Hymn singing reaches its true order, here, with these people.  The music swells in four part harmony and is sung with such vigor and spirit you feel as if you're hearing hymn singing for the first time, and everything up to this point has just been a sad imitation. We hear from both the Mission President's wife and the Temple President and his wife.

The core cast put the pageant on for us.

Then we go to the stage site.  We start with a safety lesson, don't jump off the stage, don't get your leg mangled in the lifts, drink lots of water, that sort of thing.  We are given little pink blocking books, that tell us what to do in every scene, where and when to enter, where to stand, where and when to exit, what to wear.  Having been a stage manager before, I fully appreciate how wonderful these books are! We study our books and take the stage as saints arriving in Nauvoo for the first time.  The music plays and we run up ramps onto the stage where there are 50 people with smiles and outstretched hands to greet us.  Talk about feeling wanted! Now just if we can get to our stage mark on time!

That afternoon we are inside at the school and are separated. Jared goes to a kids class (he has gone to the kids class a few times already and is having a great time), the girls are off to teen dancing and Chuck and I learn a waltz, the Virgina reel, and some circle dances. I drag Chuck to the front of all the lines and we volunteer for all the extra dances because I want to take full advantage of this opportunity; I don't want to stand in the back or be shy.  Chuck has such a great attitude and is super supportive, even though he is totally out of his comfort zone. We have a great time. I can't stop smiling and when the kids come back and show us their dances, they are smiling too, even Jared. At the end of every activity we have a talking session where we talk about our experiences and thoughts and impressions, and we apply gospel principals.  After the dance the choreographer asked, "What did you learn from that?" and I shouted out, "I can do it!"

Walking onto the stage for the picnic scene

In the evening we are back on the stage, working out where we move and when. We discover that dancing on a 20% incline is a bit different from dancing on a flat surface. We learn to make "levels" and how to zig zag across the stage, and moving with a motivation.  The Nauvoo Temple is right on the hill above the stage and I look up to it often and think of how great it is to be here, where my ancestors lived and worked, and to be able to remember and honor them.

Nauvoo Day 3

backstage the temple watches over us

Back to work on the hot stage in the morning, as we put more pieces of the show together. We often stop to talk about what is being presented, and about our own testimonies and how can we share those testimonies with our audience. They are trying to soften and change our hearts as much as they are trying to get us to move to the right place or in the right way.  In our district meetings we learn about giving only good fruit to our friends and family, meaning, we only say good things and we keep unhelpful criticisms inside.  The director tells us that we are not  putting on a play, but we are building Zion, and that Zion can only be truly built on this principle.  I realize that they have never said one negative thing to us, everything we do here in Nauvoo is "wonderful!!!", and then they ask us what we think we can do to make it even better.

In the afternoon we are back to the school to finish up learning the last of our dancing. It is hot but fun work.  A young lady is injured and we see a miracle happen right before eyes that brings most of us to tears. This place is amazing. Like we are really living in Zion.  On the way out of the rehearsal we are told that all our costumes are ready, so we go to the costume wing and get a whole trolley full of costumes to take home with us. I'm so totally amazed that they hemmed pants and dresses for a cast of 150 people in less than 48 hours.

Back onto the hot stage in the evening. More parts of the play are falling into place.That night a family from North Carolina, the Stricklands, invite us to meet them for ice cream and we have a fun visit with them after the rehearsal.

Nauvoo Day 4

The choreographer talks to the teens on stage

It's the 4th of July and we start the day by singing the national anthem. We have only worked on the show for two days and we do our first run through this morning. This is possible because how amazingly organized the staff is, and because over half the cast have been in the pageant before.  The other family in our district, the Barnes, have taken us under their wing, and they help us know what to do and where to go.  While on the stage you hear people counting out the steps and yelling things like "up!" "down!" "turn!".  There is a lot that is never explicitly said, but when you see the hundred other people on the stage do something, then you know to do it too.   Much of what is taught here is taught that way.  The next cast will get even less rehearsal time than we do, but they will learn from watching us. Unfortunately, this morning, the water pipe to the stage is accidentally dug up, and we have no bathrooms, no water and it is getting really hot so they let us go early.

Our district leader Malia has been sick and missed yesterday and today so at lunch we go with the Barnes and sing to her and give her a card. She seems glad to see us, and touched that we were thinking of her.

back stage (with our district brother Justin)

Singing rehearsal is after lunch, but we miss the first 45 minutes because we are getting our "hair checked".  We watched a video the first day about how to do 1840's hair, and we had to present ourselves with our hair to be checked.  After fluffing up our hair for two weeks for Footloose, we now have to make our hair as smooth and tight as possible.  Smooth buns were not meant for women with curly hair and Kaitlin's hair is too short, so she is given a day cap to wear throughout the show. Luckily we are farmers so our hair doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, the hair lady showed Chuck how to back comb his beard to make it more scruffy.

We do another complete run through this night. It is so hot we are all dripping, and that big, brown stage is like dancing on a frying pan,  but we try to be grateful that it's only in the 80's when some years it has been in the 100's.  We are let go early to celebrate the Fourth.  There are no fireworks in Nauvoo but we have heard that the actor that plays Brigham Young is going to light some fireworks off in the parking lot later that night.  All the core cast is also staying here at the Villas, so in the evening we are all gathered in the parking lot and see a grand display of fireworks. There are plenty of glow sticks and sparklers to go around and we all have a good time celebrating together.  There are probably about 100 of us there.

Nauvoo Day 5

It is another hot one this morning out in the sun. We start with dancing.  There are some Young Performing Missionaries that work here in Nauvoo and they dance in some of our dance scenes. They are there to make us look good. So we spend the morning working them into our routines. We also spend a lot of time working on the "street throwing" scene. Kaitlin and a partner, Andrew, have been assigned to throw this huge ribbon of fabric in the air to represent White Street and then stretch it across the stage and fasten it to the stage with velcro. 

Throughout the show we build this temple

At lunch we decide to drive to a nearby town to buy more snacks. I had underestimated how many snacks we needed to eat at all these rehearsals. We stop at the Wendy's for lunch and enjoy the fancy drink machine they have there that makes over 100 flavors.

In the afternoon we have a blocking meeting at the school, and while the rest of us are looking at slides of pictures of the stage with arrows, Jared is having a water party outside with the kids.  I had had a problem with my bodices being too tight and I went to pick them up from costumes.  They had finished the alterations in 24 hours. 

That brings us up to date to the present.  We have our first rehearsal with lighting today so our call time is an hour later, that is how I've had time to write this entry. We are having a great time. Even Jared is having fun. He is dancing, singing and taking part in all of the activities; he's even excited about it.  Chuck too, has taken all of this in stride and seems to be having a fun time.  We are learning so much, and the spirit is so strong and present in everything we do here.